Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Witness: Thieves Changed Corpse's Names To Hide Crime

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Syndicate

Witness: Thieves Changed Corpse's Names To Hide Crime

Written by DeadGirl
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
NEW YORK -- Participants in a ghoulish scheme to plunder corpses for body parts made up names for the deceased so that the tissue could never be traced as it was sold for use in unsuspecting transplant patients, one participant testified. Some corpses had signs of cancer, tuberculosis or other illnesses, Lee Cruceta testified Tuesday at the trial of another man charged in the scheme. Other bodies were visibly decrepit, Cruceta said. Cruceta, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, described the group's alleged activities in sometimes stomach-turning detail. He was testifying against Christopher Aldorasi, who is charged with enterprise corruption. Authorities say the 36-year-old was a cutter in the scheme. Aldorasi's lawyer, Robert Koppelman, branded Cruceta a "liar" during a break in testimony. Authorities say the ring trafficked in more than 1,000 body parts stolen from corpses at Northeastern funeral homes, taking in $6 million to $12 million between 2001 and 2005. The looted bodies included that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004. Cooke's daughter and relatives of the other deceased people have said they never authorized any donations. Unaware of the body parts' origins, doctors used them in disk replacements, knee operations, dental implants and other surgical procedures across the United States and in Canada. The scheme's mastermind, former oral surgeon Michael Mastromarino, pleaded guilty earlier last week to 14 charges, including enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment. http://www.wnbc.com/news/15709267/detail.html

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophilia Facts

Kentucky is home to one Presidential gravesite, Zachary Taylor.

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“Under the wide and starry sky. Dig the grave and let me lie.”

Adlai E. Stevenson

Grave Epigrams

The memory of ye Just is Blessed.
Oh! what is frail and Mortal Man
Or any of his Dying race,
That God should think to entertain
And freely save him by his Grace.

1775