Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America

by Kevin Cook

Overview

At last, the true story of a crime that shocked the world.

New York City, 1964. A young woman is stabbed to death on her front stoop—a murder the New York Times called “a frozen moment of dramatic, disturbing social change.” The victim, Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, became an urban martyr, butchered by a sociopathic killer in plain sight of thirty-eight neighbors who “didn’t want to get involved.” Her sensational case provoked an anxious outcry and launched a sociological theory known as the “Bystander Effect.”

That’s the narrative told by the Times, movies, TV programs, and countless psychology textbooks. But as award-winning author Kevin Cook reveals, the Genovese story is just that, a story. The truth is far more compelling—and so is the victim.

Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of her murder, Cook presents the real Kitty Genovese. She was a vibrant young woman—unbeknownst to most, a lesbian—a bartender working (and dancing) her way through the colorful, fast-changing New York of the ’60s, a cultural kaleidoscope marred by the Kennedy assassination, the Cold War, and race riots. Downtown, Greenwich Village teemed with beatniks, folkies, and so-called misfits like Kitty and her lover. Kitty Genovese evokes the Village’s gay and lesbian underground with deep feeling and colorful detail.

Cook also reconstructs the crime itself, tracing the movements of Genovese’s killer, Winston Moseley, whose disturbing trial testimony made him a terrifying figure to police and citizens alike, especially after his escape from Attica State Prison.

Drawing on a trove of long-lost documents, plus new interviews with her lover and other key figures, Cook explores the enduring legacy of the case. His heartbreaking account of what really happened on the night Genovese died is the most accurate and chilling to date.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393239287
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/03/2014
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

A former senior editor at Sports Illustrated, Kevin Cook is the author of Titanic Thompson, Tommy's Honor, Kitty Genovese and The Dad Report. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 More Than a Name 3

2 Opposites 11

3 Garden Suburb 23

4 Tigers and Ants 31

5 Village People 38

6 She Loves You 51

7 Ozone Park 58

8 The 11th Hour 66

9 Night of the Hunt 75

10 Postmortem 81

11 Neighbors 95

12 Confessions 110

13 Pleas 120

14 Questions for the Devil 136

15 Consequences 151

16 Calling for Help 164

17 Jailbreak 173

18 Memory and Myth 184

19 Case Studies 196

20 Revisions 204

21 Thirty-Three Minutes 212

Acknowledgments 221

A Note on Sources 225

Select Bibliography 227

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

"Well written and often gripping."

The Times (London)

"Provocative… As much about the alchemy of journalism as urban pathology."

The Wall Street Journal - Edward Kosner

"An ever important reminder that we never know as much about a story as we think."

New York Post

"Provocative."

The Wall Street Journal

"Kevin Cook rips the cover off an enduring urban myth. He’s done a first-rate reporting job, one that delivers the truth at last about an infamous murder that came to define an age."

Kevin Baker

"A grim and fascinating history and discussion of the "bystander effect"…this book asks hard questions of human nature."

Diva

"Gripping."

New York Times - Amy Finnerty

"Cook’s take on events is intelligent, superbly researched and truly unsettling, making this one of the best true crime books I’ve read in the last few years."

The Sunday Herald (UK)

"This is not a good book. This is a GREAT book. I don't think I've read its compelling equal in twenty years. Every page reveals astonishing new facts about one of the most paralyzing events in the flawed soul of the American character. This is modern history at its storytelling best, ignored at the reader's peril."

Harlan Ellison

"Kevin Cook is raising big questions."

NPR

"Cook debunks the whole parable of the 38 Bad Samaritans and puts forth the real story of what happened."

AARP

"[I]mpressive…"

Christian Science Monitor - Jordan Michael Smith

"Cook’s restoration helps make Kitty human, not merely iconographic."

Cleveland Plain Dealer

2014-01-21
The infamous myth-shrouded murder of Kitty Genovese (1935–1964) receives a much-needed re-evaluation. The brutal, senseless murder of Kew Gardens resident Genovese went down in history as what magazine journalist and Cook (Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything, 2010, etc.) calls a "crime that lasted forever." It lasted "forever" both in the sense that Genovese's death was slow and painful from multiple stab wounds and in the psychological repercussions of the case, which would reverberate throughout academic and popular-culture circles for decades to come. The controversy that became front-page news and began to overshadow both victim and killer over the years was how 38 bystanders could have witnessed psychopath Winston Moseley stab young Genovese to death and not intervene in any way, thereby leaving her to die alone only a short walking distance from her apartment. Cook's main agenda is myth-busting while also exploring the ways in which society has collectively learned lessons from those same myths about the 38 passive bystanders. But as we find out through Cook's prolonged analysis of the case, Genovese's murder was not quite the lonely death it was made out to be. Nevertheless, the author cites instances of how both criminals and victims of crimes learned from these long-perpetuated "bystander" untruths, as he eventually arrives at some well-founded conclusions on this controversial subject. Cook's breathless pacing and painstaking research manage to make his minibio of Genovese sound more interesting that it should: He frames her own fairly quotidian existence (other than her attraction to women, which was definitely not quotidian in 1964) in the bigger picture of the important social changes that were taking place in New York City and in America as a whole in the early 1960s. The author's game-changing contribution to the Genovese case pushes past mere sensationalism into previously unexplored territory. An engrossing true-crime tour de force.

Kirkus Reviews

"Cook is [an] adept storyteller. His peppy knowing style calls to mind pop-culture products from the time of the murder…he is firmly and persuasively in the revisionist camp."

The New Yorker

"Smart…suspenseful. [Cook’s] reporting…is rich and deep."

Tampa Bay Times

"A fully-realized portrait of Kitty… Readers won’t forget that she was a person, not a player in an anecdote."

Boston Sunday Globe - Michael Washburn

"Kevin Cook is raising big questions."

NPR's All Things Considered

"Cook is [an] adept storyteller. His peppy knowing style calls to mind pop-culture products from the time of the murder…he is firmly and persuasively in the revisionist camp."

The New Yorker