by Annie Cheney
6. “Brokered Sounds Bad, Doesn’t It?”
For the section on Dr. Martin Spector, I relied on interviews with Dr. Richard Greathouse, Detective Daniel Rosenstein, and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille, formerly a Philadelphia District Attorney. Court documents from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Martin Spector, specifically court testimony from Detective Francis Coward, provided additional information.
I also relied on coverage of the Spector case by reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
My main sources for the section on Arthur Rathburn were interviews with current and former University of Michigan Medical School employees. Rathburn’s lawsuit against the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan was filed in the State of Michigan in the Circuit Court for the County of Washtenaw, September 26, 1991.
Details of International Biological’s business activities were taken from documents filed by the company with the New York State Department of Health, the State of Florida Anatomical Board, and Anatomy Department records at the State University of New York Upstate Medical School in Syracuse.
My main sources for the section on Allen Tyler were UTMB Anatomy Department records from 1998 to 2001 and an interview with FBI agent Jim Walsh, who was in charge of the Tyler investigation. An interview with Allen Tyler before his death, and interviews with Rose Tyler and Kenneth Carter, provided additional information.
I also relied on coverage of the UTMB case by Kenneth Moran in the Houston Chronicle, and Katy Vine, whose article “Little Shop of Horrors” appeared in the Texas Monthly in August 2003.
For the material on the UCLA Medical School willed-body scandals, I relied on coverage by the Los Angeles Times. I also used documents from a Department of Health Services investigation into Ernest Nelson’s business. For Henry Reid’s financial background, I relied on 1999 US Bankruptcy Court Documents from the Central District of California.
My main source for UCLA’s legal argument was the Regents of the University of California’s Brief Re Preliminary Pleading Issues in Beatrice Cohen, Joyce Maddox, John Faraday v. Johnson & Johnson et al.
For a history of Tulane, I referred to the History of Medical Education in New Orleans from Its Birth to the Civil War, by A. E. Fossier, M.D. The section about Tulane and the Army was drawn from interviews with Dr. Gerald Kirby, Fran Simon of Tulane University, and June Reynolds, Jane Shull, and Allan Shull, Charley Reynolds’s relatives. Interviews with Steve Rountree, Chuck Dasey, and Lieutenant Colonel Roman Hayda of the U.S. Army provided additional information. I also referred to a contract between the U.S. Army and National Anatomical Service and a letter from Dr. Mary Bitner Anderson to Mrs. June Reynolds, May 17, 2004.
Many news reports were also helpful. Most important was a series of articles about Tulane and the U.S. Army by Stewart Yerton in the Times-Picayune, an article by Heidi Singer in the New York Post on March 12, and a BBC report on March 11, 2004.
For information about Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, I relied on interviews with Dr. Leonard Seelig and Janie Binderim, as well as LSU Shreveport Anatomy Department documents.
Observations about the AACA were taken from my visit to the AACA Conference in Moraga, California, in June 2004 and interviews with Dr. Donald Cahill, formerly chairman of the Anatomy Department at the Mayo School of Medicine; Dr. Todd Olson, professor of anatomy at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Dr. Lawrence Ross, adjunct professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas–Houston Medical School; and Ronn Wade, director of the Anatomy Board of Maryland. Information about the Johnson & Johnson companies was obtained via e-mail from spokespersons Sarah Colamarino and Jeff Lebaw.
7. The Bone Machine
Some of the information about Brian Lykins was drawn from testimony by his father and mother, Steve and Leslie Lykins, at the U.S. Senate Hearing, “Tissue Banks: The Dangers of Tainted Tissues and the Need for Federal Regulation,” May 14, 2003. I also relied heavily on court documents from the case Lykins v. CryoLife and reporting by Sandra Blakeslee for the New York Times. Interviews with CDC epidemiologist Dr. Marion Kainer, Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Henry Hull, and Minnesota epidemic intelligence officer Dr. Mei Castor provided additional information.
My main sources for Bonny Gonyer’s story were interviews with Bonny Gonyer and court documents from Gonyer v. CryoLife. I also drew on FDA inspection reports of CryoLife and morbidity and mortality reports from the Centers for Disease Control, specifically “Update: Allograft—Associated Bacterial Infections,” on March 15, 2002, and “Invasive Streptoccus Pyrogenes After Allograft implantation,” on December 5, 2003.
Dr. Warren King and Dr. Scott Barbour’s article, “Basic Science Update. The Safe and Effective Use of Allograft Tissue—An Update,” which appeared in The American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2003, provided information about the challenges surgeons face in detecting bacterial infections from allograft. I also drew on an interview with Dr. King. The study of surgeons and their knowledge of human tissue appeared in 2004 in the Journal of Arthroplasty.
