Bodysnatching ring 'sold corpse parts'

Four men have been charged with running a bodysnatching ring that allegedly cut the bones of BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke from his corpse and sold them for transplants in a plot akin to “a cheap horror movie”, US authorities said today.

The group is accused of secretly carving up more than 1,000 bodies from 30 to 40 funeral homes and allegedly forging death certificates and organ-donor consent forms in order to sell the human bone and skin across America.