Thriller Thursday: Kitty Genovese and the Bystander Effect

On a dark spring morning in 1964, Catherine Susan Genovese arrived home from her job as a bar manager at Ev's Eleventh Hour Sports Bar in Queens. She parked about one hundred feet from her apartment door, located in an alley way at the back of the building. As she walked, she was approached by an unfamiliar African-American male. Genovese ran across the parking lot toward the front of her building, but the man quickly overtook her, stabbing Genovese twice in the back.

Stunned and in pain, Genovese's scream cut through the quiet night. "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!" Several neighbors heard the cry but with the windows closed, only a few recognized it as a cry for help. A neighbor shouted at the attacker to leave the girl alone, and the man took off.

The apartment on Austin Street, Queens.

Irene Front heard Catherine's screams. "There was another shriek," she testified in court. "And she was lying down crying out."

The night was once again quiet, the only sound Catherine's sobbing as she struggled to her feet. Blood streaming from her wounds, Catherine staggered to the side of her building and fought for consciousness. Within five minutes, her attacker had returned and stabbed her again.

"I'm dying, I'm dying," Catherine cried out. Lights again flashed on, windows opened as tenants peered into the night. The attacker was spotted racing to a white Chevy Corvair and driving away.

From the sixth floor of the apartment building, Marjorie and Samual Kroshkin witnessed the attack from their window.

"I saw a man hurry to a car under my window," he said later. "He left and came back five minutes later and was looking around the area. "Mr. Koshkin wanted to call the police, but Mrs. Koshkin thought otherwise. "I didn't let him," she later said to the press. "I told him there must have been thirty calls already."

Another witness later said at trial that she heard a scream for help three different times. "I saw a girl lying down on the pavement with a man bending down over her, beating her."

Determined to live, Catherine made her way to the rear of her building and tried to enter through a back door. It was locked. She slid along the wall until she reached a hallway leading to the second floor, but lost her footing and fell. The man returned.

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The alley where Catherine was stabbed.

"I came back because I knew I'd not finished what I set out to do," the man later told cops. He searched for Catherine until he found her slumped in her own blood and semiconscious. He cut off her bra and panties and sexually assaulted her, then took $49 from her wallet.

"Why would I throw money away?" He asked the court at trial.

He finished the job, stabbing Catherine to death, and then left the scene. The entire event lasted 32 minutes.

Karl Ross, a neighbor on the second floor, finally called the police at about 3:50 a.m., but only after calling a friend and asking his opinion about what he should do. A squad car arrived within minutes and discovered Catherine's body. She'd been stabbed 17 times. A neighborhood canvas churned up 38 people who had heard or seensome part of the assault on Catherine.

38 people. 32 minutes. Anyone could have saved her.

A myriad of excuses followed: one tenant thought it was a lover's quarrel, others were afraid, some women didn't want their husbands involved. Some claimed they couldn't see what was happening. One witness said he was too tired.

The murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was just one of many in NYC in 1964. It wasn't until the New York Times published "38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call The Police" by Martin Gansberg that the killing became real news. Press flocked to the KewGardens in Queens, the residential neighborhood where the murder had taken place. The witnesses were chewed up in the press, but many now claim the article was misleading. No neighbor witnessed the entire attack, as it was spread out over three different areas. But the fact remains that an early call to the police could have changed everything.

Kitty's murder jumpstarted a new line of psychological research into the phenomenon known as the Bystander Effect. Experts found the probability of help is related to the number of bystanders; the more people watching, the less likely they are to intervene. In a world full of apathy and self-preservation, most people assume someone else will make the call or step in to help.

Television was also blamed for the inaction.

"We underestimate the damage that these accumulated images do to the brain. The immediate effect can be delusional, equivalent to a sort of post-hypnotic suggestion. The witnesses became confused and paralyzed by the violence they witnessed outside their window. They were fascinated by the drama, by the action, and yet not entirely sure that what was taking place was actually happening."

--Psychiatrist Ralph S. Banay

Winston Mosely

The attacker was identified as Winston Moseley. He was later arrested in connection with burglary charges and confessed to the murder of Kitty Genovese and two others. His confession details the attack, and he stated his motivation was to kill a woman. He chose Kitty at random.

Moseley showed no remorse and was given the death sentence. But in 1967, the New York Court of Appeals found that Moseley should have been able to argue he was medically insane at the sentencing hearing, and the sentence was reduce to life.

During a 1968 trip to the hospital for surgery, Moseley attacked a guard and beat him, then took a bat and started swinging at those around him. He took five hostages, raping one in front of her husband. He was recaptured after a two-day manhunt. Moseley has been denied bail thirteen times. His next hearing is in November.

Kitty's murder is a sad representation of some of our worst traits: apathy and selfishness. What would you have done? Do you know of any other murders affected by the Bystander Effect.