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Claimed by: Tiffany Light // **Body Part Theft ** //
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**What is Body Part Theft? **

Body Part Theft has yet to be truly defined. This is a relatively new crime and is easily confused with Grave digging and Body Snatching. This crime of Body Part Theft is an act in which someone falsely and illegally uses the remains of corpse to trade and/or sell for personal gain, typically money. These criminals use bones and tissues (just to name a few) from the human remains and sell them to legalized medical institutes and organizations for large sums of money. The body parts are in turn used for people who are in desperate need of these parts to maintain life.

**Body Part Theft, Grave Digging, and Body Snatching **

Body part theft can easily be categorized with grave digging and/or body snatching. To some, they are the same thing, but to the government they are all different crimes. Grave Digging is where criminals actually dig up graves of the deceased in which they may turn to their next crime of using the remains or they may just be robbing the personal belongings of the deceased. Body Snatching is where the body of the deceased is actually stolen from the location it is supposed to be whether that be the cemetery, the morgue, the hospital, etc. Each of these crimes can lead from one to the other but are ultimately individual crimes. Although body part theft is a fairly new type of crime, grave digging and body snatching are ancient crimes.

**The History **

Body part theft originated from the crimes of grave digging and body snatching. The first case came about in 1319 where 4 students in Bologna stole bodies in order to use them for anatomy and medical research. Given the time of these crimes, it’s hard to say it was even considered a crime then. The punishment for body snatching was a fine or minimal imprisonment. The idea that the use of these cadavers was helping science and helping humans better understand our own anatomy was reason enough for the theft of bodies to be taken from their burial sites. This became as vastly growing crime and was strategically planned by those involved. The term “ressurectionists” stems from this ancient act as the name of those who would go into the graves and take the bodies. In turn families started taking more precaution in the burial of their loved ones by implementing new methods such as iron caskets, grave alarms, mortsafes which were iron structures built around the coffin, and even personally placing someone at the site to guard the graves. This eventually became a problem and it was time that the law stepped in to control it which led to the Anatomy Act of 1832 which made snatching bodies a criminal offense. Over the years this crime has not gone away but has gone underground. Those involved typically do not “snatch” bodies anymore but get their body parts from corpses inside the funeral homes or morgues.

__**The Michael Mastromarino Case **__

The Daniel George and Son Funeral Home was considered to be running a very legitimate business but when the New York PD investigated the business they found that there was more to it. They found a room that was used as as operating room and receipts for companies that purchase human tissue from corpses to be used in certain surgical procedures. Behind all of this was Michael Mastromarino, Joseph Nicelli and 2 other men who were not named. Mastromarino was a dentist who had his license revoked in 2000 for being addicted to Demerol. He then started his own company that would harvest bodies and was FDA registered. Nicelli was actually the one supplying Mastromarino with the bodies that he (Nicelli) was responsible for embalming for other funeral directors. Nicelli sold the funeral home but still had access so he would in turn sneak himself and Mastromarino into the business operating room, dissect the bodies for the organs, tissues, and/or bones that they needed, stuff the bodies to look as though they were not missing anything and then sew them up and put them back. In order to cover their tracks with the body parts they collected, they would forge death certificates as “proof” of where the parts were coming from. Mastromarino used the body parts to sell to legal companies across the US. This included everything from dental implants, skin grafts, heart valve replacements, to tissue carved from the bones. Mastromarino was charged on various counts, those being opening graves, body stealing, forgery, grand larceny, and racketeering. Mastromarino was also sued by many of his victims that received these falsely harvest body parts including Nelly Mejia, whose husband was supposed to be cremated but instead became a body used in Mastromarino’s scandal. Mastromarino was sentenced to 18-54 years in prison.

**﻿The Dangers: **

There are many, many dangers for those who fall victim to scandals such as these. The parts that come from these illegitimate sources are not FDA approved organizations and they are not properly removed, harvested, or checked. Many of the bodies that these tissues and parts were stolen from were probably rejected donors which means for their parts to be used is dangerous to another person’s health. There were 3 known patients who say they contracted Syphilis from the tainted parts they received. Some other medical issues can include disease and/or infection.

**What is the punishment? ** Like mentioned before, body part theft is an individual crime although it typically involves other crimes such as body snatching and grave digging. Therefore when someone is charged with one of them crimes, they are usually charged with others. Due to the crimes committed by Mastromarino, the New Jersey State Senate passed a bill, making it a first degree crime to trade human remains against the wishes of the deceased. This bill makes the first degree crime punishable for up to 20 years in prison and also makes falsifying donor records and/or knowingly purchasing or selling body parts against the donor’s wishes illegal. Other charges that could be included with body part theft are grave digging, larceny which in this case would be considered grand larceny, body stealing and so forth depending on the depth of the crime.

**Who would commit such a crime? **﻿It is hard to profile the criminals in these cases with it being such a new crime. Most of those involved though are individuals who are money hungry. There are many different illegal ways to make money but you have to be pretty desperate to go to this extent and also very involved. By being involved most of these convicted criminals have had some sort of access to the bodies such as those who work for the cemetary, morgues, funeral homes, and even hospitals. Those who become involved must also have to form a way to shut off the ability to see these bodies as what they were before death, as people. If they allow themselves to personalize these bodies it would make the crime emotional and potentially run the risk of forming guilt. Therefore these people shut off that emotion to looking at these bodies as people who belonged to someone, somewhere but instead as just a dead cadaver that is going to make them some really good money.

media type="file" key="Body Part Theft.mp3" width="288" height="24" <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'lucida sans unicode','lucida grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">References: <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'lucida sans unicode','lucida grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Anapol Schwartz (2008). Senate raises penalty for body part theft.Biomedical Tissue Services Lawsuit & News Blog. Retrieved from []

History Detectives (2003-2011). Body Snatching Around the World. Oregon Public Broadcasting: History Detectives. Retrieved from []

Office of the District Attorney (2007). Investigation of Body Part Thefts. City of Philadelphia: Office of the District Attorney. Retrieved from []

The CNN Wire (2011). Ex-director of Illinois cemetery sentenced in burial scheme. CNN Justice. Retrieved from []