Loreplay

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 began, who actually died (and who absolutely did not), and why the media latched onto the story like it was the original clickbait headline.

Was this divine revenge from beyond the grave—or just a perfect storm of bad timing, poor medical care, and dramatic storytelling?

Grab your emotional support scarab and join us as we separate myth from mummy dust in one of history’s most enduring spooky legends.

Sources & Further Reading

• British Museum – King Tut Collection & Tomb History
• National Geographic – Articles on the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the curse myth
• Smithsonian Institution – Scientific explanations for the so-called curse
• BBC – Historical coverage on Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon
• Journal of the American Medical Association – Research on tomb bacteria and fungal spores
• The Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter
• Oxford University Press – Egyptology and funerary belief research
• History – Overviews of the curse legend and excavation aftermath

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 its most… experimental.

As Venice struggled to protect itself, it pioneered quarantine and sent the sick to a small island in the lagoon: Poveglia Island. Over centuries, the island became a quarantine zone, mass burial ground, and later the site of a psychiatric hospital—cementing its reputation as one of the most haunted places in the world.

Plague, paranoia, ghost stories, and generational trauma baked into the soil—this is the story of how fear shaped public health, folklore, and one island no one wants to visit.

Dark history. Questionable medicine. Lingering ghosts.
 Welcome to Loreplay.
Historical Plague & Medicine

• Benedictow, Ole J. The Black Death 1346–1353: The Complete History (Boydell Press)
• BBC History – “The Black Death”
   https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml
• National Geographic – “How the Black Death Changed the World”
   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/black-death

Poveglia Island History

• Smithsonian Magazine – “The Plague Island of Poveglia”
   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/plague-island-poveglia-180974071/
• Atlas Obscura – “Poveglia Island”
   https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/poveglia-island
• Italy Magazine – “Poveglia: Venice’s Most Haunted Island”
   https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/poveglia-venices-most-haunted-island

Quarantine & Venetian Public Health

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – History of Quarantine
   https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/historyquarantine.html
• Snowden, Frank M. Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present (Yale University Press)
• Podcasts: Lets Get Haunted

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, and what happens when care turns into control.

As patient numbers exploded from a few hundred to well over two thousand, treatment methods shifted from moral therapy to restraint, sedation, and experimentation. Patients slept in hallways. Violent and non-violent individuals were mixed together. Understaffed wards relied on isolation cells, forced labor, electroshock therapy, insulin shock therapy, and lobotomies—often performed on people whose greatest crime was being inconvenient, impoverished, traumatized, or simply different.

We explore documented patient cases, the rise of medical “solutions” that caused more harm than healing, and how the asylum’s history reflects broader societal fears about mental illness, gender, class, and control. And, because this is Loreplay, we also examine what lingered after the doors closed—reported hauntings, unexplained phenomena, and why so many believe the building never truly emptied.

This isn’t just a ghost story.
 It’s a story about people who were silenced, mislabeled, and forgotten—
 and the institution that was supposed to save them.

• Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Official Site
   https://trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com
• West Virginia Division of Culture and History
   https://wvculture.org
• Kirkbride, Thomas S. On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane (1854)
• Mental Health America – History of Mental Illness Treatment
   https://mhanational.org
• Smithsonian Magazine – History of Lobotomies
   https://www.smithsonianmag.com
• National Library of Medicine – Insulin Shock Therapy
   https://www.nlm.nih.gov
• U.S. National Archives – Institutional Records & Census Data
• Contemporary interviews and archival materials cited by:
  • West Virginia University Archives
  • Ohio County Public Library historical collections

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 occultists or criminals, but by doctors, judges, and institutions with legal and social power.

🧍‍♀️ Mary Lynch & Dr. John Stockton Hough

Mary Lynch was a young Irish immigrant who died in 1869 at Philadelphia General Hospital. She was poor, severely ill with tuberculosis, and unclaimed at death—circumstances that made her body legally accessible to medical authorities.

After performing her autopsy, physician Dr. John Stockton Hough removed portions of her skin and later used it to bind three medical books, all dealing with female reproduction and health. Hough wrote inscriptions inside the books identifying the bindings as human skin and referencing Mary’s death. There is no evidence Mary consented to this use of her body.

These books are now held by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and have been scientifically tested and confirmed to be bound in human skin.

🏛️ Harvard & Des destinées de l’âme

One of the most well-known anthropodermic books is Des destinées de l’âme (The Destinies of the Soul), a 19th-century philosophical work by Arsène Houssaye. The book was gifted to physician Ludovic Bouland, who later bound it in the skin of an unnamed female patient who died in a French psychiatric hospital.

Bouland left a handwritten note stating that “a book about the human soul deserved a human covering.”

