When you see someone in danger, do you react? Do you stand there and watch? Or do you step in and intervene? It’s a hard decision, especially when you analyze the situation. On March 13th, 1964, some individuals made that choice. Their choices would later haunt them. Winston Moseley murdered and assaulted Kitty Genovese in the middle of the street, and no one did a thing. Why? Whose fault was it? Are they to blame too?
Kitty Genovese was twenty-eight years old and the manager of a local bar. The small apartment on Austin Street she shared with her girlfriend was home. The area where she lived wasn’t terrible. There were a couple of noisy bars on the street but usually, no one paid much attention. This was a normal neighborhood, where everyone knew each other.1 Her neighbors were friendly and crime was low. Of course, Kitty loved the city. Her Italian-American parents left New York due to urban crime, but Kitty refused. Kew Gardens, Queens was safe.2 Regardless of where she was, Kitty was the type of person everyone liked. Angelo Lanzone, one of her friends, would later say, “Kitty was attractive but there was more to her than looks, Kitty had charm.”3 She was friends with everyone, even with that odd neighbor, Karl Ross. He was quite strange, a bit quiet, but Kitty didn’t care. Kitty was nice to everyone. She had a friendly face. That’s what made her a great employee, and what was launching her career forward. She planned on opening her own Italian restaurant. 4 Kitty stood out from the crowd. Her charisma and kindness made her approachable. Nobody could miss her.
Winston Moseley worked as a machine operator in a town north of the Bronx. He was only twenty-nine years old but had already married twice. His childhood was rough after his mother walked out on him and his father, but life continued. His second wife Betty sometimes worried about his moods, but they had a normal marriage. Still, he was bitter, and he was angry. He felt that he had to work twice as hard as other workers, and Moseley didn’t feel as though he was someone’s equal. At times, he felt like he wasn’t standing out enough.5
At three in the morning, on March 13th, 1964, Kitty left her job and drove home. She parked and exited her car, like usual. As she got out, she noticed a figure near her. Kitty ran because she was near her apartment and close to safety. Later, when speaking to the court, Winston Moseley detailed the events of that night, “As she got out of the car, she saw me and ran. I ran after her and had a knife in my hand. I could run much faster than she could, and I jumped on her back and stabbed her several times.”6
When he struck, Kitty immediately cried out, as anyone would. She was loud enough to wake neighbors. “Oh my god, he stabbed me! Please help me!” she yelled. 7 At that moment, someone did react. Robert Mozer opened his window and shouted, “Leave that girl alone!”8 Moseley looked up at him, shrugged, and then he left. Although Mozer acted and managed to scare Moseley off, that was all that occurred. Kitty dragged herself into the nearest apartment in an attempt to find safety. She managed to make it to the back of the building to the door of her friend Karl Ross.
Moseley stayed in his car and waited until he realized no one would interfere any further. Then he returned to find Kitty. In his trial, he explained his reason for returning, “I’d not finished what I set out to do.”9
Karl Ross opened the door and saw Moseley on top of Kitty, but he closed the door. Ross had been drinking and was afraid. He believed that the attacker would harm him next, and he wasn’t willing to call the police out of fear. Ross assumed the questions would turn on him and his high level of alcohol. When he was under questioning, he said, “I didn’t want to get involved.”10 After he saw Kitty’s attack, he phoned another neighbor. Then he climbed out of his window and headed to another apartment. There, Ross called the police.11
Kitty Genovese’s story has resurfaced countless times, largely because of the significant number of witnesses. The New York Times reported a headline the day after the event that read, “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police.”12 Yet, the amount of witnesses varies from the police report. The report only listed six witnesses. There was outrage amongst the public. How could there be no interference from bystanders?13 Regardless of the misinformation; the facts remained. Kitty Genovese died, and no one provided immediate help or stepped in. In the end, the real question was, why did nobody help?
Altruism refers to unselfishness when it comes to the wellbeing of others. Social psychologists have analyzed the idea of an altruistic paradox. This is the way some people will perform self-sacrificial acts to benefit others. It’s a paradox because it’s a contradiction of survival of the fittest. This changes the narrative of selfish humans.14Were Kitty’s neighbor’s lacking altruism?
