Known information was that Mary had a husband and that his name was Michael J. McCarthy. Unfortunately there was a Michael J. McCarthy who was highly visible, plugged into the broadcast industry, lived and worked in Washington, the same age as Mary, who WAS NOT Mary's husband.
Freepers were interested in whether he was Mary's husband or not because he was the past president of the National Association of Broadcasters and VERY well connected to the MSM. Turns out that her husband is a hobbity little Joe Wilson look-alike who is a landscape architect. The story is that we checked and checked until we knew the facts. No tin foil, no conspiracy theories, and no retractions.
I will email the Lawyer guy today to ask why he didn't respond to my original email.
Thank you thank you thank you for helping me out with this. I've had my head buried in my work for a few weeks and need to start catching up on the slippery libs.