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The Kitty Genovese Murder Scene
Click to enlarge.
This is the Austin Street side of the 2 story Tudor building. At Moseley's trial, the Queens County District Attorney said that the first attack occurred behind the street light in the foreground. I think it probably occurred just to the left of the tree which is where trial witness, Irene Frost, placed it.
The "Stage-Like Scene"
Much has been made of the fact that the first attack occurred near a street light. In its 1999 program on the case, the History Channel showed a picture of the street light as it appeared in 1999 and said it created a "stage-like scene" for the attack. [Footnote D-10.] However, the street light there today (and in 1999) is not the one that was there the night Kitty was attacked. The new one is brighter and covers a wider zone. [Footnote D-11.] Surviving witness and retired New York City police officer, Michael Hoffman, says in an affidavit that the old street light was not very bright. [Footnote D-12.] Hoffman's recollection is corroborated by the testimony of the killer, Winston Moseley. At one point during his murder trial, Moseley testified that he did not worry about being identified if he returned to continue his attack on Kitty because:
"... it was late at night and I was pretty sure that nobody could see that well out of the window."
[Footnote D-13.] So, while the old street light did make things easier to see, it was not as much help as is now supposed. Moreover, in 1964 unlike today, the adjacent Long Island Rail Road parking lot was not lit. So, on the night Kitty was attacked, the absence of that ambient light added to what the Times described as the "darkness" that "shrouded" the neighborhood. [Footnote D-14.]
The dim lighting is an important factor. Even though witnesses should have had no problem seeing Kitty and her attacker, smaller telltale details such as the use of a knife or the presence of blood would have been harder to detect if they could have been seen at all. As you will read below, the one witness we know of who saw the first attack in progress thought she was seeing Kitty beaten rather than stabbed.
Times Article Analyzed
Click here to read the March 27, 1964 New York Times article that first broke the story, along with a paragraph by paragraph analysis of why I think the Times got the story wrong.
Disclaimer
Throughout this page, I will cite to various media accounts of the case. I do so only for the factual statements they contain and not because the authors of those accounts agree with the opinions I express here.
In the Public Domain
My thoughts, comments and opinions about this case along with all images created by or for me are dedicated to the public domain. They may be copied and used without credit or compensation to me. I claim no rights in the trial transcript and briefs included here.
This page was created on January 14 2004 and revised on January 22, 2004.
The Murder of Kitty Genovese:
Only 3 eye witnesses are known to have seen Kitty attacked
As to what the witnesses saw, only three people have ever been publicly identified as having seen either of the two attacks in progress.
The First Attack
The first attack happened swiftly. Kitty got out of her car, saw Moseley, became frightened and started running along Austin Street. Moseley later said that he ran approximately 20 feet before he caught up with her and stabbed her twice in the back. [Footnote D-1.]
View Diagram
There does not seem to be any dispute that it was Kitty's screams after being stabbed in that initial attack that first awakened some residents of the Mowbray Apartments, bringing several of them to their windows - apparently too late to see the stabbings. [Footnote D-2.] For example:
- Here's how the Queens District Attorney described the first attack in his brief to the New York Court of Appeals:
"After she parked her car, Katherine Genovese became frightened and ran when she saw Moseley. He ran after her for about twenty feet and stabbed her twice in the back, on the street. Her screams awakened several of her neighbors ... ."
[Footnote D-3.] Notice that the D.A. clearly says that the witnesses awoke after the first stabbings. - In his 1964 book on the case, Times Metropolitan Editor, A.M. Rosenthal, also said that the witnesses to the first attack got to their windows after Kitty had been stabbed:
"Lurking near the parking lot was a man. Miss Genovese saw him in the shadows, turned and walked toward a police box. The man pursued her, stabbed her. She screamed, "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!
[Footnote D-4.]
Somebody threw open a window. A man called out, 'Let that girl alone, ' Other lights turned on, other windows were raised. The attacker got into a car and drove away."
- In his chapter on the case, former New York City Chief of Detectives, Albert A. Seedman, describes Moseley's interrogation by the police. Here, according to Seedman, is how Moseley described his first attack on Kitty:
"I just jumped on her back and stabbed her. She fell down on her knees. She was screaming. I was looking for a place to drag her and shut her up when I noticed lights going on in some of the apartments. Then I heard someone shout down from a window."
[Footnote D-5.]
Moseley's description of the first attack also indicates that the witnesses awoke and got to their windows after Kitty had been stabbed for the first time.
Actually, there are only two witnesses known to have seen the first attack in progress.
One was Joseph Fink, the assistant superintendent at the Mowbray Apartments across the street. He was on duty as the night elevator operator. In remarks delivered at a March 9, 2004 Forum on the Kitty Genovese case held at Fordham University, former Queens County Assistant District Attorney said that Fink saw the first stabbings and understood exactly what was happening. [Click here to read a transcript of Skoller's remarks,]
The other witness was Andree Picq, and she testified at trial that she saw Kitty "laying down on the pavement . . . and a man was bending over her and beating her." [Footnote D-6.] Since there was no evidence that Moseley beat Kitty, what this witness must have seen were the first stabbings. However, whether due to the dim street lighting or disorientation from being suddenly awakened, Picq did not realize what it was she was seeing. That is not an uncommon phenomenon for eye witnesses to crimes, even when they are fully awake at the time. [Footnote D-7.]
