***** Trigger Warning ****
March 13th marked the 50th anniversary of the murder and rape of Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old lesbian bartender from Queens, New York.
Genovese is one of America’s most famous murder victims because 37 of her neighbors allegedly listened to her screams for help as she was being raped and stabbed to death by Winston Moseley and did nothing.
Her murder was deemed emblematic of urban apathy and the New York Times headlined the story with, "37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call Police."
The NYT's headline and story was later proven to be incorrect. Depending on which source you use, the number of people who were aware there was a problem in the street outside there apartments drops dramatically.
Those who did hear her screams for help still were unaware of the attack per se. Some thought it was a lovers quarrel, a woman who was beaten up, or rowdy people leaving a bar.
One of her neighbors did shout out the window for the man to leave her alone, which initially scared off the attacker. Several called the police station. Back then, one had to call the station directly and talk with a desk sargent, who was responsible for determining if police assistance was needed. It is unclear why the police did not respond to the first round of calls.
The attacker, Winston Moseley, who had been cruising the area "looking for a woman to kill", came back to the scene. By then, Genovese had moved herself into the alley way leading to her apartment. She was hidden from the neighbors when Moseley returned to stab her again and sexually assault her.
The attacks spanned a half hour.
The police were called again. When they responded, Kitty was still alive in the arms of her neighbor named Sophia Farrar, who had courageously left her apartment to go to the crime scene, even though she had no way of knowing that [Mosely] had fled.
This case was supposedly responsible for the development of the 911 system which was implemented in 1968.
It was also responsible for the development of the Genovese syndrome or the bystander affect/apathy, a a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. Several variables help to explain why the bystander effect occurs. These variables include: ambiguity, cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility.
Fascinating shit. Check it out.
In addition, this case was supposedly the impetus for neighborhood watch programs.
Wikipedia provided the best, least bias account of the events I could find.