What A Novel Idea!!!!!!!!!!! Going To The Movies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       The murder of Kitty Genovese, on March 13, 1964, marked the start of my fascination with crime cases.  The stature of her slaying as urban legend will last long after those of us old enough to remember it are gone.

                                         So, my beloved and I just had to see the documentary, "The Witness."  It was harrowing in ways unexpected, and yet joyful, too.  I mean, when was the last time we had actually been to the movies?

                                            The joyfulness came from the footage of Kitty herself.  Her voice is never heard, but a picture is conveyed of a young woman struggling, and then finding herself as a person, In many ways, she was ahead of her time.

                                               I never knew Kitty was married for a time--four months, I believe.  Nor did I know she was the only girl in a family of three boys.

                                                One of those boys, Bill Genovese, haunted by this tragedy that continues to haunt his family--how could it not?-- was instrumental, with director James Solomon, in putting this film together.  While Kitty's tragedy is known to her siblings, it was kept from their eventual offspring.  The next generation had to discover it for itself.  I found this fascinating.

                                                   Kitty was a vivacious, friendly, familial, career girl type.  She ran a bar--a smart businesswoman, though she was arrested on a minor money violation.

                                                     I kept thinking how unfortunate her life had been cut down by that scum, Winston Moseley.  That if her nieces and nephews had known her, how much a benefit it would have been.  And what would Kitty have thought of the AIDS crisis and the Gay Rights Movement?  We would never know, because it was only the notoriety of her tragedy that made her known to us. But her family would have missed out.

                                                       I found it a moving tribute to a loving spirit that was unfortunately deprived of her chance to live the life she ought.

                                                         Where it gets harrowing is the climax--where a local actress, named Shannon Beeby to reenact the attack, playing Kitty, on the very spot it happened, while her brother watches in obvious torment as Miss Beeby offers up some bloodcurdling screams that may have been impossible to ignore.  The film also demythologizes the "38 Witnesses" story fabricated by the Times, but there is some truth to it. However, few knew about the saint that is her neighbor, Sophie, who comforted Kitty in her arms, while her husband called for help.  I believe Kitty died in Sophie's loving arms.

                                                             So, Kitty was helped. Maybe not enough to save her, but not everyone stood back and watched.

                                                               Based on just Miss Beeby's screams, it would have been impossible for me to do nothing.  But then I have yet to be tested.

                                                                 I urge you to see this documentary. And I hope it brings some kind of closure--any!!!!!!!--to Bill Genovese and his family.