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NEW YORK, Dec 22, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke's bones were carved out by New York body snatchers and sold for $7,000, it was reported Thursday.
"I hope they burn in hell for what they did," attorney David Grossberg told the New York Daily News.
Cooke died at age 95 on March 30, 2004, of lung cancer that spread to his bones. The following day, without his family's knowledge, Cooke's bones were removed from his body and sold to two processing companies for use in transplant procedures, the newspaper said.
New York authorities are investigating funeral director Joseph Nicelli and Michael Mastromarino of Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd., which sold body parts to two processing companies in Florida and New Jersey, the Daily News said.
Cooke's daughter, Susan Kittredge, said she was "shocked and saddened" by the defilement of her father's body and appalled that patients unknowingly received his cancerous bone tissue in a transplant.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
