Book excerpt: • Introduction to crime in the city • Headline cases In New York City, crime is big--big in newspaper headlines, big to politicians who win and lose jobs because of a flux in crime, and big in the lore of the city itself. This book begins with a survey of crime in the Big Apple and then focuses on its landmark cases, including the sixteen-year terrorism of the Mad Bomber, the bystander effect in the fatal stabbing of Kitty Genovese, the Son of Sam serial killings, the assassination of John Lennon, the fall of mob boss Paul Castellano, and the murder of Jennifer Levin by Preppie Killer Robert Chambers Jr.