The Dentist Who Stole 1,000 Bodies: The Case Netflix Didn't Tell You About
How an Elvis impersonator uncovered a $10 million body-snatching ring—and everyone thought he was crazy
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If you've watched Netflix's The Kings of Tupelo, you know the story sounds absolutely insane: an Elvis impersonator claims there's a massive body parts harvesting conspiracy, and everyone dismisses him as a conspiracy theorist. Ricin-laced letters, government cover-ups, and a man desperately trying to convince anyone who will listen that something horrific is happening.
But here's what the documentary barely touches on: He was right.
The body harvesting ring was real. The conspiracy was real. And at the center of it all was a charismatic dentist named Michael Mastromarino, who built a $10 million empire by stealing body parts from over 1,000 corpses—including the remains of legendary BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke.
This is the story Netflix glossed over. This is the story that proves sometimes the "crazy conspiracy theorist" is the only one paying attention.
The Perfect Life That Wasn't
Michael Mastromarino wasn't supposed to be a criminal. He was supposed to be a success story.
Born in Brooklyn in 1963, Michael was the definition of a Type-A personality—driven, ambitious, and relentless. He played football at the University of Pittsburgh, earned his degree in dentistry from NYU, and built a thriving dental practice specializing in implant surgery. He married a beautiful woman named Barbara, and together they were dubbed "Barbie and Ken" by friends who envied their seemingly perfect life.
But behind the polished exterior, Michael was falling apart.
Years of back pain from his football days led to an addiction to painkillers. Demerol. Cocaine. By 2000, he was found unconscious on a bathroom floor with a needle in his arm. Later that year, he was arrested after a car accident while high on Demerol and cocaine.
He lost his dental license. He lost his practice. He lost everything he'd worked for.
But Michael Mastromarino wasn't the type to give up. He was the type to find another way to make money—no matter what it took.
The Business of Death
In 2001, Michael started a new company: Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS).
On paper, it was a legitimate tissue recovery business. Organ and tissue donation is a legal, life-saving practice. Every year, donated tissue helps thousands of people—burn victims receive skin grafts, cancer patients receive bone grafts, and surgical patients receive tendons and ligaments for reconstructive procedures.
But Michael wasn't interested in doing things legally. Legal tissue donation requires consent from the deceased or their family. It requires rigorous screening for diseases. It requires ethical standards.
Michael had none of that.
Instead, he made deals with funeral home owners in Brooklyn and Pennsylvania. The arrangement was simple: Michael would pay them $1,000 per body. In exchange, he'd have access to recently deceased individuals—no questions asked, no consent required.
Michael and his team would show up in the middle of the night, cut open the bodies, and harvest whatever they could sell: bones, tendons, ligaments, skin, heart valves. They'd replace the stolen bones with PVC pipe so the bodies would still feel "normal" when family members touched the casket.
Then they'd forge the paperwork; changing ages, causes of death, and medical histories to make the bodies appear eligible for donation. They'd sell the harvested tissue to legitimate medical companies for $10,000 to $15,000 per body.
Over four years, Michael Mastromarino violated over 1,000 bodies and made an estimated $10 million.
And no one knew.
The Victims No One Expected
Most of Michael's victims were ordinary people whose families had no idea their loved ones had been desecrated. But one victim made headlines around the world.
In December 2003, Alistair Cooke, the legendary BBC broadcaster and host of Masterpiece Theatre, died of lung cancer at age 95. His family arranged for cremation.
What they didn't know was that Michael Mastromarino had already gotten to him.
Michael's team harvested Cooke's bones and tissue, forged documents claiming he was 85 (not 95) and had died of a heart attack (not cancer), and sold his remains to medical companies. Alistair Cooke's bones were implanted into living patients before anyone realized what had happened.
When the truth came out in 2005, it sent shockwaves through the medical community. If someone as high-profile as Alistair Cooke could be violated, who else had been?
The answer: hundreds of people. And many of them had died of diseases that should have disqualified them from donation—HIV, hepatitis, cancer. Michael didn't care. He forged the medical records and sold the tissue anyway.
Patients who received Michael's stolen tissue were unknowingly exposed to deadly diseases. Some tested positive. Some died.
The Man Who Tried to Warn Everyone
This is where The Kings of Tupelo comes in.
In 2013, an Elvis impersonator named Paul Kevin Curtis sent ricin-laced letters to President Obama, a U.S. Senator, and a Mississippi judge. He was arrested, and the media painted him as a deranged conspiracy theorist.
