Roseann Quinn
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Roseann M. Quinn (November 17, 1944 – January 2, 1973) was an American schoolteacher in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
who was stabbed to death in 1973 by a man she had met at a bar. Her murder inspired Judith Rossner's best-selling 1975 novel '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'', which was adapted into a 1977 film directed by
Richard Brooks Richard Brooks (born Reuben Sax; May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards in his career, he was best known for ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), '' ...
and starring
Diane Keaton Diane Keaton (née Hall; born January 5, 1946) is an American actress. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Diane Keaton, various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including an Academy Award, a Bri ...
, and the television film, '' Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer'', released in 1983. Quinn's murder also inspired the 1977 account '' Closing Time: The True Story of the "Goodbar" Murder'' by ''New York Times'' journalist Lacey Fosburgh. The case was the subject of a Season 3 episode 2 of Investigation Discovery's series '' A Crime to Remember'' in 2015 ("Last Night Stand").


Early life and education

Quinn was born in 1944 in the
Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
, to
Irish American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...
s John and Roseann Quinn. She had two brothers, John and Dennis, and a sister, Donna. When Quinn was 11 years old, her family moved to Mine Hill Township, near Dover, New Jersey; her father was an executive with
Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...
in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. When she was 13, Quinn spent a year in the hospital after a back operation (due to
scoliosis Scoliosis (: scolioses) is a condition in which a person's Vertebral column, spine has an irregular curve in the coronal plane. The curve is usually S- or C-shaped over three dimensions. In some, the degree of curve is stable, while in others ...
), which left her with a slight limp. Quinn attended Morris Catholic High School in Denville, New Jersey and graduated in 1962. Her yearbook said she was "Easy to meet ... nice to know." Quinn enrolled at Newark State College (now Kean University) where she majored in
elementary education Primary education is the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle schools, de ...
and graduated in 1966.Kaufman, Michael T. "Teacher, 28, Slain In Her Apartment On West 72d Street," ''The New York Times'', Friday, January 5, 1973.
Retrieved January 3, 2022
She was on the staff of ''Independent'', the college's student-run newspaper.


Later life

After graduating, Quinn moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and taught for three years in
Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...
. In September 1969, she began teaching at St. Joseph's School for the Deaf in the Bronx, where she taught a class of eight eight-year-olds. She frequently stayed after school on her own time to help the children, other teachers recalled. "The students loved her," a spokesman for the school later said. By May 1972, Quinn had moved into a
studio apartment A studio apartment, or studio Condominium, condo also known as a studio flat (United Kingdom, UK), self-contained apartment (Nigeria, Ghana), efficiency apartment, bed-sitter (Kenya), or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment, dwelling in ...
at 253 West 72nd Street in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. The building had been known as the Hotel West Pierre before being converted to apartments four years earlier. According to her acquaintances and neighbors, Quinn would sit by herself and read at bars on the West Side. Police Captain John M. McMahon later said "she was an affable, outgoing, friendly girl. Her friends were rather diverse. She knew teachers and artists and her circle of friends was a very large, interracial group ... She knew an awful lot of people." One friend who later spoke to the media said that Quinn had struck up a conversation with him by revealing that she had been reading his lips and following a conversation at the other end of the bar that she could not have heard. Quinn had been attending night courses at
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
, and by December 1972, had completed about half of the requirements for a
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in her specialty of teaching the deaf. Later that month, she attended the faculty Christmas party at St. Joseph's School and a party for the children the next day. Quinn reportedly developed a habit of "dating". Her next-door neighbor had previously heard screams coming from Quinn's apartment. One time, she intervened and saw a man dashing out of Quinn's apartment yelling obscenities. The neighbor found Quinn disheveled and bruised, with a black eye, sobbing.


