Welcome to You Should Be Sorry, a podcast dedicated to sharing real life scary stories of the unethical, the immoral, and the criminal. Podcast information and sources are listed in the episode notes. Follow the show on Instagram at you should be sorrypod and subscribe to the pod's Patreon, where members get access to exclusive content and perks. You won't be sorry. So for the last episode of season one, basically what I'm going to do is I'm just going to talk about the case and my own personal thoughts and feelings on the case. Um, you know why I chose to cover this case, especially as the first season of this podcast, why it stood out to me. So, when I first read about this case the first time a few years back, I was, you know, instantly polarized by it. You know, it has a little bit of everything that a true crime junkie such as myself would be fascinated by. You know, it's got the fraud and the corruption but its also got the underground butcher shop where body parts are getting packaged and sold. I mean, the case it's wild. It sounds made up, honestly. Um and when this case was going on in real time, I was in middle school/high school years, and so I wasn't watching the news, you know, like it was before true crime podcasts were a big deal. It was before I was watching crime documentaries on Netflix. It was when people were still watching the five o'clock news every week night. You know? And I remember after I read about this case, I asked my mom if she by chance remembered this case, Michael Mastromarino and his company, BTS, being in the headlines and on the news, and to my surprise she was like "oh my god, yeah, I do remember that . That case was crazy. I remember watching the news. I remember seeing it in the tabloids." And, you know, my mom does not follow true crime like I do. I mean, I'm a freak. Like, I consume that shit. And so the fact that she remembered it as soon as I brought it up really just made me realize how big of a deal this case was and how shook the world must have been as this case was being reported on. I mean, it really is the kind of case that you read about in horror books or in horror movies. It's it's wild. I mean, this case really just makes my stomach churn. Um, you know, not only the obvious horrible, just absolutely gruesome details of the case, but just Michael as a person and his very deep character flaws, it makes me sick. I mean, this guy went from having it all, he could have been on top of the world, you know. He was a surgeon, he had a beautiful, devoted, loyal wife. They had two perfect children, and they had the house in the burbs, you know, money. They had hella money. I mean, it sounds like a fantasy, right? It sounds like something that most people will only ever dream of, let alone achieve. And for him to just squander it away, I mean, first of all, Barbra is a saint among us, okay? I know that maybe there are certain times where maybe some of you were thinking, like, oh my God, like this woman, what is her deal? She needs to get the fuck out. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel that way the first time I watched a documentary with Barbra talking about how many chances she gave Michael. Um, but you know, I feel really bad for her. I mean, we can always look at it from the outside and have our own thoughts and feelings and even judgments about other people's relationships. But unless you're in it, unless you're in that relationship, you really don't know. There's no way for you to know. So while you can have your assumptions, it's impossible to get into the mind of the person dealing with the troubles in that relationship. And I really just think that Barbra wanted to do what was best for her family. I mean, her two sons were still pretty young when all of this shit started happening. And, you know, she was already so worried about them seeing Michael in a drugged-out daze or, you know, crashing into the walls and knocking down pictures off the walls because he's so fucked up. Um the last thing she wanted to do was completely rip apart their lives as they knew it by leaving Michael and leaving this home that they'd been growing up in and you know, leaving the school that they were attending. And I get that it's a really big deal to make a decision like that always, but especially when you have children. And so I think that she really, really tried, and I can't really fault her for all of the chances that she gave Michael because it's not, you know, it's not my marriage, it's not my kids. So looking at it from the outside while you're kind of grinding your teeth, being like, Barbra, like get your ass out of there. You can't really say that any of it was her fault for staying. I mean, that woman, she was, she went through it. So we're gonna cut Barbra some slack. Um you know, as for Michael, it really just seemed like he was on a path to really just see how far he could go, how badly he could fuck up his life. Because it wasn't even just the crippling drug addiction. Um, it was the affair. Um, it was the unethical medical practices, and and I'm not even talking about BTS. I'm talking about like him stealing pain medication from his own clinics to feed his own drug addiction. I mean it's really, really difficult to