Brief Examinations
Reviewed by Dick Barbuto
Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences by Catherine Pelonero (Skyhorse Publishing, 2014)
2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the brutal murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese. The murder was brutal not only because of its savagery, but also because the killer, Winston Mosely, having failed in his first attempt to kill Kitty, came back a few minutes later to finish the job. If this wasn’t bad enough, perhaps as many as 38 witnesses either saw or heard parts of the two knife attacks by Mosely and did nothing.
The reviewer of this book, Dick Barbuto, is a past president of NYSACDL. He has practiced criminal law in multiple jurisdictions, both state and federal.
Catherine Pelonero pulls no punches in her book. The gravamen of the book, of course, has to do with the failure of some residents in Kew Gardens, Queens, to do anything to save Kitty, despite incontrovertible evidence that there was something horrible going on right outside their windows. The book is broken up into three parts, dealing with: (1) Kitty’s life, and that of Winston Mosely, as well as the murder and investigation of the crime; (2) the trial of Mosely, his conviction and escape and the subsequent court proceedings; and (3) the attempt at revisionist history concerning the apathy of so many people who refused to come to the aid of a fellow human being. Pelonero’s book is marked by first rate research, and is full of facts and quotes by many of the people involved in the case, including journalists, residents of Kew Gardens, those who investigated and tried the case, and of Mosely himself. The author put a great deal of work into her book and it shows.
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Atticus | Volume 27 Number 1 | Winter 2015 | New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers