I heard about the case in Intro Psych; that and Milgram were my main takeaway legends from that class.

Regarding the topic, I find hidden camera programs to be predatory and offensive to the point of anger.  There a comedy show in Canada based on the premise of setting up weird scenarios in public and ensnaring passersby into forced interactions that make fun of the fact they don't know it's a setup; I try never to be in a room where it's playing, because almost everyone loves it and that fact makes me hate humanity.

Look outside the window

There's a woman being grabbed.

He's dragged her to the bushes

And now she's being stabbed.

Maybe we should call the cops 

And try to stop the pain.

But Monopoly is so much fun

I'd hate to spoil the game.

And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody

Outside of a small circle of friends.

Yeah, it was a big big deal once upon a time.  Like the murder of the Philippino nurses.  Nowadays such crimes are just a quaint relic of the past.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Booth man.

I came down on the obscure call based largely on you the principal party addressed. Before  the extrapolated general consensus question: Obscure? or Not " in the evolved further thoughts on it.

45 years ago?, a young Scotsman in 2009.? ...........I, in the latter general question had perhaps discounted the learned nature of the group , and also the strong showing of baby boomers, still many baby boomers here : ) And one commenter had been local to the incident.

Now , obvious today or not, she was a common pattern representative of the community and time, and simultaneously a curious contrarian person.

But I digress...

Wikipedia calls the media coverage of the event "melodramatic" One source says:

"None of the witnesses observed the attacks in their entirety. Because of the layout of the complex and the fact that the attacks took place in different locations, no witness saw the entire sequence. Most only heard portions of the incident without realizing its seriousness, a few saw only small portions of the initial assault, and no witnesses directly saw the final attack and attempted rape in an exterior hallway which resulted in Genovese's death." - Demay, Joseph. "Kitty Genovese" (in English). A Picture History of Kew Gardens, NY. Retrieved on 2007-03-12