Staff Picks: Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America

Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America
by Kevin Cook
2014

This book examines a murder that took place in Queens, New York in March of 1964. 

Kitty Genovese was murdered while returning home from work at around 3:00 AM. Although a particularly brutal murder, it may have gone relatively unnoticed except that the chief editor of the New York Times took seriously an off-hand comment from a police officer who said that there were "38 witnesses who did nothing." The editor made it headline news. 

Kevin Cook delves deeply into the police records of the time and discovers that there were in fact only six witnesses that the police tracked down, and only two who really saw what had happened. Unfortunately, they failed to act. One returned to bed and the other remained to watch, too fearful and drunk to call the police. 

Many myths surround the murder of Kitty Genovese. Some say that no one called the police during the attack. But in fact, between one and three phone calls were made. One witness, who did not speak English well, panicked when the police answered and hung up. At least one of the other phone calls was recorded and police responded but were too late.

Coming so soon after the assassination of JFK, this crime caught the conscience of a nation that felt collectively guilty about the death of their president, and enhanced the view of the time that the nation was sinking into an abyss of amoral apathy. The crime almost immediately inspired countless experiments by social psychologists, who saw their field of study finally get some recognition and publicity. To this day, Genovese's murder is discussed in social psychology textbooks all over the world.

What I particularly like about this book is that the author obviously has deep feelings of loss over the death of Kitty Genovese, wondering what she would have done with a life that held so much promise. This is not a book that sensationalizes horrible crime, but instead attempts to give some small measure of comfort to those who new Kitty Genovese.

364.152 Cook.K (new section)

Marian
Librarian
Martinsburg Public Library