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 ||
01/18/2008 13:23 ||
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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.
#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...
#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 ||
01/18/2008 14:48 Comments ||
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#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.
#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 ||
01/18/2008 18:00 Comments ||
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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 ||
01/18/2008 20:57 Comments ||
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Strangely enough, they're probably pre-registered to caucus in four different locations and vote in three states. Not that they know that. And apparently weren't suppose to discover that.
SAN FRANCISCO - One of the three victims of San Francisco Zoo tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure, police said in court documents filed Thursday.
Paul Dhaliwal, 19, told the father of Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, who was killed, that the three yelled and waved at the tiger but insisted they never threw anything into its pen to provoke the cat, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
"As a result of this investigation, (police believe) that the tiger may have been taunted/agitated by its eventual victims," according to Inspector Valerie Matthews, who prepared the affidavit. Police believe that "this factor contributed to the tiger escaping from its enclosure and attacking its victims," she said.
#2
Well, they found a large slingshot near one of them. There were rocks and debris inside the enclosure, but maybe it just dropped out of the sky. Cops now looking at cellphones, so they'll probably find herioc pictures or video of the "heroes" defying the tiger.
No, no...it's not what you think. They haven't gotten that strict.
Troubled Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan has been sent to a morgue as part of her punishment for a drink-driving offence. The 21-year-old star has also spent two months in rehabilitation and done some community service, her lawyer Blair Berk said at a hearing in Los Angeles on her progress toward fulfilling the terms of her plea bargain. Yeah yeah yeah, can I go now? I got stuff to do...
Her two four-hour days at the morgue are part of a court-ordered programme to show drivers the real-life consequences of drinking and driving. Maybe she'll see her career while she's down there...
She must also spend two days working in a hospital accident and emergency department. Grey Goose! STAT!!
Lohan, the star of The Parent Trap and Herbie: Fully Loaded, was arrested twice last year on drink-driving charges and pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanour drunken driving and cocaine charges. She has already served 84 minutes in jail as part of the plea deal. 84 minutes? Ya couldn't even get a decent jail tat in 84 minutes...
#3
I have to give her a little bit of credit (cause I mean she is hot). At least she has been out of the lime light for the last several months. Makes her look like the paragon of virtue compared to Britney.
#5
Been to jail just once, oddly they refused cash for a bond, I had to ask my brother to go to Wal-Mart (Only place open) and change my cash for a cashier's Check, took about 2 hours.
Strnge?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2008 18:45 Comments ||
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A recent article reports that German researchers just announced that drinking beer promotes good health. How could this lovely dream be possible? They say that, preliminary studies indicate xanthohumol, a compound found in hops, inhibits a family of enzymes which trigger cancer, as well as help the body detoxify carcinogens. While I cant pronounce xanthohumol even after a number of drinks, Im happy to hear about this latest news on how healthy consuming a few cold ones is (along with the known benefits of wine, cocktails, and highballs, this means its probably pretty unhealthy not to drink).
Posted by: Mike ||
01/18/2008 11:51 ||
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Its National Thesaurus Day. Paleontologists estimate the that Thesaurus lived in North America 400 million years ago, and was a large, sizable, substantial, great, huge, immense, enormous, extensive, colossal, massive, mammoth, vast, tremendous, gigantic, giant, monumental, mighty, gargantuan, elephantine, titanic, mountainous, Brobdingnagian; towering, tall, high, lofty; outsize, oversized,; capacious, voluminous, jumbo, goodly-portioned beast. Its diet consisted mostly of young songwriters.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/18/2008 06:32 ||
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Thank you. This sure beats Brittany for a laugh!
We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication of
The Astrological Magazine
will cease with the December 2007 issue.
You'd think that a bunch of astrologers would've seen that coming.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/18/2008 12:07 ||
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RB definitively needs an ironymeter, or an irony graphic.
The diplomatic stand-off with Russia entered a dangerous new phase on Wednesday as British officials denounced "a pattern of intimidation" by Russia's security services against British Council staff.
The Foreign Office complained of unacceptable behaviour, after Russians working at British Council offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg were called in for questioning by the FSB, the successor to the KGB, and visited at home by interior ministry officials.
