Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case

In a decade scarred by some of the worst tragedies in this country's history, March 13, 1964, stands apart from the other atrocities, not because of the identity of the victim—whose name was not Kennedy, King, or Malcolm—but because of the circumstances. Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old middle-class woman from Kew Gardens, Queens, whose murder was distinguished by the presence of thirty-eight witnesses who did nothing to stop the series of attacks that would claim her life.

Thirty years later the Kitty Genovese murder still presses us to ask a litany of questions: Why did these people fail to act? What does it say about the conditions of contemporary urban life? Would it happen today? First published over thirty years ago, Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains a social document that warrants close and repeated examination. The account of the story, as related by one of the best-known and most controversial newspaper professionals in the country, has the added dimension of being part memoir, part investigative journalism, and part public service. In an updated preface that incorporates the most recent developments in the case, A.M. Rosenthal examines why the murder of Kitty Genovese still has the power to shock in a world jaded by news of urban violence.