439: The Curse of the Blumenthals w/ Phyllis Karas

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, Education, History

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest is New York Times bestselling author Phyllis Karas. She shares the deeply personal story of two shocking tragedies in her family history: a 1935 car accident that killed six relatives, and the brutal 1954 murder of a Massachusetts seamstress named Ora Schonarth that sent her cousin Ronnie to prison. She also explores how the trauma of both events reverberated through her family for generations. Her new book, Curse of the Blumenthals, is out now. The author's website: https://www.phylliskaras.com/ The author's publisher page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Phyllis-Karas/260784571 30% off sitewide at Batch! Go here and support the show: ⁠⁠⁠⁠hellobatch.com/NOTORIOUS⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use the code NOTORIOUS at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some follow the noise.
0:03.3	Bloomberg follows the money.
0:05.4	Because behind every headline is a bottom line.
0:09.3	Whether it's the funds-fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings,
0:13.8	there's a money-side to every story.
0:16.5	And when you see the money-side, you understand what others miss.
0:22.3	Get the money-side of the story., you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story.
0:25.3	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:29.8	Security program on spreadsheets.
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0:47.8	or call it Calm compliance. Get it. Join the 15,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Get started at vanta.com slash calm. Welcome, everyone to another episode of the Most Notorious podcast, I'm Eric.
1:27.3	Thank you for letting me visit you through your earbuds or however else you hear this show every week or so. Really appreciate it. Appreciate the support. For ad-free episodes and some extra bonus content occasionally, you can always subscribe through Apple Podcasts or become a patron
1:47.1	at patreon.com. Well, I'm so pleased to introduce as my guest today, Phyllis Karras.
1:53.5	She is a professor of journalism at Boston University, a stringer for People magazine, and the author of 10 books, including
2:03.9	Brutal, the untold story of my life inside Whitey Bulgers Irish Mob. Her latest book, which came out on
2:13.5	May 19th, is called Curse of the Blumenthal's. Thank you so much for being on the show.
2:19.3	So nice to have you. Thank you, Eric. It's a delight to be here. I do want to ask you about your
2:26.0	Whitey Boulcher book. Maybe we can do that at the end of the interview. I'm very curious about
	...

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