In the graphic novel "Watchmen", the mask that Rohrschach wears is made from Kitty's dress. When I was very young, my parents told me about Kitty and about the Boston Strangler. I was traumatized.
In the graphic novel "Watchmen", the mask that Rohrschach wears is made from Kitty's dress. When I was very young, my parents told me about Kitty and about the Boston Strangler. I was traumatized.
I grew up knowing about this story, but have seem some recent coverage of it. I am NOT trying to minimize this poor woman’s death. It is a tragedy and may she rest in peace. Rather, there is some evidence that the NYT’s coverage may not have been the complete story. We live in an age where the MSM outlets have become “push” propagandists, so I am on somewhat of a hair trigger on stories that come from the NYT, for example. Again, I am NOT trying to minimize Kitty Genovese’s death. Just saying that the whole “bystanders stood by and didn’t do anything” meme that has been DRILLED into us for decades may not be the entire story.
38 people did not look on and ignore her screams. There were two attacks and no single witness saw both. Both witness did intervene, but in incomplete ways.
In the first, the murderer ran off after a neighbor screamed at him. (But failed to call the police.) Genovese staggered into the doorwell of her apartment, having been stabbed in both lungs. She could not scream anymore. Then, having moved his car, the murderer came back and killed her. This time ONE drunk man saw the attack and got a neighbor to call the cops.
http://www.onthemedia.org/2009/mar/27/the-witnesses-that-didnt/transcript/
The story does not shock me because human nature seldom shocks me.
One day I was covering the post known as the "wire gate." It was a checkpoint for all inmates traveling from the main yard, to the admin building. They weren't allowed to pass unless they were workers, their names were on a call-out list for the building, or they were being escorted by an officer.
One day, an inmate approached the gate and showed me his card identifying him as a porter for the admin building. The inmate's name was Winston Moseley. I didn't immediately recognize the name, but his face looked familiar to me. I should tell you at this time, that I am a female, and since I worked the wire gate alot in those early days, I made sure I found out who the inmates were who passed through the area, and what they were doing time for. It didn't take long for me to put Moseley's name back together with the Genovese case, along with the interview I had seen so many years before.
Moseley was soft-spoken, and liked to talk to the females. I recall him being light skinned, and back then his hair was a light brown, and he wore it in an afro. He had a large freckle on one of his cheeks, below the eye. At this point, I can't remember which side it was on. One day on his way through the wire gate, he started talking to me. All officers had name tags with the initial of their first name, then their full last name. Moseley nonchalantly asked me what the initial "K" stood for. I told him it was none of his business. I wish now that I had told him "Kitty," although that isn't my first name. I would have liked to have seen his reaction.
Officers at Auburn related the following story to me about Moseley. Before Auburn, he had been incarcerated at Attica. While at Attica, he deliberately stuck a lightbulb up his rectum so that he would have to be taken to an outside hospital for surgery. As an in-patient, there was usually only one officer with a weapon guarding a maximum security inmate. The inmate was usually handcuffed and shackled. I don't know how he did it, but he overpowered the officer, took his weapon, and beat him up pretty badly. Moseley escaped the hospital, and I believe, he ended up breaking into a home, taking a husband and wife hostage. He repeatedly raped the woman in front of her husband. Every weekend, an older woman would come to visit him at Auburn. The officers who worked the visiting room said that it was the same woman he had raped during his escape.
I see Wikipedia has him being denied parole again last November. His next parole hearing is November 2013. I hope the bastard dies behind bars. He just turned 77.
Maybe it’s worse nowadays than it was in the 50’s, but this kind of apathy has been around much longer than 47 years. Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan.
“I do believe the monsignor has finally got the point....”