Based on the story of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese who was murdered in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of New York City on March 13, 1964. She was murdered by Winston Mosely, who was sentenced to death, but reduced to life imprisonment in 1967.
Loosely based on the public perception at that time of the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964, which was grossly inaccurate, the circumstances of the case having been misrepresented and distorted by the news media into a story with elements resembling the plot of this movie. The actual truth was later brought to light by Genovese's brother, who through research and interviews determined that only a few people actually saw or heard anything of the attack on Genovese (which occurred in the early hours of morning when most people were asleep), and those few "witnesses" did not see or hear enough to be able to be fully aware of what was actually going on, since Genovese was out of sight and hearing range of the apartment windows for much of the duration of the attack, having gone around to the back entrance of the building. Moreover, at least one neighbor did physically come to Genovese's aid on discovering her situation, though by then it was too late to save her. The "38 witnesses who stood by for half an hour and did nothing" angle was completely invented by the press. In actuality, the police did interview about 38 people in the building, but most of them had been asleep and had seen and heard nothing.
Kitty Genovese's killer, Winston Mosely escaped from prison in 1968 and raped a woman. Three years later, he joined the Attica uprising which left 32 inmates and 11 Corrections Officers dead. He died in the prison at Dannemora, NY in 2016, at the age of 81.
Edward Asner and Cloris Leachman were costars on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and played husband and wife in this film.
At one point in the film, Rodriguez claims that Harrison, TN is near Memphis. In actually, it is 322 miles away.