Murder

On the evening of New Year's Day 1973, Quinn went across the street from her apartment to a bar named W.M. Tweeds, at 250 West 72nd Street, where she met John Wayne Wilson. Wilson's friend, Geary Guest, had left around 11:00 p.m., before Wilson met Quinn. Wilson and Quinn went to her studio apartment at 253 West 72nd Street on the 7th floor, where they smoked marijuana and attempted to have intercourse. As Wilson later told his attorney, he was unable to achieve an
erection An erection (clinically: penile erection or penile tumescence) is a Physiology, physiological phenomenon in which the penis becomes firm, engorged, and enlarged. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, ...
. He claimed that Quinn insulted him and demanded that he leave her apartment, and an argument ensued. After a struggle, Wilson picked up a knife and, according to his police statement, stabbed Quinn 18 times in the neck and abdomen. After the murder, Wilson covered Quinn's body with a bathrobe, showered, and left the apartment. Before leaving, he wiped his fingerprints off the murder weapon, the doorknobs and other surfaces that he had touched. Later that night, Wilson confessed the crime to Guest. Believing that Wilson was fabricating the story in order to get a plane ticket home, Guest gave him enough money to leave town. Wilson first flew to
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
to pick up his wife, Kathy, and they later flew to Indiana. Quinn's body was not discovered until the morning of January 3. The authorities at St. Joseph's School, alarmed that Quinn had neither called nor shown up for work in two days, sent a teacher to her apartment to check up on her. Amedio Gizzi, the building superintendent, let the teacher into the apartment where they found Quinn's body. A broom stick had been inserted in her vagina and seminal fluid was found, thus calling Wilson's account into question. Quinn's 25-year-old brother John later identified the body at the morgue.


Funeral

Quinn's wake was held at Bermingham Funeral Home at 249 S. Main Street, Wharton, New Jersey. Her funeral was held on January 6, 1973, at St. Mary's Church in Wharton, a mile from her family's home in Mine Hill. The funeral mass was led by Quinn's cousin, the Rev. John Waldron of St. Teresa of Avila Church in Brooklyn. She was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery, a quarter of a mile from the church.


Investigation and aftermath

In the days before DNA evidence, there was little to connect Quinn to her killer. No one at Tweeds knew the identity of the man with whom she had left, nor could they recall his appearance. The crime scene had been effectively sanitized. Desperate to crack a case that had been on the front pages for days, the
New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
(NYPD) released a police sketch that ran in several New York City newspapers on January 7, 1973. The sketch was not of the killer, but was that of Wilson's acquaintance Geary Guest. Guest was not sure whether Wilson had committed the murder until he saw Quinn's name in a newspaper article. Fearing that he might be charged as an
accessory after the fact An accessory is a person who assists, but does not actually participate, in the commission of a crime. The distinction between an accessory and a principal is a question of fact and degree: *The principal is the one whose acts or omissions, acc ...
, Guest first called his friend
Fred Ebb Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita ...
and Ebb's personal assistant, Gary Greenwood. Guest told Ebb and Greenwood that he could not tell them what had happened over the phone, but said that it was the worst thing with which anyone could be involved. He said he was going to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
to see them and then hung up. Guest arrived at Ebb's home in
Bel Air, Los Angeles Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Los Angeles Westside, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California. Together with Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills, Bel Air fo ...
, the next day and then told Ebb and Greenwood about Wilson and the murder. Guest said that he had been out with Wilson and had left early because he had to go to work in the morning. He said that when he woke up, Wilson had not returned to the apartment, and Guest became worried. Wilson subsequently arrived and confessed the murder to him, and Guest gave him money. Ebb called Guest's therapist, Hadassah, in New York; she said that she would contact an attorney and would call him back as soon as possible. Shortly thereafter, she and the attorney called back; the attorney advised Ebb to put Guest on the first plane back to New York City. He also advised Ebb and Greenwood not to say a word about what Guest had told them. In mid-March, Ebb and Greenwood flew to New York City. It took more than two weeks to convince Guest to talk to the police. Guest agonized over the fact that his information could send his friend Wilson to prison for life or to
death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...
. Guest's lawyer contacted the police and secured Guest's
immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity ...
in exchange for revealing Wilson's location. NYPD detectives Patrick Toomey and John Lafferty of the Fourth District Homicide Squad flew to Indiana, where, accompanied by Indianapolis Police Sgt. H. Greg Byrne, they arrested Wilson at his younger brother's apartment in downtown Indianapolis. Wilson was brought back to New York and was incarcerated in the Manhattan Detention Complex, known as
the Tombs The Tombs was the colloquial name for Manhattan Detention Complex (formerly the Bernard B. Kerik Complex during 2001–2006), a former municipal jail at 125 White Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was also the nickname for three prev ...
. After spending some weeks in the Tombs, Wilson was sent to Bellevue Hospital Center on April 19 to be tested for childhood
brain damage Brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage. A common ...
, which his attorney planned to claim as part of an insanity defense. Wilson stayed at Bellevue for several weeks, but the tests were never administered, and he was eventually returned to the Tombs. Although he had been diagnosed as suicidal, the cells for the suicide watch were full, so Wilson was placed in a regular cell on the fourth floor. In May, Wilson got into an argument with a prison guard and threatened to kill himself. The guard taunted him by asking if he wanted sheets to help him commit suicide and later threw bed sheets into his cell. Wilson used those sheets to hang himself on May 5, 1973. An investigation was held into the circumstances of Wilson's death, but no charges were ever filed.