The Second Attack
There were only 2 attacks, not 3. [Click here.] The second attack took place 12 minutes later in a small hallway in the rear of the 2 story Tudor building where none of the residents of the Mowbray Apartment House could have seen it. [Footnote D-8.] Only one man saw part of that second attack. His name was Karl Ross and he lived in an apartment in the Tudor building up one flight of stairs from the hallway. [Footnote D-9.]
Click here to read a detailed analysis of the March 27, 1964 New York Times article that broke the story.
| Footnotes |
"Q. You said you went up to her or towards her while she was still in the parking lot?
A. Yes.
Q. And then she ran from you out of the parking lot?
A. Yes. * * *
Q. How far would you say you ran after her, for how far a distance?
A. Twenty feet. * * *
Q. Did you say anything to her?
A. No.
Q. Did she say anything?
A. She called for help.
Q. And then you say you stabbed her twice while running behind her?
A. Yes."
Confession of Winston Moseley, Record on Appeal pp. 531 - 532. [HTML] [PDF - 217 KB]. According to Life Magazine:
"Moseley has developed a reputation for truthfulness in such matters. No one has had occasion to doubt one word of his detailed confession about killing Kitty Genovese."
Loudon Wainwright, "A Very Special Murderer", Life Magazine, p. 21, col. 2 (July 3, 1964). Assistant Queens County District Attorney, Frank Cacciatore, sounded the same note at Moseley's trial when he told the jury:
"Winston Moseley told detectives exactly what he had done ... ."
David Anderson, "Trial Begins in Queens Slaying," The New York Times, p. 41, col. 6 (June 9, 1964).
Footnote D-2: Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, p. 113 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974). The author, Albert A. Seedman, conducted the interrogation of Kitty's killer. He went on to serve as Chief of Detectives for the New York City Police Department, retiring in 1971.
Footnote D-3: Brief of the Queens District Attorney to the New York State Court of Appeals, p. 2. [HTML] [PDF - 368 KB]
Footnote D-4: A. M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case., Part 2, pp. 68 - 69 (Berkeley : Univ. of Calif. Press 1999). Click here and scroll down to pp. 68 - 69 to read this book on another web site. Close out window to return here.
Footnote D-5: Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, p. 129 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974).
Footnote D-6: Trial Testimony of Andree Picq, Record on Appeal p. 60. [HTML] [PDF - 57 KB]
Footnote D-7:
- R. Lance Shotland, "When Bystanders Just Stand By", Psychology Today, p. 52, col. 2 (June 1985) ("At times, people misinterpret rare events such as crimes even if they see them.")
- For a recent example of witnesses misinterpreting a crime, see, Kay Dibben, "Slain by the roadside", The Sunday Mail, p. 6, col. 3 (Brisbane, AU, Metro Ed., Jan. 18, 2004) ("Police said a witness then saw the driver stabbing the female passenger. At first witnesses thought the woman was being repeatedly punched.").
Footnote D-8: Joseph McNamara, "A Justice Story - The scream no one answered", The New York Daily News, col. 1 (Jan. 8, 1964) (Reporting that with one exception, the 38 witnesses did not see "the final outrage in the hallway").
Footnote D-9:
- "Woman, 28, Knifed to Death", The Long Island Press, p. 1, col. 2 (March 13, 1964) (Reporting that Ross lived one flight above the lobby).
- Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, pp. 114 -115, 131 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974). Seedman uses the ficitious name Harold Kline for this witness whose real name was Karl Ross.)
- Joseph McNamara, "A Justice Story - The scream no one answered", The New York Daily News, col. 1 (Jan. 8, 1964) (Reporting that "the final outrage in the hallway [which] was witnessed by a man who cracked open his door ... ." but not by the rest of the 38 witnesses).
Ross delayed calling the police because he was intoxicated. See, Maureen Dowd, "The Night That 38 Stood By as a Life Was Lost", The New York Times, sec. 2, p. B1, col. 5 (March 12, 1984).
Footnote D-10: The History Channel, History's Mysteries - Silent Witnesses - The Kitty Genovese Murder, at 18 min. (A&E Tele. Networks 1999) (N.B. The program can be purchased on video tape. My time does not include the initial 30 second History Channel promo.)
Footnote D-11: Martin Gansberg, "Kew Gardens Slaying: A Look Back", The New York Times, p. BQLI 15 (March 17, 1974) ("[An Austin Street resident] said that the one change in the neighborhood that had helped to reassure her was new lighting on street lamps, which now have bright yellow beams that cover wide areas.") (Bracketed text is mine).
Footnote D-12: Affidavit of Michael Hoffman, para. 4 (July 15, 2003). [HTML] [PDF - 251 KB] ("... it was dark and under streetlamp lighting that was not very bright ... .").
Footnote D-13: Direct Examination of Winston Moseley, Record on Appeal, p. 237. [HTML] [PDF - 227 KB]
Footnote D-14: Martin Gansberg, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn�t Call the Police", The New York Times, p. 38, col. 1 (March 27, 1964) ("At night the quiet neighborhood [of Kew Gardens] is shrouded on the slumbering darkness that marks most residential areas.") (Bracketed text is mine.)