Stephen Kinnock, the head of the council's St Petersburg office, was stopped and detained for an hour for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and driving the wrong way down a one-way street. British officials denied Kinnock, the son of former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, had been drinking, saying he had refused to take a breath test and called for consular assistance in line with Foreign Office guidelines. One official said Kinnock had been followed home after dining with friends in what the official described as "a pattern of intimidation intended to disrupt the British Council". The organisation said it was deeply concerned for the safety of its employees.
The St Petersburg office was forced to close on Wednesday night, after its staff were summoned for FSB questioning for the second time in 24 hours. The British Council will decide today on whether it is able to keep its regional offices open while its staff are being put under intense FSB pressure. The organisation had attempted to continue its work this week in defiance of Moscow's order to close the regional offices, on the grounds that the order was illegal under international law and incompatible with bilateral agreements. Russian officials blame Britain for the collapse of talks last year aimed at reviewing status of cultural organisations. The failure of the talks, they argue, left the British Council without a legal footing in Russia. Russia's ambassador to London, Yuri Fedotov, was summoned to the Foreign Office to hear British complaints. Later he said, "now we are really experiencing what can be called a crisis", adding that he saw no immediate prospect of any improvement.
The battle over the British Council is the latest in a series of skirmishes between London and Moscow starting with the murder in November 2006 of the Russian dissident and former FSB agent, Alexander Litvinenko. It worsened with Russia's refusal to extradite Britain's principal suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, the subsequent tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats and restrictions on visas for Russian officials.
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, issued a statement on Wednesday saying: "Any intimidation or harassment of officials is obviously completely unacceptable. The only losers from any attack on the British Council are Russian citizens who want to use the British Council — and the reputation of the Russian government." Peter Ricketts, the head of the British diplomatic service, told Fedotov that any "attack" on Britain's cultural arm would damage the Russian government's reputation.
Russian officials say that the British Council's Moscow offices could be targeted next if no agreement, encompassing the status of cultural organisations and the availability of British visas for Russian diplomats, was reached.
Miliband has already promised to respond, with the further expulsion of Russian diplomats now an option. The FSB — Russia's main domestic counter-terrorism agency — on Wednesday said it called in the British Council's Russian workers to warn them they might fall victim to a British "provocation". "It was not a questioning. The British Council employees talked to the Federal Security Officers, who explained to them that the British organisation works illegally," an FSB source told the news agency Interfax.
Russia has announced that it will not renew Kinnock's visa nor those of other regional British staff, and will not give new visas. On Wednesday pro-Kremlin politicians and former KGB generals denounced Britain's move and called for further punitive action.
Poor relations
November 2006: Alexander Litvinenko dies from radioactive poisoning
May 2007: Russia rejects UK extradition request for suspect Andrei Lugovoi
July 2007: Russian diplomats are expelled from London and Moscow retaliates by expelling four British diplomats
December 2007: Kremlin orders closure of British Council offices
Monday: British Council office in St Petersburg reopens. Kremlin promises punitive measures against the organisation
Tuesday: FSB question council's Russian staff. Police detain Stephen Kinnock, director of the St Petersburg office - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
And from the comment section:
From Mike the Marine yesterday:
[Sgt] McNulty might derive some comfort from the fact that the presiding judge is a former Marine. Circuit Court Judge William OMalley was a lance corporal in the early 1960s and is known around the Chicago Courthouse for wearing a Marine Corps pin on his lapel and celebrating the Corps birthday each November.
The court date is set for tomorrow, January 18th, at 1330 hours at the District 29 Court House on Belmont and Western. Unfortunately, I can't be there, but I will post updates when I get them.
Chicago Tribune's John Kass has two editorials on the case.
This whole incident started and will end with one man - Jay Grodner. I hope he does the right thing by the Marine. This could all be over tomorrow...or not.
In case you were wondering, this case was brought to my attention and I tried, TRIED, to get anyone in the media to take the ball and run with it. Offered exclusivity, contacts, photos, reports, etc.
For a variety of reasons, no one wanted it.
So, as a resort of last measure, I posted it here at Blackfive (in the Bust Their Chops category) and emailed it to a few Marines I knew who would get the story out on their networks (thank you, Seamus, Jay and Joe). After thousands of emails, hundreds of comments, many offers of support (financial and moral), a few threats, and finally media interest, this story was one of the first big blogosphere efforts of 2008.
It got noticed everywhere.
Thank you to John Kass for covering the story. If you are so inclined, send him a thank you message for covering the story fairly.
