Loreplay

In 1928, on the night before Thanksgiving, a sixty-year-old Pennsylvania folk healer named Nelson Rehmeyer was beaten to death in his farmhouse by three men who believed he had cursed them. The house they tried to burn wouldn't burn. The clock above the stove stopped at 12:01. And the trial that followed became one of the most surreal legal spectacles in American history — partly because the judge...

Public executions were already brutal… but then came Jack Ketch—the executioner who somehow made death worse. Known across 17th-century England for his shockingly bad aim , Ketch didn’t just take lives—he botched them, turning executions into slow, horrifying spectacles that crowds couldn’t look away from. From nobles begging for mercy to audiences watching in disbelief, this is the story of the m...

In this absolutely chaotic slice of history, we dive into one of the strangest—and most painful—medical mysteries ever recorded: exploding teeth. Yes. Actual human teeth. Exploding. Inside people’s mouths. Set in the early-to-mid 1800s, this episode centers around several documented cases—most famously that of Reverend D.A. Spriggs —whose sudden, violent dental pain didn’t just throb… it detonated...

In 1837, something started terrorizing the outskirts of London. It had eyes like red balls of fire, metallic claws, and a deeply unsettling habit of vomiting blue flame directly into women's faces. It leapt over nine-foot walls. It slapped soldiers and laughed at bullets. It turned up in Devon as a four-legged bear-thing, starred in Victorian penny dreadfuls, got adopted as a bogeyman for misbehav...

In the shadow of colonial Rio de Janeiro, beneath the historic Arco do Teles, lives the legend of Bárbara dos Prazeres —a woman remembered as beautiful, powerful… and possibly monstrous. Said to have lived between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Bárbara’s story blends documented history with chilling folklore. Some versions claim she murdered her husband and lover, escaped justice through...

This week we're going fully unhinged in the Mississippi Delta, and I need you to be prepared for that emotionally. We're covering the Witch of Yazoo — a nameless woman, a swamp shack, a very unfortunate boy on a raft, and a dying curse so specific it included a date, a year, a time of day, and somehow still got dismissed by an entire town. We'll get into the legend itself (fishermen, arsenic, skel...

Hey hey, lore-loving weirdos — before Salem, before witch trials became a cultural shorthand for mass hysteria, Europe spent roughly two hundred years putting people on trial for turning into wolves. And executing them. Tens of thousands of them. In this episode of Loreplay, host Dayna Pereira dives into the real, documented, court-certified history of the European werewolf trials — the paranoia,...

In July of 1518, one woman in Strasbourg walked into the street and began to dance. She didn’t stop. Within days, dozens joined her. Within weeks, hundreds were convulsing, leaping, and collapsing in the streets. And instead of stopping it… local authorities encouraged it. They hired musicians. They built stages. They prescribed more dancing. By the end of the summer, people were reportedly dying...

Think fairy tales were written for children? Think again. In this episode of Loreplay , Dayna Pereira dives deep into the dark, disturbing, and wildly misunderstood origins of classic fairy tales like Cinderella , Snow White , and The Juniper Tree . Long before Disney softened the edges, these stories were filled with mutilation, cannibalism, eye-pecking birds, and stepmothers who absolutely chose...

In 1922, six people were brutally murdered on a remote German farm known as Hinterkaifeck. There were no witnesses. No arrests. No clear motive. But what makes this case one of the creepiest unsolved murders in history isn’t just the violence — it’s what happened after . Neighbors reported footsteps in the attic before the murders. Footprints appeared in the snow leading to the farmhouse… but neve...

New Orleans is known for jazz, ghosts, cocktails, and bad decisions made after midnight—but one house on Royal Street manages to out-traumatize them all. In this episode of Loreplay , Dayna Pereira dives into the chilling true history and twisted folklore surrounding the infamous LaLaurie Mansion and its most notorious resident, Delphine LaLaurie . What began as whispers of cruelty turned into ful...

In 1922, archaeologists opened the tomb of Tutankhamun , and almost immediately, people started dying. Coincidence? Bad luck? Or did they anger something ancient, royal, and deeply petty? In this episode of Loreplay , Dayna Pereira cracks open the legend of The Curse of the Pharaoh —the supposed supernatural punishment that followed those who disturbed King Tut’s tomb. We trace how the curse myth...

