Tom Fudge: Some names of crime victims remain in our memories and our imaginations years after they were killed, and Kitty Genovese is one of them. She was a murder victim in Queens, New York, in 1964. She was stabbed to death, late at night, outside her apartment. But, the manner in which she was killed isn't what made her death a national scandal. It was the fact that so many people heard her screams, probably even saw the crime, and did nothing to intervene or help.
It was one of those events that took on mythic proportions, and made a lot of people wonder what had become of us. Wouldn't normal, decent people help a woman who was being killed? The crime has gotten a huge amount of press, some of which question the conventional telling of the story. This year, the prosecutor who worked on the case has released a book about it.
The prosecutor, and author, is Charles Skoller. And his book is called Twisted Confessions. The title refers to the fact that the man accused of killing Genovese also confessed to another murder, for which police already had a prime suspect.
Guests
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Charles Skoller, prosecutor in the famous 1964 Kitty Genovese trial, and author of Twisted Confessions: The True Story Behind the Kitty Genovese and Barbara Kralik Murder Trials .
- Gordon Clanton, professor of Sociology at San Diego State University .
