A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist’s groundbreaking account of the crime that shocked New York City—and the world
In the early hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight-year-old Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was stabbed to death in the middle-class neighborhood of Kew Gardens, Queens. The attack lasted for more than a half hour—enough time for Genovese’s assailant to move his car and change hats before returning to rape and kill her just a few steps from her front door.
Yet it was not the brutality of the murder that made it international news. It was a chilling detail Police Commissioner Michael Joseph Murphy shared with A. M. Rosenthal of the New York Times : Thirty-eight of Genovese’s neighbors witnessed the assault—and none called for help.
To Rosenthal, who had recently returned to New York after spending a decade overseas and would become the Times ’s longest-serving executive editor, that startling statistic spoke volumes about both the turbulence of the 1960s and the enduring mysteries of human nature. His impassioned coverage of the case sparked a firestorm of public indignation and led to the development of the psychological theory known as the “bystander effect.”
Thirty-Eight Witnesses is indispensable reading for students of journalism and anyone seeking to learn about one of the most infamous crimes of the twentieth century.
**
Amazon.com Review
Thirty-five years after its first printing, Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains a starkly terrifying morality play, shocking the reader with the now-infamous tale of Catherine ("Kitty") Genovese, murdered on her Queens, New York, doorstep in full view of acquaintances, neighbors, and friends--all of whom did nothing, even though the woman was stabbed repeatedly and stalked by her killer for more than an hour. The book's republication adds a haunted echo to its story, reminding the reader that things have changed since 1964, and not at all for the better. The furor and anger toward the silent witnesses after Genovese's death, as Rosenthal documents it, seems almost quaint by today's standards. But if society has lost its ability to feel horror and shame, perhaps it's time to let someone like Rosenthal speak calmly and quietly to our potential to reignite the outrage: "Every man must fear the witness in himself who whispers to close the window," he concludes. The prose of Thirty-Eight Witnesses --a slim, concise volume that includes only the scarcest hint of extraneous detail about Genovese's life--is calm and steady, with a thoroughness and lack of emotion belying the anger Rosenthal must have felt while he was typing, the shuddering fear of what the world had become... and possibly the nagging suspicion that it had always been this way. --Tjames Madison
Review
“This is a 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
“Journalism of a high order, well-written, provocative and dismaying . . . Mr. Rosenthal’s little book sheds a little light on part of the gigantic moral crisis of our time.” —Orville Prescott, The New York Times
“Several of the haunting questions Rosenthal raised, generalized to any such situation, remain unanswerable, and link as firmly to the present as they did to their own time.” —Art Winslow, Chicago Tribune
“A look at our collective guilt for Genovese’s murder, the way we are all complicit when the rules of society start breaking down . . . Vivid.”—David Ulin, Los Angeles Times
“A memorable book that needs to be available to anyone who struggles to live an honorable life.” —Robert Coles
“The classic book on the subject.” —Liz Smith
“Tremendously impactful . . . Besides being a formidable journalist, Rosenthal . . . was also an enchanting storyteller . . . A remarkable read.” —Maria Popova, BrainPickings.org
“A zeitgeist book.” — The Guardian
“Years after its first printing, Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains a starkly terrifying morality play.” — Publishers Weekly
Description:
A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist’s groundbreaking account of the crime that shocked New York City—and the world
In the early hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight-year-old Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was stabbed to death in the middle-class neighborhood of Kew Gardens, Queens. The attack lasted for more than a half hour—enough time for Genovese’s assailant to move his car and change hats before returning to rape and kill her just a few steps from her front door.
Yet it was not the brutality of the murder that made it international news. It was a chilling detail Police Commissioner Michael Joseph Murphy shared with A. M. Rosenthal of the New York Times : Thirty-eight of Genovese’s neighbors witnessed the assault—and none called for help.
To Rosenthal, who had recently returned to New York after spending a decade overseas and would become the Times ’s longest-serving executive editor, that startling statistic spoke volumes about both the turbulence of the 1960s and the enduring mysteries of human nature. His impassioned coverage of the case sparked a firestorm of public indignation and led to the development of the psychological theory known as the “bystander effect.”
Thirty-Eight Witnesses is indispensable reading for students of journalism and anyone seeking to learn about one of the most infamous crimes of the twentieth century. **
Amazon.com Review
Thirty-five years after its first printing, Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains a starkly terrifying morality play, shocking the reader with the now-infamous tale of Catherine ("Kitty") Genovese, murdered on her Queens, New York, doorstep in full view of acquaintances, neighbors, and friends--all of whom did nothing, even though the woman was stabbed repeatedly and stalked by her killer for more than an hour. The book's republication adds a haunted echo to its story, reminding the reader that things have changed since 1964, and not at all for the better. The furor and anger toward the silent witnesses after Genovese's death, as Rosenthal documents it, seems almost quaint by today's standards. But if society has lost its ability to feel horror and shame, perhaps it's time to let someone like Rosenthal speak calmly and quietly to our potential to reignite the outrage: "Every man must fear the witness in himself who whispers to close the window," he concludes. The prose of Thirty-Eight Witnesses --a slim, concise volume that includes only the scarcest hint of extraneous detail about Genovese's life--is calm and steady, with a thoroughness and lack of emotion belying the anger Rosenthal must have felt while he was typing, the shuddering fear of what the world had become... and possibly the nagging suspicion that it had always been this way. --Tjames Madison
Review
“This is a 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
“Journalism of a high order, well-written, provocative and dismaying . . . Mr. Rosenthal’s little book sheds a little light on part of the gigantic moral crisis of our time.” —Orville Prescott, The New York Times
“Several of the haunting questions Rosenthal raised, generalized to any such situation, remain unanswerable, and link as firmly to the present as they did to their own time.” —Art Winslow, Chicago Tribune
“A look at our collective guilt for Genovese’s murder, the way we are all complicit when the rules of society start breaking down . . . Vivid.”—David Ulin, Los Angeles Times
“A memorable book that needs to be available to anyone who struggles to live an honorable life.” —Robert Coles
“The classic book on the subject.” —Liz Smith
“Tremendously impactful . . . Besides being a formidable journalist, Rosenthal . . . was also an enchanting storyteller . . . A remarkable read.” —Maria Popova, BrainPickings.org
“A zeitgeist book.” — The Guardian
“Years after its first printing, Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains a starkly terrifying morality play.” — Publishers Weekly