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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?


Young Kitty Genovese | Courtesy of Flickr

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 | Courtesy of Wikipedia

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

Austin Street, where the attack first occurred | Courtesy of Eddie Hausner/ The New York Times

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


Article published on Kitty’s attack | Courtesy of The New York Times

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?


Diagram of the crime scene by Joseph De May | Courtesy of Old Kew Gardens

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?

  1. A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 22.
  2. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 27-30.
  3. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 7.
  4. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 56.
  5. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 74.
  6. Percy Smith, “Silent witness,” Safety & Health Practitioner 30, no. 5 (2012): 43.
  7. A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 23.
  8. A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 23.
  9. Saul M. Kassin, “The Killing of Kitty Genovese: What Else Does This Case Tell Us?,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 12, no. 3 (2017): 375.
  10. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 109.
  11. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 112.
  12. 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.
  13. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel.
  14. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Altruism, cooperation, and empathy,” by Jim Fultz and Elizabeth Schafer.
  15. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Bystander intervention and social psychology,” by Steve Nida.
  16. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel.
  17. 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.
  18. Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018, s.v. “Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored,” by Leigh Husband Kimmel.
  19. Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese : the murder, the bystanders, the crime that changed America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 3-4.

Stephanie Cerda

I am a Psychology and Criminology major at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, graduating class of 2023. I'm from Houston, Texas. I enjoy taking a deeper look into human behavior, as well as analyzing how the world works. I love to spend time with my friends and family, and my passion is in learning. I believe there's always more to discover.

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Recent Comments

75 comments

  • Berenice Alvarado

    Sad story!! In my opinion everyone that was around was afraid and wrong not to help. But I would of still helped. I would have gotten anything that was around and try to help. It is a very unfortunate thing that happened to this young girl. This was a crazy thing that happened and a lot of people get away with murder, at least this crazy men didn’t. This article was really organized and simple.

  • Javier Camacho

    As sad as this story is, the read was very intriguing and informative. I enjoyed reading about this story and the behavioral aspect of things also.

  • Thalia Romo

    The over all article was a fun and informative read. The introduction really drew me into the story and continue reading the article to learn of the incident. Kitty Genovese deserved a better like than that. The fact that she lived her last few moments thinking she was all alone, when in fact she wasn’t is sickening and terrifying.

  • Michael Lazcano

    It’s always sad to have to read something concerning the murder of an individual, but at the same time it’s almost impossible not to put down. This article grasped my attention from start to finish, and I think today this article can shed light on many problems we face today. With women being targeted for murders, kidnappings, and rape, its always important to be aware of your overall surroundings. Sadly the numerous amounts of witnesses didn’t really help the case in any shape or form, this could easily be contributed to the bystander effect. Thankfully at the end of the day they were able to capture the perpetrator, and bring him to justice.

  • Brianna Ramos

    Crazy enough I just learned about this case in one of my psychology classes. We were looking at social influence and how that affects people’s behaviors. Sadly, Kitty’s death brought up the subject of bystander intervention in psychology. Psychologists concluded that people are more likely to get help when they are alone rather than in a group and that the larger the group, the smaller the responsibility to help. The article was very informative and expanded my knowledge on the case. It’s a tragic story, but a very interesting read.

  • Cynthia Perez

    This article really questions a person’s ideal actions to their actual actions greatly. Its use of rhetoric questions gives a good sense of one’s internal morals and encourages people to stand up against fear and face it head on rather than just sit back and watch something like the above situation occur. It’s truly horrible that Kitty was getting hurt and the person who had witnessed it was too afraid to “get involved”. Very great article that was great to empathize with.

  • Mara Martinez

    I don’t understand how anyone didn’t step in. Being a little drunk can’t stop you from calling the police, screaming out your window doesn’t do anything. How frustrating, this truly upsets me. This happens all the time where people just watch and do nothing. Personally I would freeze if I saw this occurring but the moment I unfroze I’d be calling 911 not just watching it all unfold.

  • Cristianna Tovar

    Congratulations on your nomination, Stephanie! I really loved how your article questioned what us readers would do if we were in the same shoes as Kitty’s neighbors. I think it’s easy to say that you’d step in to help someone, but unless you’re in the actual situation, you won’t be able to tell what you’d do. This was a very interesting article that really made me think. Great job!

  • Ivonne Orozco

    I had never heard of this story.It made me upset to see how karl did not automatically call the police when he saw the attack.It was upsetting to see how he even closed the door during the attack , but I do understand.Maybe he panicked and he didn’t know how to react.Many people say they will react a certain way if something bad happens, but truth is one never knows how he/she will react.This article was very interesting to read.It is still hard to believe how it all happened so fast and how things like this still happen.

  • Gabriella Urrutia

    I had never heard of this murder before so it was interesting to learn about. It was shocking to find out that so many people witnessed the attack but no one did anything about. It is sad to think that it could have been prevented if they were not to afraid to do something. It is crazy to think about how the bystander effect can have a huge affect on an event.

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