5. 82-70 Austin St., Queens

Kew Gardens is a quiet suburb in Queens, but it was a little too quiet one March night in 1964 when 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed at her doorstep while returning home from work. She was (literally) stabbed in the back by a random slasher. Genovese’s screams prompted one of her sleeping neighbors to shout at the man to leave her alone. The attacker ran off, but later returned to stab Genovese to death in the foyer of her home.

According to a New York Times article published two weeks after her death, 38 people witnessed the murder but not a single one intervened. Since then, this claim has been controversial, but the original story transformed the reputation of Kew Gardens decades after the murder. The circumstances of Genovese’s tragic death became a classic case study for social scientists, known as the “Genovese Syndrome,” or the “bystander effect.”  Today, the bottom floor of Genovese’s apartment is occupied by Austin’s Steak and Ale House.

Read on for more notorious crime scenes in NYC: Heists, Bombings and Bank Robberies.

Get in touch with the author @catku.