The Witness is a 2015 American documentary directed by James D. Solomon. His directorial debut, it was produced by Solomon, with William Genovese as Executive Producer and co-produced by Melissa Jacobson. It is narrated by Genovese who investigates the killing of his sister, Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese, in Kew Gardens, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, on March 13, 1964,[1] by Winston Moseley.[2]
The name Kitty Genovese became synonymous with bystander apathy after The New York Times reported that 38 witnesses heard her being murdered — and did nothing to help. The Witness follows Genovese's brother Bill's search for the truth and ultimately debunks initial reports and long-held public opinion about the circumstances of Kitty Genovese's murder.
A segment of the documentary focuses on Kitty’s life, completely overshadowed by her death: her high school friends, her brief marriage, her job as a bar manager, her relationship with her partner, Maryann Zielonko. It also examines the effect the murder had on Kitty’s family. Too painful to remember, Kitty’s parents and brothers never discussed her, obscuring her life to her nieces and nephews. During the Vietnam War, averse to being an “apathetic bystander,” her brother Bill determined he, “wasn’t going to be like the 38 witnesses, so [he] enlisted in the Marines,” losing both his legs to battle wounds.
Plot
The Case
The lede of the New York Times story, written by Martin Gansberg, about the death of Kitty Genovese at about 2:30 am on March 13, 1964, in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York, was “absolutely riveting”:
“For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.”
According to William Genovese's documentary, most of the statement was inaccurate. The number of “witnesses” was disputable. With one or two exceptions, the witnesses awakened by the attack only heard screams and were not eyewitnesses. The people in the apartment building could not see Kitty for more than a couple of minutes, could not clearly see the attack in the dark, and then saw her stand up and stagger away, thinking they had seen a drunken brawl from the nearby bar. For most, that was the end of the attack. They had no sense Kitty was being “stalked.” There were two attacks, not three. When a few saw her attacker, Winston Moseley, return, they assumed Kitty had gone and was some place safe. They were unaware that Kitty had only staggered around the corner into an alley, then into a vestibule, behind a closed door, out of sight. They were unaware that the attacker later found Kitty in the vestibule, where he raped and killed her.
According to Journalist Jim Rasenberger: “If the story had been reported more accurately, it still would have been a two or three day—maybe a four-day story; but it would not have been a 50-year story. We would still not be talking about it today.”
According to Martin Gansburg, Editor of the New York Times, the story of “38 witnesses” who did nothing to help has become emblematic of “the bystander effect” that has become the subject of sociology books and articles.
Bill Genovese's Investigation
William (Bill) Genovese was 16 when his sister Kitty was murdered. For many years, Kitty’s family found it too painful to look into the facts of her death. Starting in March 2004, however, Bill began his own investigation into whether it was true that 38 witnesses failed to help his sister. With leads from prosecutor Charles Skoller, he obtained the police interviews and Moseley trial transcript, finding the witnesses or informants who were still alive. He released his documentary in 2015 with the following findings:
• Joseph Fink, night elevator operator seated in the lobby at the Mowbray building across the street, saw the attack and did nothing. He was the only one who was fully aware who failed to act.
• Karl Ross looked down a staircase and saw the second attack taking place. He called friends for advice on what to do before calling police to report the attack. The police call log only listed one call, from Karl Ross.
• Hattie Grund saw a woman screaming "help" standing in front of cleaners. She called the police who said they already got the calls. A police car was sent but did not see either Kitty or Moseley. Newspaper accounts did not report that Grund and others called the police.
Only 5 of the "38 witnesses" were called to the stand at the trial:
• Irene Frost heard screaming and saw a man and a woman across the street and heard Kitty scream “Please help me, God. Please help me. I’ve been stabbed." At the window, she saw Kitty kneeling down on the sidewalk and Moseley running away down the street.
• Robert Mozer saw Kitty kneeling at the bookstore, and a man bending over her. Mozer hollered “Hey, get out of there!” and Moseley jumped up and ran away.
• Andree Picq heard Mozer’s yell to Moseley then saw Moseley running away fast. She then saw Kitty get up slowly and scream “Help,” walking slowly toward the backstreet. Picq was still at the window a few minutes after Moseley came back, walking normally as if nothing happened. “Then he went down to the train station and then he came out again and left in the back and I could not see anything, but I heard the last two screams, ‘Help, help.’”
• Sophie Farrar lived next to Kitty’s apartment and was a friend. She was awakened by a loud scream. About 20 minutes later she received a phone call, possibly from Karl Ross, informing her that Kitty was in the hall bleeding. Sophie rushed to find Kitty in the hallway and held her as she died waiting for an ambulance. The newspaper account failed to report this.
