The Effects of Aultruism : Kitty Genovese

At about 3am in New York’s, Queens, Austin street in 1964, Catherine ‘Kitty’ Genovese began her early yet short walk of 20 ft from her car to her home, where she saw a strange man following her. With fear Kitty ran faster towards her home, thinking that she would make it safely, unfortunately she had misjudged his speed, as he was considerably faster than she was. The man later told the police “I could run much faster than she could, and I jumped on her back and stabbed her several times.”

Kitty screamed in agony the words “Oh my God! He stabbed me!" she screamed. "Please help me! Please help me!" Some apartment lights went on in nearby buildings. Irene Frost at 82-68 Austin Street heard Catherine's screams plainly. "There was another shriek," she later testified in court, "and she was lying down crying out." Up on the seventh floor of the same building, Robert Mozer slid open his window and observed the struggle below. He yelled down bellow and told the attacker to leave the girl alone, and immediately the attacker got up and left. As the lights in the apartment block turned off and Kitty semi unconscious attempted to stand on her feet, the attacker returned again only to stab her again. Neighbours on the sixth floor of 82-40 Austin Street, Marjorie and Samuel Koshkin witnessed the attack from their window. Samuel later aid to the police "I saw a man hurry to a car under my window, he left and came back five minutes later and was looking around the area."

25 minutes after the first attack, Kitty’s killer left and she again stumbled to her feet and attempted to make her way to her apartment, through the back entrance. It was at the rear of her apartment that for the third time her attacker returned only this time to sexually harass her and stab her one more time. This time killing her completely. It wasn’t until 3:50am that Karl Ross, another neighbour to Kitty finally called the police. In total there were more than 38 witnesses, so why didn’t anyone help? Or...