Loreplay

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 newlywed Zona Heaster Shue dies under suspicious circumstances… and her mother refuses to buy the “it was natural causes” excuse that the town doctor offered while he was practically doing a speed-run autopsy in reverse. After four nights of bone-cracking ghostly visits, Zona reveals the truth: her husband killed her, and she wants justice.

This episode blends historical research, paranormal evidence, Appalachian folklore, and classic Loreplay humor, taking you through everything from the shady husband’s red flags to the séance-level mother-daughter determination that cracked the case wide open.

If you love haunted history, true crime with a paranormal twist, Appalachian ghost stories, or tales of women who refuse to be quiet even in death—this one’s a must-listen.

Perfect for fans of: ghost stories, historical hauntings, creepy folklore, murder mysteries, supernatural investigations, Appalachian legends, true crime meets paranormal podcasts.

📚 Sources for This Episode

Primary Historical Sources

• Greenbrier Independent Newspaper (January–April 1897) – Original reporting on Zona Heaster Shue’s death and the trial of Erasmus Stribbling Shue.
• West Virginia Archives & History: “The Greenbrier Ghost” – Comprehensive archival summary compiled from legal records, newspaper articles, and oral history.
• Court Records of the State of West Virginia vs. Erasmus Stribbling Shue (1897) – Trial testimony, including depositions referencing Mary Jane Heaster’s ghost encounters.
• Greenbrier County Historical Society – Local collected folklore and legal history of the case.

Books & Academic References

• Deitz, Dennis. The Greenbrier Ghost and Other Strange Stories. – The most commonly cited narrative collection including the events surrounding Zona’s death.
• Humphrey, Michael. Haunted West Virginia: Ghost Stories and Legends. – Contains a full retelling with historical context about Appalachian spiritual beliefs.
• Ruth Ann Musick. The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales. – Canonical Appalachian folklore source referencing the cultural backdrop of the case.
• Kenny, Hamill. West Virginia Place Names. – Provides regional and cultural context for the people, geography, and customs of Greenbrier County.

Articles, Essays & Museum Resources

• Smithsonian Magazine – “The True Story of the Greenbrier Ghost” (feature on folklore, legal precedent, and the trial).
• Appalachian History Journal – “How a Ghost Helped Solve a Murder in 1897.”
• National Registry of Historic Places – Greenbrier County Listings – Locations relevant to the case (courthouse, historical sites).
• West Virginia Folklore Journal – Entries referencing Mary Jane Heaster’s accounts and Appalachian ghost-belief traditions.

Local & Cultural Sources

• Greenbrier County Convention & Visitors Bureau – Historical markers + local oral histories.
• Meadow Bluff / Livesay’s Mill Region Historical Notes – Context for the Shue residence and community in the 1890s.
• West Virginia State Folklorists’ Oral History Projects – Interviews with descendants and locals retelling the Greenbrier Ghost legend.

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, accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of girls to preserve her youth. But how much of it is true… and how much was cooked up by jealous nobles, political rivals, and a patriarchal empire that didn’t love a woman with her own money and opinions?

In this full-bodied (and occasionally blood-soaked) deep dive, we unravel the legend — from her aristocratic upbringing and dark castle years, to the sensational trial that never was, and the centuries of myth-making that turned her into the world’s most infamous vampire countess.

Was she a monster? A myth? Or just a woman whose story bled out of control?
 Pour a glass of red — preferably cabernet, not chambermaid — and join host Dayna Pereira for a hilarious, horrifying, and historically accurate descent into the legend of Elizabeth Báthory.

Primary Sources:
• The Trial of Erzsébet Báthory (Hungarian State Archives, 1611)
• Letters of György Thurzó to King Matthias II (1610–1611)
• Jesuit tracts: Tragoediae Epistolae de Crudelissima Bathoryana (1729)

Secondary Sources:
 • McNally, Raymond T. — Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania (McGraw-Hill, 1983)
• Craft, Kimberly L. — Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (2009)
• Penrose, Valentine — The Bloody Countess (Creation Books, 1996)
• Nagy, László — A History of Hungary (Corvina, 1998)

Pop Culture & Media:
 • Countess Dracula (Hammer Films, 1971)
• The Countess (Julie Delpy, 2009)
• American Horror Story: Hotel (FX, 2015)
• Castlevania (Konami Series)

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 the box.”

