Kitty Genovese Residence

82-70 Austin Street | Kew Gardens | built 1925

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1964
March 13
Kitty Genovese is stabbed in the alley by her home and dies a few feet from her door
Some time after 2:30 a.m., Kitty Genovese finished her shift at a bar and parked at the Kew Gardens Long Island Rail Road station, next to an alley that led to her home with her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko. Winston Moseley, who had already killed two women, attacked her there with a hunting knife, drove off when a neighbor yelled, then returned about ten minutes later. Neighbor Sophia Farrar came out, and Genovese died in her arms.
Source: atlasobscura.com
1964
A New York Times story about Genovese's neighbors gives rise to the idea of the bystander effect
Two weeks after the killing, The New York Times ran a story headlined "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police," drawing national attention to the crime. Though later faulted as inaccurate and sensational, its picture of neighbors who saw or heard the attack yet stayed inside led psychologists to the "bystander effect," the notion that a crowd makes help less likely.
Source: atlasobscura.com
2017
The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project lists Kitty Genovese's home as a gay landmark
In 2017 the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project put the Kitty Genovese residence on its list of gay landmarks, recognizing the Kew Gardens home she shared with her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko. Her 1964 murder is still discussed in college classrooms and has inspired fictional depictions in films and novels.
Source: atlasobscura.com

Nearby