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The Kitty Genovese Murder Scene
Click to enlarge.
The timing problem
Based on the accounts I have read, my best guess is that the time which elapsed from when Kitty first screamed until Moseley ran off would be measured in seconds, not minutes. [Footnote E-9.] If so, then a witness did not have much time to get to an open window if he or she was to catch sight of Moseley. Many witnesses, especially elderly witnesses, may not have been that quick. For example:
- Even those who were awakened immediately would have had at least a few seconds of disorientation.
- If you awaken suddenly at night and turn on the bedroom light, you will be blinded until your eyes adjust. An unspecified number of witnesses turned on their lights upon awakening. [Footnote E-10.] Those who did so would have needed time for their eyes adjust to the light, and to make their way to the windows.
- When viewed from a lighted room, the darkness of the night outside will cause a glass window to act more like a mirror. Witnesses who first tried looking out from lighted rooms through closed windows would have been delayed in seeing anything. [Footnote E-11.]
- Witnesses who were slow to awaken or react would also have been delayed. The delay becomes greater for older witnesses. [Footnote E-12.]
So, given all the possibilities for delay, it is not hard to imagine that by the time they opened their windows and located where the scream came from, many witnesses could have missed seeing Moseley at all, or even seeing Kitty prostrate on the ground. If all they saw was Kitty, alone, wandering off dreamlike, they would have had even less reason to suspect a criminal attack.
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 March 13, 2004.
The Murder of Kitty Genovese:
The witnesses saw Kitty leave and not come back
When Moseley drove off after the first attack, Kitty (who had been lying on the ground) got up "slowly". [Footnote E-1.] Trial witness, Robert Mozer testified that:
"She got up, stood up, and kind of looked around like that ... ."
[Footnote E-2.] Trial witness, Irene Frost testified that:
"Then it looked like she was reaching for her purse. She bent down again and picked something up. I don't know what it was ... ."
[Footnote E-3.] At this point, there was nothing in Kitty's body language to tell an unknowing onlooker who had not seen the stabbings that she was gravely wounded. Everyone agrees that Kitty then walked away, but there is disagreement as to the steadiness of her gait. Trial witness, Andree Picq, said that Kitty walked away "slowly". [Footnote E-4.] According to former New York City Chief of Detectives, Albert A. Seedman:
"[Kitty] was not staggering. If anything, her step was almost dreamlike."
[Bracketed text is mine.] [Footnote E-5.] The History Channel described her walk the same way. [Footnote E-6.] If these accounts are correct, then there was still nothing about her body language that would put unknowing eye witnesses on notice that Kitty had been badly wounded. However, surviving witness, Michael Hoffman, and his father had perhaps the closest view of all. Hoffman describes her walk as more labored.
"The way she walked made us think she was either drunk, or had been beaten up. She walked slowly, holding on to the building wall for support as she did. She staggered."
[Footnote E-7.] Ordinarily, that kind of unsteady gait would be a sure sign to an onlooker that something was wrong even if it does not necessarily suggest the possibility of life threatening wounds. However, there was another factor that shaped the perceptions of witnesses who did not have Hoffman's view.
The original March 27, 1964 Times article does not mention it, but the first attack occurred only a few feet from a bar called Old Bailey. Loud early morning behavior outside of any bar is not unusual, and Old Bailey was no exception - a fact that residents had previously complained about. [Footnote E-8.] Not having seen the first stabbing, many witnesses probably dismissed the commotion as alcohol related. So, the fact that Kitty got up and walked away at all - whether staggering or dreamlike - must have been falsely reassuring to onlookers who would have thought that everything was really all right, her initial screams notwithstanding.
Click here to read a detailed analysis of the March 27, 1964 New York Times article that broke the story.
| Footnotes |
- Trial Testimony of Andree Picq, Record on Appeal p. 61 ("... the poor girl get up slowly ... ."). [HTML] [PDF - 57 KB]]
- Affidavit of Michael Hoffman, para. 5 ("I ... saw the person slowly get up.") [HTML] [PDF - 251 KB]
Footnote E-2: Trial Testimony of Robert Mozer, Record on Appeal p. 59. [HTML] [PDF - 57 KB]
Footnote E-3: Trial Testimony of Irene Frost, Record on Appeal p. 64. [HTML] [PDF - 99 KB]
Footnote E-4: Trial Testimony of Andree Picq, Record on Appeal p. 61. [HTML] [PDF - 57 KB]
Footnote E-5: Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, p. 113 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974) (N.B., Seedman and Hellman used fictitious names for the witnesses. Their name for the Mozers was Mr. and Mrs. Hatch).
