this is excellent
X(rays) mark spot for ghouls
Gruesome photos show corpses torn open,
pipes used to replace bones
BY WILLIAM SHERMAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Prosecutors displayed images yesterday that they say show how ghouls used PVC pipe in place of bones they removed from bodies.
The disturbing images drive home the depravity of the illicit scheme: Corpses of loved ones ripped open, their bones callously replaced with plumber's pipe.
Gloves, aprons and PVC pipes were stuffed into hundreds of fresh corpses - disguising the body-snatching ring's thievery that fueled nearly $5 million in profits on the transplant market, according to indictments filed yesterday.
The pictures were the most gut-wrenching of the new developments in the notorious body-parts-for-sale ring, as Brooklyn prosecutors hit Michael Mastromarino, Joseph Nicelli and two lesser principals with 122 counts of body-stealing, grand larceny, forgery and other charges.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes revealed the ring made $4.7 million over four years, getting corpses from between 30 and 40 funeral homes in the metropolitan area and other states. Hynes said funeral home directors were paid $1,000 per corpse by the alleged body-snatchers.
Indictments of several funeral-home owners are expected in the near future, according to sources close to the investigation.
"There was an utter disregard for human decency," said Hynes, flanked by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Department of Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn and a phalanx of NYPD Major Case Squad detectives and prosecutors who worked on the probe.
The four men were charged with forging body donor consent forms, which were passed along to five major tissue processing companies. They in turn sold the body parts to hospitals and other health-care providers for transplant into unsuspecting patients.
"Their callousness is incalculable," Hynes said.
Prosecutors want the ghouls to repay their illicit gains, and will move to seize the assets and properties of the defendants - including numerous bank accounts and their personal homes.
The scheme, first detailed in the Daily News last October, involved the sale of body parts into the billion-dollar-a-year market for transplants, including bone for dental implants and orthopedic procedures, skin for burn victims and cosmetic procedures, and cardiac valves for those with heart ailments.
Thousands of transplant recipients throughout the United States, Canada and Europe got body parts beginning in 2001 from the Mastromarino-Nicelli operation run under the corporate name Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd., of Fort Lee, N.J., and Brooklyn, and other corporate names.
Corpse-cutters Lee Cruceta, 33, of Monroe, in Orange County, and Chris Aldorasi, 33, of Staten Island, both of whom worked with Mastromarino, also were indicted.
Gruesome X-rays and photos showing the desecrated and rotting corpses were displayed during Hynes' press conference on the probe, which involved 1,077 bodies illicitly plundered for bone and tissue.
After removing all the bones below the waist to the ankle, the alleged body-snatchers "used screws to screw the [real] feet to the PVC pipe" before putting shoes on the corpses, said Assistant District Attorney Josh Hanshaft, who is prosecuting the case.
The corpse stuffing was designed to disguise the excavations by filling out clothed bodies at wakes and open-coffin ceremonies.
When he looked at the photos, Anthony Dumaine, whose father was carved up, broke into tears.
"I'm numb, I'm numb, nobody deserves that," said Dumaine, 41, of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn.
His father, Thomas Dumaine, died at 79, in September 2003, and was taken to a funeral home, where he was cut up for cash without permission from next of kin.
"I'm horrified. I said 'Goodbye' to him once, and now this," he said.
The document-forgery included changes to medical history, age, cause of death and even the Social Security number of the deceased - so body parts that ordinarily would be rejected because of age or disease could be successfully marketed.
"Invariably, the detectives found that the deceased were made younger and healthier on paper," Kelly said.
While the relatives of several of the deceased victims winced and occasionally cried, the four ghouls sat stone-faced and silent during their arraignment yesterday afternoon before Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judge John Walsh.
All pleaded not guilty to the charges shortly before Michael Vecchione, chief of Hynes' rackets squad, made his bail demands during a furious hour-long debate with defense attorneys.
"This is nothing short of a case of medical terrorism," Vecchione said.
Lawyers for the four defendants insisted their clients did not forge any documents, were all married with children, and were not flight risks.
Walsh listened patiently and set bail at $1.5 million for Mastromarino, $250,000 for Nicelli and $500,000 for both Cruceta and Aldorasi.
