On January 3, 1973, a young woman was found stabbed 14 times in a cluttered studio apartment at 253 West 72nd Street.
Her name was Roseann Quinn, a 28-year-old special-ed teacher.
It was a tabloid-ready slaying for the singles bar era: Quinn was reported to be a regular at the singles bars along a slightly seedy West 72nd Street.
Patrons at one bar supposedly said she often sat alone there and read—and sometimes picked up men.
After few weeks, cops arrested John Wayne Wilson. He was accused of going back to Quinn’s place with her after meeting at a bar called W.M. Tweeds, then killing her a few hours later.
Wilson was never tried; he committed suicide in jail six months later.
Quinn’s murder became the inspiration for the book and movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar as well as an emblem of the 1970s singles scene in a much more rough-around-the-edges New York.
Tags: 253 West 72nd Street, 72nd Street Upper West Side, John Wayne Wilson, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, New York in the 1970s, Roseann Quinn, singles bars New York, W.M. Tweeds
