Michael Mastromarino, 44, of Fort Lee, N.J, the ringleader of a national body parts scheme, pleaded guilty to charges ranging from corrupt organization, conspiracy, multiple thefts, forgery, to abuse of corpse, and funeral-home violations. If found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Mastromarino’s company, New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services, illegally sold tissues to 10,000 people. Some patients say they have contracted diseases from body parts that were taken from people with cancer or HIV infected patients.

Mastromarino’s guilty plea, which included theft involving the parts stolen from 244 dead people without the survivors’ permission, deceptive business practices, forgery, followed a previous one, when he pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment in New York. He was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in prison in June.

Assistant District Attorney Evangelia Manos said Mastromarino paid his business partner, James McCafferty, and brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone – they collectively owned a crematory – $245,000 for at least 244 cadavers between February 2004 and October 2005. Helped by a team of nurses, who dissected the bodies, Mastromarino would then sell the body parts to patients who needed a transplant.

Mastromarino’s guilty plea includes a promise to testify, if needed, at Tuesday’s trial for Garzone brothers.

Defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr. said his client’s sentence would be a "tough" one, even though Mastromarino admitted his crimes and accepted responsibility for his acts.

One of the bodies was that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, which was carved up without the survivor’s permission. Alistar Cooke died in 2004 of cancer.