But It Was Such a Good Story

The story made the Genovese murder front-page news around the world. People began wondering aloud how society had fallen so far, and letters to the editors at various newspapers blamed ­everything from television to the “women’s-lib movement.”

But while journalists welcomed the opportunity to moralize, pontificate, and cement New York City’s reputation as the new hell on earth, not one could be bothered to check the facts.
New York Post, Debunking the Myth of Kitty Genovese

Do you remember the story about Kitty Genovese? I remember the uproar about neighbors seeing the attack and not doing anything to help her. They “didn’t want to get involved” according to the story. A different story — from an upcoming book by a reporter who has investigated the matter — is that some of her neighbors did try to help. During the first attack one yelled at the attacker and scared him off at first, and one person phoned the police, waiting on hold for several minutes before he got through. But from the description it didn’t sound like a high priority problem to the police, so they didn’t come then.

So how did the media get it wrong? Ten days after the murder the new city editor of the New York Times was having lunch with the police commissioner and wanted to discuss a case the commissioner wanted to avoid. So the commissioner switched the subject to the story of the murder as he understood it. It was clearly a more exciting story, so the editor gave it to a reporter to write as a front-page article. The reporter interviewed some of the neighbors, but apparently got some of the details wrong. So the story took off and had a life of its own — it was too good not to pass on.

It will be interesting to see if the new book will get as much attention as the old story: Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America by Kevin Cook.


 

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18 Responses to But It Was Such a Good Story

  1. Rummuser says:

    The Bystander Effect case has been quoted in so many psychology books that more than the newspaper created sensation, the case history has been responsible for the popularity of the story. So, now a book on it is coming. Kevin Cook will make another killing!

    • Jean says:

      I hope he does! Actually Wikipedia gives a balanced account of the murder too. Some good came out of the publicity about the murder, for instance, Neighborhood Watch programs and Good Samaritan laws. And the New York Police Department changed its telephone reporting system. Apparently the system at the time was inefficient and even hostile to callers.

      Nowadays my guess is Kitty would have had a cellphone and called 911.

  2. Alan G says:

    Doing a little blog-hopping this morning and ran across your blog and current post. I had actually forgotten this story but immediately remembered it when I read your post and visited the ‘Wikipedia’ link.

    I think this turned out to be, in a sense, one of those Catch 22 situations. The media sensationalized the fact that bystanders and witnesses supposedly did nothing which actually drove the story more than the murder itself but as you mentioned in your comment to Rummuser, very important community service actions came out of it that would have not come to exist otherwise – at least not until some later event triggered action.

    • bikehikebabe says:

      I looked up your blog & clicked ‘About Me’. All I got was your picture. Nice looking guy. I wonder what country is your home.

    • Alan G says:

      Well thank you for the compliment. I’m in the United States and live in Little Rock, Arkansas – home of the Bill Clinton Presidential Library and I’m sure you have heard of him! 🙂

    • Jean says:

      Yes, instead of condemning people when we don’t know the facts, why not figure out how to set things up so incidents like this one don’t happen again?

      What do you think of the Clinton library? Andy and I went to see it because we had seen Eisenhower’s years before. What a difference! I wouldn’t mind going back to the Eisenhower one, but I would skip a return to the Clinton one.

    • Alan G says:

      Well Jean, I fear I must humbly hang my head in shame to admit this or…. perhaps I should just send you a private message confessing that I have never been to the Clinton Library! Or at the very least, stop using it in my comments as a landmark reference which will ultimatley cause me ridicule and embarrassment! 🙂

  3. bikehikebabe says:

    MORAL: You shouldn’t believe everything you read.

  4. Audra E says:

    I feel relieved; that KGenovese story touches what I think of as primal fears. The story is so unlike what I know of my own neighbors, it heightens my fear of the mob, the Thems out there. I’m glad one of the outcomes is strengthening neighborhood groups and inventing cellphones with 911 options (and, I hope, a police force that responds).
    btw, about Amazon: read the article in this week’s New Yorker. Another myth shattered. Should I ditch my Kindle?

  5. nick says:

    There’s an alarming degree of unchecked facts in today’s journalism, either because they have tight deadlines and/or they just can’t be arsed. Then those same unchecked facts get mindlessly regurgitated by umpteen other news sources until they become gospel truth. Good that someone actually did some fact-checking on this one and discovered what really happened.

    • Jean says:

      Unfortunately newspapers have always been notorious for being inaccurate. Many a reputation has been ruined by stories that caught the readers’ attention.

  6. Ursula says:

    I don’t know the person you are referring to. Also my life is too short to click on your links.

    However, “standing by” is one of my pet hates. Dear dog in heaven. I have witnessed it so many times, Jean. When I, Ursula, witness some human mess I don’t “stand by”. I act. So far so good. No one has broken my legs, yet.

    U

  7. tammyj says:

    had never heard of this case.
    i was a starry eyed teenager at the time… head over heels in love with my new husband. ashamed to admit here that I didn’t watch the news all that much at that time. sad but true. and now i don’t watch that kind of reporting because i simply don’t want it in my house. murders and their grisly details just don’t add to the quality of my life. so i don’t watch.
    but in reading the Wikipedia link… two things came to my mind.
    of course there is NEVER any excuse for an attack on another human being like that.
    BUT… even now… with cell phones and better lighting and neighborhood watch etc…
    unless you simply cannot help it because of a job with those weird hours… and frankly i would never accept one like that…
    i never am out alone at that hour. 3am in the morning. the clubs close at 2.
    as far as i’m concerned she should have been at home in her own little bed.
    AND… don’t mean in saying that … it was her fault. it was NOT. but still…
    common sense in this violent world means you don’t put yourself in dangerous times and situations.

    • Jean says:

      I think you used your time with Bob very well!

      Somewhere I read that the neighborhood was considered to be a safe one, some people didn’t even lock their doors before the murder. I didn’t read much about it, but I do remember thinking the area residents were being treated unfairly.

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