In 2014, Harvard University used peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) to scientifically confirm that the binding was human skin. After extensive ethical review, Harvard announced in 2024 that the human skin had been removed from the book and placed into respectful care, acknowledging past mishandling of human remains.

🔪 Criminal Punishment & Skin Binding

Some anthropodermic books were created using the skin of executed criminals, often bound around:

• Trial transcripts
• Confessions
• Accounts of crimes

This practice was intended as an extension of punishment beyond death and was widely accepted within certain legal and medical frameworks of the time.

One example discussed is William Corder, convicted of the Red Barn Murder, whose skin was used to bind books about his crime after his execution.

🛣️ James Allen (George Walton): Consent Case

James Allen, a 19th-century highwayman also known as George Walton, represents a rare documented case of explicit consent. After attempting to rob John Fenno and being sentenced to life in prison, Allen wrote a detailed confession and requested that his own skin be used to bind the manuscript after his death.

The request was honored in 1837, and the finished book was delivered to Fenno—Allen’s intended victim. This book still exists and is often cited as the clearest example of voluntary anthropodermic bibliopegy.

🧠 Burke & Hare

In 1820s Edinburgh, William Burke and William Hare murdered at least sixteen people to sell their bodies to anatomists. After Burke’s execution in 1829, his body was publicly dissected, and portions of his skin were preserved and used to create at least one book attributed to his remains.

Fragments of Burke’s body, including his skeleton and skin artifacts, are still held in Scottish collections today.

👻 Hauntings & Cultural Aftermath

There are no verified paranormal hauntings directly associated with anthropodermic books. However, museum staff and visitors have reported feelings of unease, nausea, emotional heaviness, or discomfort when handling or viewing such objects—particularly after learning their origins.

Modern scholars emphasize that the true “haunting” lies not in ghosts, but in how long these objects were treated as curiosities rather than human remains.

🔗 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

(Highly credible, museum- and academic-backed)

Primary & Academic Sources

• College of Physicians of Philadelphia – Historical Medical Library
  “The Skin She Lived In”
  https://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/skin-she-lived-in/
• Anthropodermic Book Project
  https://anthropodermicbooks.org/
• University of Delaware – Anomalous Books Project
  https://sites.udel.edu/anomalousbooks/books-human-skin/

Journalism & Secondary Sources

• NPR – “Dark Archives Explores the Use of Human Skin in Bookbinding”
  https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925832512/dark-archives-explores-the-use-of-human-skin-in-bookbinding
• Smithsonian Magazine – Harvard Human Skin Book Removal
  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-book-bound-with-human-skin-spent-90-years-in-harvards-library-now-the-binding-has-been-removed-180984057/
• Harvard Library – Statement on Human Remains in Collections (2024)
  https://library.harvard.edu/about/news/harvard-library-statement-human-remains-collections

Historical Cases

• James Allen / George Walton Skin-Bound Confession
  Boston Athenaeum holdings
  https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/collections
• William Burke & Hare
  National Museums Scotland
  https://www.nms.ac.uk/

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 barn.

Maria had been involved with William Corder, a serial liar, emotional manipulator, and walking red flag in breeches. Pregnant and under immense social pressure, Maria was persuaded to meet Corder at the Red Barn under the pretense that they would elope. She was told to disguise herself as a man to avoid scandal—a choice that would later be twisted into suspicion against her.

She was never seen alive again.

For months, Corder sent letters to Maria’s family claiming she was safe, married, and living happily elsewhere. Meanwhile, her stepmother began having vivid dreams—dreams that repeatedly pointed to the Red Barn as Maria’s final resting place. When authorities finally searched the barn, they uncovered Maria’s remains, wrapped and buried beneath the floor.

Corder fled, was captured, and put on trial in 1828. The case became a full-blown media frenzy: courtroom drama, pamphlets, ballads, stage plays, souvenirs, and public spectacle. After his execution by hanging, Corder’s body was dissected—and in a final macabre twist, portions of his skin were reportedly used to bind a book documenting his crime.

This episode examines the murder itself, the circus that followed, and the deeper truth beneath the sensationalism: Maria Marten was not careless or foolish—she was trapped by class, gender, and a society that offered men exits and women dead ends.

The Red Barn didn’t kill Maria.

It just became the place where everything that failed her finally met.

Show Sources:
BBC News – The Red Barn Murder: England’s most notorious killing
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0wrdleer2o

Wikipedia – Red Barn Murder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_Murder

Mental Floss – The Chilling Story of the Red Barn Murder
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/569826/red

Historic UK – The Red Barn Murder
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Red-Barn-Murder/

The British Library – Crime broadsides & execution ephemera related to the Red Barn Murder
https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/crime-broadsides

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 was roaming Alpine villages, terrorizing children, beating the naughty with birch rods, stuffing the worst offenders into his sack, and, depending on the legend, dragging them off to hell… or something arguably worse.