In this episode of Loreplay, Dayna Pereira dives deep into the origins of the Dybbuk legend in Jewish mysticism, the true story behind Kevin Mannis’s eBay listing, and the chaos that followed — from Jason Haxton’s museum hauntings to Zak Bagans’s on-camera meltdown and the infamous Post Malone curse.

We break down the folklore, the fear, and the fine line between cultural myth and collective psychosis — because when enough people believe in something, even the internet can make it real.

Mannis, Kevin. Original eBay Listing for “Haunted Dybbuk Box.” (2003, archived on paranormal-collector forums and Wayback Machine)

Haxton, Jason. The Dibbuk Box. Truman State University Press, 2011.

Ansky, S. The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds. (1914; English translation, 1926)

The Jewish Virtual Library. “Dybbuk (Dibbuk).” JewishVirtualLibrary.org

Zak Bagans. Ghost Adventures: Quarantine — Episode 4, “Dybbuk Box: The Opening.” Discovery+, 2020.

Bagans, Zak & Haxton, Jason. Interviews via Las Vegas Review-Journal (June 2020).

Post Malone on Late Night with Seth Meyers. NBC, Oct. 2018.

Snopes.com. “Was the Dybbuk Box a Real Jewish Relic?” (2021).

LiveScience. “The Science of Haunted Objects and the Nocebo Effect.” (2022).

Haaretz. “The Real Story of the Dybbuk and How Pop Culture Got It Wrong.” (2019).
Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dybbuk_box

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 of mass hysteria.

It started with an elderly woman scared literally to death near the churchyard… then a brewer’s servant named Thomas Groom who got hands-on with the ghost (and lived to tell the tale)… and a pregnant woman whose brush with the apparition nearly sent her into early labor.

Cue the fog, the fear, and a full-blown neighborhood patrol of armed ghost hunters.
 One of them, Francis Smith, set out to catch the phantom — and instead, shot a very real man named Thomas Millwood.

Welcome to one of England’s strangest true crimes — the first time someone in court tried to argue:

From hysteria to homicide, from gossip to the Old Bailey, we’re unraveling how superstition, fear, and a good old-fashioned case of “maybe don’t shoot the undead” turned London upside down.

So grab your torches, charge your crystals, and let’s step into the fog… because this is Loreplay: where haunted gets hot and bothered with history.

📜 Show Notes & Sources

🧩 The Real Story

• The Hammersmith Ghost panic began in late 1803, when reports surfaced of a white-shrouded figure haunting the Hammersmith churchyard in West London.
• The Elderly Woman reportedly collapsed in terror after seeing the apparition and died days later (The Times, Jan 1804).
• Thomas Groom, a brewer’s servant, claimed the ghost grabbed him by the throat while walking with a friend near the churchyard (Annual Register, 1804).
• The Pregnant Woman was said to have been attacked by the ghost, collapsing in fright and falling dangerously ill — possibly going into early labor (Morning Chronicle, Jan 1804).
• Night Watchman William Girdler later chased the ghost down Beaver Lane, claiming it “threw off its shroud and disappeared.”
• Francis Smith, believing he was protecting the town, fatally shot Thomas Millwood, a 29-year-old bricklayer wearing white work clothes — mistaking him for the ghost.
• The case went to the Old Bailey in January 1804, where Smith was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
  • His sentence was later commuted to one year of hard labor, after public outrage.
• The verdict led to ongoing debates about “mistaken identity” and the legal definition of intent, influencing English criminal law for decades.

