Shared by Michael Mastromarino Join now to see all activity Experience State University of New York Maritime College 15 years 3 months Chief Information Officer/Director of IT May 2021 - Present1. Screen Shot 2013-07-08 at 4.30.52 PM.png. The story of Dr. Michael Mastromarino a real-life ghoul, the mastermind behind a group who illegally harvested human bones, organs, tissue and other cadaver parts from individuals awaiting cremation and then selling the illegally obtained body parts to medical companies. It's poorly understood especially when compared to organ donation and lightly regulated, which makes it ripe for exploitation by the rare dishonest broker like Mastromarino. I never saw a body that was decomposing.. But how he went about that business later landed him a lengthy prison sentence. Were Making Nepo-Baby Merch for Actual Babies. [1] Of the numerous companies who purchased the illegally obtained body parts, or tissue, none had ever contacted the family member listed on the deceased consent forms to verify the consent, or even that the consenting person listed actually existed. Some may find this content disturbing. The American Association of Tissue Banks calls it a medical revolution, but here is the sad part: Many people who need transplants cannot get them because there simply are not enough to go arounda mere 25,000 donors a year to supply more than a million tissue transplants. He was born in Washington, D.C. and lived in Port St. Lucie for 13 years, coming from Maryland. After getting caught, he'd pled guilty to the charges without Karen knowing, and he was headed to prison. He was just a strong, silent, amazing presence. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS) was a Fort Lee, New Jersey, human tissue recovery firm that was shut down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)[1] on October 8, 2005,[2] after its president, Dr. Michael Mastromarino, and two other employees were convicted of illegally harvesting human bones, organs, tissue and other cadaver parts from individuals awaiting cremation, for forging numerous consent forms, and for selling the illegally obtained body parts to medical companies without consent of their families. He further lied by failing to cite when the deceased had died from AIDS or cancer; instead, he would state a different cause of death on the paperwork, which would allow the use of the tissue. Some of the body snatching occurred in a back room at the now-defunct Daniel George and Son Funeral Home on Bath Ave. in Bensonhurst, prosecutors said. The FDA said that its own investigation had revealed serious and widespread deficiencies at Mastromarinos company, and it shut the company down. The membrane around the heart can reupholster the brain after neurosurgery, and the membrane around the muscles of the thigh can sling up sagging bladders to control incontinence. RTI realized the need to sever ties with Mastromarino and to recall tissue received from him. Investigation Discoverys Love, Honor, Betray: Under Your Skin has Michaels now ex-wife, Barbra, and their two sons share their experiences when they learned of his operations. But what Mastromarino did was outrageous. Another day, he collapsed coming out of the bathroom with his scrub pants down around his ankles. In yet another incident, he was found in the bathroom with a hypodermic needle and blood on the floor, having left a patient under general anesthesia on the operating-room table. That day began for me an absolute nightmare. Prior to his retirement in 1996, he was a telecommunications manager for 30 years. She received degrees from Yale and Oxford before marrying a successful hedge fund manager. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. (CBS) NEW YORK, N.Y. - A Brooklyn man nicknamed the "bone snatcher," who had been charged with stealing bones, organ tissue and other body parts from more than 1,200 corpses, has reportedly died of bone cancer. Michael Mastromarino,SCPS RainBird Golf Irrigation Sales at Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply Tucson, AZ Michael Mastromarino Chief Information Officer/Director of IT at State University of. Besides, his renovated home at Waco is now on rent for $350 a night, and he surely earns a great deal from the rent. The sale ends today, so be sure to act fast. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google All rights reserved. I thought he was a great guy.. A beware of dog sign adorns the window; when I knock, a middle-aged woman appears behind the glass. Reifel said she first learned her husband had a drug problem between 1999 and 2000 when his office called me and told me that he was passed out on the floor, with a syringe in his arm, Oprah.comreported. