>> Entirely unmentioned in all the reports about Kitty Genovese and her murder at the time, and particularly about the Kew Gardens home she was desperately seeking to return to that night, was the fact that Kitty Genovese was a lesbian. And the home she was retunring to was the one she shared with her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko. In fact, Zielonko was at home that night asleep in their apartment, awaiting Genovese’s return; she was awoken later that morning by the police who informed her of the murder of her “roommate.” None of the voluminous coverage of the event made any reference to Genovese’s partner, who was forced to mourn, largely silently and invisibly, for her loss. Like many lesbians of this era, Kitty Genovese and Mary Ann Zielonko met in the Village — one of the few places at the time in New York, or anywhere, that lesbians and gay men had some opportunities to openly, or at least semi-opnely, meet and interact. According to Zielonko, not long after they met at a Village bar, she found a note taped to the door of her Upper West Side apartment door: ”WILL CALL YOU AT THE STREET CORNER PHONE BOOTH AT 7. –KITTY G.” They met up at a gay bar on Houston Street called Seven Steps. They soon fell in love and moved in together, finding the ill-fated apartment in Kew Gardens in 1963. All this was six years before the Stonewall Riots which for many Americans began the process of breaking open long, tightly-shut closet doors. The morning of the murder Zielonko was taken by the police to Queens County Hospital to identify Kitty’s body. She attended the funeral in New Canaan, Connecticut, but according to Zielonko, the family refused to acknowledge her; though they had known her and her close relationship to Kitty — or perhaps because of it –she says her calls and overtures to them over the years went without a response. It was not until decades after the murder, and all the commentary and cultural analysis that surrounded it, that Mary Ann Zielonko began to speak publicly about her relationship with Kitty, in a series of interviews, books, and even a play, “38 Witnessed Her Death, I Witnessed Her Love: The Lonely Secret of Mary Ann Zielonko (Kitty Genovese Story).” Kitty Genovese is buried in a family plot in Lakeview Cemetery in New Canaan, Connecticut. Winston Moseley remains in New York State Prison. Retired since 1997, Mary Ann Zielenko lives in West Rutland, Vt., with her partner of 3 1/2 years. And fifty years after one of the most infamous murders of the 20th century, Kitty Genovese’s legacy, and the story of what actually happened that night, continues to come into clearer focus.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 01:38:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015