Footnote E-6: The History Channel, History's Mysteries - Silent Witnesses - The Kitty Genovese Murder, at 03 min. 28 secs. (A&E Tele. Networks 1999).
Footnote E-7:
- Affidavit of Michael Hoffman, para. 6 [HTML] [PDF - 251 KB]
- See also, Loudon Wainwright, "The View From Here: The Dying Girl That No One Helped", Life Magazine, p. 21, col. 3 (April 10, 1964) (Quoting one witness as saying, "The girl was on her knees struggling to get up. I didn't know if she was drunk or what. I never saw the man. She staggered a little when she walked, like she had a few drinks in her.").
- Edward Weiland, "Austin Street Can't Forget an Unheeded Cry in the Night", The Long Island Press, p. 5 (March 28, 1964) ("[Austin Street residents] tell of many angry cries in the night, of lovers' quarrels, of drunken brawls along the street, of noisy teenagers. . . . "You get used to it after a while," a businessman says. "You get conditioned. So when you hear a cry, you figure it's just another drunk or a teenager raising hell. How can you pick one noise out of a hundred and know this time it's murder?") (Bracketed text is mine.)
- John Melia, "Stigma from Genovese case remains", The New York Daily News, [Queens Edition], col. 3 (Month and day not known, 1984). [PDF Format - 230 KB] ("It must be pointed out that there are several bars in the neighborhood, and that late-night and early-morning noise are part of the scenery.")
- Genovese Horror Lingers", Newsday, p. 17 (March 11, 1984) ("Miss Hartmann says that the street outside her [Mowbray] apartment has always been noisy after midnight with people leaving the area bars. She said that in the early morning hours of March 13, 1964 the running and screams she heard didn't sound any different than usual. . . . 'So many, many times in the night I heard screaming.'")
- Kostya Kennedy, "Kitty Genovese: 30 Years Later", The Queens Tribune, p. 14 (March 17, 1994) ("The stabbing occurred in front of a bar known to produce loud conflicts on weekend nights, often between friends or lovers.")
- Joe Sexton, "A Request Revives Passions in the Kitty Genovese Case", The New York Times, p. B4 (July 25, 1995) ("'The media never took into consideration the noise from the bar, that we had a different clientele then - women yelling at their husbands' said Tony Corrado, who in 1964 owned a furniture shop on the block of Austin Street where the killing occurred.")
- Howard Girsky, "Kitty Genovese Killer Seeks Freedom - Controversy Still Haunts 37-Year-Old Murder Case", The Queens Courier (Dec. 21 - 26, 2001) ("Tragically, the bar was shuttered early because a new bartender was on duty. He had closed the bar before midnight because there had been fighting among patrons, a common occurrence that neighbors constantly complained about.") To read an online version of this article, click on the following link and then scroll to the bottom of the page. Close out the window to return here. Click here.
Footnote E-9: See, e.g., Brief of the Queens District Attorney to the New York State Court of Appeals, p. 2. [HTML] [PDF - 368 KB] ("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 E-10:
- Martin Gansberg, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police", The New York Times, p. 38, col.3 (March 27, 1964) ("... the man grabbed [Kitty]. She screamed. Lights went on in the 10 story apartment house ... .") (Bracketed text is mine.)
- Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, p. 129 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974) (Quoting Winston Moseley as saying during his police interrogation that after stabbing Kitty twice, he noticed lights hoing on in some of the apartments.).
- Martin Gansberg, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police", The New York Times, p. 38, col.3 (March 27, 1964) ("'We went to the window to see what was happening,' he said, 'but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street.' The wife, still apprehensive, added: 'I put out the light and we were able to see better.'")
- Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, p. 113 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974) ("One woman went to the window to see what the screams were about, but could not quite make out the scene below. 'Turn off the lights, dumbbell,' her husband said, 'then you can see.'").
Footnote E-12: Edward Weiland, "Austin Street Can't Forget an Unheeded Cry in the Night", The Long Island Press, p. 5, col. 4 (March 28, 1964) ("Many of the people who live in the buildings near Kitty genovese's apartment are elderly.")