This episode explores the brutal folklore behind Krampusnacht, the cultural role of fear in child-rearing, and why European Christmas traditions were historically less “holiday cheer” and more “behave or be taken into the mountains.” We dig into centuries-old stories of children who vanished after misbehaving, the symbolism behind Krampus’ animalistic appearance, and how pagan winter spirits survived Christianization by simply putting on a festive disguise.

Along the way, we examine Krampus’ possible connections to older Alpine figures like Frau Perchta, unpack the rise (and chaos) of modern Krampuslauf celebrations, and ask the most important question of all:
Why was everyone in history so comfortable terrifying children at Christmas?

Dark, creepy, historically grounded—and just unhinged enough to make you grateful your parents only threatened to call Santa—this episode proves once again that the holidays used to be feral.

So light a candle, lock your doors, and remember: Santa watches…
But Krampus acts.

Sources:
National Geographic – The Dark History of Krampus

Smithsonian Magazine – The Alpine Origins of Krampus

Britannica – Krampus: European Folklore

Jacob Grimm – Teutonic Mythology

Alpine Folklore Archives (Austria & Bavaria)

University of Innsbruck Folklore Studies

Hilda Ellis Davidson – Roles of the Northern Goddess

Maria Tatar – The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales

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 slit open the bellies of naughty children to stuff them with straw and rocks. Festive! But beneath the gore and goat-footed nightmare fuel lies a fascinating story of pre-Christian goddesses, household rituals, seasonal transition, and the Church’s long tradition of demonizing powerful women.

This episode explores Perchta’s many forms—from radiant White Lady to grotesque belly-slasher—her connection to spinning, fertility, and the Wild Hunt, and how she slowly morphed from respected folkloric figure into holiday horror icon. Along the way, we unpack why medieval Europe was so obsessed with winter demons, why chores were apparently a matter of life and death, and how Perchta may have helped inspire figures like Krampus, Frau Holle, and even the concept of Santa’s “naughty list.”

So grab a warm drink, finish your spinning, and prepare to be judged—because Frau Perchta is coming, and she will be checking your vibes.

Sources & Further Reading

• Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology. (1883)
• Lecouteux, Claude. Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead
• Lecouteux, Claude. The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices
• Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles
• Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years
• Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art) archives
• Encyclopaedia Britannica – entries on Perchta, Frau Holle, and Alpine folklore
• Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology
• Kvideland, Reimund & Henning K. Sehmsdorf. Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend

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 an unknown language, wearing unfamiliar clothing, and describing a twilight world unlike anything in recorded English folklore.

In this episode, we explore the historical accounts from medieval chroniclers William of Newburgh and Ralph of Coggeshall, examine the children’s strange behavior, and unpack the girl’s chilling description of her homeland — a dim world known as the Land of St. Martin where the sun never shines and everyone has green skin.

We break down the most compelling explanations behind this unsolved historical mystery, including:

• Flemish refugee theory
• Fairy folklore and British supernatural traditions
• Parallel dimension theories / interdimensional slip
• Time anomalies and medieval “thin places”
• Nutritional and environmental explanations for green skin

Was this a case of misunderstood medieval immigration? A brush with the fairy realm? A supernatural phenomenon? A glitch in reality? Or one of the earliest recorded examples of interdimensional travelers in British history?

If you’re obsessed with unsolved historical cases, English folklore, paranormal mysteries, fairy lore, or stories that make you go “What the actual medieval hell did I just listen to?”, this episode of Loreplay is going to be your new favorite rabbit hole.

Step into one of the strangest folklore mysteries ever documented: the Green Children of Woolpit, a real historical event recorded by twelfth-century chroniclers that continues to stump historians, folklorists, and paranormal researchers today.

In this Loreplay episode, we uncover the truth behind the mysterious green-skinned children who appeared in Woolpit, England, speaking an unknown language and claiming to come from a land of eternal twilight. Was this bizarre medieval event rooted in fairy folklore, a parallel dimension, a hidden isolated community, or a supernatural glitch in the fabric of reality?

Perfect for fans of: weird history, folklore podcasts, paranormal podcasts, unsolved enigmas, English legends, mysterious children legends, and medieval supernatural encounters.

