The Krongard brothers barely speak, friends say. In fact, Howard appears to be estranged from several family members, including his son Kenneth, whom he sued last year over a home loan. And Buzzy Krongard has said that when Howard called him a few weeks ago as he prepared his testimony, it was their first conversation in months.

Even their accounts of that brief call are at odds: Buzzy says that he told Howard he was joining the Blackwater advisory board, and that Howard said that was not a good idea. Howard testified that they had no such discussion.

Still, Buzzy Krongard said in an interview, “Whatever issues I have with my brother, I don’t question his integrity.” Given their estrangement, any attempt to reach Howard through him would have backfired, he said. “Based on our recent relationship,” he said, “the effect would be the other way around.”

Buzzy Krongard spoke in his 15,000-square-foot Georgian mansion, Torch Hill, north of Baltimore, where family photos were propped atop an antique piano and memorabilia of his lacrosse days covered half a den wall.

The two brothers grew up in a middle-class West Baltimore neighborhood, sons of a partner in a uniform-manufacturing business. Buzzy’s nickname was bestowed by an aunt who thought he resembled a comics character by that name; a few years later, when his grandmother wanted to buy him a war bond, she had to ask his parents his formal name. Howard got his nickname from knocking on doors and asking for cookies, his brother said.

They went to public school and on to Princeton, and their athletic exploits — Buzzy as a midfielder, Cookie as a goalie — landed both men in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in Baltimore.

“Most people around here started to play lacrosse at 7 or 8,” said Ralph N. Willis, 76, another Hall of Famer from Baltimore and Princeton. “Buzzy and I used to play with those old wooden sticks.”