The bystander effect arose from Kitty Genovese’s attack. When in a large setting with many people, the chances of someone taking action in an event decreases. The chances of single individuals offering help when alone are a lot higher than in groups. This is due to the diffusion of responsibility between people. Without realizing it, individuals rely on other people in a group. The mentality of “they will do something” seems to settle among the crowd. Individuals look to each other to act first. Also, situational forces can sometimes overpower individuals’ personal beliefs. At times, a situation may affect someone’s behavior, even though the drive to act is there. An individual may feel overpowered by an event, and not react the way they would expect. Still, studies show that one person’s action could lead to a whole group reacting. 15 Many people heard Kitty scream, but they believed they were people arguing. Some even reported they believed someone else must have already called the police.16
Police arrested Winston Moseley five days after the attack. He confessed to the sexual assault and murder of Kitty Genovese. Moseley also admitted to the murders of Barbara Kralik and Anna Mae Johnson. They were also young women, who Moseley claimed to have been “compelled to kill.”17 His trial occurred on June 8th, 1964. He received the death sentence but later received a life sentence, due to a plead of insanity. All his parole hearings were not approved. Moseley died at 81 years old on March 28th, 2016, as the oldest inmate in his prison.18
Kitty Genovese’s attack lasted around 33 minutes. It occurred between 3:19 and 3:52 AM. To her, it probably would have felt an eternity.19 The retelling of her story still continues and her name lives on, although she didn’t. Kitty’s murder is in many places, textbooks, documentaries, and more. It’s become a myth, rather than the life of a young woman, who had begun to live. Kitty Genovese would have celebrated her 84th birthday in 2019.
It’s after midnight; the sun hasn’t risen yet. You’re in bed, already asleep. You hear a scream, someone is begging for help. You wake and look outside your window. A man is stabbing a woman, right below your apartment window. You’re scared, he’s armed. Has someone else already called the police? Someone else will go help her. Do you go anyways? It might not be so easy. Or is it? How do you know? What would you do?
- A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 22. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 27-30. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 7. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 56. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 74. ↵
- Percy Smith, “Silent witness,” Safety & Health Practitioner 30, no. 5 (2012): 43. ↵
- A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 23. ↵
- A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 23. ↵
- Saul M. Kassin, “The Killing of Kitty Genovese: What Else Does This Case Tell Us?,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 12, no. 3 (2017): 375. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 109. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 112. ↵
- Arthur J. Lurigio, “Crime Narratives, Dramatizations, and the Legacy of the Kitty Genovese Murder: A Half Century of Half Truths,” Criminal Justice and Behavior 42, no. 7 (July 2015): 783. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Altruism, cooperation, and empathy,” by Jim Fultz and Elizabeth Schafer. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Bystander intervention and social psychology,” by Steve Nida. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel. ↵
- Marcia M. Gallo, “The Parable of Kitty Genovese, the New York Times, and the Erasure of Lesbianism,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 23, no. 2 (2014): 283. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel. ↵
- Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 3-4. ↵
75 comments
Lindsey Ogle
I love crime stories and find them really intriguing but this one was a hard read. To know that someone was being killed and people witnessed but did not take action is very hard for me to digest. Kitty could still be alive if someone, just one person took action. But, at the same time I cannot be one to judge because I do not know what I would do in that situation. Would I have let her in my house? Would I have went outside with a weapon and try to scare the suspect off? Would I have just stayed inside in called 911? Who’s to tell but I also do feel awful for Kitty that she did not have anyone try to help her. It is a double-ended sword because on one hand I feel as if I would of done something, but at the same time if I was really in that situation would I?
Alison Morales-Aguilar
I have always been interested in true crime so the fact that I have never heard of Kitty’s murder was astounding to me. The way the “Bystander Effect” played a role in her death is terrifying because the thought of help being so close but not arriving is something that unfortunately still occurs. Just think of all the people that have gone through abuse, human trafficking, or even bullying, people don’t reach out to help because they think someone else will help the person. As someone already mentioned, people do not talk because of fear of what might happen to them if they did but I hope that if I hear someone screaming for help I will be able to help them.