According to defense attorney Robert Sparrow (as reported by his son), Moseley was bright and manipulative, with a 135 IQ. Moseley told the story of killing Kitty in a cold “conversational tone.” Moseley also confessed to the murder of Annie Mae Johnson, two weeks before Kitty. He shot Annie Mae four times as she was getting out of her car at night, then put her—still alive—in her house, raped her while her unknowing family members were upstairs, then set the house on fire. In 1964, Moseley was sentenced to death for the murder of Genovese, but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment on appeal. In 1968 Moseley escaped from prison and terrorized Buffalo over 4 days, breaking into houses, raping a woman at gunpoint, and taking hostages as the FBI closed in. In 1977 Moseley completed a sociology degree while in prison and claimed to be reformed.
Bill attempted to interview Winston Moseley, who refused to be interviewed, citing that “he was tired of being exploited.” Steven Moseley, a minister, said his father had told him that Kitty Genovese had hurled racial slurs at Moseley, who “snapped” and killed her. When Bill pointed out that Moseley had previously killed Annie Mae Johnson, who was African American, the story shifted. Steven Moseley stated that his falther claimed that Kitty’s family was connected to the Genovese crime family. Bill denied any connection. Winston Moseley sent Bill a letter with the “bizarre claim” that Moseley had been the unwitting getaway driver the night Kitty was killed, when “an Italian mobster named Dominick" had killed Kitty over an unpaid debt. Moseley claimed that he and his family were threatened by Dominick if he revealed the truth.
Bill Genovese concluded: “I’ve come to realize that the whole truth about Kitty’s death will never be known, but maybe that’s why the story continues to fascinate people…but I know she’d want me to move on.”
Cast
Kitty Genovese as herself (archive footage)
William Genovese as himself (brother of Kitty)
Sophia Farrar as herself (neighbour of Kitty)
Abe Rosenthal as himself
Mike Wallace as himself
Gabe Pressman as himself
Shannon Beeby as herself
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating for all critics, based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Witness can't hope to truly untangle the true crime case at its center, but offers a series of fascinating — and troubling — insights in the attempt."[4] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 79 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
Entertainment Weekly's, Joe McGovern also lauded the series saying, "The powerful thrust of the film comes from its critique of the media."[6] Justin Chang of LA Times lauded the film and said, "The strength of The Witness lies in its recognition that the truth is often not just elusive but unattainable."[7] Reviewing for RogerEbert.com film critic Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, "This is a powerful movie, but perhaps its greatest triumph is that for a brief time it resurrects Kitty Genovese, and lets us see her as a person"[8] Farran Smith Nehme of New York Post explained, "Solomon and Genovese remind us that all witnesses can be unreliable, in one way or another. The emotional impact comes from the gentle way the film reveals Kitty Genovese as a loving, vibrant person, and not as a symbol."[9]
Film critic Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal also reviewed the series positively saying, "The Witness is remarkable for its emotional impact, and its clarity. The picture that emerges isn’t perfectly clear; the whole truth will never be known, Bill Genovese says. What he has made known, though, is valuable."[10]Indiewire's critic, Kate Erbland said, ""Although The Witness functions just fine as a true crime documentary in the vein of such en vogue offerings as Serial and 'Making a Murderer, the film makes its mark when it leans in on the deeply personal connection between its subject and its storyteller."[11]The New York Times's Andy Webster praises the film and said, "A re-creation of the night, with an actress playing the screaming victim while Mr. Genovese observes, is harrowing."[12]The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck expressed,"Few films feel as cathartic as James Solomon's documentary The Witness."[13]
Pat Padua of The Washington Post positively reviewed the series and said, "The Witness makes an encouraging case for the argument that society is not as apathetic as we fear. But it also reveals a troubling phenomenon: our willingness to accept all that we are told as truth.[14] Writing for Variety, Nick Schager wrote, "The Witness functions as a project of not only confrontation but resurrection, as Bill's sleuthing sheds new light on Kitty’s personality, romances and career, and thus finally re-emphasizes her as a flesh-and-blood person rather than just a famous victim."[15] Moderately reviewing for The A.V. Club, A.A. Dowd said, "Perhaps because any real closure is impossible at this point, The Witness eventually embraces its own inconclusiveness, like some documentary cousin to "Zodiac."[16]
In the early hours of March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender, was raped and stabbed outside the apartment building where she lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. Two weeks after the murder, The New York Times published an article erroneously claiming that 38 witnesses saw or heard the attack, and that none of them called the police or came to her aid.
The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in presence of other people. First proposed in 1964 after the murder of Kitty Genovese, much research, mostly in psychology research laboratories, has focused on increasingly varied factors, such as the number of bystanders, ambiguity, group cohesiveness, and diffusion of responsibility that reinforces mutual denial. If a single individual is asked to complete the task alone, the sense of responsibility will be strong, and there will be a positive response; however, if a group is required to complete the task together, each individual in the group will have a weak sense of responsibility, and will often shrink back in the face of difficulties or responsibilities. The theory was prompted by the murder of Kitty Genovese about which it was wrongly reported that 38 bystanders watched passively.
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