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LGBT History Month>>
September 29-October 5, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15
Lesbian victim in infamous murder topic of new book by Sari Staver
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ittle known details about the murder of lesbian Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York in 1964 will be discussed by historian and author Marcia Gallo in two San Francisco appearances next week. Gallo, author of the award-winning book, No One Helped: Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban Apathy (Cornell University Press, 2015), spent seven years researching the crime after she learned that the initial media reports that dozens of Genovese’s neighbors refused to come to her rescue were untrue. (The story was debunked in a series of New York Times articles.) Gallo’s book has won the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction; the Lambda Literary Award (LGBT Nonfiction category), and was a finalist in the 2015 USA Best Book Awards in the gay and lesbian nonfiction category. She is also the author of Different Daughters: A history of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement (Carroll & Graf, 2006). Gallo researched Genovese’s lesbian relationship and interviewed her former partner, Mary Ann Zielonko, about their life together in New York at the time of the incident. Currently an associate professor in the history department at the University of Las Vegas, Gallo, a lesbian and former San Franciscan, talked about her fascination with the crime in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. When the Genovese murder made headlines in 1964, Gallo was 13 years old, planning to escape the boredom of Wilmington, Delaware for a life in New York City, she said. “So I always felt I was very much like Kitty,” said Gallo, 65, “looking for an exciting life in the city.” When newspapers reported that dozens of Genovese’s neighbors witnessed the crime – a brutal stabbing and rape – but did nothing, Gallo said that the story became “a cautionary tale that this is what could happen to a young woman in the big city who was out at night.” Genovese was 28 when she died. “I can remember thinking, ‘Oh, wow, what does this mean for my dreams for my future’” in New York, Gallo recalled. Gallo did spend time in New York, after a 20-year detour in San Francisco, where she worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, first as director of the First Amendment Education Project and later as director of the field organizing department. In the late 1990s, Gallo moved to New York City, receiving a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the City University of New York in 2004. It was at this time that the Genovese story resurfaced, according to Gallo. In 2004, said Gallo, the Times revived the story about Genovese, questioning its earlier treatment and briefly mentioning that at the time she was murdered, Genovese’s roommate was, in fact, her lesbian lover. The news about Genovese’s lover “was a bombshell for the queer community,” said Gallo. “There was an immediate question if her sexuality had anything to do with the murder, but as it turned out, it did not.” Among lesbians in New York, said Gallo, the new details about the crime – and about Genovese’s sexual orientation – were a topic of tremendous interest. “My first inclination was to write a biography of Kitty,” said Gallo, “but there was nothing available in her voice – no letters, no diaries.”
Author Marcia Gallo
Instead, said Gallo, she decided to write a book about the crime, spending the next seven years unearthing details about it. Getting an interview with Genovese’s then-partner, Zielonko, was a “lengthy process,” said Gallo. Once
the two connected, Gallo learned how difficult life was for Genovese’s lover, who spent the next four decades grieving her loss, but was able to share the story with only a few gay friends because the couple had been so closeted. Zielonko currently resides in Vermont. Interviews with then-neighbors of the couple revealed that initial press reports that people saw the crime – but did nothing – “were simply incorrect,” Gallo said. Instead, said Gallo, the interviews indicated that many of the neighbors were distrustful of police and did not cooperate with law enforcement after the crime. In fact, added Gallo, there is evidence that a number of neighbors did come to Genovese’s aid and called the police to report hearing what they assumed was a crime in progress. Once the book was completed, Gallo said she realized it had become “the story behind the story” of the Genovese murder. Genovese’s killer, Winston Moseley, was sentenced to life in prison; he died March 28.
Murder victim Kitty Genovese
“My goals in writing the book were three,” she said. “Disabusing people that the story happened as originally reported, reinserting Kitty as a person into the story, and challenging the notion that people were apathetic.”t
Marcia Gallo will appear at Modern Times Bookstore Collective, 2919 24th Street, Sunday, October 2 at 4 p.m. and at the GLBT History Museum, 4127 Castro Street, Tuesday, October 4 at 7 p.m. The Modern Times event is free; the GLBT History Museum event is free for members, or $5 for non-members.
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