Thirty-eight Witnesses

"[Rosenthal] told a stunning, tragic story and called each one of us to account for averting our eyesand heartsand voices." -Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes It remains one of the most notorious deaths in New York City history not because of who was murdered but because of the circumstances: 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered, in an attack that took nearly thirty minutes and had thirty-eight witnesses...not one of whom did a thing to stop the murderer or even call for help. A.M. Rosenthal, who would later become one of the most famous and controversial editorsThe New York Timeshas ever had, was the newspaper's city editor then; the murder happened on his beat. He first published this book in 1964, the year of the murder. It is part memoir, part investigative journalism, and part public service.

A.M. Rosenthal was editor of The New York Times from 1969 through 1986, during which time he gained fame for the paper's coverage of the war in Vietnam, Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal, and in particular for his decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. Prior to that he was a foreign correspondent for the Times, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1960. He died in 2006.