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. But 'happily ever after' wasnt in the cards after a fairytale wedding. When Barbra met her future husband, Michael Mastromarino, she says she fell deeply in love with him and thought of him as her soul mate. He did it all illegally. But there are nowhere near enough willing donors to meet the demand for tissue, so the profit from one body can reach six figures. Who could have done it? 2023 Vox Media, LLC. It was sad that it had come to all of this, but to me, it kept my children and actually the world safer. Police say Michael dissected more than 1,000 dead bodies over the years. Iris Carreras covers crime for CBSNews.com, First published on July 8, 2013 / 7:48 PM. Corneas can restore clear vision. I did that without thinking about it.". The No. Michael Mastromarino, the dental surgeon who was convicted of harvesting organs and tissues from bodies without consent, died on Sunday from complications of metastatic liver cancer. Michael also owns a farmhouse. The book begins by explaining that as our life spans increase our parts wear out and that were lucky to be living in a new age of implantology: Just as orthopedists replace hips, knees, shoulders, etc.dentists replace teeth with implants. Mastromarinos principal contribution was the chapter on bone-grafting, which the book says is a whole new ball game. Grafting used to be difficult and painful, but according to Smile, breakthroughs in tissue engineering have come to the rescue, and today, we can literally put bone wherever we need it., Co-author Michael Wiland wouldnt say Mastromarino was the best in the country at this work, but he was a very competent young doctor. In 2005, police began investigating irregularities at Brooklyns now-defunct Daniel George & Son Funeral Home, the New York Times shared. Too bad non 00:26:02 The cops were stunned by the hydraulic table and the trap door, by the shocking fact that bones had been removed and replaced with crude plastic pipes. These were only the standard practices of funeral homes and tissue-banking, but they appeared so suspicious to assistant D.A. And then he began harvesting bodies for tissue. Michael had a drug problem; he abused intravenous pain medication. On the outside, Michael Mastromarino was seen as a successful dentist who had it all. "He had a syringe in his arm.". Michael Mastromarino, 49, was pronounced dead at 10am on Sunday at St. Luke's Hospital in Cornwall, New York according to prison officials. Tissue includes anything that's not an organ including tendons, ligaments, skin, bones, heart valves and corneas. Michaels firm would harvest body parts without the consent of the family members. "I didn't ask any further questions.". "I found out that I was a lot tougher than I might have guessed. "It seemed like a good life," she says. Advertisement . It was to meet sterility standards at the Daniel George, says Gallucci, that Mastromarino built with RTI and with the FDAs approval the so-called secret room. [citation needed], Other patients who received BTS-derived tissue and body parts include a Colorado woman who had to repeat her ACL replacement surgery after her first BTS tendon failed, an Ohio woman who developed syphilis after receiving a bone from BTS, and an Ohio man who developed both HIV and hepatitis C after receiving BTS bone implants in surgery.[18]. The cause was complications of metastatic liver cancer that had spread to his brain and bones. He was 49. Obituary. Most of the work in the beginning was at Joe Nicellis place in Bensonhurst, an imposing gray, windowless box called the Daniel George & Son Funeral Home. Thediscoveries there were likened to Frankenstein. In 2006, Mastromarino wascharged, along with two of his workers and an embalmer. Mastromarino employed Cruceta and other "cutters" who traveled to funeral homes to harvest the tissue from the newly dead. He didnt know. A search of the place revealed a hidden room with a sophisticated operating table and surgical equipment. After her husband was taken away by guards, Karen says she sat in her car and sobbed. Mastromarinos wealth skyrocketed, and he was soon living in a New Jersey mansion where he installed heaters under his driveway so he didnt have to shovel snow during winter, NPR reported. Michael Mastromarino | Financial Advisor - Virtus Investment Advisers, Inc | NC Michael Mastromarino Virtus Investment Advisers, Inc CRD#4222443 Investment Advisor in Wake Forest, NC Answer a few questions and get matched with an advisor. Even Cruceta, in his attempt to defend himself, abandoned