If you’ve ever wondered how one family turned six deaths and a murder into a story of survival, episode 442 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Author Phyllis Karas shares the story behind her memoir Curse of the Blumenthals: a 1935 drunk-driving accident that killed six relatives and the murder her cousin Ronnie committed 18 years later. Her memoir shows how naming our grief, instead of burying it, can hold a family together.
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
(00:56) Phyllis Karas’s introduction as a journalist, professor, and author of Curse of the Blumenthals
(02:05) The 1935 drunk-driving accident that killed six members of her family
(05:56) Naming the victims and giving them life back through her writing
(07:48) Ronnie’s birth four months later — a moment of joy after tragedy
(12:41) The murder Ronnie committed 18 years after the crash, and the family’s decision to stand by him
(15:42) Visiting Ronnie in prison for 13 years, and what it taught her about grief
(17:23) The hardest parts to write: the police report and the murder itself
(20:13) Why readers are drawn to grief stories, and the response to her book signing
(21:04) How the family’s closeness endured across generations despite the tragedy
(22:24) Drunk driving, justice, and what accountability actually looked like
(23:29) Ronnie’s life after prison, and the 45 years he lived beyond it
Phyllis Karas is a journalist, longtime Boston University journalism professor, and author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob and The Onassis Woman, the subject of a Dateline NBC special. Her work has appeared in Vogue, Miami Herald, Boston Magazine, and Moment Magazine. Her latest book, and first memoir, Curse of the Blumenthals, traces three generations of tragedy and resilience within her own family.
On this episode, Phyllis joins Emily to discuss that memoir: a 1935 drunk-driving accident that killed six relatives, including three children; the 1954 murder committed by her cousin Ronnie, born months after the crash; and her family’s decades-long choice to stand by him through prison and a hard life after. She describes the years spent researching old police reports, how grief echoed across generations in her mother’s quiet anxieties, and her decision to finally write the story after Ronnie’s death in 2012 — turning inherited grief into connection rather than silence or anger.
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Book: Emily Thiroux Threatt – Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief
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