He lied to everyone that crossed his path.". I knew he was harvesting human remains for his new profession, Reifel explained. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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. On the outside, Michael Mastromarino was seen as a successful dentist who had it all. Michael Mastromarino worked as an Instructional Support Assistant for Suny Maritime College and in 2016 had a reported pay of $49,936. In the spring of 2004, Cruceta was with Mastromarino at the AATB spring meeting in Clearwater, Florida, when Aldorasi called from the Harlem funeral home to say that Alistair Cooke was on the table. It was a dangerous mind., A post shared by Barbra Reifel (@barbrareifel). Finding too much or probing too much would have meant the end of what we had or what I thought I had.". "This wasn't like a stranger broke in my home and stole a ring. This is a documentary I found interesting. Looking for Michael Mastromarino? Had he known what he was in for, he would have been appalled, Kittredge says. All of it. The neighbors of the Daniel George saw things differently. And patients who had received tissue now had to come to terms with the fact they might have contracted a deadly disease. But Mastromarinos dark world of illegal harvesting eventually came to light. His mother Christina and father Peter, and two brothers John and Arthur. Hearts and livers and kidneys receive the most attention because they save lives, but the same technology that has allowed for their transfer has also enabled the far more common transplant of tissue. His business was illegitimate from the start, says Hanshaft, the assistant D.A. Organ harvesting is a fairly popular procedure. RTI realized the need to sever ties with Mastromarino and to recall tissue received from him. While Michael owns a construction firm, Gerald is a CEO of a marketing agency and pursues music. less than 2 min read. But the outlet noted Mastromarino didnt get permission from the families. He was part of a growing, industry that makes at least $1 billion a year. I saw him rise above and I didnt realize he was just digging a deeper hole. (Photo courtesy of Barbra Reifel. Barbra seemed to have it all, but over time, her husband's perfect faade began to crack. They just wanted us to leave them on the stretcher because the crematorium was only a block away. He reportedly made $10,000 to $15,000 per body. Then he would say, Did you speak to the family? I guess hed find out information about their demographics as far as their age, illnesses. After her husband was taken away by guards, Karen says she sat in her car and sobbed. Then, while Karen was pregnant with her third child, her husband came home from work one day and dropped a bombshell. As a result, Michael's dental license was suspended in 2002. View Joseph Allen Mastromarino's obituary, send flowers and find service dates or sign the guestbook. In 2005, the authorities started looking into a funeral home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Afterward, Cruceta sprinkled powder over the large cuts, sewed up whatever we damaged, and then between hip and foot, screwed in plastic pipe, as per standard industry practice. Find 22 people named Michael Mastromarino along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. (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. Among his contacts was one of the largest tissue banks in the country, a company that trades on nasdaq under the name RTIX and that manufactures, from a factory in Alachua, Florida, all sorts of useful spare parts, including the BioSet Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM), the patented MD-Series threaded bone dowels, Osteofil/Regenafil injectable bone paste, as well as a number of cortical bone pins and interference screws.. Paul will be sadly missed by his two sons Michael and Nicolas Mastromarino of Florida, his partner Annie Whittemore of Massachuettes, his parents Mr. Paul H. Mastromarino of Suffern, NY and his mother and step-father Mrs.Sherry and Mr. Duke Hutchinson of Florida. Michael Mastromarino, 49, was pronounced dead at 10am on Sunday at St. Luke's Hospital in Cornwall, New York according to prison officials. [3], In late 2005, the New York City Police Department investigated Michael Mastromarino and his company BTS for allegedly selling stolen human body parts. Pic credit: @AssociatedPress/YouTube. When youre in a marriage and youre so in love with someone, you always want to see the best in them, she explained. He established a network of funeral homes that would supply him bodies, so he could illegally harvest them & forge paperwork to mak Aug 25 2020 1 hr 2 mins. Mastromarino is not a killer, just a scavenger. As a result of Michaels thriving dental practice, the family led a charmed life in Fort Lee, with both Michael Jr and Gerald talking about having a comfortable childhood. Oprah.com: How to figure out who to trust, One summer night in 2000, Michael never came home. He whistled through his teeth. She hung up and stared, slack-jawed, into space.. He seemed untroubled by the violation of such rules. