Many people are said to have seen Kitty Genovese being attacked, but only one called the police. A murder that became the epitome of collective failure. | This case is now in its 60th anniversary.
The young woman apparently immediately senses that something is wrong. Maybe she actually saw the male figure waiting in the shadows as she got out of her red Fiat to go to her apartment. That Friday, March 13, 1964, around half past three in Kew Gardens. A quiet residential and business district on the outskirts of New York. She pauses for a moment, standing at her car. Then she runs off. This is what her murderer later tells the police. As he describes it, Catherine Genovese did not take the direct route to her apartment above the upholstery shop, as she usually does when she comes home from work at night. The apartment entrances to the combined residential and commercial buildings on Austin Street are in a back alley. Instead, she walked along the street along the front of the houses, past the entrances to the shops. Towards Lefferts Boulevard. It’s wider than Austin Street. Brightly lit. And on his corner there is a bar, “Old Bailey’s”, which is usually still open at this time.
Perhaps Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was hoping for protection from the glow of the streetlights on the boulevard or in the bar. But there was a fight at Bailey’s that night. That’s why it’s closed. Before Kitty Genovese can continue running and reach Lefferts Boulevard, the murderer catches up with her and stabs her. That’s what he tells the police. And in the process.
Her murderer, Winston Moseley, is the only true eyewitness that night. The only one who can say with certainty how Kitty Genovese died.