The Murder of Kitty Genovese:

"We didn't want to get
involved"

The 1964 Times article reports that two witnesses explained their inaction by saying they didn't want to get involved. [Footnote K-1.] Everyone assumes that theirs was the attitude of all the other witnesses.

However, according to the Times' A. M. Rosenthal, when asked why they didn't call the police, those who cited a fear of involvement were a distinct minority. Apparently, most witnesses said they didn't know why.

  "'I didn't want my husband to get involved,' a housewife said.
  'We thought it was a lovers' quarrel,' said another woman. 'I went back to bed.'
  'I was tired,' said a man.
  'I don't know,' said another man.
  'I don't know,' said still another .
  'I don't know,' said others."

[Footnote K-2.] Rosenthal concluded:

"Nobody can say why the thirty-eight did not lift the phone while Miss Genovese was being attacked, since they cannot say themselves."

[Footnote K-3.] Although Rosenthal interpreted all the "I don't know" responses as indicating a fear of involvement, [Footnote K-4.], I think it was more likely to be the response of someone who genuinely misread what was happening to Kitty. That seems to have been the case with the following witness described by Life Magazine as "plainly depressed and disappointed at his own failure".

"Everytime I look out here now, it's like looking at a nightmare. How could so many of us have had the idea that we didn't need to do anything?"

Notice the witness's reference to "so many of us", indicating that there were a lot of witnesses that night who did not understand what was happening.

In the case of those witnesses who did cite a fear of involvement, this seems, with one exception, to be a classic case of quoting people out of context. I think what those witnesses wanted to avoid getting involved in was a drunken quarrel - which seems to be what many thought it was. [Footnote K-6.] Those witnesses may not have realized the need to make that distinction clear. They made their statements before they knew that their reaction to the events of that night was to become the focus of the Kitty Genovese story. [Footnote K-7.]

The two exceptions appear to be witnesses, Joseph Fink and Karl Ross. Other witnesses seem to have been tarred with their brush.

Joseph Fink did not call the police despite witnessing the first stabbings and realizing what was happening. [Click here.] If he ever explained his behavior, that explanation has not been published. The only mitigating circumstance apparent is that, having witnessed the first attack, he would also have seen Kitty get up and leave the scene under her own power without making any further outcries for help.

The second witness was Karl Ross, who is said to have called the police after it was too late.  [Footnote K-8.] Ross's apartment was located up a flight of stairs from the hallway in which Kitty was attacked for the last time. [Footnote K-9.] Although Ross saw at least part of that attack, he delayed calling for help because he was intoxicated and did not want to deal with the police. [Footnote K-10.] Former Chief of Detectives, Albert A. Seedman, writes that at 7 o'clock in the morning - a little more than 3 hours after the attacks on Kitty ended, Ross was "swilling vodka and acting obnoxious". He was booked for disorderly conduct after he interfered with a detective's interview of Kitty's roommate and exchanged words with the officer. [Footnote K-11.]

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Click here to read a detailed analysis of the March 27, 1964 New York Times article that broke the story.

Footnote K-1:   Martin Gansberg, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn�t Call the Police", The New York Times, p. 38, cols. 1, 3 (March 27, 1964)

"The man explained that he had called the police after much deliberation. ... 'I didn't want to get involved,' he sheepishly told the police."
. . .
"A distraught woman, wiping her hands in her apron, said, 'I didn't want my husband to get involved.'"

Footnote K-2:   A. M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case., Part 2, p. 69 (Berkeley : Univ. of Calif. Press 1999). Click here and click on the appropriate links to read this book on another web site. Close out window to return here.

Footnote K-3:   A. M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case., Part 2, p. 72 (Berkeley : Univ. of Calif. Press 1999). Click here and click on the appropriate links to read this book on another web site. Close out window to return here.

Footnote K-4:   A. M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case., Part 2, p. 69 (Berkeley : Univ. of Calif. Press 1999). Click here and click on the appropriate links to read this book on another web site. Close out window to return here.

Footnote K-5:   Loudon Wainwright, "The View From Here: The Dying Girl That No One Helped", Life Magazine, p. 21, col. 3 (April 10, 1964).

Footnote K-6:

• Loudon Wainwright, "The View From Here: The Dying Girl That No One Helped", Life Magazine, p. 21, col. 2 (April 10, 1964) ("Not all of these people, it must be said, understood they were watching a murder. Some thought they were looking at a lovers' quarrel. Others saw or heard so very little that they could not have reached any conclusion about the disturbance.").
  
  
• 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.")
  
  
• Martin Gansberg, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn�t Call the Police", The New York Times, p. 38, col. 2 (March 27, 1964) ("We thought it was a lover's quarrel.")

Footnote K-7:   The Times reporter, Martin Gansberg, conducted his witness interviews on March 25, 1964 - two days before publication of the first article about the 38 witnesses. The witnesses appeared to be quite candid. According to A.M. Rosenthal:

"... when this newspaper heard of the story [of the 38 witnesses], a reporter went knocking, door to door, asking why, why. Through half-opened doors they told him."

See, A. M. Rosenthal, Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case., Part 1, pp. 9 - 19,and Part 2, p. 69 (Berkeley : Univ. of Calif. Press 1999). Click here and click on the appropriate links to read this book on another web site. Close out window to return here.

Footnote K-8:   Martin Gansberg, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn�t Call the Police", The New York Times, p. 1, co. 1 and p. 38, col 1 (March 27, 1964) ("... one witness called after the woman was dead. ... The man explained he had called the police after much deliberation.")

Footnote K-9:

• Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, pp. 114 -115 (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. 2 (Jan. 8, 1964) (Reporting that "the final outrage in the hallway was witnessed by a man who cracked open his door ... .").

Footnote K-10:   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 K-11:   Seedman & Hellman, Chief!, pp. 116, 131 (Arthur Fields Books, N.Y. 1974).  Seedman uses the ficitious name Harold Kline for this witness whose real name was Karl Ross.)

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