In the end, though, it was the military family that brought this story to national attention. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines - us doggies, squids, zoomies, and jarheads - that refused to let this abuse go unnoticed. This is one of those times where we dropped the inter-service rivalry and stepped up for one of our own.
Civilian America rallied to our cause, too. I can't tell you how many emails I received from civilians in support of Sergeant McNulty. The reaction of Chicago Police and Firemen backing the Sergeant was astounding. Tons, and I mean tons, of lawyers sent offers to work pro bono and messages of support and advice for the Sergeant. I almost take back every negative thing I've said about their profession.
And, last...the most magnificent reaction was from the Viet Nam veterans. It was the most intense response from them that I've witnessed in a long time. I received more email - full of emotion and commitment - from Viet Nam vets that essentially said in various ways:
"We will not let what happened to us, happen to you, Marine."
I do not pretend to know what will happen tomorrow in court. Attorney Jay Grodner had asked for a continuance so that he could bring in some hired guns.
But I do know that my brothers that fought in Viet Nam are right.
We won't let this happen to you, Sergeant McNulty.
Kolkata, August 2: The death of a Muslim woman, who was caught in a blaze as the locals refused to allow entry to male fire-fighters to rescue her, in Colootola, central Kolkata, recently has spurred the West Bengal Fire Services Department to propose the induction of women fire-fighters.
National Elections in India must be imminent
If the proposal gets the nod of the State Finance Ministry, the West Bengal Fire services will be the first to have women as fire-fighters.
Fire department sources said the Colootola incident was not the only one of its kind. What prompted the State Government to moot the plan is several such cases where women of the Muslim community refused to be escorted out of the fire zone by male fire-fighters.
We have a problem with women of Muslim community who do not want to be rescued by male fire-fighters even when they are on the verge of death. This has prompted me to think of raising a women force, said Pratim Chatterjee, Minister for Fire Services.
It'd prompt me to say "too bad" before going to lunch.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) which has ruled Bengal for over 3 decades is worried about their Muslim vote bank.
The fire services departments plan and the recommendations have gone to the Chief Ministers Secretariat, said officials. The proposals will then be placed before the Finance Department and finally before the Cabinet. At present, the Fire Services department has 700 vacancies. The department wants at least 5 per cent of the posts to be filled by women, the minister said.
The minister also said he was planning to have a 25-member rapid action fire force which will be trained to fight fires of great magnitude. It will be raised along the lines of the National Security Guards who are always ready to tackle any emergency anywhere in the State, said Chatterjee.
The Kolkata Police have welcomed the decision. We have women police here and they are doing excellent job. I think if we have women fire-fighters, it will help the department to do its job much better, sai dAnuj Sharma, DCP, headquarters of Kolkata Police.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/18/2008 05:41 ||
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We have women police
You don't need to be strong to carry and fire a pistol (a 50cal MG that is another thing) but firemen need to carry people and in proportaion to their own weight men can carry marger loads than women (ie a man can carry another man easier, faster and for longer distances tahnn a woman can carry another woman). This will translate in deaths. The corecct path if you wer not a bunch of commies allied with islmamo-fascism) would have been to have those who opposed the entrance to male firefighters being indicted for murder and executed.
#2
".........but firemen need to carry people and in proportaion to their own weight men can carry marger loads than women"
I agree with your logic JFM, but it did't stop the United States Army from deleting the "fireman's carry" many years ago, from it's physical fitness test. Wounded buddy be damned, along with changing that heavy 2.5 truck tire and many other manly tasks.
#3
It's oddly gratifying that this situation leads to the opening of a career field to women in a part of the world where most women's job possibilities are limited. JFM, Besoeker, your logic is impeccable but incorrect; in this case the alternative to women carrying women, however poorly, is no one carrying women who then die in the flames because of cold-hearted stupidity. Similarly, units in Iraq like to have a woman on the team to search those dressed in female clothing without giving offence -- who have surprisingly often found a bad guy cross-dressing.
First you work with the culture as it is... then you can change it. As the famous British soldier said about suttee, "We, too, have a tradition. When men burn a woman, we hang them. So you follow your tradition and then we will follow ours." Or something like that. There was something in the middle about building gallows alongside the pyre.
#7
Touché TW, well said. However, I believe, that a careful reading of history and yes tradition reveals women were ordained to a.... higher calling than common labor, stomping out fires or soldiering. I blame both wars and men for permitting this unfortunate social digression. I fear it will lead to no good. It's lunch at Fouquet's for the bride and I tomorrow. Wish you and Trailing husband could join.
