http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1437227

Brian Lamb mentioned this on "Washington Journal" this morning.  Surgeons allegedly removed Alistair Cooke's bones before cremating the rest of his remains.  Sounds more like Aleister Crowley than Alistair Cooke!

The de-boning was done allegedly to harvest transplant tissue.  The family of the late host of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" did not consent, so the operation was illegal.  Even so, the bone tissue does not qualify for donation because of their cancerous state and Cooke's advanced age of 95 at the time of his death in 2003.  The reports say a human skeleton fetches $7,000 on the donor market and there has been a rash of illicit organ harvesting in the New York City area.

Cooke's family scattered his ashes in Central Park.  Only a specialist such as a forensics expert could tell if the volume of ashes was *correct, and who would think to ask?

I can't help but wonder if those butchers knew Cooke was more than just an ordinary schmoe.  Maybe some "Masterpiece Theatre" obsessesed ossiphile* was bent on attaining Cooke's bones in order to reassemble the skeleton for a trophy...maybe said ossiphile commissioned a crooked pathologist to fetch the bones!  Maybe I just have a morbid imagination...

:o :o :o

*One who loves bones.  I made it up.

Some things never change.  Franz Joseph Haydn's head was stolen.


http://www.harpercollins.com.au/drstephenjuan/news_body_odysseys.htm


According to the article, Mozart as well as a few others, also had similar experences.



Cat

To some people there isn't a low point.  Their well of ignorance doesn't have a bottom.  I hope they
throw what ever book at them that they can.

Aside from all that, Thomas Hardy was an aetheist and didn't want to be buried in Poets Corner because it was in Westminster Abbey.  A compromise was made in which his ashes went to Poets Corner, but his heart was sent to be buried with his wife.  Rumor has it that before the heart could be buried, it was left on a table and the cat ate it.  A pigs heart was substituted to save embarrassement. 

To some people there isn't a low point.  Their well of ignorance doesn't have a bottom.  I hope they
throw what ever book at them that they can.

Aside from all that, Thomas Hardy was an aetheist and didn't want to be buried in Poets Corner because it was in Westminster Abbey.  A compromise was made in which his ashes went to Poets Corner, but his heart was sent to be buried with his wife.  Rumor has it that before the heart could be buried, it was left on a table and the cat ate it.  A pigs heart was substituted to save embarrassement. 



Man, those cats will eat anything.



Cat

Wasn't Charlie Chaplin's body also stolen?

The difference here is that Cooke's bones were probably stolen by reckless quacks who cared nothing for Cooke either way!  As usual, it has to happen to a celebrity before we notice the problem. 

The difference here is that Cooke's bones were probably stolen by reckless quacks who cared nothing for Cooke either way!  As usual, it has to happen to a celebrity before we notice the problem. 


And then there is Ted Williams, his own son and daughter defiled him. 

Then there was Eva Peron. After she died, she was buried somewhere in Mexico. She was then moved to Spain and finally she was brought home to Argentina 17 years after she died- fully preserved with the expection of one of her fingers which was broke.
The irony of it, is now she is buried next to the people she absolutely hated in her lifetime-the Argentinian aristocracy.



Cat

Truth is always stranger than fiction.

[quote author=Ły