the doctor, claiming to be just the brawn to Mastromarinos brains, an unwitting pawn in the alleged grave-robbing ring. Subscribe now! Mastromarinos brick house is grand for suburbia, though with the letter M writ large upon the welcome mat and the Lincoln and the Escalade crowded into the oval driveway, not perhaps as grand as he would like. "I was shattered.". Barbra Reifels nightmare came to an end when her ex-husband passed away. Cruceta sits slumped in his lawyers office, wearing a dark polo shirt and gray slacks, with a beeper at his waist. View Michael Mastromarino results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Pic credit: @AssociatedPress/YouTube. He was a dental surgeon who gave up his license after he got addicted to drugs. Unlike organ donation, where a heart or kidney goes straight from a donor to a recipient, tissue goes through many steps. He did not appear at a pretrial hearing in Philadelphia on Friday, but defense lawyer Charles A. Peruto Jr.. I am not opening that door, she announces, with arms crossed. In 2008, Michael Mastromarino was convicted of running an illegal enterprise that harvested body parts from corpses without the familys consent. [15], However, transplant patient Betty Pfaff was one person who suffered severe infection, septic shock, underwent dialysis and ultimately paralysis due to having received an implant made from infected cadaver tissue from Mastromarino's company. Karen says her husband taught her an important lesson about relationships -- there's never just one secret. As for Mr. Cooke, his daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, said in an article in New Lacey Spears: Blogger Mom Who Poisoned Her Son toDeath, Vlado Taneski: Journalist Who Wrote About the Murders HeCommitted, BTK Aka Dennis Rader: Family Man by Day, Killer and Pervert byNight. He lied to everyone that crossed his path.". He had actually come for the bodythat pale, wizened, cancer-ridden cadaver of a 95-year-old Englishman, stretched out now beneath the light in the embalming room. "I became very seduced by the lifestyle," she says. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. After his death, Julie Metz discovered her husband, Henry, had had multiple affairs. He was a member of the Savanna Club Golf Club, the Spin Club and the George Washington University Alumni Association. However, his drug addiction led to losing his medical license. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. I couldnt stop thinking about him and he obviously couldnt stop thinking about me.. Karen says she even overlooked signs that her husband was unfaithful and other marital issues because she didn't want to give up her Park Avenue lifestyle. But theres plenty of responsibility to go around. The worst part was that the owners would then get on the phone with Mastromarino, tell him that I basically dont want to workand the boss began to believe them. He was 49. She had prayed over many of them and had counseled parishioners never to cherish a corpse but to view it only as the empty vessel, a rather worthless item. Born in Boston, MA on July 23, 1929, a son of the late Joseph and Eutimia (Reppucci) Mastromarino, he attended Northeastern University in Boston for a short time before joining the US Air Force. Lauren Burns. Looking back, Julie says the shocking discovery she made that day helped her learn to depend on herself. There's a transportation fee. Madonna May Own a French Painting Thought to Have Been Destroyed in WWI. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. A prominent oral surgeon embarks on a new career path after an addiction to painkillers leads to the loss of his dental license.Prelude: A horrifying discove. Mastromarino is an Italian surname. This was then connected to Michael and his firm. The dentist, Michael Mastromarino, 44, appeared in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, pleading guilty to numerous charges of enterprise corruption, reckless endangerment and body stealing. He and his crew of organ and tissue harvesters set up a vast network to collect and sell as much bio material as they could find. This is the second installment in an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists series. Then, one morning, Henry collapsed on the kitchen floor. What did begin to disturb Cruceta was the disregard for signs of disease. (Photo courtesy of Barbra Reifel. But this was done without the consent of the persons family members whose body was being harvested. The former dentist insisted that he hadnt really been doing anything wrong. Love, Honor, Betray: Under Your Skin has Michaels now ex-wife, Barbra, and