Kevin / Brock

Kevin with Jeff Wright in Tijuana, 1975.

Road trip with with classmates Peter Cardellichio and Steve Cuddy, 1974.

Kevin and Brock on the Jersey Shore, 2017.

Mark Zielenski, Brock, the Weld Hall Super, and (the future Dr.) David Hutt.

Brock with (taller people) daughter-in law Ariel Kaye, son August, Joy Horowitz, son Trevor, and (shorter people) grandkids Lou and Van.

Brock, 2024.

04-10-2025

Brock Walsh interviews freshman roommate Kevin McCarthy about his life of crime—crime fighting, that is. After Harvard, Kevin became an esteemed prosecutor on the state and federal levels, going up against the famous and infamous, including attorney Roy Cohn and his infamous sneer.

The cast of characters Kevin McCarthy encountered during his stellar legal career might have popped out of a Damon Runyon short story. As chief of the organized crime section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark, Kevin faced down “Matty the Horse” Ianniello, the notorious capo of the Genovese crime family, who let the courtroom know that he hated all Feds save one—Kevin.  A less appreciative courtroom opponent was Roy Cohn, who snarled when, as a callow young intern, Kevin torpedoed Cohn’s defense through dogged research.

His office mates were as illustrious as his opponents. On his first day in the District Attorney’s office in Manhattan, he met a recent Harvard Law School graduate named Sonia Sotomayor. His boss was another future U.S. Supreme Court justice, Sam Alito, who brought in Kevin’s Harvard classmate Mike Chertoff as a colleague; Chertoff would go on to become U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. 

As this engaging episode of PasstheMic75 comes to an end, Brock and Kevin find it hard to believe, as we all do, that we are now those ancient alums we used to smile at as they wandered the campus at their 50th reunion.  Brock provides the appropriate coda from, who else,  Dylan:

“Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now.”