Puritans & Murder

1. Puritans& Murder

2. Historian Sarah Vowell • NPR Interview • What follows is Howell’s Comments on Reverend Cotton’s Farewell speech to the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1630. • Approximately 700 people heard the sermon.

3. Historian Sarah Vowell • “Cotton's sermon is titled "God's Promise to His Plantation." He begins with one of the loveliest passages from the book of Second Samuel, an otherwise R-rated chronicle of King David's serial-killer years. Chapter 7, verse 10: "I will appoint a place for my people in Israel, and I will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more." Sounds so homey, like that column in the real estate section of the New York Times about how people found their apartments. Until I remember that talk like this is the match still lighting the fuse of a thousand car bombs.”—excerpt

4. Historian Sarah Vowell • “What [Reverend] Cotton is telling these about-to-be-Americans is that they are God's new chosen people. This they like to hear.. And, like the Old Testament Jews, God has printed up eviction notices for them to tack up on the homes of the nothing-special, just-folks folks who are squatting there.” • excerpt

5. Historian Sarah Vowell • “By the time Cotton says amen, he has fought Mexico for Texas, bought Alaska from the Russians, and dropped napalm on Vietnam. Then he lays a wreath on Custer's grave and revs past Wounded Knee. Then he claps when the Marquis de Lafayette tells Congress that "someday America will save the world." Then he smiles when Abraham Lincoln calls the United States "the last best hope of earth." Then he frees Cuba, which would be news to Cuba. Then he signs the lease on Guantánamo Bay.” –excerpt

6. What were the Puritans REALLY like? • How far would they go to please God and follow the Bible? • How human were they? • Are we that different from our cultural ancestors? • How much of our society is shaped by the Puritans? Or have we abandoned some of their best attributes?

7. Media Coverage Queens Woman is Stabbed to Death in Front of Home NY Times: March 14, 1964 37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call Police NY Times: March 27, 1964 Thoughts on Terror and Kitty Genovese Chicago Sun Times: October 1, 1989 Kitty Genovese: Would New York Still Turn Away? NY Times: March 11, 1989 Reviving Kitty Genovese Case and its Passions NY Times: July 25, 1995 20 Years After the Murder of Kitty Genovese the Question Remains: Why? NY Times: March 12, 1984 When Crimes Become Symbols NY Times: May 7, 1989 Kitty, 40 Years Later NY Times: February 8, 2004 Coping: The Crimes that Haunt our Dreams NY Times: December 15, 2002 One Witness Better Than 38 in a Crisis NY Times: July 10, 1966 Apathy is Puzzle in Queens Killing NY Times: March 28, 1964

8. Kitty Genovese July 7, 1935 – March 13, 1964

9. Neighborhood Response “There is no one death that has come since that can compare to it. It is the point we look back to and say, ‘That’s where things changed – the beginning of the end of decency.’” - Bruce O’Connor, neighborhood business owner

10. Bystander Effect • The Bystander Effect • An Experiment

11. Sermon, The Boondock Saints • “And I am reminded, on this holy day, of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men.”