As of last night, none of the four had posted bail.
Gruesome photos show corpses torn open,
pipes used to replace bones
BY WILLIAM SHERMAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Prosecutors displayed images yesterday that they say show how ghouls used PVC pipe in place of bones they removed from bodies.
The disturbing images drive home the depravity of the illicit scheme: Corpses of loved ones ripped open, their bones callously replaced with plumber's pipe.
Gloves, aprons and PVC pipes were stuffed into hundreds of fresh corpses - disguising the body-snatching ring's thievery that fueled nearly $5 million in profits on the transplant market, according to indictments filed yesterday.
The pictures were the most gut-wrenching of the new developments in the notorious body-parts-for-sale ring, as Brooklyn prosecutors hit Michael Mastromarino, Joseph Nicelli and two lesser principals with 122 counts of body-stealing, grand larceny, forgery and other charges.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes revealed the ring made $4.7 million over four years, getting corpses from between 30 and 40 funeral homes in the metropolitan area and other states. Hynes said funeral home directors were paid $1,000 per corpse by the alleged body-snatchers.
Indictments of several funeral-home owners are expected in the near future, according to sources close to the investigation.
"There was an utter disregard for human decency," said Hynes, flanked by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Department of Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn and a phalanx of NYPD Major Case Squad detectives and prosecutors who worked on the probe.
The four men were charged with forging body donor consent forms, which were passed along to five major tissue processing companies. They in turn sold the body parts to hospitals and other health-care providers for transplant into unsuspecting patients.
"Their callousness is incalculable," Hynes said.
Prosecutors want the ghouls to repay their illicit gains, and will move to seize the assets and properties of the defendants - including numerous bank accounts and their personal homes.
The scheme, first detailed in the Daily News last October, involved the sale of body parts into the billion-dollar-a-year market for transplants, including bone for dental implants and orthopedic procedures, skin for burn victims and cosmetic procedures, and cardiac valves for those with heart ailments.
Thousands of transplant recipients throughout the United States, Canada and Europe got body parts beginning in 2001 from the Mastromarino-Nicelli operation run under the corporate name Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd., of Fort Lee, N.J., and Brooklyn, and other corporate names.
Corpse-cutters Lee Cruceta, 33, of Monroe, in Orange County, and Chris Aldorasi, 33, of Staten Island, both of whom worked with Mastromarino, also were indicted.
Gruesome X-rays and photos showing the desecrated and rotting corpses were displayed during Hynes' press conference on the probe, which involved 1,077 bodies illicitly plundered for bone and tissue.
After removing all the bones below the waist to the ankle, the alleged body-snatchers "used screws to screw the [real] feet to the PVC pipe" before putting shoes on the corpses, said Assistant District Attorney Josh Hanshaft, who is prosecuting the case.
The corpse stuffing was designed to disguise the excavations by filling out clothed bodies at wakes and open-coffin ceremonies.
When he looked at the photos, Anthony Dumaine, whose father was carved up, broke into tears.
"I'm numb, I'm numb, nobody deserves that," said Dumaine, 41, of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn.
His father, Thomas Dumaine, died at 79, in September 2003, and was taken to a funeral home, where he was cut up for cash without permission from next of kin.
"I'm horrified. I said 'Goodbye' to him once, and now this," he said.
The document-forgery included changes to medical history, age, cause of death and even the Social Security number of the deceased - so body parts that ordinarily would be rejected because of age or disease could be successfully marketed.
"Invariably, the detectives found that the deceased were made younger and healthier on paper," Kelly said.
While the relatives of several of the deceased victims winced and occasionally cried, the four ghouls sat stone-faced and silent during their arraignment yesterday afternoon before Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judge John Walsh.
All pleaded not guilty to the charges shortly before Michael Vecchione, chief of Hynes' rackets squad, made his bail demands during a furious hour-long debate with defense attorneys.
"This is nothing short of a case of medical terrorism," Vecchione said.
Lawyers for the four defendants insisted their clients did not forge any documents, were all married with children, and were not flight risks.
Walsh listened patiently and set bail at $1.5 million for Mastromarino, $250,000 for Nicelli and $500,000 for both Cruceta and Aldorasi.
As of last night, none of the four had posted bail.