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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Dentist admits selling Alistair Cooke's (and others) remains |
| 2008-01-18 |
| A former dentist has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he orchestrated a grisly plot to plunder hundreds of corpses and sell body parts for transplants, his lawyer has said. Prosecutors say Michael Mastromarino, 44, was making millions of dollars by secretly hacking up the bodies - including that of the late BBC radio journalist Alistair Cooke - at his Brooklyn funeral parlour home and selling the parts around the world for dental implants, hip replacements and other procedures. Mastromarino was facing life in prison and "he sees this as his best opportunity to accept responsibility and move on", said Mario Gallucci, his lawyer, on Tuesday. He will serve a minimum of 18 years in prison. He will "move on" after 18 years in the slammer. As part of his plea deal, Mastromarino will cooperate with prosecutors who are investigating several companies that bought the stolen body parts and sold them on to more than 20,000 transplant recipients throughout the US, Canada and Europe. That will give the receipients a warm fuzzy feeling. The processors "loved his tissue and encouraged him to get more and more," said Mr Gallucci. Supply and demand---the free market at work. Mastromarino, who had been disbarred from practising dentistry, and two so-called "cutters" were charged in 2006 on hundreds of counts of forgery, body stealing and fraud. Boris Karlov would have been amazed. Hey guys! It was just a story..... Since then, seven funeral directors have pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges and agreed to cooperate. Prosecutors said that the cadavers were looted without permission or proper screening for diseases. Some of the corpses were riddled with cancer, hepatitis or HIV and an untold number of patients were unknowingly exposed to infection. Code of Ethics be damned. Alistair Cooke, who broadcast Letter From America for many years, was 94 when he died of bone cancer. Mastromarino sold his remains for $11,000, using documents that said he was 84 and died of a heart attack. Un friggin believable.... The defendants allegedly made a crude attempt to cover their tracks by sewing PVC pipe back into the bodies in time for open-casket wakes. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #10 EXACTLY, Barbara. And the UK and the US will be the same way if we go the PC way. The law HAS to come down on this type of stuff hard. There is a lot of money in the parts business, and lots of money attracts lots of nefarious characters---double entendre not intended. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-01-18 20:57 |
| #9 "ethics, which is part of the glue that holds civilization together" Guess that explains pakiwakiland, sudan, soodi arabia, etc, & especially the various paleolands, Paul. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-01-18 18:00 |
| #8 Yes, Larry Niven. The Known Space Series and the short stories, ""The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton." |
| Posted by: mom 2008-01-18 17:15 |
| #7 Organleggers. The new bootlegger. I think this came from Niven, maybe RAH. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2008-01-18 16:48 |
| #6 Somebody needs to turn this story into a screen play. It'd make for a great episode of MasterPIECE Theater. "For Masterpiece Theater...this is Alistair Cooke...goodnight." |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2008-01-18 15:51 |
| #5 Mastromarino was keeping an "eye open" for a plea deal. He was cooperating in an attempt to get a "leg up" on the case. The lawyer said he would take the case but it would cost Mastromarino an "arm and a leg." Drum roll....How useful or viable are say a 94 year liver or heart or bones? Ghoulish story. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-01-18 14:48 |
| #4 Two points: #1 Moderators, please file this under local. Thought I marked it local. My mistake. #2 This type of behavior pollutes the life saving advances made by medical science. It exposes receipants to serious disease, where they can also transmit it to others. It also compromises ethics, which is part of the glue that holds civilization together. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-01-18 14:48 |
| #3 As part of his plea deal, Mastromarino will cooperate with prosecutors who are investigating several companies that bought the stolen body parts and sold them on to more than 20,000 transplant recipients throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Ahhhhhh, yes, hi, Mr. Johnson? We're gonna need that femur back... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-01-18 14:31 |
| #2 demons |
| Posted by: RD 2008-01-18 14:29 |
| #1 GRAVE ROBBERS.. Un friggin believable.... you said it Paul. These grave robbing funeral directors are a pack of real life deamons feeding on our love ones corpses. CREEPY eh! Movie Time Think of the good heroic works done by Drs., Hospitals and Staff and then these greedy shit heads polute the whole process. Justice for the Body Snachers: sell their bones and keep them alive, just heaps of skin with an IV going in. |
| Posted by: RD 2008-01-18 14:28 |