Necronomicast
Necronomicast
Necronomicast
Episode 325 Phyllis Karas "Curse of the Blumenthals"
1 hour 8 minutes Posted Aug 14, 2026 at 7:00 am.
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Show notes

I have the tremendous pleasure of welcoming to the show an incredibly talented and respected writer, educator, and journalist, Phyllis Karas!

Phyllis Karas is a professor of journalism at Boston University, a stringer for People Magazine, and the author of ten books.  Brutal-- The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob was a NYT bestseller; The Onassis Woman, was the subject of a Dateline NBC Special.  Her work has appeared in Vogue,  Miami Herald, Boston Magazine and Moment Magazine,where her story on Kosher Slaughter received the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence. She has been interviewed on Extra, Access Hollywood and Hard Ball.

We are going to chat about her latest offering, a deeply personal account.  "Curse of the Blumenthals", the history of one close-knit New England-based, Jewish American family and their dark relationship with alcohol, from bootlegging arrests in 1920s Providence, a drunk driver killing six members of their family in 1935, the 1954 murder of a Boston seamstress committed by teenager Ronnie Blumenthal, to Ronnie's death and burial in 2012 in an unmarked pauper's grave, ending the curse.

New York Times bestselling author Phyllis Karas is on this episode of Necronomicast!

Phyllis Karas Official Website

"Curse of the Blumenthals" available at Amazon

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