My main sources for the history of tissue banking were interviews with Dr. Michael Strong, Dr. Theodore Malinin, Dr. Gary E. Friedlander, and Jeffrey Prottas. “The US Navy Tissue Bank: 50 Years on the Cutting Edge,” by Dr. Michael Strong, and Transplanting Human Tissue: Ethics, Policy and Practice, edited by Stuart J. Youngner, Martha W. Anderson, and Renie Schapiro, provided additional information. Specifics on RTI’s compensation scheme were taken from the latter book.
My main sources for the section about Michael Mastromarino were interviews with A. Gray Budelman and annual reports filed by Mastromarino on behalf of his company, Biomedical Tissue Services, with the New York State Department of Health. My sources for information about Mastromarino’s dental license were the New York State Education Department and the New Jersey State Board of Dentistry. Articles written by William Sherman in the Daily News provided information on the DA’s investigation into Mastromarino and Nicelli.
For the section about Regeneration Technologies, Inc., I relied on a visit to RTI headquarters in November 2003, SEC documents filed by the company, FDA inspection reports of RTI and Southeast Tissue Alliance, and a transcript from the 2001 Senate Hearing, “Tissue Banks: Is the Federal Government’s Oversight Adequate?,” May 2001.
Bibliography
Anderson, Martha W., Renie Schapiro, and Stuart J. Youngner, eds. Transplanting Human Tissue: Ethics, Policy and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Bailey, James Blake. The Diary of a Resurrectionist 1811–1812: To Which Are Added an Account of the Resurrection Men in London and a Short History of the Passing of the Anatomy Act. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1896.
Ball, James Moore. The Sack-’Em-Up Men: An Account of the Rise and Fall of the Modern Resurrectionists. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1928.
Blakely, Robert L., and Judith M. Harrington, eds. Bones in the Basement: Postmortem Racism in Nineteenth-Century Medical Training. New York: Smithsonian Books, 1997.
Braidhill, Kathy. Chop Shop. New York: Pinnacle Books, 1993.
Cahill, Donald R., and Sandy C. Marks, Jr. “Memorandum Adopted by the American Association of Clinical Anatomists—May 31, 1999.” Clinical Anatomy, vol. 4, 1991.
Campbell, Ronald, William Heisel, and Mark Katches. “The Body Brokers.” The Orange County Register, April 2000.
Clark, Sam L. “Medical Education from the Ground Up, or Our Late Resurrection Men.” The Journal of Medical Education, vol. 37, 1962.
Cooper, Bransby Blake. The Life of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart. Interspersed with Sketches from his Note-Books of Distinguished Contemporary Characters. London: John W. Parker, West Strand, 1843.
Englade, Ken. A Family Business. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
Farrell, James J. Inventing the American Way of Death, 1830–1920. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980.
Fido, Martin. Body Sna
tchers: A History of the Resurrectionists 1742–1832. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
Hanawalt, Leslie L., and Martin Kaufman. “Body Snatching in the Midwest.” Michigan History, vol. 1, 1971.
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs US Senate. “Tissue Banks: Is the Federal Government’s Oversight Adequate?” May 2001.
——— “Tissue Banks: The Dangers of Tainted Tissues and the Need for Federal Regulation,” May 2003.
Heaton, Claude. “Body Snatching in New York City.” New York State Journal of Medicine, vol. 43, 1943.
Hedges, Stephen J., and William Gaines. “Donor Bodies Milled into Growing Profits: Little Regulated Industry Thrives on Unsuspecting Families.” Chicago Tribune, May 21, 2000.
Hopkinson, Francis. An Oration Which Might Have Been Delivered to the Students in Anatomy. Philadelphia, 1789.
Iserson, Kenneth V. Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? Tucson: Galen Press, 1994.
James, Joseph. Ashes: Terrifying True Horror of a Macabre Criminal Career. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1994.
Ladenheim, Jules Calvin. “The Doctor’s Mob of 1788.” Journal of the History of Medicine, Winter 1950.
Low, Donald A. The Regency Underworld. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1982.
Lavernia, Carlos, M.D., Malinin, Theodore, M.D., Temple, Thomas, M.D., and Carlos Moreya, M.D. “Bone and Tissue Allograft Use by Orthopaedic Surgeons.” The Journal of Arthroplasty, vol. 19, no. 4, 2004.
Mahoney, Julia D. “The Market for Human Tissue.” Virginia Law Review, March 2002.
Mott, Valentine. “An Address Introductory to a Course of Lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.” New York: Joseph H. Jennings, 1850.
Office of the Inspector General. “Oversight of Tissue Banking,” January 2001.
———. “Informed Consent in Tissue Donation: Expectations and Realities,” January 2001.
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Richardson, Ruth. Death, Dissection and the Destitute. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1987.
