March 12, 2004 -- A prominent Staten Island funeral director has been accused of selling cadavers to the U.S. Army for blowing up in landmine experiments after they had been donated for science.

A new report claims John Scalia Sr., operator of the National Anatomical Service, sold seven cadavers to the Army last year instead of delivering them to a university. Scalia said his company, in 30 years of business, has shuttled hundreds of donated bodies from medical schools that don't need them to ones that do.

Scalia says he deals only with universities, not the Army. But last year, he said, seven corpses he took from Tulane University to the University of Virginia Center for Applied Bio-Mechanics wound up being used by the Army to test protective footwear against mines.

After an article in Harper's magazine this month accused Scalia of selling the bodies directly to the Army, Tulane ended its relationship with him, said university spokeswoman Mary Bitner Anderson.

Scalia said, "All I know from my records is that I transferred the bodies to them," Scalia said. "I would imagine the University of Virginia has a contract with the Army. But the original call came from the University of Virginia."

A spokeswoman there denied Scalia's claim, saying the school buys bodies only from the Virginia medical examiner.

Army spokesman Chuck Dasey said the Army paid Scalia up to $30,000 for the seven bodies.

Scalia said he could not access the records of the transaction, but said, "Sometimes, you work for a university and the check comes from a different place."

Donating a body to medical science is a low-cost and charitable alternative to a traditional burial - but few donors expect their corpses will be blown up.

Depending on the distance shipped, families are charged up to $600 for the body to be driven in a refrigerated truck to a university.

The market in bodies and body parts is under scrutiny after two men, including the head of the Willed Body Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, were charged with trafficking in stolen body parts.

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