Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Murder of Kitty Genovese

Starting point is 00:00:00 On March 13, 1964, at 2.30 a.m., a woman named Kitty Genevice was returning home from work. As she arrived outside her apartment, a man approached her with a knife. She was stabbed, raped, and killed. The murder itself is not what made this event noteworthy. It's known for the number of witnesses who heard the attack but did not call the police or intervene. When the story reached the media, it put the case in the national spotlight and led to the recognition of a psychological phenomenon. Learn about the murder of Kitty Genevice and the insight the case provided into human psychology on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Starting point is 00:00:37 What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from N-Den. PR. Catherine Kitty Genevice was just 28 years old when she was murdered outside of her apartment in Queens, New York. As a bar manager, Genevice was best known for being a chatterbox with lots of energy and a zest for life. Before she was murdered, she had been saving up to open an Italian

Starting point is 00:01:32 restaurant. Genevice lived with her girlfriend, Marianne Zolanco, in a second floor apartment in Q Gardens, Queens, in one of 14 similar units in the building. On the evening in question, March 13th, 1964, as she was making her way home, she was approached by a man and stabbed. She reportedly called out, quote, oh my God, he stabbed me, please help me. But no one came. As she was about to get stabbed again, someone did notice. A neighbor Robert Mosier called out from above, quote, leave that girl alone. Still, he did not leave his apartment, nor did he call the police. Mozier did manage to scare off Genevice's attacker for a few minutes. The man reportedly ran ran down a nearby alley and sat in his car preparing to drive away from the crime scene.

Starting point is 00:02:20 However, the nearby apartment building lights soon went off, prompting the man to return. During these few minutes, Genovese attempted to crawl away, ending up behind her building. Her attacker came back and found her, now out of sight, and he robbed, stabbed, and raped her. One of Genevice's neighbors, Sophia Ferrar eventually found her, finding Genevice in a pool of blood, and calling for neighbors to help. This led to another neighbor, Greta Schwartz, calling the police as Farrar waited with Genevice's body. Kitty Genevice would die soon afterwards in the ambulance, taking her to the hospital. Genevice's girlfriend was told the devastating news later that morning at 4 a.m. New York City police detective Michael Sang was assigned to lead the investigation.

Starting point is 00:03:08 The police questioning was initially centered on Zolanco. The questions focused on the two's relationship, asking about their sexuality, rather than the case. And initially, Zolonko was considered a suspect. One of their neighbors, Carl Ross, was also questioned. When the police arrived to formally interrogate Zolanco, they found Ross with her, both of them drinking. As Genevice's body was found outside of his apartment building, coupled with the fact that he was arrested for disorderly conduct during questioning, he was also considered to be a suspect. Fortunately, the investigation didn't go much further, as the police found the murderer.

Starting point is 00:03:45 Later that week, a suspected robbery occurred. When investigating the suspect's car, they found stolen appliances and arrested him. The man's name was Winston Mosley. Mosley was suspected due to his car. Witnesses to Genevice's murder reported seeing a white car. Mosley, having driven in white Corvair, was asked about the murder, but remained silent. However, Mosley's hands told a different story. They were covered in scabs. The detectives accused him of the murder and Mosley's reply was damaging. He both admitted to the murder and gave information about the crime that was never released to the public, confirming he was the killer. According to Mosley, he had spotted Genevice on her way home and followed her. He had gone out that night specifically looking for a

Starting point is 00:04:31 victim, but never explained why. During his interrogation, he also confessed to two other rapes and murders. This resulted in him being sentenced to death, which was later reduced to life in prison. As tragic as the murder of Kitty Genevice was, the murder itself was not the reason why the case became well known. The case is notorious due to the supposed number of witnesses to the crime. The murder was initially reported by the New York Times in an article on March 27th titled, 37 people who saw murder didn't call the police. The article stated that multiple neighbors saw or heard the crime take place and did not. nothing, and later it was reported that there were 38 witnesses. Due to this shockingly large

Starting point is 00:05:18 number, the case quickly garnered national and international attention. If you have ever heard of Kitty Genevice and of her murder, this is the story that you are probably familiar with. However, the Times article contained many factual errors, most of which are still commonly believe today. For starters, the number of witnesses reported by the New York Times originated from a conversation with the police commissioner and the New York Times editor. However, the number that he provided was exaggerated, and it was never fact-checked. The reality of the attack was as follows. No one saw her murder completely as it was implied. Those who saw the start of the attack thought it was a drunken brawl or a lover's quarrel. None of the neighbors saw,

Starting point is 00:06:08 the stabbing, though they did see some sort of violent action. Additionally, multiple neighbors claimed that they did call the police, although this may have been after the stabbing had already occurred. Finally, the second stabbing, the one that actually killed Kitty Genovese was in a different more private area than the first attack away from the original witnesses. Public attitudes regarding the case were extremely negative, with the perception of New York city and the people who lived in large cities being callous and having no empathy. Regardless of the actual facts, the story of Kitty Genevisa's murder became well known

Starting point is 00:06:46 in the public's collective memory and became an inspiration for the study of a psychological phenomenon known as the bystander effect. Even though the number of witnesses in the case was at first exaggerated, the bystander effect is still relevant because the testimony of the neighbors reported a common theme. They didn't want to get involved. So, what is the bystander effect and how does it work? Initially dubbed Genovese syndrome, the bystander effect is the attempt to psychologically explain why witnesses wouldn't help a victim when a crime was being committed.

