Kew Gardens ~
Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese (July 7, 1935
[1] – March 13, 1964) was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the
Kew Gardens neighborhood of the borough of
Queens in New York City, on March 13, 1964, by Winston Moseley.
[3]
Two weeks after the murder, a newspaper article reported the circumstances of her murder and the lack of reaction from numerous neighbors.
[4] The common portrayal of her neighbors as being fully aware but completely unresponsive has since been criticized as inaccurate.
[5][6][7] Nonetheless, it prompted investigation into the
social psychological phenomenon that has become known as the
bystander effect or "Genovese syndrome"
[8] and especially
diffusion of responsibility.
Genovese's killer, Winston Moseley, was found guilty and sentenced to death on June 15, 1964. That sentence was later reduced to lifetime imprisonment on the grounds that he had not been allowed to argue during the trial that he was "medically insane". Moseley committed another series of crimes when he escaped from custody on March 18, 1968, and then fled to a nearby vacant home, where he held the owners hostage. On March 22, he broke into another home and took a woman and her daughter hostage before surrendering to police. Moseley, who was denied parole for a seventeenth time in December 2013, remains in prison.
[9] He is currently one of the longest serving inmates in New York State.
[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese