Judge Alito's parents were friends with Mary Jo's parents. The extent of family relationship is stated as:
- "On occasion, they attended the same church in Roseland, New Jersey"
- Mary Jo Kopechne graduated from Caldwell College, Caldwell being the town that the Alito family lives in (I presume this means the mother and father of Samuel A. Alito, Jr.)
- "From the personal memories of this woman that Mrs. Alito got from her husband's family"
One has to infer from the above, that Judge Alito's parents were friends with Mary Jo's parents. For the inference to be correct requires coordination of timing. In particular that the Alito, Sr. and Kopechne families had occasion to cross paths at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Roseland.
And even then, merely "crossing paths" does not necessarily result in extended conversation, or the more extended relationship commonly referred to as "friendship."
The extent of family relationship is stated as:
* "On occasion, they attended the same church in Roseland, New Jersey"
* Mary Jo Kopechne graduated from Caldwell College, Caldwell being the town that the Alito family lives in (I presume this means the mother and father of Samuel A. Alito, Jr.)
* "From the personal memories of this woman that Mrs. Alito got from her husband's family"
One has to infer from the above, that Judge Alito's parents were friends with Mary Jo's parents. For the inference to be correct requires coordination of timing. In particular that the Alito, Sr. and Kopechne families had occasion to cross paths at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Roseland.
The problem with that is that Judge Alito's mother, Rose, still lives in the old Alito family home in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, near Trenton, not in Caldwell near Newark. According to
this article, mama Alito is still an active parishoner at Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony in Hamilton Township. I doubt the "Alito, Sr." family ever lived in Caldwell. Judge Alito probably moved there when he was named U.S. Attorney or put on the bench. That would be in the 1980s, over ten years after Mary Jo was killed by Ted Kennedy.
I'm skeptical about this story.