Starting point is 00:07:23 This effect has been documented through multiple experiments, with the most notable being conducted by psychologist John Darley and B.B. Latane in 1968. To summarize the experiment, the general setup involved creating an emergency situation within a laboratory setting. Participants of the experiment would be taken to a cubicle with an intercom with the number of participants varying each time. The goal of the experiment was to determine which variables influence people's reactions in an emergency. The dependent variable would be the number of people involved in the bystander position, with the numbers varying from being on your own to having five or more people. The participants would then be asked about their problems in college.

Starting point is 00:08:06 The experiment would have one participant mentioned that they have had trouble with seizures early on in the questioning. And after a few rounds in, the same participant would then fake having a seizure. Their study was to see how long it would take for the participant to get help for the seizure victim. The study found that you're much more likely to get help when you're on. on your own in the experiment. If there were others involved, the percentage of people who would ask for help would drop significantly, going from 100% when you were by yourself to 62% in a group larger than five people. The time waiting to get help also increased drastically.

Starting point is 00:08:47 This is referred to as pluralistic ignorance, which essentially means that we have the tendency to rely on other people's actions and reactions when deciding how we want to act. and this means that you are psychologically inclined to see something and think, oh, this is someone else's problem. However, if everyone thinks that way, no one reacts, leaving the problem to become potentially worse. This is also part of what is known as diffusion of responsibility, meaning that as a group is larger, the personal responsibility of any one person decreases, separating the victim from the bystander. If no one were to react, you now become far more likely to point back to the situation and say,

Starting point is 00:09:32 see, no one else acted either, clearing yourself internally of any blame. You're also more likely to look towards others to define the situation. If everyone else doesn't think it's an emergency, then you are less likely to as well. Additionally, the self-help reflection given after the experiment saw that many people focused on how the situation impacted them, rather than the same. than the victim. So to sum it up, in an individual situation as the sole bystander, you are more likely to become involved as there is more pressure on you to act, as you can't push responsibility or blame onto anyone but yourself. But when others are present, rationalizing your own inaction

Starting point is 00:10:15 becomes much easier. Many people have a desire to help others, driven by both social norms and basic human empathy. However, there is also a desire to avoid a situation that would cause embarrassment, future involvement, or any immediate harm. Latani and Darley found that there's a five-step model in which bystanders decide whether or not to help. The steps are as follows. Step one, you notice the event. Step two, you decide whether or not the situation is an emergency. If you see others not reacting to the situation, people typically assume it is not an emergency. urgency. Step three, you either assume responsibility or think that someone else will assume responsibility. Step four, you either know how to react or do not have the skills to help. And step five, based on the

Starting point is 00:11:05 information stated, you decide whether or not to help or opt out due to worries about the consequences. There was actually another well-known experiment on the bystander effect that was also done by Latane and Darley. Known as the Smoky Room experiment, it was specifically designed to test the diffusion of responsibility. In the experiment, participants were divided into groups of various sizes and brought into a room, where they were asked to compete a questionnaire on urban life and the pressures associated with living in such environments. As the subjects were filling out the questionnaire, smoke filled the room, and I say smoke, but it was actually just steam. When left alone, 75% of the subjects took action in response to the smoke in the room

Starting point is 00:11:49 before finishing the questionnaire. However, in groups of three, 62% finished filling out the questionnaire before taking action. When questioned, the subject stated that they were worried about appearing anxious to others and were looking to see if anyone else was reacting. However, because the others were feeling the same way and also trying to look calm, they believed that they were overreacting to the smoke and deemed the situation safe. The experiment confirmed the earlier findings of diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance. Despite being in a perceived emergency, the participants were willing to ignore a potentially life-threatening situation to avoid embarrassment. So what do all these psychological studies have to say about the Kitty Genevice case?

Starting point is 00:12:35 Despite the inaccuracies in the initial article published by the New York Times, it suggests that because many people witnessed at least some of the incident, no one took responsibility, called for help, or defended Kitty. They all thought that somebody else would do it. Kitty's murder did lead to changes in the emergency response systems. Her murder is often cited as one of the main reasons 9-1-1 is used as an emergency response number in the United States. The murder of Kitty Genevice has had a massive impact on our understanding of human psychology.

Starting point is 00:13:10 Although many of the details surrounding the case have been proven false, the bystander effect is a real phenomenon. Though Kitty's murder was a senseless tragedy, it opened the door to a better understanding of human psychology, and what makes us act and what makes us stand idly by. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode are provided by Olivia Ash. Today's review comes from listener Canadian Canada over on Apple Podcasts in, surprisingly, Canada.

Starting point is 00:13:48 They write, Fantastic. This podcast is so fantastic. I have learned about so much stuff from turf to rockets. This is most definitely the best podcast I've ever listened to. Well, thanks, Canadian. I'm glad you enjoy the show, and I'm always glad to see the Great White North representing.

Starting point is 00:14:05 And so long as you keep listening, I'll keep making episodes. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Murder of Kitty Genovese

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