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.
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.
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.