Murder Victim. She was the victim of a street murder which shocked the nation and made headlines due to the reported fear and apathy of 38 witnesses who allegedly stood by and didn't help or call the police while the crime was in progress.
She was a manager at a bar in Hollis, Queens, New York, and drove her red Fiat to her home in Kew Gardens, Queens, at 3:30 a.m. on March 13, 1964. As she approached her apartment house, she spotted a strange man standing along her route and sensed that something terrible was about to happen. The assailant overtook her and she screamed for help as he stabbed her. The man left and returned two more times during the brutal knife attacks. Somebody shouted out, "Let that girl alone," but no one came forward to assist her or call the police. When the police finally did arrive about 30 minutes after the fact, it was too late; she was already dead. The story shocked the police department and the nation.
The name Kitty Genovese would become symbolic in the public mind for a dark side of the national character. It would stand for Americans who were too indifferent or too frightened or too alienated or too self-absorbed to get involved in helping a fellow human being in dire trouble. A term "the Genovese syndrome" would be coined to describe the attitude of the people who refused to "get involved." The perpetrator was arrested a few weeks after the crime; he was convicted at trial and sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned by the New York State Court of Appeals on a technicality and commuted to life in prison. The reportage on her murder prompted creation of both 911 emergency services and Good Samaritan laws.
Over the decades since, various researchers have found inaccuracies in The New York Times article and in 2016 the Times stated that the original story "grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived."
She was a manager at a bar in Hollis, Queens, New York, and drove her red Fiat to her home in Kew Gardens, Queens, at 3:30 a.m. on March 13, 1964. As she approached her apartment house, she spotted a strange man standing along her route and sensed that something terrible was about to happen. The assailant overtook her and she screamed for help as he stabbed her. The man left and returned two more times during the brutal knife attacks. Somebody shouted out, "Let that girl alone," but no one came forward to assist her or call the police. When the police finally did arrive about 30 minutes after the fact, it was too late; she was already dead. The story shocked the police department and the nation.
The name Kitty Genovese would become symbolic in the public mind for a dark side of the national character. It would stand for Americans who were too indifferent or too frightened or too alienated or too self-absorbed to get involved in helping a fellow human being in dire trouble. A term "the Genovese syndrome" would be coined to describe the attitude of the people who refused to "get involved." The perpetrator was arrested a few weeks after the crime; he was convicted at trial and sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned by the New York State Court of Appeals on a technicality and commuted to life in prison. The reportage on her murder prompted creation of both 911 emergency services and Good Samaritan laws.
Over the decades since, various researchers have found inaccuracies in The New York Times article and in 2016 the Times stated that the original story "grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived."
Murder Victim. She was the victim of a street murder which shocked the nation and made headlines due to the reported fear and apathy of 38 witnesses who allegedly stood by and didn't help or call the police while the crime was in progress.
She was a manager at a bar in Hollis, Queens, New York, and drove her red Fiat to her home in Kew Gardens, Queens, at 3:30 a.m. on March 13, 1964. As she approached her apartment house, she spotted a strange man standing along her route and sensed that something terrible was about to happen. The assailant overtook her and she screamed for help as he stabbed her. The man left and returned two more times during the brutal knife attacks. Somebody shouted out, "Let that girl alone," but no one came forward to assist her or call the police. When the police finally did arrive about 30 minutes after the fact, it was too late; she was already dead. The story shocked the police department and the nation.
The name Kitty Genovese would become symbolic in the public mind for a dark side of the national character. It would stand for Americans who were too indifferent or too frightened or too alienated or too self-absorbed to get involved in helping a fellow human being in dire trouble. A term "the Genovese syndrome" would be coined to describe the attitude of the people who refused to "get involved." The perpetrator was arrested a few weeks after the crime; he was convicted at trial and sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned by the New York State Court of Appeals on a technicality and commuted to life in prison. The reportage on her murder prompted creation of both 911 emergency services and Good Samaritan laws.
Over the decades since, various researchers have found inaccuracies in The New York Times article and in 2016 the Times stated that the original story "grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived."
She was a manager at a bar in Hollis, Queens, New York, and drove her red Fiat to her home in Kew Gardens, Queens, at 3:30 a.m. on March 13, 1964. As she approached her apartment house, she spotted a strange man standing along her route and sensed that something terrible was about to happen. The assailant overtook her and she screamed for help as he stabbed her. The man left and returned two more times during the brutal knife attacks. Somebody shouted out, "Let that girl alone," but no one came forward to assist her or call the police. When the police finally did arrive about 30 minutes after the fact, it was too late; she was already dead. The story shocked the police department and the nation.
The name Kitty Genovese would become symbolic in the public mind for a dark side of the national character. It would stand for Americans who were too indifferent or too frightened or too alienated or too self-absorbed to get involved in helping a fellow human being in dire trouble. A term "the Genovese syndrome" would be coined to describe the attitude of the people who refused to "get involved." The perpetrator was arrested a few weeks after the crime; he was convicted at trial and sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned by the New York State Court of Appeals on a technicality and commuted to life in prison. The reportage on her murder prompted creation of both 911 emergency services and Good Samaritan laws.
Over the decades since, various researchers have found inaccuracies in The New York Times article and in 2016 the Times stated that the original story "grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived."
Bio by: Loren
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