Forty-four years ago, the murder of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens, Queens, brutal and viciously insane as it was, did not, at first, receive much media attention. In a nation still reeling in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, experiencing the first of many race riots, observing a sudden surge in the crime rate, this was only one more sad but small piece of bad news. Of course, a city such as New York would be at the vanguard of such bad news
It was ten days later that the story absolutely took off and became legendary in the annals of crime, psychology and New York City history. Far from its initial scant coverage, the story rapidly swept the nation and the world and shocked people in cities as far away as Moscow with its unprecedented horror. However, it wasn’t the murder itself that shocked people but the circumstances surrounding it: at least 38 witnesses who purportedly viewed and/or heard Genovese being killed and did nothing to help her.
In the early morning hours of March 13, 1964, a black man by the name of Winston Moseley was cruising the streets of Queens in his white Corsair looking for, as he put it, a “woman to mutilate.” At around 3 A.M. he encountered Catherine “Kitty” Genovese stopped at a red light behind the wheel of her Fiat. She was returning home from her job as manager at a Queens tavern. He tailed her to Kew Gardens where she parked in a lot alongside the Long Island Railroad; he also parked his car a short distance from her.
She exited her car and began to walk towards her home, Moseley following on foot. Realizing that she was being followed, Genovese began to run but he soon caught up with her and stabbed her in the back. As she screamed he stabbed her three more times. A voice calling out “Leave that girl alone” from an apartment window caused Moseley to run off. He parked his car in a more secluded location, changed his hat and returned to finish what he had started. He found the blood-drenched Genovese crouched in a foyer. Repeatedly slashing and stabbing Genovese he left her there to die and disappeared into the night.
When this monster was eventually arrested, he readily confessed to the murder of Genovese and to another murder; but when Moselely, with perfect composure and vividness, described to the police how he was left undisturbed to kill Genovese, he attracted the attention of Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy. When he happened to meet A.M. Rosenthal for lunch, then metropolitan editor of the NY Times, he told him, “Brother, that Queens story is one for the books.”
After Murphy told him of Mosely’s confession, Rosenthal knew that he had a scoop and assigned it to a reporter named Martin Gansberg. A few days later his report appeared on the Times front page with the opening lines:
”For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.” “Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again.”
Prompted by the murder, the first in a series of studies were conducted by the psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley. These studies came to be classified as The Kitty Genovese Syndrome and they examined how people react to an emergency: the reason people assist or fail to assist a person or persons in need. An entirely new field of psychology, now termed prosocial behavior, was being explored. This had never been studied before and Latane and Darley’s findings were astounding. They concluded that “the greater the number of bystanders who view an emergency, the smaller the chance that any will intervene…they tend to feel a diffusion of responsibility in groups.” In other words, Genovese would have been luckier if one rather than the reputed 38 persons had witnessed her murder.
While this societal behavior may be disturbing, it’s not surprising. With the decline of cohesive neighborhoods throughout the mid 20th century, the domestic anxiety and confusion brought about by an increasingly complex world, and the numbing and isolating effects of television, (to name a few factors), individuals may have become relegated to the role of spectators rather participants in their daily lives. Unfortunately, the Kitty Genovese Syndrome may have become an even more chronic and all-encompassing problem: today not only action but thought itself has become diffused in groups…and not only in New York City, but everywhere.
Source: Kitty, 40 Years Later by Jim Rasenberger NY TIMES 2/8/2004
A Picture History of Kew Gardens, NY http://www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-nytimes-3.html
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April 19th, 2008 - 5:32 am
I’m glad you reported this story. I was a little kid when it happened, but remember it vividly. It’s one of those things we need to remember so “we” don’t do it again. The psychology of it makes sense – in big groups, people feel less personal responsibility. But you’re right, this was a huge story. It impacted many lives. Well, mine anyway.
April 19th, 2008 - 11:07 am
mm-hmm. Not too long ago there was a segment on Nightline, I think it was, where they showed a staged attack on a homeless person by several teenage boys. All were actors, and no one was harmed. They touched on the Kitty Genovese syndrom but didn’t call it by name, interestingly.
April 19th, 2008 - 5:44 pm
Suzann, since I was only ten in 1964, I remember the incident only superficially. Being preoccupied with childhood distractions (in addition to our generation not being as saavy as today’s kids), I probably couldn’t grasp the horror of such incidents. It took more time and more murders for me to finally understand life’s dangers with its infestation of fiends.
Andave, I hadn’t seen the report you’re alluding to…I don’t watch television at all. I’m not sure why Kitty’s murder was mentioned in connection with this particular Nightline report, since she wasn’t homeless and her death certainly wasn’t staged. However, reports of the many witnesses to her murder (whether they had viewed or only heard her struggles) may have been exaggerated, primarily for journalistic hype. Much of the violence of homelessness is also hyped for social and political ends. There’s a website oldkewgardens.com that challenges the reports and popular understanding of the Kitty Genovese murder. But I’m in agreement with a man who resided in Kew Gardens at the time. He said, in effect, that if only one person acted and did nothing (let alone 38) it would have been equally reprehensible. Psychologists often have a genius for analysis that are more excuses for society’s failures…I have little patience with much of their research.