📚 Primary & Historical Sources

• The Times (London), January 1804
• The Morning Chronicle, January 1804
• Annual Register of 1804: “Extraordinary Occurrences”
• Old Bailey Proceedings Online (Trial of Francis Smith, 1804)
• London’s Ghosts: Strange Tales from the Capital by Peter Ackroyd (2007)
• Curious Cases and Ghostly Tales of Old London by Charles Mackay (1858)
• The Hammersmith Ghost and the Law of Murder — The Criminal Law Review (1958)

💀 Loreplay Deep Dive Topics

• Victorian ghost panics & moral hysteria
• Early 19th-century policing in London (pre-Metropolitan Police)
• The legal concept of “malice aforethought”
• Ghost lore in the Age of Enlightenment
• The class tension behind “working men with guns”
• The legacy of the Hammersmith case in modern criminal law

🔮 Fun Facts

• Some historians believe the “ghost” was actually a shoemaker named John Graham, who confessed to dressing up in a white sheet to scare apprentices.
• The story inspired numerous stage plays and penny dreadfuls in the 1800s.
• The Hammersmith ghost legend was revived again in the 1820s — because London loves a sequel.

In 1950s England, tragedy struck the Pollock family when their two young daughters, Joanna and Jacqueline, were killed in a horrific car accident. A year later, Florence Pollock gave birth to twin girls — and that’s when things got weird.

The twins, Gillian and Jennifer, began recalling memories, places, and experiences they couldn’t possibly have known. They recognized landmarks in a town they’d never visited, talked about “their other lives,” and one even bore the same birthmarks and scars as her late sister. Was this the most compelling modern case of reincarnation — or a story shaped by grief, coincidence, and a father’s desperate need to believe?

In this episode of Loreplay, we head across the pond to Hexham, England, where science, spirituality, and straight-up spooky collide. We’ll dig into the documented accounts by psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, the skepticism that followed, and the unnerving details that still stump researchers today.

Grab your tea, maybe light a candle (or an incense stick, if you’re feeling metaphysical), and prepare for one of the strangest tales of déjà vu the afterlife ever wrote twice.

🔍 Show Notes & Sources:

(For listeners who love a good rabbit hole — these are the primary and reputable sources used in the research for this episode.)

1. Stevenson, Ian (1966). Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. University of Virginia Press.
   • Chapter 6 documents the Pollock Twins case in detail, based on Stevenson’s direct interviews with the family in the 1960s.
2. Playfair, Guy Lyon (2006). The Indefinite Boundary: An Investigation into Psychic Phenomena.
   • Includes references to British reincarnation reports, including Hexham.
3. BBC Archive (2003). “The Pollock Twins: Reincarnation in Hexham.” BBC Radio 4, Beyond Belief.
   • Broadcast discussing the case with theologians and psychologists.
4. Bowman, Carol (1997). Children’s Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child.
   • Discusses parallels between the Pollock twins and other child reincarnation cases studied globally.
5. Journal of Scientific Exploration (Vol. 12, No. 3, 1998). “Reincarnation Research: An Overview.”
   • Scholarly analysis of Stevenson’s methods and criticisms from contemporary researchers.
6. The Hexham Courant (1957–1960 archives).
   • Local reports on the Pollock family’s accident and community response, preserved in regional historical records.
7. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR).
   • Archives include correspondence and investigation notes referencing the Pollock case.
8. Extrasensory Podcast

When the hangman fails, history gets juicy.
 This week on Loreplay, host Dayna Pereira dives into the true, twisted, and totally unbelievable 18th-century story of Maggie Dickson — the Scottish fishwife who was hanged… and then walked away alive.

From the gallows of Edinburgh’s Grassmarket to the birth of her legend as “Half-Hangit Maggie,” this episode blends dark history with gallows humor (literally). You’ll learn how a young woman’s secret, a botched execution, and a very loose understanding of “death” turned her into one of Scotland’s most enduring folk heroines.

Was it divine intervention? A medical fluke? Or just the universe saying, “Not today, Satan”? Grab a pint and find out why this ghost story isn’t about death at all — it’s about defiance.

Tune in to Loreplay — where haunted gets hot and bothered with history, and the dead don’t always stay quiet.

