publication date: Saturday, March 23, 2019 (part of Spring 2019)

category: Victims

clue: She was famously ignored by 38 witnesses, but the true story was ignored for decades.

explanation: Genovese was stabbed to death in 1964 outside of her apartment building in New York. A news article at the time claimed that 38 witnesses had all ignored her cries for help, each figuring that one of the others would do something, which came to be called the "bystander effect" or "Genovese syndrome." Decades later, further investigation found that this was not true, and that there were few or no witnesses. more…

intended difficulty: easy

solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, Samir Mehta, Chris Lemler, Richard Slominsky, Matthew Preston, Erik Bates, Aaron Shurtleff, and Stan Iwanchuk


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