murder of Kitty Genovese
1964 CE.
Shown on the map at 40.709°, -73.830°.
Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender, was raped and stabbed to death on March 13, 1964, outside the apartment building where she lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City, United States. Two weeks after the murder, The New York Times published an article claiming that thirty-seven witnesses saw or heard the attack, and that none of them called the police or came to her aid. However, subsequent investigations revealed that the extent of public apathy was exaggerated. While some neighbors heard her cries, many did not realize the severity of the situation. The incident prompted inquiries into what became known as the bystander effect, or "Genovese syndrome", and the lack of any urgent response by many of Genovese's neighbors became a topic reviewed in U.S. psychology textbooks for the next four decades. Researchers have since uncovered major inaccuracies in the Times article, and police interviews revealed that some witnesses had attempted to contact authorities.
Text from the Wikipedia article Murder of Kitty Genovese, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.