** U S A. Alistair Cooke's 'bones stolen'
By Guto Harri, BBC News, New York
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4552742.stm

Alistair Cooke was mourned on both sides of the Atlantic [caption]
An investigation is under way in New York into allegations that the
bones of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke were stolen before his
cremation. Mr Cooke, known for the Letter from America he broadcast
for the BBC, died almost two years ago, aged 95.

According to the New York Daily News his bones were stolen by a
criminal ring trading body parts. They were later sold by a biomedical
tissue company now under investigation, the paper claims.

This is a grim and ghoulish tale which has understandably appalled
everyone who knew Alistair Cooke.

When he died of cancer in March 2004 his body was taken to a funeral
home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Two days later the family
received his ashes.

Dental implants

As tributes were paid on both sides of the Atlantic to this iconic
broadcaster, his family grieved.

Now they have been told that body snatchers allegedly surgically
removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a
company supplying parts for use in dental implants and various
orthopaedic procedures.

The US attorney general's office in Brooklyn is investigating an
elaborate ring involving funeral directors, surgeons and
entrepreneurs.

Alistair Cooke's daughter, Susan Kittredge, said she was shocked and
saddened. And, as the cause of his death was at least partially bone
cancer, she was equally appalled that patients in need of healthy
transplant pieces could have received these diseased bones (via Terry
Krueger, DXLD) And here`s the original story:

TV HOST COOKE'S BODY PLUNDERED BY GHOULS
By WILLIAM SHERMAN, NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The ghoulish body parts for sale ring stole the bones of "Masterpiece
Theatre" host Alistair Cooke just before he was cremated, the Daily
News has learned.

The celebrated broadcaster and actor died March 30, 2004, of lung
cancer that spread to his bones. The next day, without permission of
any family members, body snatchers surgically carved out the 95-year-
old's diseased bones.

The bones were sold for more than $7,000 to two tissue processing
companies for eventual transplant procedures, sources told The News.

"I hope those guys burn in hell for what they did," said longtime
Cooke family attorney David Grossberg.

The alleged leader of the body-snatching ring is Michael
Mastromarino, whose operations are under investigation by the Brooklyn
district attorney's office.

Mastromarino ran Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd., a tremendously
profitable tissue recovery business that sold body parts, including
bone, skin and cardiac valves.

After processing, Cooke's bones could have been used for dental
implants or numerous orthopedic procedures including dowels for
damaged spines.

Cooke's remains were sold by Mastromarino to processing companies
Regeneration Technologies Inc., of Alachua, Fla., and Tutogen
Medical Inc., of Paterson, N.J.

A spokesman for Tutogen did not return a telephone call. A spokesman
for Regeneration Technologies had no comment.

But Cooke's daughter, Susan Kittredge, who learned what happened to
her father only last week, told The News she was "shocked and
saddened that following his death, parts of his body were illegally
sold for transplant."

"That people in need of healing should have received his body parts,
considering his age and the fact that he was ill when he died, is as
appalling to the family as is that his remains were violated," she
said.

The use of cancerous bone for transplant is a violation of Food and
Drug Administration regulations and the use of body parts from the
aged also is against transplant protocol.

But in paperwork given the two processing companies, Mastromarino
allegedly changed Cooke's "cause of death" to heart attack and
changed his age from 95 to 85, according to sources.

Mastromarino, along with his former partner Joseph Nicelli, an
embalmer, are being probed for allegedly forging hundreds of such
records in their business, which ran from 2000 until October 2005,
when The News first disclosed the details of the Brooklyn probe.

Mastromarino routinely paid funeral directors for each corpse
provided to his company. Cooke's corpse was picked up at his Fifth
Ave. home by the New York Mortuary Services Inc., a private funeral
home at 2242 First Ave. Kittredge said she got what she believed to be
her father's ashes two days later.

Timothy O'Brien, head of New York Mortuary Services did not return
calls. His attorney had no comment.
Originally published on December 22, 2005 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD)

Another version:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../ixportal.html

(Telegraph, via Bruce MacGibbon, DXLD)

(DXLD 5-220)

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