The daughter of the legendary broadcaster Alistair Cooke, whose corpse was plundered by a body-snatching ring, has told a court that her father would not have consented to donating his body to medicine.

Susan Cooke Kittredge was testifying at the trial of Chris Aldorasi, a “cutter” accused of harvesting her father’s corpse without permission for bone and tissue for sale for use in surgery.

Cooke, who recorded 2,869 Letters From America for BBC Radio over a 58-year span, died of lung cancer on March 30, 2004 at the age of 95. His body was taken to a cut-price funeral home in New York’s East Harlem that his daughter had picked from the yellow pages, where his arms, legs, pelvis and other tissue were chopped off without the family’s consent.

Cooke’s arms and legs were sold to a tissue reprocessing company in Florida for $11,000, but his bones were never used in surgery. It is not known what happened to his other body parts.

Records introduced at the trial in New York claimed a daughter named “Susan Quint” gave permission for the anatomical donation.

But Ms Cooke Kittredge, 59, the broadcaster’s only daughter, testified in a 20-minute appearance on Monday that she had never spoken to Mr Aldorasi, who signed the forms. Asked if she would have given her consent, she said: “Definitely not. My father would have been against that.”

Ms Cooke Kittredge confirmed numerous errors on the bogus consent form, including her father’s social security number, the name of his doctor, and the misspelling of his first name as “Alister”.

His age was given as 85, to make the body seem younger, and his cause of death was listed as “cardiopulmonary arrest”, because cancerous tissue cannot be sold for medical procedures.

The leader of the body-snatching ring and his chief “cutter” have both already pleaded guilty to plundering 1,077 corpses and selling the stolen body parts for $6 million to $12 million from 2001 to 2005.

Michael Mastromarino, a former Fifth Avenue dentist who surrendered his dental licence because of a drug problem, faces from 18 years to 54 years in prison for offences and will forfeit $4.68 million for running the operation.

Lee Cruceta will served six-and-a-half to 20 years in prison after admitting he carved up 244 corpses for body parts with forged consents.

Joseph Nicelli, a former embalmer who is the fourth alleged member of the body-snatching ring, may never go to trial after suffering a head injury when he fell from a roof.

Mr Cruceta testified earlier in Mr Aldorasi’s trial that the ring doctored the paperwork to circumvent a ban on harvesting corpses that have been dead more than 24 hours.

He said many of the bodies showed signs of deterioration, such as a green tinge to the stomach, indicating decay of the abdominal cavity, or skin that skipped right off the bones. The eyes also shrivelled. “They would be dehydrated,” he said. “They would kind of shrink in the eye sockets.”

Mr Cruceta and Mr Aldorasi “went to work” anyway, removing bones from the legs and replacing them with plastic piping in case an open-casket funeral was held. “We put poles in the body, sewed up the holes and waited for Joe to prep the bodies,” he said.

Mr Aldorasi’s lawyer insisted his client was tricked by Mastromarino into believing that he had consent to take the body-parts. Mr Aldorasi claims he signed the consent forms when they were still blank.

Outside court, however, Ms Cooke Kittredge said she did not believe Mr Aldorasi. “I don’t think he’s innocent,” she said. “I can’t look at those documents and see his signature all over them and imagine in any way that he could be innocent.”

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE

PHILADELPHIA

PHOTO: shitbum Mastromarino:

The former oral surgeon Michael Mastromarino, who admits he trafficked in stolen body parts, was seeking a deal in Philadelphia earlier this month that would run concurrent to his 18- to 54-year sentence to be handed down in Brooklyn.

But prosecutors there are balking at any two-for-one deal. They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 years in Philadelphia, where they say his team of cutters plundered at least 244 corpses.

Mastromarino, 44, remains in New York custody after his guilty plea in Brooklyn Supreme Court last month. He did not appear at a pre-trial hearing in Philadelphia on April 4, but defense lawyer Charles A. Peruto Jr. vowed to push for concurrent sentences. The dispute will likely be left for Common Pleas Judge Glenn Bronson to resolve.

“My job is to make sure he doesn’t do additional time just because there are bodies in Pennsylvania,” Peruto said. He and Assistant District Attorney Bruce Sagel expect Mastromarino to plead guilty to just a few of the approximately 1,700 counts charged, such as running a criminal enterprise and conspiracy, they said.

Mastromarino owned Biomedical Tissue Services, a New Jersey company that shipped bones, skin and tendons to tissue processors. About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by BTS.

He has agreed to help locate records for the families and transplant recipients suing tissue banks over the often-diseased parts, Peruto said. Mastromarino will also testify, if necessary, against his alleged underlings, three funeral home operators from North Philadelphia, Peruto said.

Brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone, along with James McCafferty, together ran Garzone Funeral Home. A grand jury indictment charges that they were paid $1,000 per corpse to let Mastromarino’s “cutters” hack up bodies, without the families’ knowledge or permission. The lucrative parts were then sold to the tissue banks for dental implants, knee and hip replacements and other procedures around the country. Mastromarino made millions on the scheme, prosecutors say.

The looted bodies in New York include that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke. In Philadelphia, most of the bodies were scheduled for cremation by the Garzones.

Agnes Folger believes the body of her 81-year-old husband, Joseph, was plundered before his April 2004 cremation. Prosecutors cannot be certain of her claim because of the lack of records or a body, but the Philadelphia woman believes the missing age and cause of death on a death certificate signed by Gerard Garzone confirms her fear.

Mastromarino often filled in phony information on death certificates to make the parts appear usable, the grand jury charged.

“My husband was a World War II veteran of three years,” said Folger, who brought a small U.S. flag to the court hearing. “He came home in one piece from the war. ... But (Garzone) took my husband’s body parts.”

Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia; Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales; and James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, have pleaded not guilty and, along with Mastromarino, are set for trial on Sept. 2.

Lee Cruceta, 35, of Monroe, N.Y., has admitted to being Mastromarino’s lead cutter, and faces a sentence of about 6 1/2 to 20 years for crimes in both states. Another cutter, Chris Aldorasi, was on trial in New York. Several funeral home operators in New York have also pleaded guilty.

Mastromarino pleaded guilty to 14 counts that include enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment. As part of his plea with New York prosecutors, he agreed to forfeit $4.68 million.