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Corpse thief sentenced
The mastermind behind a ghoulish scheme that involved stealing hundreds of corpses and selling the parts for millions of dollars will spend 18 to 54 years in prison.
Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon who owned Biomedical Tissue Services, received the sentence on Friday in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
Mastromarino has admitted running the macabre operation from 2001 to 2005. He pleaded guilty to charges of enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment.
The bodies, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, were carved up without permission and were not medically screened.
They were sold around the country for dental implants, knee and hip replacements, and other procedures. About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by BTS. The mastermind behind a ghoulish scheme that involved stealing hundreds of corpses and selling the parts for millions of dollars will ... more -
1978: Charlie Chaplin's stolen body found
The coffin containing the body of Charlie Chaplin - missing since his grave was robbed 11 weeks ago - has been found.
It was dug up from a field about a mile away from the Chaplin home in Corsier near Lausanne, Switzerland.
The legendary comedian died on Christmas Day last year, aged 88. He was buried two days later in the village of Corsier in the hills above Lake Geneva.
Charlie would have thought it ridiculous
Lady Oona Chaplin
Swiss police have arrested two men - a Pole aged 24 and a Bulgarian aged 38 - and say they have confessed to stealing the coffin and reburying it.
Names of the accused have not been released, but police say they are both motor mechanics.
They were traced after police kept a watch on 200 phone kiosks and tapped the Chaplins' phone after the family received ransom demands of £400,000 for return of the body after it went missing in March. The coffin containing the body of Charlie Chaplin - missing since his grave was robbed 11 weeks ago - has been found. ... more -
3 accused of using corpse's head to smoke pot
The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.
Yet, Kevin Wade Jones Jr., 17, appeared almost indifferent as he relayed the bizarre description of his and two friends' activities at an Humble area graveyard, Adkins said.
"I just doubted it because it's very morbid, and I couldn't see anybody doing something like this," Adkins said Thursday.
Not until police went to the home of another Kingwood 17-year-old, Matthew Richard Gonzalez, did the officer believe the tale.
"He regurgitated in his plate of food when I asked him about it," Adkins said. "So I knew there was some truth to the story."
Get ready to see some really funny anti-marijuana propaganda... The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Hous... more
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Grave Robbing
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Grave Robbing
