Cremation

A crematorium owner pleaded guilty to 78 felony charges of illegally removing heads, knees, spines and other body parts from dozens of corpses scheduled for cremation, allegedly selling the parts for medical research. As part of a plea bargain, 44-year-old Michael Francis Brown of Murrieta faces a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years in state prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3.

After an outcry from veterans groups, the Pentagon has backed off on a proposal to cremate any U.S. troops killed by biological or chemical attacks in a war with Iraq rather than bringing their bodies home for burial, defense officials said. The Pentagon has also opted against a proposal to bury in mass graves the corpses of U.S. troops that might be health hazards.

The Pentagon is considering cremating the remains of any U.S. troops killed by biological or chemical attacks in Iraq rather than bringing them home for burial, defense officials said Thursday. The measure would be designed to prevent the spread of chemical or biological agents from contaminated bodies to people on the home front, the officials said. The Pentagon has for decades gone to great lengths in an attempt to recover for burial the body of every U.S.

Rock musician Joe Strummer, co-leader of the seminal punk-rock band the Clash, was cremated Monday at a private ceremony in London, eight days after he died of a heart attack at age 50. The cortege passed the former Elgin's Pub, where the Clash played some of its first shows in the mid-'70s, The service at the West London Crematorium was attended by Strummer's wife, Lucinda, his stepdaughter and his two daughters.

Sharon Smith wanted badly to grant her dead husband's wish to have his ashes spread in his favorite state. But Montana is a long way from Interlachen, Fla. With the help of a Montana newspaper columnist, a rural county sheriff and the U.S. mail, her husband's dying wish is being granted.

The legal battle between former Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith and her late oil tycoon husband's son hasn't always been solely over his money. Early on, it also involved the body the Texas billionaire left behind. A judge in 1995 ruled that J. Howard Marshall's cremated remains should be split evenly between the warring parties, a Solomon-like decision that seemingly put the issue to rest. If only it were that simple.

A lawyer for Ted Williams' daughter says a note the late hall of famer signed signaling his wishes to be cryonically preserved is suspect. Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell is questioning whether her father was capable of making a decision on how his body should be treated after death. Williams had been suffering from congestive heart failure. He died July 5 at age 83.

Four years after signing a will calling for his cremation, baseball great Ted Williams entered a pact with two of his children asking that his body be frozen, according to court documents filed Thursday. Williams' scrawled signature, along with those of son John Henry and daughter Claudia, appears at the bottom of a handwritten note on a scrap of paper dated Nov. 2, 2000. "JHW, Claudia and Dad all agree to be put into bio-stasis after we die," reads the pact, written with a ballpoint blue pen.

In a will filed and made public Tuesday, Ted Williams said he wanted his ashes "sprinkled at sea off the coast of Florida where the water is very deep." Williams also specified that he didn't want a funeral or memorial service. But after he wrote his will Dec. 20, 1996, the Hall of Famer expressed a desire to have his body frozen, according to the executor of the will, Albert Cassidy. "After the time of his will, Ted chose to have his body cryonically preserved," Cassidy said.