Kitty Genovese had driven home from her job working as a bar manager early in the morning of March 13, 1964. Arriving home at about 3:15 a.m., she was approached by a 29-year-old African-American business machine operator who ran after her and quickly overtook her, stabbing her twice in the back. Genovese screamed, "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!" He proceeded to further attack her, stabbing her several more times. Knife wounds in her hands suggested that she attempted to defend herself from him. While she lay dying, he raped her. He stole about $49 from her and left her in the hallway.
Her cry was heard by several neighbors but no one did anything to help during the 35 minutes of the attack.
Academic psychologists took a keen interest in the murder and launched a series of classic experiments investigating what it was later called the "bystander effect".
