Neighborhood News
COMPILED BY LIZ GOFF

No Parole For Kitty Genovese Killer

The man who knifed Kitty Genovese to death more than four decades ago was denied parole for the 13th time last week.

Winston Moseley stalked and viciously attacked the Kew Gardens woman in the early morning hours of Mar. 13, 1962, as Genovese returned home from her job as a barmaid. The brutal slaying drew national attention to the Queens community, where 38 neighbors told police they heard the woman's cries and did nothing to help her.

One woman admitted to police that she climbed over the roof of her Austin Street apartment building to reach a friend's apartment, where she made a call to police almost 20 minutes after the murder.

Moseley, now 72, was initially sentenced to death for the murder. That sentence was reduced to 20-years-to-life. Moseley escaped from a Buffalo hospital after his conviction and went on a two-day crime spree, during which he holed up in the home of an upstate couple raping a woman while forcing her husband to look on. Moseley infuriated Queens law enforcement officials and the Genovese family in the mid-1990s by asking for a new trial, based on the victim's alleged mob affiliations and his belief that his attorney failed to properly represent him during his initial trial. The request was later denied.

Last week's parole board rejection will keep Moseley behind bars for an additional two years. Based on the ruling, he is not eligible again for parole until 2010.

Who Trashed Books?

Angry staffers and parents of students at I.S. 73 in Maspeth want to know why dozens of "likenew" books were tossed in the trash outside the school on March 14 and who trashed them.

School staff and parents asked the questions after they spotted the hardcover books on Friday morning, breaking through plastic bags, dumped in a container outside the school. The classic books, Kidnapped, Little Women, and Treasure Island appeared just slightly used, raising eyebrows among parents who wondered why they were trashed rather than donated to libraries or non-profit afterschool programs.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education (DOE) said school officials were forced to clear a book room at I.S. 73 due to a mold problem. The spokesperson said the books would not qualify for donation if they were stored in that room and that the matter is currently under review by DOE investigators.

Eye Queens Sites To Replace Javits Center

State officials who killed a plan to expand Manhattan's Jacob Javits Convention Center are eyeing three Queens locations for development of a mega-convention center.

The sites include the 150-acre Sunnyside rail yards in Long Island City, a 60-acre site in the Willets Point industrial area and the 192-acre Aqueduct Race Track all chosen for their low price tags and easy access to mass transportation, bridges and highways.