understand how someone could fall from such grace in such a big way and continue to fall, yet continue to make these terrible, terrible choices, just one after the other. I mean, like this guy does not get any better, he just got worse and worse because then as soon as it looked like he had finally picked his shit up off the floor and gotten it together, you know, founded his own company, which reaped potential of being a legitimate company. He, I mean, he threw that in the trash too. He was like, you know, a million dollars a year, please, like I'd like four million dollars a year. One million is not gonna cut it for me. I'm fucking Michael Mastrom arino, man. So he had to do whatever he felt necessary to make more money. And really, I think like a big part of it was just this big ego he had, this God complex that I'll say it, a lot of fucking doctors have. Um, it's it's there for a reason. I mean, like it's a it's a savior complex. Michael was stripped of his ability to practice medicine, which I'm sure did have an effect on his ego. I'm sure he took a big blow, but he was gonna be damned if he was going to let that savior complex get completely taken away from him. He still wanted to be viewed as someone that was helping people and making good money doing it. So, you know, the whole like selling these cadavers tissue for profit, you know, we dug into it, right? It's not illegal if done within the confines of such laws, you know. If the tissue bank is accredited and the FDA clears it, I mean, it's legit. The the one thing is you can't say that you are selling bones or buying bones, right? You have to say that you are selling a service or that you're purchasing a service, that service being tissue recovery. So you are paying for the tissue recovery service. You can't say that you're buying the bone. And I think Michael was smart enough to see all of these little loopholes that they there were in this industry. I mean, the body broker industry, it is really hard to regulate because all of it is in such a gray area. There's really not a lot of rules in the body broker industry that are distinctly black and white. Michael saw that and saw it as an opportunity to profit even more. You know, he could bend the rules, make more money, make a name for himself. He felt respected, he felt successful, you know, he had overcome his drug addiction, and he had repaired his marriage with Barbra, and everything was going great for Michael again. But there was this overwhelming, utter disregard for other people's well-being, and that is the part that just makes me want to scream guttural noises into the microphone while I'm talking about this, because to have the audacity to not only steal these people's bodies and cut into them and take what they wanted from those bodies, but then to not even do proper lab testing and screening for any transmittable diseases in this tissue and it's so reckless and unethical, and it's honestly just disgusting. It disgusts me. He disgusts me. And it's just it's it's absolutely just appalling that he got away with it for as long as he did. Um, thank God, and thank the heavens that he was caught and an end was put to it. But, you know, thousands and thousands of people got these letters saying that basically these bones in their bodies or these tendons in their bodies were being recalled. Like it's fucking yogurt. Like it's it's could you imagine getting something like that in the mail? I mean, first of all, I am really bad about getting my mail. And then second of all, if anything doesn't look like important, if it looks like junk, I ain't opening it, it's going in the trash. So if I was to get a letter like that and I even had the understanding that it was something important and that I needed to open and read, oh my God, I would just die. I would just cease to exist. I could not even imagine the anguish that you would feel if you had gone in for, you know, whatever, whether it was a routine surgery or if it was um, you know, something a little more complex, whatever it was, and you agreed to use a cadaver bone or cadaver tissue. And then you found out that this tissue could potentially have exposed you to something like HIV. I mean, Jesus fucking Christ. Like, I cannot imagine what these victims had gone through. And I really don't know who I feel worse for. I mean, the recipients of this tainted tissue or the families of those that were deceased and their bodies were stolen. I mean, everyone that was affected by these crimes that Michael Mastrom arino and BTS committed, I mean, it's just so fucking sad. And it really just makes you, it really makes you angry and it really makes you scared of really having anything ever put into your body. I mean, it makes you fucking scared to go to the doctor. It's just it's so upsetting that, you know, not only is there one guy in the world that had no conscience and was more than able to commit these heinous fucking crimes. But the fact that he had like all of these people working under him, his co-conspirators, you know, his cutters, um, the people that worked at the funeral homes, everybody that helped him are just as guilty, if you ask me. I mean, yeah, he was the mastermind behind all of it. He was the boss, he was the one making