Remembering A Day of Infamy

Recently, I was visiting E.C.M.C. Hospital and it brought my attention back to one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated in Buffalo. It’s a story only old timers will remember. On March 20, 1969, a convicted murderer by the name of Winston Mosley (34) set off one of the biggest manhunts in Buffalo history.

Mr. Mosley was already a well-known notorious figure for being convicted for the murder of a New York City woman named Kitty Genovese in 1964. (Google it). The case received nationwide media attention because Mosley had allegedly stabbed the woman to death in the courtyard of an apartment complex, and her cries for help were ignored by 35 witnesses; and allegedly no one called the police. The case was made out in the media to be an example of public apathy and indifference to crime Some attribute that case to the innovation of the 9-1-1 systems.

Mr. Mosley was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life in prison, where he was incarcerated at Attica State Prison outside of Buffalo. It was reported Mosley faked a medical problem and was sent to Meyer Memorial Hospital for treatment (now E.C.M.C. Hospital) in the DelavanGrider area. On his return to prison, somehow Mosley wrestled away from his lone guard and escaped into the neighborhood. The escape triggered a massive manhunt.

At that time, the Delavan Grider area was still a majority white community. It was later revealed Mosley had broken into a house on Dewey Avenue where he kidnapped and raped a Black housekeeper. From there, he apprehended a white Grand Island couple who were in town checking on their rental property on Dewey Avenue. Mosley forced the couple into their house where he burglarized it and found a gun. He then raped the wife and plotted a way to get out of the vicinity. He gagged and tied up the husband and left him in the the Dewey St. flat. He then kidnapped the wife, who drove him to the couple’s home on Grand Island.

Mosley then was able to kidnap two women and a 6- month-old baby as hostages. Somehow the police received a tip Mosley was holdup on Baseline Road on Grand Island with hostages An F.B.I negotiator was able to gain communication with Mosley. They had intense gun to gun negotiations with Mosley, who ultimately serenadered without incident; ending on March 22, 1969, the biggest manhunt in Buffalo history. Mosley was returned to Attica to serve out the rest of his life sentence. He died in 2016 at the age of 81 at Clinton Correctional facility.

In an interesting side note to this this case, the Erie County District Attorney at the time, Kevin Dillon, decided he wanted the Black housekeeper, who was robbed and raped by Mosley, charged with aiding and abetting Mosley because she didn’t immediately notify the police of the assault. She explained he had taken her identification and threatened to find her and kill her children if she called the police.

However, in an unprecedented act, the assistant D.A., Barbara Merriweather Sims, refused to obey her orders and refused to refer charges to the court, which caused the charges to be dismissed. Mrs. Sims, who was the only Black working in the District Attorney’s office, resigned in protest. Later that term, Mrs. Sims challenged Dillion in the Democratic primary for District Attorney.