I’ve known about Kitty Genovese since childhood.
Of course, I never met the young woman. By the time I was born, she had been dead for five years. But my Mom would tell me the tale of Kitty Genovese over and over.
For those who don’t know the story, it involves a 28-year-old bartender who was stabbed to death as she was making her way home in March of 1964. The story that made her famous was that nearly 40 people witnessed the crime, but did nothing to stop it. This refusal to get involved was called “The Bystander Effect.”
The problem with the story is that it isn’t true.
Dispatches from Dennis 
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