Winston Moseley, one of the longest serving prisoners in New York, has died in jail, aged 81, according to Associated Press. And while many might think that the world is a better place now he is dead and gone, his notorious rape and murder of Kitty Genovese, in 1964, did have one positive outcome. It resulted in a national emergency response system, known, in America, as calling 911.

Kitty was a manager of a sports bar on Jamaica Avenue, when she was followed home, raped, mugged and then murdered by Moseley. Two weeks later a New York Times headline screamed "37 WHO SAW MURDER DIDN’T CALL THE POLICE”.

While this later proved to be erroneous, it punctured the nightmare recesses of the public's consciousness- being murdered while your neighbours looked on, and propelled local officials to join a national campaign to create a unified emergency response protocol.

According to the Huffington Post, Moseley was only arrested when he was caught burglarising a house two weeks later. He then confessed to killing Kitty and two others. He escaped his transportation officer during a hospital visit in 1968, holding two people hostage in their home and raping a teenage girl, before being recaptured.

He was involved in the Attica Prison Riots in 1971, where prisoners demanded better living standards and political rights, which resulted in the death of 43 people.

Lena Dunham's Girls immortalised the crime in an episode that aired only days after his death, showing how the story of a woman being attacked, as society looks on and does nothing, still resonates with a modern audience.