But Curtis insisted he was being framed. He claimed he'd stumbled onto evidence of illegal body parts harvesting years earlier and had been trying to expose it. He said he'd been threatened, harassed, and silenced. He said there was a massive cover-up.
Everyone thought he was crazy.
But he wasn't.
Curtis had indeed discovered evidence of illegal tissue harvesting—connected to the same network Michael Mastromarino had operated. The problem was that by the time Curtis tried to blow the whistle, Michael had already been caught, tried, and imprisoned. But the larger network—the funeral homes, the processors, the people who enabled him…was still operating in the shadows.
Curtis's story was dismissed because it sounded too outlandish. Body snatching? In modern America? Impossible.
Except it wasn't impossible. It had already happened. And Michael Mastromarino had proven just how easy it was.
The Unraveling
Michael's operation came crashing down in 2005, thanks to one suspicious funeral home owner.
When a woman purchased the Daniel George Funeral Home in Brooklyn, she noticed something odd: there was a body on the embalming table being harvested for tissue. She found old receipts showing that bones and tissue had been shipped to a company called RTI.
Something didn't feel right.
She reported it to authorities, and Assistant DA Josh Affa launched an investigation. What he found was horrifying: forged consent forms, mismatched blood samples, falsified medical records, and over 1,000 bodies that had been illegally harvested.
The FDA launched a four-month investigation. They inspected the facilities. They tracked down the bodies. They exhumed remains.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Michael Mastromarino was arrested and charged with enterprise corruption, body stealing, opening graves, and forgery. In 2008, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in prison.
His wife Barbara divorced him. His sons refused to speak to him. His empire was gone.
In 2013, Michael Mastromarino died in prison of bone cancer—a cruel irony for a man who had stolen the bones of over 1,000 people.
The Aftermath: Families Left in the Dark
For the families of Michael's victims, the revelation was devastating.
Imagine burying your loved one, saying your final goodbyes, and then—years later—learning that their body had been cut open, harvested for parts, and sold for profit. That their bones had been replaced with PVC pipe. That they'd been violated in the most unthinkable way.
Many families sued the tissue processing companies that had purchased Michael's stolen tissue. Settlements were reached, but no amount of money could undo the trauma.
One man, whose mother had been one of Michael's victims, said in an interview: "I held her hand at the funeral. I didn't know I was holding PVC pipe."
Why This Story Matters
Michael Mastromarino's case exposed massive gaps in the tissue donation industry. It revealed how easy it was for someone with medical knowledge and funeral home connections to exploit a system built on trust.
After Michael's arrest, new regulations were put in place. The FDA increased oversight. Tissue banks tightened their screening processes. Funeral homes were required to be more transparent.
But the damage was done. Over 1,000 families had been violated. Patients had been exposed to diseases. Trust in the tissue donation system was shattered.
And perhaps most disturbingly, Michael's case proved that sometimes the "crazy conspiracy theories" aren't so crazy after all.
Paul Kevin Curtis tried to warn people about body harvesting. He was dismissed, ridiculed, and arrested. But he was right.
Michael Mastromarino stole 1,000 bodies and made $10 million. And he almost got away with it.
The Question No One Wants to Ask
If Michael Mastromarino could do this for four years without getting caught, who else is doing it now?
How many other funeral homes are making deals? How many other "tissue recovery specialists" are forging documents? How many other families are burying loved ones who have already been harvested?
The truth is, we don't know.
And that's the scariest part of all.
Want to Learn More?
We dive deep into the Michael Mastromarino case in our latest episode, covering:
•How he built his $10 million empire
•The famous victims (including Alistair Cooke)
•How he replaced stolen bones with PVC pipe
•The investigation that brought him down
•The connection to The Kings of Tupelo
🎧 Listen now on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
🔗 More true crime stories: momsandmysteries.com
The Bottom Line
Michael Mastromarino wasn't a serial killer. He didn't murder anyone. But he violated over 1,000 bodies, exposed patients to deadly diseases, and traumatized countless families—all for profit.
He was called "The Body Snatcher" by the media. He was called a "ghoul" by prosecutors. But perhaps the most fitting description came from one of his victims' family members:
"He was a monster who preyed on the dead because they couldn't fight back."
And he almost got away with it.
What do you think? Could something like this happen again? Let us know in the comments.
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