The Reckoning

Season 1 / Episode 4

Sources:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
The Guardian
The New York Times
New York Daily News
New York Post
Brownstone Law
Investigation Discovery: Love, Honor, Betray
Bodysnatchers of New York
National Library of Medicine
The Sydney Morning Herald
Newsweek
Longreads

Transcript

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Welcome to You Should Be Sorry, a podcast dedicated to sharing real life scary stories of the unethical, the immoral, and the criminal. Podcast information and sources are listed in the episode notes. Follow the show on Instagram at You Should Be Sorry Pod and subscribe to the Pod's Patreon, where members get access to exclusive content and perks. You won't be sorry. While Michael Mastromarino was desperately trying to cover his tracks, authorities were uncovering more layers to the sinister crimes committed by BTS. Assistant District Attorney Josh Hansheft followed up with one of the companies listed on numerous FedEx receipts retrieved from the Daniel George funeral home. The company, Regeneration Technologies Incorporated, or RTI, was determined to be the destination for many of the bones being shipped out. Kings County subpoenaed RTI for documents related to bones and tissue received from BTS. One of the more upsetting discoveries made during this stage in the investigation was that BTS was tampering with very important paperwork, such as consent forms, medical history forms, and even death certificates. The first indication that something was strange about the forms was when ATA Hansheft discovered that some of the signatures on the forms didn't match up with other signatures like they should have. So, for example, the form that the next of kin fills out while preparing a funeral for a loved one, called a funeral contract, which would have the next of kin's signature on it, didn't look like the same signatures he was seeing on medical and donor consent forms. Obviously, you would expect that if you saw this person's signature on any other forms, it would look the same, or at least similar. I know there's always room for a little error when signing your name. I mean, my signature is basically just a long squiggly line and it doesn't even look like my name at all, honestly. But I can at least say that with every variation of my signature, you can still tell that I was the one signing it. In this case, ADA Hansheft noticed that on the tissue donation consent forms, the signatures looked completely different from those on the funeral contracts, even though it was the same name and information. The consent form in question was titled Consent for Donation of Anatomical Gift, and the consenting legal of kin would fill out the form and sign it if they wished to have their loved ones' bodies harvested for tissue donation. The fact that the funeral contracts and the consent for donation forms were completed and signed in different handwriting immediately set off alarm bells for the DA's office. Following the discovery of forged documents, authorities then followed up with families of those that had been on the list of tissue donors. ADA Hansheft said that 99.9% of those families did not give consent or sign any such forms. After confirming that forgery took place with the families of the deceased, the next step was to exhume the bodies. Exhumation of bodies is typically only done in the most dire of circumstances, as it can be extremely traumatic for the loved ones of the deceased. But to be sure that these individuals had been victims of this supposed body snatching ring, the bodies would have to be dug up and examined for any missing bones or tissue. One of the victims to have his body exhumed was Thomas Dumaine a Brooklyn native that had passed away from bladder cancer. His son, Anthony, was working with the district attorney's office to determine if his father had been on the donor list. When Thomas died, Anthony had arranged for his funeral to take place at Daniel George funeral home. He had made it especially clear that he did not want his father to be embalmed, stating, "his body had been through enough." When Thomas was exhumed and a new autopsy was performed, the medical examiner found PVC piping in place of bones throughout Thomas' body. This confirmed Anthony's fear that his father's body had been dissected and sold, despite the fact that Thomas had died from cancer. Along with forging consent forms, BTS was modifying forms involving medical history and the cause of death. They would change details on the death certificates so that the tissue would appear to be healthy and eligible for donation. Not only is this completely illegal, but it's highly unethical and would go on to pose a danger to thousands of transplant recipients, as a significant amount of that tissue being harvested in these funeral homes by BTS would never have been accepted by credible tissue banks given the health conditions of those donors. Alistair Cooke, a renowned British -American journalist, passed away in March of 2004 at the age of 95. His official cause of death was lung cancer. Prior to his death, he was a revered radio broadcaster and television host, widely regarded as a staple in journalism. He was even awarded an honorary knighthood in 1973 for his contributions. After his death, a scholarship program was named after him as a way to pay tribute. The Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award supports journalism students from the United Kingdom to undertake studies in the United States and vice versa. Alistair's daughter, Susan, arranged for his funeral service at a funeral home in Manhattan and requested his body be cremated and that his ashes be returned to the family. Alistair's dying wish was that his family sprinkle his ashes in Central Park from a Starbucks cup, which was obliged five days after his death. Susan was later informed