Kayla Mendez
After reading that Kitty Genovese was killed in broad daylight I was hoping you’d reference the “bystander effect”. Then I saw you were a psychology major, so I enjoyed you going into depth about why the many witnesses refused to interfere with Moseley’s plan. It is easy to blame the bystanders who did nothing for Kitty’s death, and truthfully their interference might’ve saved her life. However, I have experienced the bystander effect, in which I felt too fearful to do anything. During a family gathering, a little girl had gotten too aggressive with my dog, leading him to bite her. A circle of adults and teenagers were around the scene, yet nobody did nothing, including me. There was so much time to react that during the incident I was questioning myself, “why am I not doing anything?” There were multiple reasons. I was thinking one of the older men would grab my dog, or if I tried then he might bite me, etc. It’s sad, but it’s a part of reality, that humans are selfish. I just hope we better ourselves, so that good people like Kitty can live the life they deserve.
Aracely Beltran
Oh my… such a horrifying thing but yet so interesting to read. That is every girl’s nightmare! Every time I get out of my car I look at my surroundings because of stories like these. It is so crazy that he came back to finish killing her. That poor girl thinking she might survive and then seeing him again must have been so terrifying.
Micheala Whitfield
I so enjoyed the style in how you wrote this article. I like how you there was a target in expressing Kitty’s personality and her ambitions. then it was brief on the actual attacker. Normally people focus on the issues that “caused” him to do the crime. In this time period it’s not crazy to think people won’t jump in to help or reach out for help. It’s the culture especially in New York. It’s the “snitch rule”, You don’t see nothing, you don’t say nothing would be the response. Fear was a big extension of the reality of New York. Even back in that decade violence was an issue. What’s more concerning is this type of cultured way is still apart of today’s society. People are afraid, or they do think, “someone else will take care of it” or “I don’t want to get involved.” It’s an interesting topic and I hope her story continues throughout the rest of history. Rest in Peace Ms. Kitty.
Amanda Shoemaker
This was a pretty horrendous story. I can’t imagine ever seeing something like that happening and not reacting to it. In my opinion Karl Ross closing the door on Kitty while she was being attacked also makes him guilty. Yelling out for help or calling the police might have saved her life. This article definitely put into perspective how no-one taking action or assuming someone else will take action can have a catastrophic effect.
Luis Jaen
This crime story is something that I have never heard before reading this article, but it is very very interesting. This is a prime example of the psychological claim of the bystander effect, although there were so many witnesses no one truly stepped in to stop what was happening. This is such a sad story but it is something that is very important to realize. Stephanie mentions the idea of altruism, this could be an ideal portrayal of how that is not always the fact. Overall amazing article, I enjoyed how she infused the psychological factors of this crime!
Margaret Cavazos
This article asked questions of the reader and was written in an interesting way. What was most intriguing was that the whole first part of the article describes Kitty Genovese as beautiful, charming, young woman who was friendly with the neighborhood. This makes the second part of the article even more heartbreaking. There were many witnesses to her assault, and even while she survived the first attack, and was screaming for help, no one helped her. When her attacker saw that no one was coming to her aid, he murdered Kitty. The author does an amazing job writing this article and asking the readers to imagine how things could have been different for Kitty, had someone helped her, is thought-invoking.
Eliane Castorena
This is a very intriguing read! The way you told the story to make the reader really think of what they would do in that situation is really smart. It is truly sad to learn about what happened to Kitty Genovese. And it is even more upsetting and frustrating that so many people saw or heard this happening and did nothing really to help her. Sometimes fear does get the best of us, but we have to remember that, like in this case, a life is at stake.
Yuliana Vasquez
After reading this, I reflected on the question on ” what would you do’? I have never been in this situation but I would most likely call the police but on the side where no one saw me, so I could help but also not have the chance of being harmed. It’s so sad that people inside the apartments didn’t call the police Immediately when they saw the first stab, it’s not like the man would be able to enter inside their homes and he wouldn’t even know who called because there so many people. Overall. its great that they captured him