In popular culture

The case has been depicted (or adapted) several times, including: * Judith Rossner's best-selling novel '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1975), which was adapted as a 1977 film of the same title directed by
Richard Brooks Richard Brooks (born Reuben Sax; May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards in his career, he was best known for ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), '' ...
and starring
Diane Keaton Diane Keaton (née Hall; born January 5, 1946) is an American actress. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Diane Keaton, various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including an Academy Award, a Bri ...
.
Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing ...
portrays Gary, the facsimile of Wilson (albeit whose name is similar to Geary). * Lacey Fosburgh's true-crime, "interpretive non-fiction" book, '' Closing Time: The True Story of the "Goodbar" Murder'' (1977). *'' Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer'' (airdate October 15, 1983), a fact-based CBS-TV movie semi-sequel to the 1977 film, starring
George Segal George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as '' Ship o ...
and
Shelley Hack Shelley Marie Hack (born July 6, 1947) is an American actress, model, producer, and political activist. She is best known as the face of Revlon's Charlie perfume from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s, and for her role as Tiffany Welles in ...
; the events mostly followed the storyline of the ''Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' film but otherwise claimed no connection with Rossner's novel. *A '' Carol Burnett Show'' sketch, "Is She Alone?" (Season 11, Episode 12, originally broadcast on December 11, 1977), starring Burnett, Rock Hudson, and Tim Conway, has Hudson unsuccessfully trying to pick up an unpredictable Burnett in a bar. Conway enters at the end of the sketch; upon being asked his name by Burnett, he replies, "Goodbar. You can just... yeah, call me Mr. Goodbar." Burnett's response, ending the piece, is: "I've been looking for you." *The ''Saturday Night Live'' Season 3 parody sketch "Looking for Mr. Goodbar Sleepytime Playset" (broadcast on March 11, 1978) features Gilda Radner as a little girl in a commercial for the playset and an announcer who explains that she will not win until she is killed. Radner then makes up her own rules of play and destroys the playset. *The music video for
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
's single " Bad Girl" (1993), loosely inspired by the book and film version of the case, features Madonna as a chain-smoking, heavy-drinking executive with a penchant for sexual encounters with random anonymous men, which ultimately leads to her being murdered by a young shady low-life who strangles her to death with her
pantyhose Pantyhose, sometimes also called sheer (textile), sheer tights, are close-fitting legwear covering the wearer's body from the waist to the toes. Pantyhose first appeared on store shelves in 1959 for the advertisement of new design panties (All ...
. *The '' Law and Order: SVU'' Season 2 episode " Secrets" (original airdate February 2, 2001) is based on the case. *The case is profiled in Episode 302 ("Last Night Stand") of the
Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries, similar to corporate sibling HLN. It is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's netw ...
docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...
television series '' A Crime to Remember'' (original airdate November 17, 2015).


See also

*
List of solved missing person cases Lists of solved missing person cases include: * List of solved missing person cases: pre-1950 * List of solved missing person cases: 1950–1999 * List of solved missing person cases: post-2000 See also

* List of kidnappings * List of murder ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Greenwood, Gary (1973). Personal friend of Geary Guest's and personal assistant of
Fred Ebb Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita ...
's. * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Roseann 1944 births 1970s missing person cases 1973 deaths 1973 murders in the United States American murder victims American people of Irish descent Crimes in Manhattan Deaths by stabbing in New York (state) Female murder victims Formerly missing American people History of women in New York City Incidents of violence against women Kean University alumni Missing person cases in New York (state) Morris Catholic High School alumni People from Mine Hill Township, New Jersey Educators from the Bronx People from the Upper West Side People murdered in New York City Rapes in the United States Schoolteachers from New York (state)