US: Funeral directors charged over body-part sales

Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for $1,000 (€710) each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a court heard.

The stolen bones, skin and tissue – which are nearly impossible to trace from donor to recipient because of forged documents – were transplanted in unsuspecting medical patients worldwide, the grand jury in Philadelphia found. The case will now go to trial.

Families of the dead had no idea the bodies were being ransacked.

Michael Mastromarino, a businessman and former dentist, ran the scheme with the help from a team of “cutters” who stole the body parts, authorities said.

Mastromarino, who ran a company called Biomedical Tissue Services, is already facing charges in New York for allegedly plundering 1,077 bodies, including those from Philadelphia.

“No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did,” Philadelphia district attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference.

Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, Gerald Garzone, 47, and James McCafferty, 37, were arrested yesterday on thousands of counts, ranging from running a corrupt organisation to forgery and theft of body parts.