Writer of Famous Tabloid Headline Dies at 74

A former New York Post editor who was widely credited with penning the famous headline “HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR” died on Tuesday in New York City. He was 74.

Vincent Musetto had been in hospice care at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, and his death was confirmed by former colleague Myron Rushetzky, the New York Times reports. The New Jersey native was most known for the verbless headline that ran on the Post‘s front page on April 15, 1983. The accompanying report detailed a crime involving a man in Queens who would later be convicted in the shooting death of a bar owner; the man took several women hostage and forced one to cut off the owner’s head.

Despite its popularity, the “HEADLESS” headline wasn’t the one he was the most proud of. His favorite, written the following year, was “GRANNY EXECUTED IN HER PINK PAJAMAS.”

[NYT]