Kitty Genovese's screams for help couldn't save her on the night she was murdered outside her apartment in 1964. Fifty years later, those screams still echo, a symbol of urban breakdown and city dwellers' seeming callousness toward their neighbors. The case "caught the spirit of the time," said Thomas Reppetto, a police historian. "It seemed to symbolize that society no longer cared about other people."

Genovese's random stabbing by Winston Moseley on March 13, 1964, became a sensation when The New York Times reported that "38 respectable, law-abiding citizens" in Queens watched the attack unfold over more than half an hour and didn't call police during the assault.

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Source: http://www.newsday.com/