Head Had AIDS

I've been waiting for some excuse to inflict this little beauty on people, and WFMU's recently hatched blog seems like just the venue...

No matter what cultural depths the New York Post sinks to, nothing -- I repeat, nothing -- trumps this miracle of garbage journalism, as published by my local paper back in the late 80s. If you travel anywhere south of New Brunswick, the Trentonian is widely known for having no equal in the realm of rampantly misspelled gossip, the trashing of local government officials, and in-depth features on scantily-clad page six girls. Yet here in the NYC metro area, the visceral joy that can be gleaned from it on a daily basis goes largely unappreciated.

The Head Had AIDS fiasco, as I recall, was the final cover story on an unsolved murder case that began weeks prior with the discovery of a badly-decomposed human head on a central Jersey golf course. The dismembered dome was in such a state that investigators at first couldn't even determine the sex of the victim. Several days later, lab tests revealed the victim was not only female, but also had been HIV positive, and the Trentonian splashed the miraculous cover story across the unsuspecting hordes of Mercer County dwellers in unabashedly straightforward language.

Amazingly, this headline is now actually used as a reference in the curriculum of several collegiate journalism programs, as a shining example of what you're not supposed to do. (Note that the cover also suggests that the Mets had won, which is obvious bullshit.) I've heard that original copies of this edition of the paper show up on eBay from time to time carrying an impressive pricetag. Who ever woulda thunk...

Thanks to Jon for finally tracking down an image of this on the internet, and to Scott for reminding me that I had it stashed in the nether regions of my hard drive.

Comments

[Jon Solomon]

Tracking down this image on the Internet?

TRACKING DOWN THIS IMAGE ON THE INTERNET?!

Oh, Mike.

I spent an hour+ at the Lawrenceville Public Library searching for this cover on microfilm, thank you very much. Glad you could put it to good use.

Jon