Roseann Quinn (November 17, 1944 – January 2, 1973) was an American schoolteacher in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
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 as a 1977 film directed by
Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks (May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Oscars in his career, he was best known for ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), ''Cat on a ...
and starring
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton (''née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Glo ...
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, to Irish Americans 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
Dover is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. Located on the Rockaway River, Dover is about west of New York City and about west of Newark, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 18,157,
; her father was an executive with
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. When she was 13, Quinn spent a year in the hospital after a back operation (due to scoliosis), which left her with a slight limp.
Quinn attended
Morris Catholic High School
Morris Catholic High School is a four-year comprehensive Roman Catholic regional high school located in Denville Township, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. It was founded in 1957 and is part of the Diocese of Paterson. Morris Cat ...
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
An academic major is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits. A student who successfully completes all courses required for the major qualifies for an undergraduate degree. The word ''major'' (also called ''conce ...
in
elementary education
Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or fir ...
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 or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and taught for three years in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.St. Joseph's School for the Deaf in the Bronx, where she taught a class of eight eight-year-olds. She voluntarily stayed after school to help the children often, other teachers recalled. "The students loved her," a spokesman for the school later said.
By May 1972, Quinn had moved into a studio apartment at 253 West 72nd Street in Manhattan. 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, and by December 1972, had completed about half of the requirements for a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an 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 practice.
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 meeting men and taking them home. 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 St 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. 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 ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
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. 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
Wharton is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the borough's population was 6,522,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 New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
(NYPD) released a police sketch that ran in several New York City newspapers on Sunday, 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 in, 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, ...
, 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 Riv ...
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 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 Westside of Los Angeles, California, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Founded in 1923, it is the home of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the American Jewish Univers ...
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, as Guest agonized over the fact that his information could send his friend Wilson to prison for life or to death row. Guest's lawyer contacted the police and secured Guest's 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'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
.
After spending some weeks in the Tombs, Wilson was sent to
Bellevue Hospital Center
Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States b ...
on April 19 to be tested for childhood brain damage, 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.
Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks (May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Oscars in his career, he was best known for ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), ''Cat on a ...
and starring
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton (''née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Glo ...
Carol Burnett Show
''The Carol Burnett Show'' is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harve ...
'' sketch, "Is She Alone?" (Season 11, Episode 12, originally broadcast on December 11, 1977), starring Burnett,
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...
, and
Tim Conway
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway (December 15, 1933 – May 14, 2019) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. From 1966 to 2012 he appeared in more than 100 TV shows, TV series and films. Among his more notable roles, he portrayed the ...
, 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'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 shady low-life who strangles her to death with her
pantyhose
Pantyhose, called sheer tights, or tights, are close-fitting legwear covering the wearer's body from the waist to the toes. Mostly considered to be a garment for women and girls, pantyhose first appeared on store shelves in 1959 for the advert ...
.
*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 owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...
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*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 Riv ...