Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case (Melville House Classic Journalism)

"The most important book by perhaps the most important newspaper editor of the last half century."-Gay Talese

"Abe Rosenthal told a stunning, tragic story and called each one of us to account for averting our eyes-and hearts-and voices."-Mike Wallace

"A memorable book that needs to be available to anyone who struggles to live an honorable life."-Robert Coles

It's one of the most oft-cited murders in US history: Thirty-eight people in Queens, New York, watched from their windows as twenty-eight-year-old Kitty Genovese was chased by a madman with a knife up and down their respectable, middle-class street, screaming for help while she was attacked, again and again, until she was dead. The murder took over half an hour. Not one of the thirty-eight witnesses did a thing to help her.

Legendary newsman Abe Rosenthal was metro editor of TheNew York Times then, and the murder occurred on his beat.

Thirty years after its first publication, his Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains the only book on the subject, as well as the only book ever written by the great journalist. It is part memoir, part investigative journalism, and part public service.

A.M. Rosenthal was, for many years, the executive editor of The New York Times, deciding to run the Pentagon Papers, among other notable stories. Before that, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his journalism. He died in 2005.