The Witness Page #8

Synopsis: Bill Genovese's decade-long journey to unravel the truth about the mythic death and little-known life of his sister, Kitty, who was reportedly stabbed in front of 38 witnesses and became the face of urban apathy. THE WITNESS begins in 2004 when The Times questions its original story: the number of witnesses, what they observed, the number of attacks. None was more affected by the story than Bill. He vowed not to be like the 38, volunteered for Vietnam, and lost both legs. What if Kitty's mythic story is an urban myth? Breaking his family's half-century of silence, Bill seeks to find the truth confronting the witnesses, the killer, their families and his own. THE WITNESS is about bearing witness, loss and forgiveness, and what we owe each other.
Director(s): James D. Solomon
  1 win & 5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Metacritic:
79
Year:
2015
89 min
599 Views


a better term, a monster.

50 years ago.

50 years ago, but my

concern is, where is he now?

Only thing I know

is from what he's told me.

You know?

He said he just snapped out.

Because there was some racial

tensions going on back then.

And your sister was using a lot

of racial slurs at him and

he just lost it.

That's what he told me.

- Mm-hmm.

- So I, I don't know.

Do you, do you realize

he killed another woman?

I.. That's something

that I'm not real

uh, you know, sure of...

And the other, the other

woman was African-American.

Okay, well, maybe he did

do that. I don't know, you know?

- Yeah.

- Uh, that's something we never discuss.

Um, I can only imagine

how you feel.

I don't know,

but I can imagine.

- Right.

- You took a loss, your family took a loss.

And my family took a loss.

You know, it affected everybody.

My brother and I, we... we

went through school with

uh, ridicule.

Uh, people, you know, they used

to pick with us and call us

children of a murderer

and all this.

So, what happened to your sister

changed my form

of thinking also...you know.

And I wanted to be

the good guy

and try to fix

the badness in the world.

Now, you know, um,

let me just say this here..

I, I was kind of..

...apprehensive about

talking to you.

From what I've understood

there was a Genovese

crime family.

Are you related to the crime

family of the Genovese?

No, not at all.

I've always, uh, been told

that, that it had been

the, the crime family that was

you know, that Kitty was from.

Steven, between you and me

it's not true.

Everybody in my family

says to me you know

"You' re crazy, you shouldn't go

there. You may not come back"

Ha.

I said, "I'm not,

I'm not afraid to die."

I said, "If it's my time

to die, I'm ready to go."

So you're not only

cordial for coming here

but you're courageous

for coming here.

Yeah, uh...

I know that, uh..

...at some point

in a person's life

they have to move on,

you know, and, and

then you'll have some peace

of mind about it, you know?

And, you know,

hopefully, you know

we can put everything that's

happened behind us and move on.

About a month after

talking with Steven Moseley

his father Winston

sent a letter.

He described in detail

a bizarre version

of what happened the night

of Kitty's murder.

According to him,

he was nothing more than the getaway driver

for the true killer.

An Italian mobster

named Dominic.

"At that point,

Dominic ran at the woman and I thought

"I was seeing him hitting her

"in her back with his fist.

I didn't know he had a knife.

\x22Why? " I asked.

\x22She owed me" was all he said.

"He said to me

in a very menacing way quote

\x22Not a word about tonight

to anyone.

\x22If you ever mention my name

\x22if you talk, you'll be sorry.

Your family will pay.\x22

And then it's

simply signed Winston Moseley.

Incredible.

- It's so delusional.

- Yeah.

It's kind of like, uh,

the human condition.

One believes their own bullshit

in evolving stories.

Amazing. 50 years

and he's come up with this.

Yeah.

It's hard to let go when you

can never know the whole truth.

I'll never be able

to put myself

in the place of the neighbors.

Welcome to our home.

This is the bedroom.

- Hello.

- Hi.

The one in the bedroom

looks directly down

at the parking lot.

And I can never really know

what it was like

for Kitty that night.

What thoughts

went through her mind.

Only once in 50 years

have I come close

to understanding.

It was July, 1967.

I was on patrol

near an enemy village.

Lying in the middle of that

paddy, I was completely alone.

I thought of Kitty.

What was it like for her

when she realized

no one was going to save her?

But Marines

carried me to safety

and I lived

to tell the story.

Whatever possessed you to go running

off into the paddy like that?

- I'm a marine.

- How do you mean?

I'm a marine.

I'll take care of 'em.

After 50 years,

I felt there was one more thing I had to do.

- Hi, how are you?

- Good. How are you?

- I'm Shannon.

- Pleased to meet you, Shannon.

- Nice to meet you.

- Beeby?

Yes.

- Hello.

- Michael?

- Yes.

- It's Bill Genovese.

I'm here with a woman

named Shannon Beeby

and she is going

to act out the

vocalizations here

on the street.

So of course the only person

we really have..

...is yourself,

who can give us a... an idea

of how loud was it

in your apartment.

The scream was so loud

that it woke me up

from a dead sleep.

I've never heard anything

in my life that loud.

Help me!

Help me!

Oh, my God, please help me.

Please, help me!

Help me!

Help me!

Oh, God..

Help!

Thank you.

Bill, how you doing?

How's everything?

- Good.

- Good to see you.

This is unbelievable.

I know.

She was my friend

and I knew she was hurt.

She was my friend

and I knew she was hurt.

And I..

And she needed help.

That was... that was my reason

for flying down those stairs.

And then when I came in

I'll never forget the black..

It kills me

when I think about it.

It kills me

when I think about it.

The black leather gloves

and all cuts

all through the gloves

on her both hands.

I only hope

that she knew it was me.

That she wasn't alone.

This is the youngest, Frank

This is the youngest, Frank

and this is the oldest, Vin.

So it was Kitty, Vin, Susan

Bill and then Frank.

This is our granddaughter.

- Oh, she's beautiful.

I've come to realize

that the whole truth

about Kitty's death

will never be known.

But maybe that's why the story

continues to fascinate people.

But maybe that's why the story

continues to fascinate people.

You really only

had to know one thing

to appreciate how

misleading that lead was.

And if nothing else,

it got us

to think about

what we owe each other.

To not only be vigilant

but to get involved

and to help in

any capacity that we can.

50 years after Kitty's death,

I still miss her.

I wish she had the chance to

know her nieces and nephews.

I wish she had the chance to

know her nieces and nephews.

To meet her grand-niece

who's named after her.

But this journey

has taught me and my family

more about Kitty than

we ever thought we'd know.

For some reason or other,

she really took

a- a liking to Billy,

more than me.

Although I remember,

one time

I didn't eat

my spaghetti and she

dumped the spaghetti

on my head.

- Yes! Really?

- Yeah.

Kitty taught me to never

stop asking questions.

Kitty taught me to never

stop asking questions.

But I know

she'd want me to move on.

God is in the roses

The petals and the thorns

Storms out on the oceans

Storms out on the oceans

The souls who will be born

And every drop

of rain that falls

Falls for those who mourn

God is in the roses

And the thorns

The sun is on the cemetery

The sun is on the cemetery

Leaves are on the stones

There never

was a place on Earth

That felt so much like home

We're falling like

the velvet petals

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

William Genovese

William Genovese is a former greyhat hacker turned security professional, who goes by the alias illwill. more…

All William Genovese scripts | William Genovese Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "The Witness" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_witness_21665>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    The Witness

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.


    Quiz

    Are you a screenwriting master?

    »
    What is the primary purpose of the inciting incident in a screenplay?
    A To set the story in motion and disrupt the protagonist's life
    B To introduce the main characte
    C To provide background information
    D To establish the setting