Alistair Cooke's family outraged over 'stolen bones'

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

LONDON (AFP) — The family of Alistair Cooke, the late veteran BBC broadcaster, have expressed horror at reports in New York that his bones may have been stolen by a criminal gang trading in body parts.

Cooke, who presented "Letter From America" every week on BBC domestic and World Service radio for more than 50 years, died in New York in March 2004 from lung cancer which spread to his bones.

The New York Daily News reported Thursday that some of the 95-year-old Englishman's bones were taken before his cremation, without the family's permission, and are thought to have been sold for transplants.

"I'm furious. I'm enraged. I'm outraged," his stepdaughter Holly Rumbold told BBC radio. "My stepfather is not the only one that's been used for this macabre purpose...