Small world, isn't it Splash? (background information on Mrs. Alito's tears in the hearings)

1/20/06

[dead]

I have an interesting tidbit of information to share.

My old college roommate's mother is friends with Judge Alito's mother. They go to the same church in Roseland, New Jersey.

Well, the judge's mother shared something with her that hasn't been in the papers and may bring a different perspective to those tears Alito's wife shed in the hearing.

It seems Judge Alito's wife (the former Martha-Ann Bomgardner) has had personal reasons to dislike Senator Kennedy since long before Splash's shameful treatment of her husband.

Long ago, the Senator was also less than kind to girl whose family was friends with the Bombgardner family. A girl that Martha-Ann knew fairly well before her untimely demise.

A girl named Mary Jo Kopechne.

[RinaseaofDs]

You said it was going to sink him. I'd love for you to be right, but the standard is double, and as Bill Clinton proved, you can rape and have people killed on your behalf and get away with it.

He's going to be reelected, and it won't be close. Sad as I think that is, it'll be true.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Let's see this in the NYT.

[SalukiLawyer]

Great. I can look forward to getting this in my inbox 500 along with the Ollie North-Osama bin Laden testimony.

[Wolfstar]

All is cool, dead. The story may or may not be true, but I have no doubt you came by it the way you describe.

Besides -- in tribute to your legendary humor, which I love -- even if the story is not true, it should be. :-)

[Richard Kimball]

Color me skeptical. In the blog it says "in the back end of a Buick." Anybody remotely familiar with the story knows it was an Oldsmobile. There's too much of a "My third cousin's uncle's best friend once shook hands with a fella that saw it."

[tioga]

I am skeptical of this....how old is Mrs. Alito? Mary Jo died in '69.....37 years ago, how old could she have been then?

[wolfcreek]

Does Kennedy know the connection?

[Wolfstar]

I haven't seen any reference to Gwen Kopechne's demise.

Thanks Cboldt. The consensus appears to be that Mary Jo's mom is still living.

[dead]

16 or 17

[kidd]

Another red flag:

Kennedy drove an Oldsmobile, not a Buick, into the pond. Although saying "back of a Buick" (with emphasis on the B's) sounds better when trying to stress a point.

[beyond the sea]

You said it was going to sink him. I'd love for you to be right, but the standard is double, and as Bill Clinton proved, you can rape and have people killed on your behalf and get away with it. He's going to be reelected, and it won't be close. Sad as I think that is, it'll be true.

I didn't say anything about elections.

I meant if this story is true and gets huge public exposure (which it most likely won't) he will be very embarrassed, to the point of hopefully drinking himself to death ....... or something wonderful like that.

;-)

[DJ MacWoW]

I meant if this story is true and gets huge public exposure (which it most likely won't) he will be very embarrassed, to the point of hopefully drinking himself to death ....... or something wonderful like that.

Yeah but honey you're working on the premise that he can still feel shame. I'm betting he can't even spell it.

[beyond the sea]

good point.

[nwrep]

dead, I just want to make sure you understand that I donot think you are lying. I am sure you are faithfully relaying what you have heard. BTW, I am going through NYT archives around the time of Mary Jo's funeral (July 1969) and noted that her parents lived in Berkeley Heights, NJ. Now if the Bomgarden family lived there circa 1969, we have game, set and match for you.

[Cboldt]

The Judge's mother still lives in Hamilton Township, New Jersey and not Roseland. It's possible you meant the judge's mother-in law and not his mother?

51 posted on 01/20/2006 2:50:48 PM EST by Spaghetti Man

Not many churches in Roseland, either. I found 5.

[Cboldt]

Berkeley Heights, NJ. Now if the Bomgarden family lived there circa 1969, we have game, set and match for you.

Martha-Ann Bomgardner

born on July 31, 1953 in Ft. Knox, Kentucky

1971 graduate of Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly ...
"Graf, who first met the future Mrs. Alito while teaching sophomore-year honors English" Puts Bomgardner in Mount Holly in '68-'69 (and possibly earlier)

student at Rutgers University inn France, 1973-1974
BA from the University of Kentucky in 1975
MSL.S. from the University of Kentucky in 1977

Back then, she was known by her maiden name, Martha-Ann Bomgardner. Born in Fort Knox, Ky., she and her family moved to Mount Holly (PA, Philly burb) after her father, an air traffic controller in the Air Force, was transferred to McGuire Air Force Base. Her mother also worked as a librarian on the base. Her parents now live in Mansfield.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-01152006-598026.html
http://marriage.about.com/od/politics/p/samuelalito.htm

Dead also asserts that Martha-Ann Bomgardner knew Mary Jo Kopechne fairly well, which indicates a certain amount of time together -- a good part of a day during a BBQ, for example.

[dead]

I really have no more information than I posted on this thread, so I don't know how they came to be family friends , how closely they knew each other, or if the families are still in contact.

All I know is that Judge Alito's mother said that Judge Alito's wife's family was friends with the Kopechne family and the Judge's wife knew Mary Jo.

I tried Googling around to find more, but there is a real suprising lack of information on Mary Jo and her family, outside of that one particular night.

[dead]

I knew when I posted this story that people would try to poke wholes in it, and I don't take it personally.

I'm telling what I know, and if people have information that contradicts it, I welcome it. I have no ulterior motive in telling it.

I can only say for sure that my friend is not lying to me about what his mother told him. And his whole family are upstanding citizens and rock-ribbed Republicans, so they are not trying to set a trap to embarass anybody.

I guess the only way to prove it one way or another is for somebody to just flat out ask the judge's wife if she knew Mary Jo.

[Cboldt]

All I know is that Judge Alito's mother said that Judge Alito's wife's family was friends with the Kopechne family and the Judge's wife knew Mary Jo.

You posted the same above, with the only difference being whether Martha-Ann Bomgardner "knew" Mary Jo Kopechne vs. "knew fairly well."

• My old college roommate's mother and Judge Alito's mother go to the same church in Roseland, New Jersey
• Judge Alito's mother asserted (to my old college roommate's mother) that the Kopechne family was friends with the Bomgardner family
• Judge Alito's mother asserted (to my old college roommate's mother) that Martha-Ann Bomgardner knew Mary Jo Kopechne fairly well

Implied in the above is that the Bomgardner/Kopechne family friendship existed during a time that Mary Jo Kopechne was alive, and that Mary Jo Kopechne and Martha-Ann Bomgardner had at least one face-to-face encounter.

[dead]

Implied in the above is that the Bomgardner/Kopechne family friendship existed during a time that Mary Jo Kopechne was alive, and that Mary Jo Kopechne and Martha-Ann Bomgardner had at least one face-to-face encounter.

Yes. That is what I was told the judge's mother stated. The two families knew each other on a friendly level and Martha-Ann personally knew Mary Jo.

I don't know what circumstance led to the families knowing each other.