the most money, but all of these other people that were helping him in this process, I mean, they're assholes too. Let's call it what it is. I really don't have any sympathy for them. And, you know, when I had read that Michael had died of bone cancer of all things, I remember kind of smiling, like kind of giggling. And then I was like, oh my God, like, don't do that. Like, that's horrible. Don't, don't be that person. Well, then I read that one of Michael's sons literally said, karma's a bitch, you know, when he read about his dad being diagnosed with cancer. And I'm like, all right, well, if he can say it, then, you know, I can say it. And I think a lot of people were thinking that, you know, I think a lot of people, when they found out that Michael had died from bone cancer, were kind of, you know, solaced with that, that feeling of , karma, you know, poetic justice, whatever you want to call it. Um, in a way, justice had been served. Um, and I'm sorry if I'm just ranting. I mean, this is my first time doing this, and I have obviously a lot of feelings and thoughts about this case. Um, I'm a Gemini moon, so you know, you just gotta bear with me. I just have always been really, really intrigued by cases like this. Um, you know, I'm not taking away from, you know, the big headline cases that we see all the time. I really just find myself pulled into cases like this where there are multiple victims and there's this scheme going on the whole time, you know, behind the curtains that no one knows about. And, you know, there's there's that white-collar crime aspect to it. Um, because and I I think a lot of the time white-collar criminals are not persecuted nearly enough for their crimes. And I think that this is one of those cases that really just kind of blends like that kind of macabre um horror kind of traumatic story with you know, a little sprinkle of white-collar Wall Street crime. And I feel that Michael having died the way that he did after being publicly shamed as the ghoul of New Jersey, as the body snatcher, you know, um, just being completely banished, really, from everyone that loved him. I mean, you know, Barbra filed for divorce. He um didn't see his sons anymore. His sons wanted nothing to do with him after that. Um, I think they even like changed their last names at this point, too, so they wouldn't be associated with the name Mastromarino. Um, his cousin Mario resigned as his attorney after his first conviction. Um he wouldn't help him appeal. So, like, how embarrassing, right? To have your face spread across all of these tabloids calling you a ghoul. Um and like you are. I mean, like, these aren't like opinions, these are facts. This really happened. You did this, but the whole world knows you're a piece of shit, and then Your family and friends and colleagues, everyone else is like, yeah, like he is a piece of shit. Um, but he fucking deserved that. Uh Michael Mastromarino is a garbage person. And you know, I think that had he not been caught when he was, I think that he would have kept going and going and going until he was caught. I don't think that he was ever going to step up and take accountability for anything that happened. I don't think that he even had, you know, the moral conscience to even think that what he was doing was wrong. And if he did think it was wrong, he didn't care. You know, all that mattered to Michael was that he came out on top. And, you know, even when he was first subpoenaed, he was lying to his lawyer, his cousin, Mario, about the circumstances of the indictment, the DNA testing, you know. He later admitted that he was lying to Mario, but it's like, dude, like, that's your lawyer, you know, like that's like that's your chance to tell your side and like, you know, get your conviction overturned. But Mario wasn't even having it. He was like, appeal? I don't think so, you know, and thank God. Because the last thing that Michael deserved was to have his case appealed and for him to be back out in the public, because I have absolutely no doubts that he would have just started some other kind of business, some other kind of shady way of making a bunch of money, even if it meant hurting thousands and thousands of people. And so, you know, as we wrap up this season, um, I just think that it is really important to remember that, you know, not all criminals are like your run-of-the-mill murderers and kidnappers, you know, people like Michael Mastromarino are they're criminals. They're scary, they're dangerous. Um, they pose an imminent threat to the safety of society. And while he may not have been the one, you know, holding a knife up to somebody's throat, he was responsible for a lot of people's healths and responsible for their safety. And he didn't take it seriously at all. All he cared about was making his money as quickly and as easily as he could. It's just really sad. Um, so my heart goes out to everyone that was affected by this. Um, the loved ones of the deceased, the donor recipients, um, Barbra and her sons, and you know, really just anybody that ever had to really have Michael in their lives. I mean, ew, like if anyone should be sorry for anything ever, it's Michael Mastromarino. Okay, you should be sorry. And thank you for listening.