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 edited the word "witch" out of the murder confession before the jury ever heard it. This week: Hex Hollow, Pennsylvania Powwow, the grimoire you can still buy on Amazon (four and a half stars), and the question of what happens when a community's entire system for understanding suffering points to a person. Dark, accurate, and genuinely strange.

Key Sources
Arthur Lewis, Hex (1969) — foundational narrative account. Still widely cited.
David W. Kriebel, Powwowing Among the Pennsylvania Dutch (Penn State University Press, 2007) — definitive academic treatment of Braucherei. Source for cure specifics (wound chant, hog bladder remedy, dollar bill vision test).
Johann Georg Hohman, Pow-Wows; or, Long Lost Friend (1820, multiple editions) — free on Internet Archive; annotated academic edition from Penn State University Press; also Amazon.
Shane Free, dir., Hex Hollow: Witchcraft and Murder in Pennsylvania (2015) — free to stream; features descendants of all parties and modern Powwow practitioners. Highly recommended companion viewing.
CrimeReads (2021), "A Tale of Witchcraft and Murder in Jazz Age America" — best single account of the trial proceedings and courtroom dynamics.
Wikipedia, Rehmeyer's Hollow — for baseline fact-check. Note: some popular sources contain errors on dates and childhood healer details; trial transcripts are the more reliable source.

Hey hey, my fellow Lore Lovers… welcome to Loreplay. 🖤
This is the podcast where history gets messy, folklore gets questionable, and I willingly spiral so you don’t have to. I’m your host, Dayna Pereira—your resident investigator of all things creepy, cursed, and deeply side-eye worthy.
Each week, we dig into the stories that make you go “wait… what the hell actually happened?”—from haunted places and urban legends to true crime and historical chaos. We separate fact from fiction… and then stare directly into the uncomfortable space in between.

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Creators and Guests

Host
Dayna Pereira
Show Host of Multiple Chart Hitting Podcasts. French Fry and Wine Enthusiast

What is Loreplay?

Dayna Pereira is the sarcastic solo host of Loreplay, serving up paranormal stories, haunted history, creepy folklore, and weird legends with a playful twist. Equal parts storyteller and skeptic, she blends dark humor, spooky vibes, and a love for the bizarre into binge-worthy episodes for fans of ghost stories, urban legends, and true crime with a paranormal twist.