Sappol, Michael. A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in Nineteenth Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Strong, Michael. “The US Navy Tissue Bank: 50 Years on the Cutting Edge.” Cell and Tissue Banking, vol. 1, 2000.
Acknowledgments
I interviewed hundreds of people for this book: the families of deceased victims, detectives, brokers, and curiosity seekers. The families deserve special thanks for sharing their often painful stories with me, among them, Mike DiMeglio (who spoke so eloquently of his stepfather Ronald King); Ruth Storr; Paul, Joyce, and Joy Zamazanuk; June Reynolds; Allan Shull; and Jane Shull.
I am grateful to Dr. Todd Olson and Ronn Wade for the countless hours they spent teaching me about anatomical education and to Detective Rene Rodriguez, who was always generous with his time.
This book would have never come into being had it not been for my wonderful agent, David Halpern at the Robbins Office, who recognized the potential in the story from the very first lead, found a home for it at Harper’s magazine, and encouraged me to turn the article into a book. Throughout the entire process, he has given me his unwavering encouragement and support and I am grateful to have him by my side.
If it hadn’t been for Ed Shanahan, a former editor at My Generation magazine, I would have never fallen on this topic. Sometimes it takes just one question to uncover an important story and Ed had the sense to ask it.
I owe an enormous debt to Luke Mitchell, my brilliant editor at Harper’s, who gave me the time I needed to investigate the story wherever it led me, from the suburbs of New Jersey to the beaches of Miami, and whose enthusiasm for the topic of corpses never ceased. His high standards inspired me to do my absolute best work, and, without his editorial guidance, I could have never produced an award-winning article.
My lasting gratitude goes to Charlie Conrad at Broadway Books for believing in my idea and leading the way. Becky Cole and Alison Presley at Broadway contributed invaluable insights during the editing process, and Amelia Zalcman gave me wise counsel. Finally, Joanna Pinsker and David Drake—you are wizards.
A special thanks goes to Andrew Szanton, who was there, day or night, always ready with the right words of encouragement and to Michele Comandini, who combed the manuscript for errors. Any errors that exist in the text are entirely my own.
Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends, especially my parents, Richard and Virginia Cheney, and my brother Ben Cheney and his girlfriend Jiwon Lee, who have put up with endless gory discussions about body parts and corpse brokers, who encouraged me to keep going, and who were always understanding when deadlines meant that I could not spend more time with them.
Above all, I wish to thank my soon-to-be husband, Benjamin Bailes, who patiently read the manuscript in its many incarnations and whose contributions improved it immeasurably. He is a fine editor, a tireless cheerleader, and a wonderful friend. Thank you for standing fast beside me and making it all worthwhile.
About the Author
ANNIE CHENEY’s magazine work has appeared in Harper’s and My Generation. Her Harper’s article that is the basis of this book was awarded the 2005 Deadline Club Award for Best Feature Reporting by the Society of Professional Journalists. She has also contributed stories to numerous public radio shows, including NPR’s All Things Considered. She lives in New York City.
BODY BROKERS. Copyright © 2006 by ANNIE CHENEY. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Portions of this book first appeared in Harper’s magazine.
BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Visit our Web site at
www.broadwaybooks.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cheney, Annie.
Body brokers : inside the underground trade in human remains / Annie Cheney.
p. cm.
eISBN-13: 978-0-7679-2151-0
eISBN-10: 0-7679-2151-8
1. Procurement of organs, tissues, etc. 2. Procurement of organs, tissues, etc.—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Title.
RD129.5.C4554 2006
617.9'54—dc22 2005054278
v1.0
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*1 These prices are valid only for fresh/frozen parts that are used for research and education. The prices may vary depending on the source and the broker. Transportation may or may not be included in the cost.
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*2 By one estimate, between 1805 and 1820, roughly seventy-seven criminals were executed every year in Great Britain. Meanwhile, the medical students in London numbered over a thousand, with almost as many in Edinburgh in need of cadavers to dissect.
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*3 Michael Suppol has written a remarkable account of this early cadaver trade in his book A Traffic of Corpses.
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*4 The authors of the book show that blacks were targeted more frequently than whites in other areas of the South as well. Professors Robert L. Blakely and Judith Harrington examined the bones that had been buried in the basement of the Medical College of Georgia between 1840 and 1880. Seventy-nine percent of the bodies they found belonged to African Americans, despite the fact that blacks accounted for only 37 to 47 percent of the population in Augusta at that time.
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*5 The compensation scheme laid out in
its registration statement filed with the SEC included, among other things, a $100 bonus for RTI staff members who exceeded their tissue targets and $100 for every donor they obtained from a funeral home that exceeded the projected five funeral-home donors per month.
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