# Yow- Philly funeral home guys carved stiffs up and sold the parts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 2, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769 "2008-09-02T23:50:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/1 "2008-09-02T23:50:48Z")
Holy moley - a couple of guys running funeral homes are guilty of “plundering” corpses to sell for spare parts. [Story here.](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/02/national/a082828D75.DTL&tsp=1) What’s more, “Mastromarino’s company, New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services, took bodies from funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Among the corpses plundered was that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke.” So if you got a tissue transplant shortly after Alistaire Cooke died, you might be walking around with his knee tendon or corneas or something. Gross! ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/2 "2008-09-02T23:54:30Z")
You must have been living under a rock. (Or perhaps a gravestone.) This story is so old, they did the obligatory _Law & Order_ episode a couple years ago. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/3 "2008-09-03T00:24:31Z")
::Emerges from underneath rock:: First I’ve heard of it! Gaaaaah! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/4 "2008-09-03T00:35:30Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > You must have been living under a rock. (Or perhaps a gravestone.) This story is so old, they did the obligatory _Law & Order_ episode a couple years ago. That was another guy down in Tennessee, wasn’t it? This is a new development here. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/5 "2008-09-03T10:48:42Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > That was another guy down in Tennessee, wasn’t it? This is a new development here. No, the Georgia/Tennessee guy ran a crematory, but just dumped the bodies in an old pond, or out in the woods. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/6 "2008-09-03T11:06:43Z")
This might be a “new” article because the legal proceedings are underway, perhaps. I do remember the Alastair Cooke detail from the previous news coverage. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/7 "2008-09-03T13:50:11Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > This might be a “new” article because the legal proceedings are underway, perhaps. I do remember the Alastair Cooke detail from the previous news coverage. Yeah, that might be it – I had the news on but was doing other things, so missed the beginning of the story. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yow-philly-funeral-home-guys-carved-stiffs-up-and-sold-the-parts/461769/8 "2008-09-03T14:13:11Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > No, the Georgia/Tennessee guy ran a crematory, but just dumped the bodies in an old pond, or out in the woods. Which they also did a Law and Order episode about.