Keywords: Green Children of Woolpit, folklore podcast, paranormal podcast, supernatural folklore, weird history podcast, medieval legends, mysterious children story, English paranormal history, fairy realm folklore, historical mysteries explained.
Primary Medieval Sources

• William of Newburgh — Historia Rerum Anglicarum (Green Children of Woolpit account)
• Ralph of Coggeshall — Chronicon Anglicanum (firsthand documentation of Woolpit mystery)

Folklore & History Scholarship

• John Clark, “The Green Children of Woolpit” — Folklore Journal
• Jacqueline Simpson — British Folklore and the Supernatural
• Ronald Hutton — Pagan Britain & The Stations of the Sun
• Thomas Keightley — The Fairy Mythology

Modern Analyses

• Fortean Times — “Children From the Dark: The Woolpit Mystery”
• Suffolk Archaeological Society Papers
• Medical research on chlorosis & hypochromic anemia
• Geological surveys of Suffolk chalk caves & cavern acoustics

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 of Demdike, Chattox, Alizon Device, Old Mother Nutter, and the rest of the so-called witches who were swept up in a tale of curses, confessions, and good old-fashioned government fearmongering.

From “soft torture” in the Lancaster Gaol, to a ten-year-old child testifying against her entire family, to King James I obsessively hunting witches like he was trying to complete some kind of satanic Pokémon set — this story has everything.

It’s eerie. It’s tragic. It’s wildly human.
 And in true Loreplay fashion, I’ll make you laugh at least twice before you gasp out loud.
Primary & Historical Sources

• Thomas Potts, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (1613).
  The official contemporary account of the trials. Biased and prosecutorial, but essential.
• James I, Daemonologie (1597).
  The king’s witch-hunting bible that set the tone for the era.

Academic Books & Articles

• Sharpe, James. The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories. Manchester University Press.
  A deep academic look at the social and political context.
• Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts.
  Helpful for understanding the larger witch-hunt framework.
• Goodare, Julian. “The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context.” Manchester University Press.
  Contextualizes James I’s influence and policy shaping.
• Essex, Helen. “Re-evaluating Confessions in the Pendle Witch Trials.” (Essex Open Access Research).
  Discussions of coercion, interrogation, and credibility.

Modern Summaries & Museum Resources

• The Lancashire Museums / Lancaster Castle official archives
  Context for the gaol, conditions, and trial procedures.
• The Pendle Witch Visitor Centre & Official Pendle Witches Trail
  Modern historical interpretations, maps, and family histories.
• BBC History: “The Pendle Witches.”
  A concise overview of events with standard UK scholarship.

Secondary Sources / Journalism

• The Guardian: “Pendle witches: the story”
  Modern analysis and historical re-evaluation.
• History Today articles on 17th-century witchcraft and trial standards

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 unethical medical experiments… to the disappearances of multiple children… this episode unpacks how an urban legend stopped being folklore and started feeling uncomfortably real.

Dayna dives into:

• The original pre–Andre Rand versions of Cropsey
• The creation, collapse, and absolute hellscape of Willowbrook
• The hepatitis experiments (aka: “science said WHAT?”)
• Geraldo Rivera blowing the lid off the institution
• The disappearances that shook Staten Island
• Andre Rand’s crimes, accusations, and the cases still unsolved
• How myth, trauma, and institutional failure fused into one terrifying narrative

Equal parts horror, heartbreak, and “holy-shit-how-was-this-real,” this episode is a reminder that sometimes the scariest legends are built on top of real places where real people were failed.

Turn off the lights. Lock your doors. And let’s go find the line where folklore ends… and monsters begin.

SHOW NOTES

Trigger Warnings:

This episode contains discussions of child abuse, neglect, institutional abuse, unethical medical experiments, kidnapping, and the deaths/disappearances of children.

Topics Covered:

• History of the Cropsey urban legend
• Early folklore origins of Cropsey (pre–Andre Rand)
• Founding and deterioration of the Willowbrook State School (1947–1987)
• Conditions inside Willowbrook
• The hepatitis experiments conducted by Dr. Saul Krugman
• Geraldo Rivera’s 1972 exposé
• The disappearance cases of:
  • Alice Pereira (1972)
  • Holly Ann Hughes (1981)
  • Tiahease Jackson (1983)
  • Henry Gafforio (1984)
  • Jennifer Schweiger (1987)
• The arrest and convictions of Andre Rand
• The 2009 Cropsey documentary
• Modern interpretations, hauntings, and how the legend persists

Sources & Further Reading:

(Note: these are clean, reputable sources suitable for show notes. No need for academic citation formatting.)

• “Cropsey” (2009) – Documentary by Joshua Zeman & Barbara Brancaccio
• Geraldo Rivera’s 1972 Willowbrook exposé (ABC/Local Eyewitness News)
• New York State Archives – Willowbrook State School Records
• The New York Times coverage of Willowbrook (1960s–1980s)
• The Disability Rights Movement & The Willowbrook Consent Decree
• New York Daily News & Staten Island Advance reporting on the Rand cases
• Saul Krugman’s published hepatitis studies (1950s–1970s), archived medical journals

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