Thirty-eight witnesses watched a woman being stabbed to death. No one called the police. That was the story that shocked America and created the 911 system. Almost none of it was true.

In the early hours of March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Catherine Kitty Genovese was attacked outside her Queens apartment building. She was stabbed, raped, and left to die in a hallway. Two weeks later, The New York Times published an article claiming that 38 neighbors witnessed the attack and did nothing to help. The nation was horrified. The story became a parable of urban apathy, inspired the bystander effect in psychology textbooks, and fueled the creation of the 911 emergency phone system across America [citation:1][citation:9].

But decades of research have debunked the myth. There were not 38 witnesses. Some did call police—though without a universal emergency number, reaching help was difficult. Others did not realize a murder was happening. The killer, Winston Moseley, confessed to three murders. The case also produced one of history's most disturbing false confessions, when an 18-year-old named Alvin Mitchell was coerced into confessing to a murder Moseley committed [citation:3].

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the story you learned in psychology class was wrong.

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