canoilers
12-24-2005, 12:50pm
Body parts scandal rocks N.Y.
By AP AND CP
A picture of Michael Bruno, along with his death certificate and cremation certificate, is shown yesterday in New York. Authorities believe Bruno's body parts, and those of hundreds of other people, including British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, inset, were illegally harvested and sold on the black market. (AP)
NEW YORK -- Michael Bruno's life had been uncomplicated: He was an immigrant who worked hard, spoke his mind and succumbed to kidney cancer two years ago at 75.
"Typical Italian cab driver," recalled his son, Vito. "He had an opinion about everything."
It was only after death that his story became ghoulish.
Authorities believe his body and those of hundreds of other people, including famed British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, were secretly carved up in the back rooms of several funeral parlours citywide to remove human bone, skin and tendons without required permission from their families. Authorities allege the body parts were then sold for a profit.
Some of the tissue may have even ended up in Canada.
Worse, health officials fear some of the stolen body parts were diseased, and could infect patients who received them in skin grafts, dental implants or other orthopedic procedures, a risk concealed by paperwork doctored with forged signatures and false information.
"It's not just disrespectful to my father," said Vito Bruno, who has sued one of the funeral homes. "It's an absolutely hideous crime against other people."
In the Cooke case, authorities confirmed this week that investigators contacted the late broadcaster's family after finding paperwork indicating his bones had been removed and sold by a Fort Lee, New Jersey, tissue bank, Biomedical Tissue Services, before he was cremated. Cooke, best known as the host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, died from cancer last year at 95 in Manhattan.
The probe, first reported by the New York Daily News in October, has uncovered other gruesome images. In one instance, the corpse of a Queens grandmother that investigators exhumed last month had nearly all the bones removed below the waist and replaced with PVC pipes.
A state grand jury in Brooklyn has been hearing evidence against at least a half-dozen funeral homes in the borough and against Biomedical Tissue Services.
Authorities allege that they illegally profited by conspiring to sell stolen body parts, and say indictments could be handed up early next year.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2005/12/24/1367143-sun.html
By AP AND CP
A picture of Michael Bruno, along with his death certificate and cremation certificate, is shown yesterday in New York. Authorities believe Bruno's body parts, and those of hundreds of other people, including British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, inset, were illegally harvested and sold on the black market. (AP)
NEW YORK -- Michael Bruno's life had been uncomplicated: He was an immigrant who worked hard, spoke his mind and succumbed to kidney cancer two years ago at 75.
"Typical Italian cab driver," recalled his son, Vito. "He had an opinion about everything."
It was only after death that his story became ghoulish.
Authorities believe his body and those of hundreds of other people, including famed British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, were secretly carved up in the back rooms of several funeral parlours citywide to remove human bone, skin and tendons without required permission from their families. Authorities allege the body parts were then sold for a profit.
Some of the tissue may have even ended up in Canada.
Worse, health officials fear some of the stolen body parts were diseased, and could infect patients who received them in skin grafts, dental implants or other orthopedic procedures, a risk concealed by paperwork doctored with forged signatures and false information.
"It's not just disrespectful to my father," said Vito Bruno, who has sued one of the funeral homes. "It's an absolutely hideous crime against other people."
In the Cooke case, authorities confirmed this week that investigators contacted the late broadcaster's family after finding paperwork indicating his bones had been removed and sold by a Fort Lee, New Jersey, tissue bank, Biomedical Tissue Services, before he was cremated. Cooke, best known as the host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, died from cancer last year at 95 in Manhattan.
The probe, first reported by the New York Daily News in October, has uncovered other gruesome images. In one instance, the corpse of a Queens grandmother that investigators exhumed last month had nearly all the bones removed below the waist and replaced with PVC pipes.
A state grand jury in Brooklyn has been hearing evidence against at least a half-dozen funeral homes in the borough and against Biomedical Tissue Services.
Authorities allege that they illegally profited by conspiring to sell stolen body parts, and say indictments could be handed up early next year.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2005/12/24/1367143-sun.html