New York Daily News

NEW YORK – The ring involved in the theft and sale of body parts stole the bones of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke just before he was cremated, the New York 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, the 95-year-old’s bones were surgically removed.

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 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.”

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 investigated 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 Avenue home by the New York Mortuary Services Inc., a private funeral home. Kittredge said she got what she believed to be her father’s ashes two days later.

“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,” Kittredge said.

Timothy O’Brien, head of New York Mortuary Services, did not return calls. His attorney had no comment.

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