#8
To paraphrase Ambrose about a medic attempting to help a nazi soldier, "I went to administer aid, he was bleeding badly, the soldier asked if there was jewish blood in the kit. I told him that I didn't know, so he refused treatment. He died."
We have women in our fire department and all over western Kansas - that is not the issue. Interior fire/rescue sucks (is difficult) even in training situations. This is not a pc pt test, there is true physical exertion in a structure fire rescue and genetalia be damned the people who go in must be able to perform - as there are plenty of men on our department who should not go in either. Their problem is a cultural one and they may even find this proposal rediculous. Women changing into gear in front of men, would they need to have a relative drive them to the scene, nomex burkas, headscarfs off for scba gear, so on etc. So yea, if they are willing to die for their religious beliefs so be it.
#9
TW. YOu missed the last part. The one after being executed for murder. And given that it is in India, suttee seems ideal for dealing with those who hinder the work of firemen.
#10
We have a problem with women of Muslim community who do not want to be rescued by male fire-fighters even when they are on the verge of death.
And yet in the very first paragraph.
The death of a Muslim woman, who was caught in a blaze as the locals refused to allow entry to male fire-fighters to rescue her
Islam in a nutshell. It's not OUR choice we're letting her burn to death, she wants it!
Posted by: Charles ||
01/18/2008 16:21 Comments ||
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#11
This story shows the deep systemic problems with Islam. This issue brought up in the article is like a mad hatter's tea party. Take an emergency room in most places in the western world. Male and female are often naked on the emergency room table. No big deal. The primary mission is to save lives.
If the muzzies want to make a big deal if a woman or a man rescues the opposite sex during a fire, then stupidity will sort them out in this society. It is THEIR problem and they have to face THEIR problem themselves. Let them deal with their stupidity, and the rest of the world can go on and learn from others that have met success in firefighting and rescue techniques.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2008 17:38 Comments ||
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#12
We have a problem with women of Muslim community who do not want to be rescued by male fire-fighters even when they are on the verge of death.
So do I, but---I'd guess---my problem is different.
#13
As an aside, my niece is a firefighter, and in rookie school she carried her partner (twice her weight) out through the maze faster than he carried her. Muscle, coordination, balance, and spacial awareness are worth a lot more than shear bulk.
Coimbatore: The Coimbatore City Police on Thursday arrested the founder-director of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Ingrid Newkirk, for blindfolding the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Park on Wednesday as part of the organisations protest against the Supreme Courts nod for jallikattu.
The police also arrested a watchman and contract labourer in charge of the statue, Sundaram, and coordinator, Campaign and Legal Affairs of PETA, N.G. Jayasimha, on charges of abetment.
Ms. Ingrid Newkirk on Wednesday urged children to speak out against jallikattu as part of her campaign, stating that the sport was in violation of the principles of non-violence propagated by him.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
01/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Ms. Ingrid Newkirk said that the whole issue was born out of a misunderstanding.
Oh, dear. How coarse and vulgar for the locals to misunderstand Ingrid's little theater piece. Just an assumption, but I'll bet Ingrid is neither Indian nor Hindu.
"Forum warriors" with too much time on their hands, BUT, it gives a nice insight about the world view of the jihadis cheerleaders & wannabes : sheer hubris, false expectations and misconceptions about the ennemy (though, to be frank, so far, we've only shown them appeasement and cultural surrender), and irredentism (if the oppressed muslims of France are not oppressed anymore by the racist governement thanks to that terror attack, then, they will be able to... create terror cells! Brilliant! Let's negociate with these people!).
#1
If they have a "Terrorist Attack" in Paris, will we even notice it among the car-be-ques, and other "Festiities"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2008 18:52 Comments ||
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WAFF.com > MEMRI.org > EK-LS.org forum > HARAKAT AL-SHABAB AL MUJAHIDEEN CALLS FOR ATTACKS ON CAPITAL CITIES OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN THE PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN SOMALIA.
Also from WAFF > GLOBALRESEARCH.CA - AMERICA'S "DIVIDE AND RULE" STRATEGIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST [long]; + NEWSRU - RUSSIA THINKING ABOUT SETTING UP MILITARY [S-400 Missle] BASES IN BOSNIA, SERBIA TO COUNTER US BMD. Only thinking about it thus far.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A recent 