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Michael's residency is at 21 Nye Rd, Glastonbury, CT. Associated persons to this address are Jane Mastromarino and Philip A Pizzanello. Families of the body-snatched were horrified to discover what became of their deceased loved ones. Aldorasi, then 36, a so-called "cutter" in the plot, was sentenced that month to nine to 27 years. Anyone can read what you share. CREATIVE. Kenny Loggins Is Cutting Loose From Touring. To make matters worse, Barbra learned that her husband and his associates knowingly sold tissue and bones infected with hepatitis, HIV and cancer to transplant patients, putting thousands of people at risk. He ultimately formed a business named Biomedical Tissue Services, and he reportedly made between $10,000 to $15,000 per body. (Photo courtesy of Barbra Reifel), BLACK DAHLIA MURDER: SON OF GANGSTER SQUAD COP SAYS DAD ALWAYS SUSPECTED THIS GUY OF THE GRISLY KILLING. I could manage alone and take care of my daughter alone, and that was really comforting and reassuring," she says. I dont think the Brooklyn D.A.s office understands what the industry is, Gallucci concluded. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Today, Reifel hopes her book will warn readers not to lose themselves in love, just as she once did. Investigation Discovery's ' Love, Honor, Betray: Under Your Skin' has Michael's now ex-wife, Barbra, and their two sons share their experiences when they learned of his operations. Survivors: 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. Previously, Michae l was the Assistant Service Manager at Toyota of Stamford. In his final public broadcastLetter From America, No. And the money to be made in human tissueup to $100,000 a corpse depending on its use, according to Cheneylures forth desperate men who dont always abide by the rules. He had surrendered his license to practice dentistry, though, and so he began looking about for a way to survive. Before starting a $4.6 million enterprise that plundered tissue and bone from people who never gave a consent, Mastromarino was working as a dental surgeon. Cruceta was making $185,000 a year. [13], On September 4, 2008, defense attorneys for human graft tissue distributors asked U.S. District Judge William J. Martini to dismiss hundreds of charges, asserting that the companies "never knew the body parts were illegally obtained, and they say there is no evidence the transplanted tissue made anyone ill."[14], According to the FDA, all tissue products collected and distributed by BTS were recalled and will be monitored for a complete accounting of all graft material. And he said, 'Good, because if you are, you need to move your car for another,'" she says. Harvesting organs is allowed in New York State, provided the donor does not carry a potentially communicable disease, the survivors approve and the person is not too old. 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. Over four years, Michael illegally harvested tissue and bones from dead bodies without the familys consent. But this was done without the consent of the persons family members whose body was being harvested. Director Toby Dye made the documentary Body Snatchers of New York about this case in 2010. All rights reserved. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. But, she says, the affair that hurt the most was with someone she'd known for yearsthe mother of her daughter's friend. It was a dangerous mind., FORMER TEEN IDOL LEIF GARRETT EXPLAINS DESCENT INTO HARD DRUGS: THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN MORE TO MY STORY, Barbra Reifel and Michael Mastromarino on their wedding day. (800) 948-6453. Michael Mastromarino was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 16, 1963. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE STAR SAL MINEO WAS ON A GOOD ROAD BEFORE HORRIFIC MURDER, AUTHOR SAYS, Michael Mastromarino passed away in 2013 at age 49 from cancer. The cause was complications of metastatic liver cancer that had spread to his brain and bones. In all but one of 1,077 cases, the D.A.s office charges, they simply took without asking. (Photo by John Roca/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images), COCAINE GODMOTHER'S SON EXPLAINS WHY HES PURSUING REALITY TV FAME WITH CARTEL CREW, When it first hit the news, he said, Barb, this isnt going to go well, she said. Biomedical Tissue Services was a Fort Lee, New Jersey, human tissue recovery firm that was shut down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on October 8, 2005, 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 f She said of their initial meeting, I actually thought that he was the bodyguard of a mobster who used to frequent the tanning salon of the second job that I had. During the broadcast, Barbra Mastromarino also listened to and apologized to the daughter of a victim of her husband's crimes, while mentioning she had no knowledge of her husband's illegal acts. The tissue comes from bodies that are donated. "He was just this perfect guy.". 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Mastromarinos addiction eventually cost him his dental license in 2002. Since he was in prison, I was worried. But there are nowhere near enough willing donors to meet the demand for tissue, so the profit from one body can reach six figures. He smiles as he says, I know what you look like inside.. '", Suddenly, Barbra realized Michael wasn't in the car alone. Obituary. Screen Shot 2013-07-08 at 4.30.52 PM.png. Does Nomas closing announcement really mean other restaurants are doomed? Jesse Ward/AP Dr. Michael Mastromarino died. In 2003, when Lee Cruceta, a nurse at Beth Israel, spoke to his boss about his need to make more money, the operating-room director knew exactly where to send him. The firm would replace bones harvested off with PVC pipes, as seen when some of the bodies under question were exhumed by the authorities. Then he removed the tissue and faked paperwork that showed he had obtained consent. 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