Headless Body In Topless Bar. Killer Hoping For Parole
Killer behind HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR headline hoping to go free after 30 years behind bars
By Thomas Durante
Last updated at 6:28 PM on 23rd January 2012
It was a heinous crime that sparked one of the newspaper industry's most infamous headlines, and the convicted killer is now bent on on securing his freedom this week.
Grisly crimes: Charles Dingle's night of horror in April 1983 sparked one of the most infamous headlines in history
Charles Dingle, now 53, was charged and convicted in the April 1983 crime spree made famous by the New York Post headline 'HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR'.
Dingle is up for parole this week - and he's eager to get out of the upstate New York prison that he has called home for nearly 30 years.
His horrific rampage began at strip joint Herb's Bar in Queens when Dingle - then 23 years old - gunned down the bar's owner, Herbert Cummings.
He then took four women hostage, raping one of them and robbing the others in an alcohol and cocaine-fueled rage.
But Dingle’s crime spree took a bizarre turn when he found out that one of his hostages was a mortician after finding her business card.
He demanded that she extract the bullet from Cummings' head so authorities would be unable to match it to his gun, but when she couldn't do it, he ordered her to cut off Cummings' head with a steak knife, the Post reported.
He later released two of the hostages and took the remaining two with him in a stolen livery cab - with Cummings' head in a box.
The ordeal came to an end when he stopped the car in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighbourhood and passed out behind the wheel - and his hostages fled.
Two days later, the ‘HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR’ headline was splashed across the Post front page and into notoriety, often called one of the greatest newspaper headlines of all time.
The man who wrote it, Vincent A. Musetto, remained at the Post, and left the paper in July after 40 years there.
As for Dingle, he was found guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery, and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Denial: Charles Dingle claims he is not responsible for what happened at Herb's Bar in Queens, where the bar owner was shot to death and forced to decapitate him
Since his conviction, he’s been anything but the model prisoner, with several violent infractions involving prison workers and weapons possession.
He was previously denied parole in 2010 and 2008.
In an interview two years ago with the Post, Dingle denied he had anything to do with the crime, and is conducting his own appeal.
He said: 'They [parole board members] expect you to come in and plead guilty and take responsibility for the crime. I can't do it because I didn't do it'.
Dingle argued that the legendary headline, as well as other media reports of the case, made a fair trial impossible, and he’s 'fighting this conviction'.
Read more: Killer Charles Dingle who spawned New York Post headline HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR hoping to go free after 30 years behind bars | Mail Online