by authorities that her father's body had not been cremated at all, and those ashes that she and her family spread across Central Park were not even his. Alistair's body was actually sold to BTS following the funeral service and was cut up and sold for over $7,000 to various tissue banks. Alistair was a highly undesirable candidate for tissue donation, as he was 95 years old at the time of his death, described by family members as frail. The lung cancer had metastasized in his body, spreading to his bones. Susan was quoted saying, "his bones are the last bones I would ever want to receive if I needed them". Alistair's medical forms and death certificate were modified to reflect no health problems or illness, and his age at the time of his death was changed from 95 to 85 years old. New Jersey native James Thornton Sr., who had died in 2004, was another victim of BTS. His daughter, Karen Del Rey, who never signed any donor consent forms, later allowed her father's body to be exhumed. He had been completely butchered. His body was missing most of its skin and bones. James had been documented as the 125th body that BTS had sold in the month of his death. By 2005, the FDA had ordered an official recall on thousands of tissue samples that were donated to tissue banks from BTS. Hospitals were made aware of the situation, and from there, transplant patients that had received the tainted tissue were also notified. Patients were encouraged to get tested for numerous transmittable diseases due to the tissue being inadequately screened and therefore could not be certain that the donated tissue was safe. One transplant recipient, Dayna Ryan, had received a letter explaining that the cadaver bones used in her spinal fusion years prior had been obtained against FDA regulations and that she was at risk for a number of diseases. The letter read: Dear Dayna, I am writing this letter to make you aware of information that was recently provided to me by the Food and Drug Administration. Unfortunately, it seems that the company that provided the donor bone used in your fusion cannot document that attainment of proper consent and screening for the bone from the donor family or the donor. The FDA and the CDC recommend that you be offered access to appropriate infectious disease screening. The testing would include a test for HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis. After reading the letter, Dayna was understandably distraught. She had undergone a spinal fusion in 2003 to repair a herniated disc in her lower spine. To repair the disc, bones were used from her own hip, as well as two cadaver bones. The surgery appeared to be a success, with Dayna and her husband, Tom, noting how it was the first time in years that Dayna could even feel warmth in her toes. Unfortunately, the surgery did not ultimately work for Dayna. Once the back brace was removed, Dayna noticed that her pain had come back tenfold. After examining Dayna and doing extensive imaging on her spine, it was determined that the surgery had failed and that Dayna had what the doctors called "failed back syndrome". Dayna was declared permanently disabled in December of 2004. In 2006, Dayna received her test results back after being screened for a panel of infectious diseases. She had tested positive for hepatitis B, an inflammatory disease that affects the liver. Her husband and son also had to be tested, as hepatitis can be transmitted via bodily fluids. Luckily, both of their test results were negative. When determining whether tissue is eligible for donation, standard procedure would be for the tissue to be tested for any infectious disease, beginning with a blood sample. If the blood was clear of any disease, the tissue would be considered viable for donation. Well, what BTS was doing was they were keeping blood samples stocked that had been previously screened and passed the screening process. So when they would accumulate new bodies and recover new tissue to sell, they would send out these blood samples for testing, knowing it would come back clear. So when Michael received his first subpoena from the Kings County District Attorney's Office, he called his cousin, Mario Gallucci, who is a criminal defense attorney in Brooklyn, New York. When Mario first reviewed the subpoena, he was initially disturbed. He had never even heard of an industry involving tissue harvesting or using cadaver tissue for transplants. He described his first impression of the industry as something out of a Frankenstein movie. Michael, along with three co-conspirators, were indicted on 122 counts, including enterprise corruption, a charge that could carry a 25-year sentence alone. In November of 2006, Michael Mastromarino, Chris Aldorasi, Lee Cruseta, and Joseph Nicelli were all arraigned in Brooklyn by the Supreme Court. The four defendants were tried separately and were all offered plea deals if they pled guilty to certain charges with other charges being dropped. On June 27, 2008, Michael Mastro marino pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption, reckless endangerment, and body stealing. He was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $4.6 million in restitution to the victims. After serving only five years of his sentence, Michael died on July 7th, 2013, at St. Luke's Hospital in New York at 49 years old. His cause of death? Bone cancer. I'm not kidding. He died of bone cancer. Karma is for real. Michael had been diagnosed with liver cancer that spread to his bones. Apparently, Michael himself had commented on the cosmic irony imparted upon him. Over 900 civil cases have been filed against Michael and BTS, many of the plaintiffs being recipients of donor tissue supplied by BTS. Many of the cases were settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Tissue recipient Dayna Ryan was quoted saying, "his sentence was light compared to mine. I was sentenced to life."