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37 reviews for:
Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences
Catherine Pelonero
3.68 AVERAGE
37 reviews for:
Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences
Catherine Pelonero
3.68 AVERAGE
Thirty-eight witnesses. Thirty-five minutes.
I studied Kitty’s horrific murder and death in a psychology class in college.
This is the first time I’ve been able to find anything with clear and consistent details of what happened and a human story of who Kitty was before her violent death.
This has always haunted me.
I will never be the one to sit silently by watching or listening to something awful happen to someone around me with apathy or indifference. I will call the police. I will be someone who stands up.
I studied Kitty’s horrific murder and death in a psychology class in college.
This is the first time I’ve been able to find anything with clear and consistent details of what happened and a human story of who Kitty was before her violent death.
This has always haunted me.
I will never be the one to sit silently by watching or listening to something awful happen to someone around me with apathy or indifference. I will call the police. I will be someone who stands up.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
Catherine Susan Genovese, also known as Kitty, was born in 1935 to Italian American parents in Brooklyn, New York. Kitty was briefly married, but that marriage was annulled due to her sexuality. She worked several jobs, with her last job being a bartender. (She was even once arrested for bookmaking, because she took bets from customers on horse races. This is part of the reason people think she had ties to the Mafia, as well as her last name being Genovese.) In the wee morning hours of March 13, 1964, Kitty was followed home to the apartment she shared with her girlfriend by a man. He accosted her with a knife as she was going into her apartment. I won't ruin the book with more details about her attack and death, but it is a fact that her last moments on earth were horrifying.
This book is currently free to listen to on Audible Plus, and it wasn't very long. I listened to most of it while I was folding laundry and cleaning up the kitchen. This book cleared up a lot of misinformation that I had about this case. I, like many others, thought she was in with the Mafia. There was also a thing going around that there were dozens of witnesses who did nothing to help her, which wasn't entirely true at all. I thought this shed some light on the "bystander effect" where it is posited that people are less likely to help someone if there are other people present. It's a very bizarre concept to me, and this book was enlightening in that aspect. This was a well written book, as well as interesting. If you are looking for a fairly short true crime listen, look into this one.
This book is currently free to listen to on Audible Plus, and it wasn't very long. I listened to most of it while I was folding laundry and cleaning up the kitchen. This book cleared up a lot of misinformation that I had about this case. I, like many others, thought she was in with the Mafia. There was also a thing going around that there were dozens of witnesses who did nothing to help her, which wasn't entirely true at all. I thought this shed some light on the "bystander effect" where it is posited that people are less likely to help someone if there are other people present. It's a very bizarre concept to me, and this book was enlightening in that aspect. This was a well written book, as well as interesting. If you are looking for a fairly short true crime listen, look into this one.
Despite some repetitiveness, I found this book compelling throughout. The story of Kitty Genovese is truly horrific and gut wrenching. I appreciated the author’s effort to elucidate who Kitty was as a living breathing person who loved and planned for her future before she met her tragic end. It’s hard not to be angry at the Kew Gardens residents who failed her, but in all honesty, what would I or you have done? There’s no way to know. Her killer chills me to the bone with his calm demeanor and malicious intelligence. The story of his prison escape and attempts to have his case retried was fascinating and gave a welcome jolt to the end of this book. As I closed the book tonight, my heart ached for poor Kitty.
A fascinating story, packaged in a book that could’ve been half the length. The first half took me a day and the second half took me an entire week. I wish I had DNF’d.
As others have said, the book gets so repetitive. There is an entire section in the middle that walks through the court proceedings in excruciating detail. There were times where I felt like it would have been more effective for the author to just blockquote the entire court document.
As others have said, the book gets so repetitive. There is an entire section in the middle that walks through the court proceedings in excruciating detail. There were times where I felt like it would have been more effective for the author to just blockquote the entire court document.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Definitely recommending the audio version of this book! Incredibly detailed and throughly researched, Pelonero captures not only who Kitty Genovese was, but also that of her neighborhood and the man who killed her. The writing is a little clunky and repetitive in parts, but the narration made it less noticeable (I also listened at 2x speed). I knew a lot about Kitty prior to this bookn but I had little knowledge of the police investigation and the man who committed the crime.