Primary Historical References

• “The Trial and Execution of Margaret Dickson” – The Scots Magazine, 1724 archives
• National Records of Scotland: Criminal Trials and Sentences, Edinburgh, 1723-1724
• Edinburgh Grassmarket Historical Society, “Public Executions and Folklore of the Gallows” (local history publication, 2019)
• Old Edinburgh Tales by Robert Chambers (1858)
• Scottish Criminal Cases: The Curious Case of Half-Hangit Maggie, BBC Scotland History Archives, 2017
• The Scotsman – “How Half-Hangit Maggie Survived the Gallows,” May 2020 feature
• VisitScotland.com — “Maggie Dickson’s Pub, Grassmarket”

Supplementary Reading & Tourism Sources

• Edinburgh City Archives: Grassmarket Gallows Map (18th-century execution records)
• Haunted Edinburgh by J.A. Brooks (Amberley Publishing, 2015)
• The Ghosts of Scotland by Peter Underwood (Borgo Press, 1992)
• Oral folklore interviews collected by The School of Scottish Studies Archives, University of Edinburgh

Music & Sound Credits (if applicable)

• Ambient market sounds and gallows atmosphere: Epidemic Sound
• Historical reenactment voice clips: Public domain / Creative Commons

🔗 LINKS

🎧 Listen to all episodes at loreplaypod.com

📸 Follow @LoreplayPod on Instagram & TikTok
🍺 Visit Maggie Dickson’s Pub, Grassmarket, Edinburgh — and toast to the woman who refused to stay dead.

In this episode of Loreplay, Dayna Pereira dives deep into the real-life horror story that inspired The Exorcist. Forget the spinning heads and pea soup—this is the true 1949 case of Roland Doe, the boy whose alleged demonic possession terrified priests, shook the Church, and changed how America viewed exorcisms forever.

From Cottage City, Maryland to St. Louis, Missouri, follow the chilling (and occasionally ridiculous) journey of a family haunted by unexplained scratches, flying furniture, guttural voices, and a bed that wouldn’t stop shaking. Meet the real priests behind the ritual—Father Albert Hughes, Father Raymond Bishop, and Father William Bowdern—and discover how one terrified teenager became the blueprint for Hollywood’s most infamous horror film.

Was it true possession, psychological trauma, or the most dramatic case of grief-fueled chaos in suburban history? Dayna unpacks it all with her signature mix of dark humor, history, and sass in this must-listen deep dive into the original exorcism that started it all.
Show Notes / Sources:

• Thomas B. Allen, Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism (1993) – Primary narrative source using Father Raymond Bishop’s diary notes from the 1949 St. Louis case.
• Father Raymond J. Bishop, S.J., Diary of the 1949 Exorcism – Archival source referenced by St. Louis University archives and Jesuit historical summaries.
• St. Louis University Archives (Jesuit Historical Institute) – Timeline and background on the priests involved and the documented exorcism events.
• Washington Post, “The Exorcist’s Real-Life Inspiration Dies at 85” (Oct. 2021) – Report linking Roland Doe’s true identity to NASA engineer Ronald Edwin Hunkeler.
• Smithsonian Magazine, “The Real Story Behind The Exorcist” (2013) – Historical overview of the case’s cultural impact.
• The New York Times Archives, coverage of The Exorcist (1973) release and public fascination with the real 1949 possession.
• Catholic News Agency, “The Real Exorcism That Inspired The Exorcist” (2019) – Clerical records and Vatican commentary on the St. Louis case.

Amityville Horror: Haunted House or Hoax?

What really happened inside the most famous haunted house in America? In this episode of Loreplay, host Dayna Pereira digs into the chilling story of the Amityville Horror—where true crime meets the paranormal.

First, we revisit the shocking 1974 DeFeo family murders that left six dead inside 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. Then we dive into the terrifying claims of George and Kathy Lutz, who lasted only 28 days before fleeing the house in fear. From swarms of flies in winter, to walls that oozed slime, to a demon pig with glowing eyes, the Amityville haunting became one of the most infamous paranormal cases in history.

