The Democrat and Chronicle reports today that as many as 50 bodies in the Rochester have been harvested illegally for skin and bones. Of course, Rochester is in the news again, and once again it’s for some truly disgusting shit. According to Forbes.com, indictments are already being handed out to the New Jersey owners of the company.

And who was it that did the deed here in Rochester? Wouldn’t you know it? A guy from Honeoye: a guy by the name of Vickers. Kinda sounds a bit Dickensian, don’t you think? Or dare I say it, Poe-like.
Yepper. If Rochester is famous for it’s serial killers and notoriously crappy weather, then Honeoye is known for it’s freaks of nature. Get this quote from the D&C:

At the time he worked for Biomedical Tissue, Vickers said, his work seemed unorthodox but within acceptable bounds. Now, he said, he has serious doubts.

“To know that I extracted tissue that may or may not have been viable, or without consent ? it’s stealing from the dead. I can’t think of anything more horrendous,” he said.

Ah. So at what point do you decide that harvesting bodies is a good career move? Probably not long after you move to Honeoye, I am thinking. Now, understand that I don’t know what happened in Rochester, but the Forbes.com article specifically states that “Prosecutors said the defendants obtained the bodies from a funeral parlor and forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look as if the bones, skin, tendons, heart valves and other tissue were legally removed.” How often to you need to rewrite death certificates before you start to think that something might be amiss? Reading down through the article, it is clear that Vickers is no stranger to harvesting, and should have known what was and what was not acceptable.

The D&C report states that “several” local funeral homes in Rochester had relationships with the now indicted company.

Another interesting point in the Forbes.com article (funny that we don’t have anything near this in-depth in Rochester) is that the owners have been indicted for, among other things, “unlawful dissection,” a thing which I wouldn’t have thought would actually be a crime, per se. Also, among the former owners of the ganked flesh was none other than Alasdair Cooke of PBS Masterpeice Theatre fame. Who knew that skin so white would be valuable?

And the story gets even better, as of course medical records need to be obtained when harvesting donated organs, but in these cases they forged those records as well. That means anything from hepetitis to HIV could be present in any of the harvested body parts, though so far the D&C indicates that seven people have thusfar been given the tissues and no one has reported any problems. . . yet. Bear in mind, of course that HIV has a gestation period of as many as 18 months or more before it becomes measurable.