Review by New York Times Review
Just before the 1964 World's Fair opened, a vivacious young bar manager, Catherine (Kitty) Genovese, was viciously raped and murdered in the middle of the night in Kew Gardens, Queens. Some neighbors, awakened by her calls for help, came to their windows but were left with the impression that Genovese had walked away from the scene unharmed. Others assumed someone else had called the police. A.M. Rosenthal, then the metropolitan editor of The New York Times, recognized the resonance of this Bad Samaritan parable and assigned a reporter to look into it. The resulting Page 1 article began: "For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman." The story was picked up by newspapers around the world and led to decades of soul-searching. Rosenthal himself went on to write a book, "Thirty-Eight Witnesses," about the crime. In his dismantling of this much-mythologized newspaper account, Cook confirms, not for the first time, that The Times's 1964 version was inaccurate. (The Times itself published a piece a decade ago correcting the 38-witnesses figure and other errors.) Cook's harping on the number 38 is perhaps too dramatic for the arithmetical payoff. Whether it was 38 or many fewer, a robust number of witnesses failed to help Genovese. Still, this book has a suspenseful edge. Through interviews with her lesbian partner and others, Cook humanizes the victim. Equally gripping is his follow-up on Winston Moseley, the killer who was convicted, escaped from prison and raped again.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [March 16, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
In the wake of the Kennedy assassination, as America was losing its 1950s innocence and beginning to confront the darker recesses of human behavior, another heinous crime brought the nation's changing culture into grim focus. In the middle of the night on a dark New York City street, young Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death, her cries for help falling on deaf ears. If any story could be said to go viral in those pre-Internet, pre-24/7-cable-news-cycle days, Genovese's murder captured the world's attention to an astonishing degree. Headlines of her neighbors' indifference were as dramatic as those heralding the crime itself. Touted in death as the innocent girl-next-door, Genovese actually wasn't anything like the portrait painted in fawning newspaper stories, nor was the outrageous apathy of countless witnesses as coldhearted or ubiquitous as the press luridly described. On the fiftieth anniversary of the murder, Cook revisits that tumultuous era and an unspeakable crime that became synonymous with urban indolence and dispassion.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In his latest book, Cook (Titanic Thompson) disproves the popular belief about the 1964 murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese in Kew Gardens, Queens-that 38 neighbors watched her being stabbed to death from the safety of their apartment windows, and did nothing to help, a phenomenon dubbed the "Bystander Effect" by social scientists. One neighbor did call the police immediately, but the notion that so many failed to respond struck a nerve, bolstered by the New York Times' coverage, and Times editor A.M. Rosenthal's book Thirty-Eight Witnesses. The ensuing clamor led to the creation of the 911 emergency phone system, "Good Samaritan" laws, and the development of the field of pro-social behavior-designed to turn bad neighbors into good ones. Cook never loses sight of the victim, tracing the arc of Genovese's 27 years of life, and presenting the memories of her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko. Cook also offers a nuanced rendering of Genovese's murderer, Winston Moseley, with ample details of his trial. In an especially moving section, Cook notes the chance elements that put Genovese in harm's way. As much social history as true crime, this is an insightful probe into the notorious case, 50 years later. 16 pages of photos. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Most people would cite the story of Kitty Genovese (a young woman who was fatally stabbed in 1964 in Kew Gardens, NY) as the most infamous example of the bystander effect, or the psychological phenomenon that explains that individuals are less likely to offer help to those in need when they perceive others to be present. However, on the 50th anniversary of the murder, Cook (Titanic Thompson; Tommy's Honor) reconsiders the case, concluding that erroneous reporting by the New York Times led to the accepted belief that 38 of Genovese's neighbors heard her cries and refused to respond, when in fact the truth was much more complex. The author successfully infuses new life into a case that many know primarily as a brief chapter from introductory psychology textbooks, fleshing out Genovese and relying upon historical details and heavy use of dialog to add further color. Though this is a well-researched account of a crime, more important, it's a nuanced examination of the cultural significance of Genovese's slaying and its legacy. VERDICT True crime aficionados, sociology and psychology students, and anyone with an interest in untold stories will enjoy Cook's thought-provoking revelations.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The infamous myth-shrouded murder of Kitty Genovese (19351964) receives a much-needed re-evaluation. The brutal, senseless murder of Kew Gardens resident Genovese went down in history as what magazine journalist and Cook (Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything, 2010, etc.) calls a "crime that lasted forever." It lasted "forever" both in the sense that Genovese's death was slow and painful from multiple stab wounds and in the psychological repercussions of the case, which would reverberate throughout academic and popular-culture circles for decades to come. The controversy that became front-page news and began to overshadow both victim and killer over the years was how 38 bystanders could have witnessed psychopath Winston Moseley stab young Genovese to death and not intervene in any way, thereby leaving her to die alone only a short walking distance from her apartment. Cook's main agenda is myth-busting while also exploring the ways in which society has collectively learned lessons from those same myths about the 38 passive bystanders. But as we find out through Cook's prolonged analysis of the case, Genovese's murder was not quite the lonely death it was made out to be. Nevertheless, the author cites instances of how both criminals and victims of crimes learned from these long-perpetuated "bystander" untruths, as he eventually arrives at some well-founded conclusions on this controversial subject. Cook's breathless pacing and painstaking research manage to make his minibio of Genovese sound more interesting that it should: He frames her own fairly quotidian existence (other than her attraction to women, which was definitely not quotidian in 1964) in the bigger picture of the important social changes that were taking place in New York City and in America as a whole in the early 1960s. The author's game-changing contribution to the Genovese case pushes past mere sensationalism into previously unexplored territory. An engrossing true-crime tour de force.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
