In "No One Helped" Marcia M. Gallo examines one of America’s most infamous true-crime stories: the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens, New York. Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese’s life, including her lesbian relationship, also was obscured in media accounts of the crime. Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now widely known that there were far fewer actual witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. "No One Helped" traces the Genovese story’s development and resilience while challenging the myth it created.
"No One Helped" places the conscious creation and promotion of the Genovese story within a changing urban environment. Gallo reviews New York’s shifting racial and economic demographics and explores post–World War II examinations of conscience regarding the horrors of Nazism. These were important factors in the uncritical acceptance of the story by most media, political leaders, and the public despite repeated protests from Genovese’s Kew Gardens neighbors at their inaccurate portrayal. The crime led to advances in criminal justice and psychology, such as the development of the 911 emergency system and numerous studies of bystander behaviors. Gallo emphasizes that the response to the crime also led to increased community organizing as well as feminist campaigns against sexual violence. Even though the particulars of the sad story of her death were distorted, Kitty Genovese left an enduring legacy of positive changes to the urban environment.
Marcia M. Gallo is Associate Professor of History at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is the author of Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement.
Table of Contents
Prologue: A New York Story1. Urban Villages in the Big City2. Hidden in Plain Sight3. Thirty-Eight Witnesses4. The Metropolitan Brand of Apathy5. The City Responds6. Surviving New City Streets7. Challenging the Story of Urban ApathyEpilogue: Kitty, Fifty Years LaterNotes Selected Bibliography Index
What People are Saying About This
Robert W. Snyder
In 'No One Helped,' Marcia M. Gallo tells you why everything you’ve heard about Kitty Genovese and her death is wrong, how this came to be, and why it matters. In this valuable book, which sheds light on crime, the media, and New York City, we meet Genovese not as a victim but as a fierce and fascinating woman whose story can inspire people to live boldly and help people in peril.
Karen Halttunen
Marcia M. Gallo's historically narrative approach to the Kitty Genovese murder is clear and accessible. Gallo's admirably balanced treatment draws on media coverage, oral history, social scientific literature, and changing memories of the crime.
Leisa Meyer
'No One Helped' is a provocative, timely, and important book. Marcia M. Gallo has fully conceptualized and explained the textures of the various communities involved in the Kitty Genovese story: the city of New York, the borough of Queens, the neighborhood of Kew Gardens, the bar where Genovese worked, and the nascent lesbian and gay community, among others. This is a remarkable story, and Gallo does fine work making visible the substance of the lives of the main players in this saga.