A normal ship docks. Europe panics. History absolutely spirals. In this episode of Loreplay , Dayna Pereira unpacks the chaos of the Black Death —the pandemic that wiped out up to half of Europe—and the extreme (and often unhinged) ways people tried to survive it. From bloodletting and snake remedies to emeralds, unicorn lore, and cooked chicken applied to plague sores, medieval medicine was doing...

In this episode of Loreplay , we step inside the massive stone walls of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum —a building that was never meant to hold the suffering it ultimately swallowed. Opened in the mid-1800s as a progressive mental health hospital, the asylum was designed to heal through light, fresh air, and compassion. What it became instead was a cautionary monument to overcrowding, neglect,...

In this episode of Loreplay , we dive into one of the most unsettling intersections of medicine, power, and history: anthropodermic bibliopegy , the practice of binding books in human skin. While it sounds like folklore or horror fiction, this practice was very real—occurring primarily between the 17th and 19th centuries in Europe and the United States. It was most often carried out not by occulti...

In early 19th-century England, scandal traveled faster than truth—and women paid the price for both. This episode of Loreplay dives into the infamous Red Barn Murder , the brutal killing of Maria Marten , a young woman from Polstead, Suffolk, whose disappearance was blamed on shame, gossip, and her own supposed moral failings… until her body was discovered buried beneath the floor of a blood-red b...

Forget cozy cocoa and wholesome carols—this episode of Loreplay drags Christmas straight into the Alps and leaves it screaming. In this darkly festive deep dive, host Dayna Pereira unwraps the chilling folklore of Krampus , the horned, chain-rattling nightmare who shows up every December not to deliver gifts—but to dish out consequences. Long before Santa became a jolly capitalist mascot, Krampus...

n this episode of Loreplay , host Dayna Pereira ventures into the snowy, unsettling heart of Alpine folklore to meet one of Europe’s most iconic winter figures: Frau Perchta —a goddess, witch, and domestic compliance auditor who absolutely did not come to play. Known for roaming the countryside during the Twelve Nights of Christmas, Perchta rewarded the diligent, punished the lazy, and allegedly s...

Tonight on Loreplay , we’re diving deep into one of the most fascinating, eerie, and unexplained medieval mysteries ever recorded: The Green Children of Woolpit . This legendary twelfth-century case from Suffolk, England , has baffled historians, folklorists, and paranormal researchers for centuries. Two mysterious green-skinned children appeared out of nowhere near a wolf pit in Woolpit, speaking...

Tonight on Loreplay , we’re headed straight into the misty hills of Lancashire to unravel one of the most infamous witchcraft trials in history — the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials . This episode dives into the crumbling social order of early-17th-century England, where famine, disease, political paranoia, and neighborly grudges created the perfect storm for witchcraft accusations. We unpack the lives o...

This week on Loreplay , your host Dayna Pereira drags you—lovingly, chaotically, and with a full set of trigger warnings—into one of New York’s darkest intersections of myth and reality. We’re talking Cropsey , Staten Island’s OG boogeyman… and the very real institutional nightmare that fed the legend: the Willowbrook State School . From childhood dares in the woods… to abandoned tunnels… to uneth...

In this spine-tingling (and side-splitting) episode of Loreplay , host Dayna Pereira dives deep into the unbelievable true story of the Greenbrier Ghost —the only documented case in American history where a ghost’s testimony helped convict a murderer . Yep. Court of law. Sworn statement. Medium-grade Victorian drama. Full-body chills. Travel back to 1897 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia , where...

The Blood Countess of Cachtice: Elizabeth Báthory — Monster, Myth, or Misogyny? Hey hey, my lore-loving fiends — tonight we’re heading back to 16th-century Hungary, where leeches were skincare, torture was trending, and one noblewoman’s beauty routine allegedly involved… her staff. Elizabeth Báthory — better known as The Blood Countess — has been called history’s most prolific female serial killer...

You’ve heard of haunted dolls, cursed mirrors, and demons that slide into your DMs — but few haunted objects have ever captured the world’s attention like the Dybbuk Box . A simple wooden wine cabinet turned viral nightmare, this thing went from folklore-inspired hoax to a full-blown paranormal phenomenon involving Ghost Adventures , Post Malone , and the internet’s collective fear of “what’s in t...

Hey hey, my lore-loving weirdos… grab your lanterns, your lace bonnets, and your emotional support gin — because tonight, we’re heading back to 1803 London, where a ghost panic got so real it ended with an actual murder trial. Before the Tube, before streetlights, and definitely before therapy, the sleepy village of Hammersmith found itself haunted — not by one restless spirit, but by a whole lot...