Thirty-Eight Witnesses

In a decade scarred by some of the worst tragedies in the history of the USA, 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 38 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? The account of the story, as related by one of the most controversial American newspaper professionals, has the added dimension of being part memoir, part investigative journalism, and part public service.