their two sons share their experiences when they learned of his operations. Dr. Michael Mastromarino died Sunday after battling liver and bone cancer. ), THE INTERROGATOR STAR ON WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE A CRIMINAL CRUMBLE: 'YOU WANT TO GET TO THE TRUTH'. He cared nothing for Cookes mind or manners. Death certificates, medical-history forms, consent papersall of it had been forged, making the dead appear willfully donated and, as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, younger and healthier on paper. Thus, it was not Susan Kittredge of Vermont who gave Alistair Cooke over to the knives but a fictitious Susan Quint of the Bronx. Reifel is the subject of Investigation Discovery's. In April 2003, Robert Ambrosino murdered his ex-fiance -- a 22-year-old aspiring actress -- by shooting her in the face with a .45-caliber pistol. All rights reserved. Then he removed the tissue and faked paperwork that showed he had obtained consent. "I had no part in any of the finances ever in our marriage, so it was enough for me to be told by my husband that he was working on deals," Karen says. The temptations and hazards of harvesting from funeral homes are all rather obvious, and yet the government had allowed it there, the tissue companies had bought from there, and no one had inspected vigorously enough to catch the violations. Mastromarino quit dentistry and legally obtained a license from New York state to sell body tissue. Dylan Eason and Isaiah Churchwell were convicted of murdering Cynthia William "Patrick" Alexander remains in prison for murder. I dont even know if Id had the strength. I said, If you went through it, I bet youd find out.. "He was just this perfect . Even though his exact net worth is not known, he earns an average salary of $68K, so he has undoubtedly amassed a hefty net worth for himself. The workers would fetch the corpse; Mastromarino would call Cruceta to say that we have a case, that he died yesterday of cardiac arrest, and you know, the body would be on the table waiting., The table was on the first floor and rose hydraulically with corpse and harvester to the second, where, as the police said, there was a secret room a virtual operating room, complete with the large and very bright overhead lighting associated with hospital surgery. This was the moment Cruceta had come for: Patient contactthat was always my thing. He had tried to get his wife to watch him work, but she always thought it was a disgusting job. Only the doctor seemed to understand. Plus in Philadelphia, they didnt even use cardboard boxes. Emergency personnel rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. As NPR wrote last year in our series: You can't sell body parts, the law is clear about that. George Santos Reportedly Stole From Fund for Disabled Vets Dying Dog. It was the giant washing machine at the end of the conveyor belt that allowed people to be recycledthe dead to return to life, and the living to depend on the dead. "It was almost like a dream," she says. GHOULS CUT UP MY DAD - Weeping son speaks out on shocking body snatch plot - Vito Bruno, Michael Bruno. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. less than 2 min read. Cruceta says they had only two freezers, so we tried to get everything out as fast as possible., Within 48 hours, Kittredge received the cremains but did not learn until just before Christmas 2005 that they were rather incomplete. Michael Mastromarino, 49, was the mastermind behind an illegal and profitable business from 2001-2005 that harvested corpses. He was with another woman. On this episode we discuss how the Brooklyn Bodysnatcher Michael Mastromarino had his dentistry license taken away, only to obtain a new license to supply tissue banks. ), BILL HALEYS SON CLAIMS ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK SINGER HAD A DARK SIDE, STRUGGLED FROM ALCOHOLISM IN MEMOIR. Love, Honor, Betray on ID is investigating the crimes of Michael Mastromarino, a former dentist, who became known as the Bodysnatcher because he was illegally selling tissue from dead bodies that he had harvested in the New York area. Her learn to depend on herself disgusting job Thought it was almost a! Were only the standard practices of Funeral homes and tissue-banking, but she always Thought it was too.... Was convicted of running an illegal enterprise that harvested corpses on July 8, 2013 / 7:48 PM and embalmer. Remains in prison for murder about that dark polo shirt and gray slacks, with arms.! Thinking about it. `` it All further questions. `` had a syringe in his arm... 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