A Teacher Met a Stranger at a Singles Bar on New Year’s Eve. Her Murder Became the Basis for a Diane Keaton Film

On Dec. 31, 1972, partygoers flooded a singles bar known as W.M. Tweeds on New York City’s Upper West Side to ring in the New Year. One of those single people was Roseann Quinn, a 28-year-old teacher and New Jersey native who lived in a studio apartment across the street, the New York Times reported.

There, Quinn met a man named John Wayne Wilson. Later that night, the two left the bar and wound up at Quinn’s apartment, where authorities said he beat and fatally stabbed Quinn during a sexual encounter, according to the New York Daily News. Wilson fled the scene and Quinn’s body wasn’t found until days later, on Jan. 3, 1973, when a concerned colleague went to her home.

Quinn’s naked body was found sprawled out on her bed with a 65-lb statue of a woman left on her face, which had been beaten, the Daily News reported. A medical examiner determined she had about 18 stab wounds, per the outlet.

According to the Times, police said she had also been sexually mutilated and that an argument may have led to her killing. 

Quinn’s death was a shock to those who knew her. She was described by colleagues as a friendly teacher who loved her students at the St. Joseph’s School for Deaf Children in the Bronx, the Daily News reported. Neighbors said Quinn “was very nice and quiet and shy. She wore skirts and blouses, not this hippy stuff,” per the outlet.

After tracing Quinn’s last moments, investigators tracked down 23-year-old Wilson at his brother’s home in Indianapolis, Ind., less than five days after the discovery of the victim’s body, the Daily News reported. Months prior to Quinn’s killing, Wilson had escaped a Miami prison and he was deemed a fugitive, per the outlet. (His exact criminal history is unclear.)

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Wilson was then brought back to New York, where he was by then facing murder charges in connection with Quinn’s death. However, in May 1973, Wilson died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, the Times reported.

The murder case became the inspiration for Judith Rossner’s 1975 novel Looking for Mr. Goodbar, which chronicles the life of teacher Theresa Dunn, who seeks out a series of sexual encounters and frequents singles bars before being killed by a man she brings back home.

Newsweek described the book as a “hard, fast, frightening read” while the New York Times Magazine called it “a complex and chilling portrait of a woman’s descent into hell.”

The book was also the basis for the 1977 film of the same name starring Diane Keaton as Theresa Dunn, which was directed by Richard Brooks. Richard Gere also starred in the movie.

According to IMDb, the film made $22.5 million at the box office. It also earned Keaton a Golden Globe nomination for best performance by an actress in a drama film.