Kitty Genovese's apartment

This is Kitty Genovese's former apartment building.

It is located at 82-70 Austin Street in Queens, New York.

Genovese was murdered outside her apartment complex in the early hours of March 13th, 1964.

The case gained national attention after it was falsely reported that dozens of witnesses had passively watched for more than 30 minutes while the murder unfolded.

These misleading, now-debunked news reports gave birth to a social psychology theory called the bystander effect.

Later, it emerged that an initial newspaper report by the New York Times had grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses involved. Furthermore, many of the people who heard her screams did not realize that a woman had been stabbed.

Genovese was the victim of a self-confessed serial killer named Winston Moseley, who began following her after he noticed her stopped at a nearby traffic light.

At around 3.15 a.m., the 28-year-old bartender parked her car in the parking lot beside the Kew Gardens (LIRR) station.

Moseley, who was armed with a hunting knife, pulled over on Austin Street, next to a bus stop that was roughly 20 yards away.

When Genovese realized that she was being followed, she ran to the front of the building. Moseley, however, quickly caught up to her and stabbed her twice in the back.

During the first attack, he was interrupted by a neighbor, who shouted at him from an upstairs window in the Mowbray apartment building.

Worried that he had parked his white Chevrolet Corvair too close to the crime scene, Moseley retreated, moved his vehicle further away, and then brazenly returned on foot to finish the job.

By the time he arrived back, Genovese had staggered into a hallway in the alleyway behind her apartment building. There, she lay critically injured beside a locked doorway.

After searching for her in the parking lot, he eventually tracked her down, raped her, and stabbed her multiple times. He then stole whatever cash she had in her purse and left the scene of the crime.

An elderly lady found her shortly after the second attack and called for an ambulance.

Genovese succumbed to her wounds while she was being transported to the hospital.

Moseley was apprehended six days later while he was attempting to steal a television set from a house in Ozone Park. Following his arrest, one detective noticed that Moseley's white Chevrolet Corvair resembled the description of the car belonging to Genovese's killer.

During questioning, he readily confessed to murdering Genovese and two other women. He also provided the police with key details about the crime.

Although he was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death, his sentence was later commuted to life in prison after it was determined that the court had wrongly refused to admit evidence about his mental condition.

He became eligible for parole in 1984. However, multiple parole board hearings refused to release him due to his blatant lack of remorse for Genovese's death.

On March 28th, 2016, Moseley died in prison at the age of 81.

While it is true that the New York Times exaggerated the number of witnesses involved and purposely omitted the fact that most Kew Gardens residents did not realize a murder was taking place, there were at least two witnesses who saw what was happening and decided not to get involved.

One even chose to go back to sleep.

Photos

Photos of the apartment and other related images.

Kitty Genovese's apartment

Image source: Google Maps

This is a Google Street View image of the southern side of Kitty Genovese's Tudor-style apartment complex.

The 28-year-old lived in this building with her girlfriend, Mary Ann Zielonko.

Kew Gardens station

Moseley told the police that he spent an hour driving around Queens looking for a suitable victim.

At roughly 3 a.m., he saw Genovese stopped at a traffic light on Hoover Avenue. He then followed her until she pulled into this parking lot beside the Kew Gardens LIRR station.

Genovese ran up Austin Street after she noticed that she was being pursued. However, Moseley quickly caught up and stabbed her in the back.

Austin Street

Moseley stabbed Genovese outside a book store at 82-64 Austin Street. He retreated after a witness in a nearby apartment building started shouting at him.

Instead of calling it quits, he moved his car away from its original spot and returned to the scene on foot, wearing a wide-brimmed hat.

He reportedly spent a few minutes searching for her in the parking lot before he eventually found her slumped in a stairwell behind the building.

Crime scene

The photographs above show what the crime scene looked like during the 1960s.

The murder took place over the course of 30–40 minutes. It is estimated that there was a 10-15-minute hiatus in between Moseley's attacks.

Genovese's murder sped up the introduction of a centralized 911 emergency number in New York City. At the time of her death, reporting a crime involved calling the local police precinct and speaking to the personnel on duty. It is believed that the complexity of this system may have dissuaded witnesses from reporting the disturbance.