HANG THE BASTARDNotes By Uncle Monty
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"When I Met Mr. Cooke"
By Uncle Monty
Part Two
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Online News Report from Reuters
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'Boss of Body Parts Ring Gets 18-54 years'
By Christine Kearney
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'Boss of Body Parts Ring Gets 18-54 years'
By Christine Kearney
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey dentist behind a scheme
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey dentist behind a scheme
to steal body parts from corpses, including that of British journalist
Alistair Cooke, was sentenced on Friday to a minimum of 18 years
and a maximum of 54 years in prison.
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Michael Mastromarino, 44, in March admitted to leading a
Michael Mastromarino, 44, in March admitted to leading a
$4.6 million operation that stole body parts from funeral
homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The ring dismembered more than 1,000 cadavers in
The ring dismembered more than 1,000 cadavers in
unsanitary conditions, and sold them to doctors who
transplanted them into patients.
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"I am sorry for the emotional pain I have caused,"
"I am sorry for the emotional pain I have caused,"
Mastromarino told the court, repeating an apology he
made to victims and relatives of the dead earlier this month.
State Supreme Court Judge John Walsh made no comment
State Supreme Court Judge John Walsh made no comment
as he sentenced Mastromarino, who had pleaded guilty
to body stealing, reckless endangerment and enterprise
corruption.
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"His sick, disgusting and appalling actions all in the name
"His sick, disgusting and appalling actions all in the name
of greed have devastated my family," Dayna Ryan, 44,
told the court. Ryan contracted Hepatitis B when she
was a recipient of stolen body parts during a lower spine
operation.
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As part of the scheme, a team of so-called cutters
As part of the scheme, a team of so-called cutters
removed bones, skin and tendons in an unsanitary
embalming room, prosecutors said.
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"He fully recognized the gravity of what he has done,"
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"He fully recognized the gravity of what he has done,"
Mastromarino's lawyer Mario Gallucci said outside court.
"He cut some corners and that is why he is here today."
There are three co-defendants. One pleaded guilty, another
There are three co-defendants. One pleaded guilty, another
was convicted at trial and the third is awaiting trial.
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Cooke, the former newspaper foreign correspondent and host
Cooke, the former newspaper foreign correspondent and host
of the PBS television show "Masterpiece Theatre" and BBC's
"Letter from America," died in 2004 at age 95 in New York.
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(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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Alistair Cooke as I remember meeting him
By Uncle Monty
Part Two
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I bumped into Mr. Alistair Cooke at the height of his fame
I bumped into Mr. Alistair Cooke at the height of his fame
in America at Colonial Williamsburg’s Scribner Bookshop in
1979. He and I were browsing book titles of our own particular
book taste and desire inside Scribner’s. I recognised him right
away, especially having watched his extraordinary and great
book taste and desire inside Scribner’s. I recognised him right
away, especially having watched his extraordinary and great
"Masterpiece Theatre" series on then PBS-TV for years.
"Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Disraeli," are among my fav-
ourites that Alistair superably hosted at the beginning
of each progran series.
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I also regularly listened to his “Letter from
America” on the BBC World Service by shortwave radio.
We had a delightful chat and encounter and he told me that
I also regularly listened to his “Letter from
America” on the BBC World Service by shortwave radio.
We had a delightful chat and encounter and he told me that
his first love was always radio despite his then growing US
television fame. His marvellous and imbued photographic
essay of "Alistair Cooke's America ,” was an ongoing best
essay of "Alistair Cooke's America ,” was an ongoing best
seller for sure. Almost professorial in his manner, Mr. Cooke
was a humble gentle person and gentleman who didn’t let his
fame go to his expatriate head. His soft speaking style was
exactly the same as I had heard of him on those many
radio programs of his. He knew more about America and
Americans than any living Englishman of his long broadcast-
ing day. He knew and interviewed every US President since
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to William Jefferson Clinton.
Alistair's success was not only due to him being so
urbane and erudite, but because he was also so strictly
apolitical -in his first class reports and presentations.
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When I read of his death at age 95 some 4 years ago, I
thought to myself what a wonderful and long life he’d
had. I didn’t feel sad at his passing, only glad that I’d
at least met him so memorably at Virginia's Old
Williamsburg of so many years now past.
+
Then a few years after his death, I by chance read a news
+
Then a few years after his death, I by chance read a news
story about his Episcopal Church clergy daughter – who I
never knew even existed -- and of her personal horror of
what the bastard Michael Mastromarino and his macabre
what the bastard Michael Mastromarino and his macabre
body-parts gang had done to her dead English father upon
his death in America. They'd cut his aged body into "sellable"
parts like he was some kind of animal instead of a respected
humanbeing. Talk of the Chinese doing that to their executed
prisoners -- running into as many as a 1,000 per year -- and
then selling their body parts for exprimentation and medical
transplants is something else. But for the New World to be
doing such by private business operators like Mastromarino
is equally as sickening as the Chinese in their vicious and
godless practice of selling body parts of their executed.
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I was amazed that nobody at the funeral home seemed to
I was amazed that nobody at the funeral home seemed to
know or care of who Alistair Cooke was or of his fascinating
life as a noted and fine journalist on both sides of the Big
Atlantic pond for close to 60 years. To take a dead 95 year
old man and then hack his cancered dead body to pieces for
whatever organs or parts they could salvage and sell is to my
mind truly diabolical, sick and evil from beginning to end. It
makes me want to vomit even as I write this story about
the wicked and bizarre fate of Mr. Alistair Cooke. They
even altered his death certificate from age 95 to 85 so
they could sell his unfit and cancerous bones for profit.
Greed always drives the greedy from human decency.
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My first instinct upon reading about Mastromarino-
The-Butcher was to say to myself: “Hang The Bastard.”
Along with his gang of bloody evil cutters. Saying
sorry before he was sentence doesn’t cut it one bit.
“Hang The Bastard," still keeps coming to my head even
“Hang The Bastard," still keeps coming to my head even
though I strongly oppose capital punishment I just couldn’t
stop myself from reacting and saying such to myself.
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How we mistreat the dead, tells us something about how
we mistreat the living in cultures that neither respect
the living nor the dead. The more death we have, the less
respect for human life is all around us. The hideous story
of what they did to Mr. Cooke for greed and dirty
money tells us of how we cannot even trust those with
the dead body of those we loved, or respected so much,
without fear of such evil bastards like Mastromarino
getting out their blood-dripping butcher knives ready to
desecrate yet another member of the the human dead.
The most deadly animals around us are always other
humans and not the animals of God's given grace.
I still keep saying: "HANG THE BASTARD."
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The Life of Mr. Cooke
Peace everybody, Uncle Monty.
+7th Sunday after Trinity, 2oo8.
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America’s Gun Culture:
America’s Gun Culture:
“Start Them Young,” so they do and say.
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