“Once you tell a story incorrectly once, you can’t control where it goes.” Sarah tells Mike how The New York Times turned a suburban murder into an urban legend. Digressions include Billy Joel, the World’s Fair and “Ferngully.” This episode marks a triumphant return to Long Island and an unexpected celebration of Pride Month.
Links!
- The original New York Times article, “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police; Apathy at Stabbing of Queens Woman Shocks Inspector”
- “4 Kew Gardens Residents Testify To Seeing Woman Slain on Street”
- “A Call for Help,” Nicholas Lehman, The New Yorker
- “Don’t Look Now,” Angus Johnston, The New Inquiry
- Anna Lvovsky’s “Queer Expertise: Urban Policing and the Construction of Public Knowledge about Homosexuality, 1920–1970”
Rottin' in Denmark 
Hi! I have to tell you that the Kitty Genovese story triggered a memory of being in grade school and seeing a “social studies” film about this!!!!! Yes, grade school – probably 4th or 5th grade. I remember that the film showed the chalk outline of Genovese’s body (or more likely, mocked it up for the film), and how that affected me for a long time. Of course, the film focused on urban apathy and how people don’t care about their neighbors, blah blah blah.
The powers that be were probably only trying to show us that we needed to be better citizens and neighbors, but it scared the crap out of me for months.
LOVE “You’re wrong about” – I hope you win awards – especially for the editing (I heard you comment about it!)
I’d love for you guys to tackle a few more of the theories/concepts – in particular Stanley Milgram’s Obedience experiments & Zambardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment.. there are books tackling each – including Jon Ronson’s Psychopath Test & Behind the Shock Machine by Gina Perry.
Anyway – hope you guys keep enjoying what you’re doing. My entire office loves it!