lyr/Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY

Subject: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 08:51 PM

There was a song about the true murder of a woman in the NY streets where everyone just watched and now once call the police for her. Anybody know the name of the song and the group that sang it.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 08:54 PM

this 'un?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: Peace
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 08:56 PM

Kitty Genovese:
"A Cry in the Night," the famous murder of a lovely young woman in New York City. Thirty-seven people witnessed it and did not want to get involved. Detective Mark Gado examines the mind set of these silent witnesses and the serial murderer responsible for Kitty's death.

Place to start.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: Peace
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 08:59 PM

NB "A Cry in the Night" is a book title.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 09:34 PM

The first verse of the Phil Ochs song, Small Circle of Friends,
is about this event.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: open mike
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 09:47 PM

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4548
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5406
Phil Och's Small Circle is in the DT twice..

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 05:40 PM

And, the Award-winning short story by Harlan Ellison, The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs, is losely based on this murder. Not for the squeamish.

Odd fact... I was coming INTO the world as Kitty Genovese was leaving it. I was born in NY at just about the same time that she was being killed. I didn't realize this until a few years ago when I had the opportunity to write something about the Genovese Case and how it has been largly forgotton by New Yorkers. I mentioned it to my father, who was a cop, and asked him if he knew that and he did. One could hardly have missed that fact, apparently. How I did for so long is a mystery.

Even now, she is really mostly just a name to most people. The details fo her life have never really been covered in any depth. Her death and the circumstances around it became a symbol of what was wrong with society, but this all happened before the current trend of trying to make saints out of victims. Perhaps she was spared having her life raked over the coals for entertainment value. Whatever the case, the manner of her death was appallingly cruel.

Speaking of appallingly cruel deaths, isn't there a song about Lisa Steinberg? Did you all know that Jpel Steinberg is free from jail? yep. He got out not long ago - last year some time.

Subject: RE: Outside of a Small Circle of Friends
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 05:49 PM

This might be the tune you are talking about:
(I think this was linked to earlier, I'm just adding this bit)

The Dying Girl that No One Helped

In the 1960s, folksinger Phil Ochs wrote a song called �Outside of a Small Circle of Friends� with these lyrics:

'O look outside the window
There's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes
And now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun
I�d hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn�t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends�

The lyrics were a reminder of the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964, an incident that began a national debate about the responsibility of the average citizen to come to the aid of people in danger. A young woman was brutally murdered in a New York residential area while at least 38 people watched. Ever since, professional students of human behavior and amateurs alike have attempted to explain why no one was willing to become involved. In this selection, Loudon Wainwright briefly records the feelings of some of those who saw Kitty Genovese killed.




For More on the Subject go Here: The Dying Girl No One Helped

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Apr 05 - 10:53 PM

Chords and discussion, as werll as words, in thread 4237: Small Circle

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 22 Apr 05 - 02:01 AM

That thread is very good but it gives two conflicting dates for the murder of Kitty Genovese. It was March 13th 1964. The day I was born.

Can anyone recommend a good recording(s) of this song? Since I have an odd tie to this event, it might be nice to have a copy of it.

The perverse thing is that I was fascinated by the case ever since I was a kid and never made the connection that my birth took place during her death until only a few years ago. How I could have missed that, I have no idea. I suppose it always stuck with me because once was I was ten and riding the subway with some family members, we saw one man stab a commuter with nobody lifting a finger to help. That need to feel removed from violence was evident. Later that evening, the adults brought up the Genovese case.

There was a book published about it but it was only a cursory examination of the case. I was out of print for a long time; I don't know that a new edition has ever been made available.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 22 Apr 05 - 02:54 PM

I found some very interesting links regarding this case.

I had wanted to see a photo of Kitty Geneovese and found one as part of this article:

Why Did Kitty Genovese Have To Die - The Objectivism Center

The book on the case is back in print and you can read about it HERE:
Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case by A.M. Rosenthal


For some very detailed photos of where this happened, got to the link below, but be warned - the article is a lengthy piece of Apologia which seeks to explain and excuse the actions of all the witnesses, the Police and anyone else that might have made a difference in the way things played out. These argumenets have all been made before but not usually in one place. The writer has some valid points but it goes on for sooooo loooong and some of the excuses are a bit tortured and tweaked. Still, nothing beats the detail of the photos and the horrific blow by blow of what happened.
The Picture History of Kew Gardens - Kitty Genovese


And finally.. a brief summary of what really happened:


How did Kitty Genovese Die?

At 3:15 A.M., on the night of March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese was returning home from her job as manager of Ev's 11th Hour, a bar in the Hollis section of Queens. Her apartment was in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, a cheerful place with private homes, apartment houses, and neighborhood stores. Like many in the area, Genovese parked her car in a lot adjacent to the Long Island Railroad Station. Although the railroad frowned on the practice, this had been her routine since arriving from Connecticut a year earlier.

Genovese locked her car and began the 100-foot walk to her apartment building, little realizing that she had been spotted leaving the bar and followed. Soon, though, she noticed a man at the far end of the parking lot, she changed direction, heading toward a call box for the 102d police precinct. But she got only as far as a street light when the man grabbed her. "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!" Genovese screamed. Lights went on in a nearby 10-story apartment house and somebody yelled "Let that girl alone!" The assailant walked to a car and drove off. Genovese struggled to her feet. The apartment building's lights went out.

Then the assailant came back and stabbed Genovese again. "I'm dying" Genovese shrieked. "I'm dying!" Again, lights went on. Again, the assailant went to his car and drove away. Again, Genovese struggled to her feet.

Again, the assailant returned. By then, Genovese had crawled to the back of her apartment building. (Because the building has retail stores on the first floor, the entrance to the apartments were in the rear.) The assailant saw Genovese on the floor, at the foot of the stairs. He stabbed her a third time. And Kitty Genovese died. Finally, at 3:50 A.M., the police received a phone call from a neighbor of Genovese's . In two minutes they were on the scene.

Six days later, Winston Moseley was arrested for the murder of Kitty Genovese; in June he was convicted and sentenced to death. Bit in 1967, the state's Court of Appeals reduced Moseley's sentence to life imprisonment. As a result, Moseley lived to see an opportunity to escape, which he took, seizing five hostages and raping one before being recaptured.

At his 1984 parole hearing, Moseley announced that he had written to Genovese's relatives and apologized for the "inconvenience" he had caused them. Parole was denied. In 1995, Moseley (now 60) sought a new trial and won a hearing before a federal court. In the end, though, that request was also denied. He lives on as a prisoner in Comstock, N.Y. Summary written by Roger Donway

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Murder in NY in the 60's
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 09:47 AM

There are two copies in DigiTrad: OUTSIDE OF A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS (the correct title) and SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

You can find a discussion, as well as lyrics with chords, in the Forum here: Circle of Friends by Phil Ochs.

It was recorded by Phil Ochs and by Dave Van Ronk.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 60 or 70 song about the murder in NY
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 08:24 PM

Up for original poster