New York magazine reports that bone is in greatest demand, for use in spinal fusions and the repair of fractures.
But it says virtually any part of a body can be reused, from veins for bypass in heart surgery and heart membranes to 'reupholster' the brain after neurosurgery, to thigh muscles to sling up sagging bladders to control incontinence and corneas to restore clear vision.
But with a million tissue transplants taking place every year in the United States, and just 25,000 donors, demand far outstrips supply.
Michael Mastromarino's bodysnatching gang got around that problem by cutting deals with funeral parlours, usually in poor areas, which supplied the corpses.
They even reportedly set up a secret room in Brooklyn's Daniel George & Son Funeral Home.
The magazine quoted police as saying that there was 'a virtual operating room, complete with the large and very bright overhead lighting associated with hospital surgery'.
But the cutting was frequently carried out in far less clinical conditions, often without refrigeration for the corpses.
And in a further gruesome twist, the gang would replace removed bones with PVC piping or even broomsticks, to avoid arousing suspicion at funerals, reported The Scotsman newspaper.
Prosecutors said the gang would also toss gloves, aprons and other incriminating evidence into the bodies before sewing them back up.