NY man gets 25-58 yrs for body parts scandal

BY KATHY MATHESON

Philadelphia

Oct. 23: Three men who conspired to plunder corpses and sell the sometimes diseased body parts were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for what victims said was a gruesome, greedy scheme that violated basic principles of trust and human decency.

In New Jersey, meanwhile, a federal judge ruled against some of the patients who sued after receiving some of the body parts, saying they had failed to establish grounds to sue.

The mastermind of the scheme, Michael Mastro- marino, was sentenced to 25 to 58 years in prison. Brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone, who provided bodies from a pair of funeral homes and a crematorium they ran in Philadelphia, will serve eight to 20 years. "They betrayed us and they abused, in the most despicable manner, our family members," said David P. Blatt, whose father’s body was among those harvested.

Mastromarino previously was sentenced to 18 to 54 years for running the scam in New York, where the bodies plundered included that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke of Britain. Mastro- marino’s two sentences will run concurrently. The scandal dates to February 2006.

—AP