But was the Amityville Horror real—or the ultimate haunted house hoax? We’ll explore the books, movies, court cases, and investigations by Ed and Lorraine Warren, skeptics, and reporters that turned this Long Island murder house into a global phenomenon.

If you love haunted house stories, true crime murders, creepy paranormal encounters, and spooky legends that blend fact with fiction, this episode is for you.

📚 Sources for Show Notes

• Anson, Jay. The Amityville Horror. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977.
• Kaplan, Stephen & Kaplan, Roxanne. The Amityville Horror Conspiracy. Belfry Books, 1995.
• Hans Holzer. Murder in Amityville. Belmont Tower, 1979.
• Osuna, Ric. The Night the DeFeos Died: Reinvestigating the Amityville Murders. 2002.
• Cromarty Family Interviews (owners after the Lutzes who disputed hauntings). Reported in Newsday, New York Times, and various Long Island papers (1977–1979).
• “High Hopes: The Amityville Murders” documentary, 2020.
• Amityville Horror (1979 film) and The Amityville Horror (2005 remake) for cultural influence.
• News reports: New York Times archives (Nov–Dec 1974, coverage of the DeFeo murders and trial).
• Court documents from People v. Ronald DeFeo Jr. (1975 trial transcripts).
• Interviews with George & Kathy Lutz (e.g., Good Morning America, 1979).
• Gerald Brittle. The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren. iUniverse, 1980s (for Warren’s perspective).

West Virginia, 1966. Four terrified teenagers tear down a dark back road in a Chevy Bel Air with something massive chasing them through the sky — glowing red eyes, a ten-foot wingspan, and a story that would forever haunt Point Pleasant. Over the next thirteen months, dozens of locals reported the same winged figure, strange lights in the sky, prophetic dreams, and even creepy Men in Black knocking at their doors. And then, in December 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed, killing 46 people and cementing Mothman’s place in American legend.

In this episode of Loreplay, your host Dayna Pereira dives deep into the Mothman flap — from the Scarberry and Mallette chase to Marcella Bennett’s porch-side nightmare, to John Keel’s “high strangeness” theories. Was Mothman a bird, an alien, a government oopsie with wings, or a harbinger of doom? Buckle up, buttercups — we’re making deep eye contact with West Virginia’s sexiest cryptid.

Show Notes

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• The November 1966 Scarberry–Mallette sighting that started it all
• The strange fate of Newell Partridge’s dog, Bandit
• Marcella Bennett’s chilling close encounter at the TNT Area
• Dozens of witness reports through late 1966 and 1967
• The arrival of journalist John Keel and his “ultraterrestrial” theories
• Prophetic dreams that eerily foreshadowed the Silver Bridge collapse
• Theories: misidentified bird, mass hysteria, government experiment, alien, harbinger of doom, or cursed omen
• Connections to other “disaster cryptids” like the Black Bird of Chernobyl and the omen of Fukushima

Sources & References:

• Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1975.
• Wamsley, Jeff. Mothman: Facts Behind the Legend. Point Pleasant: Mothman Museum Press, 2002.
• Wamsley, Jeff & Donnie Sergent Jr. Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes. Mothman Museum, 2005.
• Coleman, Loren. Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. Paraview Pocket Books, 2002.
• “Couples See Man-Sized Bird … Creature … Something.” Point Pleasant Register, November 16, 1966.
• “Silver Bridge Tumbles, Toll 7 Dead, 41 Missing.” Point Pleasant Register, December 16, 1967.
• Derenberger, Woodrow. Visitors from Lanulos. 1971.
• Various newspaper archives, local interviews, and accounts collected at the Mothman Museum (Point Pleasant, WV).

Follow & Connect:
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In this chilling episode of Loreplay, host Dayna Pereira dives deep into the terrifying urban legend of the Black Eyed Children — the mysterious paranormal figures with solid black eyes who knock on doors and beg to be let inside. From journalist Brian Bethel’s 1996 encounter in Abilene, