Well the myth is that 38 neighbors heard her being raped and murdered and did nothing, but they were unfairly maligned. What actually happened is somewhat different.
"Genovese had driven home from her job early in the morning of March 13, 1964. Arriving home around 3:15 a.m., she parked in the Long Island Rail Road parking lot about 100 feet from her apartment's door, located in an alleyway at the rear of the building. As she walked toward the building, Moseley approached her. Frightened, Genovese began to run across the parking lot and toward the front of her building. Moseley ran after her, quickly overtook her, and stabbed her twice in the back.
Genovese screamed, "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!" Several neighbors heard her cry but, on a cold night with the windows closed, only a few of them recognized the sound as a cry for help. When Robert Mozer, one of the neighbors, shouted at the attacker "Let that girl alone!" Moseley ran away and Genovese slowly made her way toward the rear entrance of her apartment building. She was seriously injured, but now out of view of any witnesses.
Records of the earliest calls to police are unclear and were not given a high priority by the police. One witness said his father called police after the initial attack and reported that a woman was "beat up, but got up and was staggering around".
Other witnesses observed Moseley enter his car and drive away, only to return ten minutes later. In his car, he changed to a wide-brimmed hat to shadow his face. He systematically searched the parking lot, train station, and an apartment complex. Eventually, he found Genovese, who was lying, barely conscious, in a hallway at the back of the building where a locked doorway had prevented her from entering the building. Out of view of the street and of those who may have heard or seen any sign of the original attack, Moseley stabbed Genovese several more times. Knife wounds in her hands suggested that she attempted to defend herself from him.
While Genovese lay dying, Moseley raped her. He stole about $49 from her and left her in the hallway. The attacks spanned approximately half an hour. Afterwards, "Genovese, still alive, lay in the arms of a neighbor named Sophia Farrar, who had courageously left her apartment to go to the crime scene, even though she had no way of knowing that [Moseley] had fled"
Kitty Genovese. her murderer Walter Moseley
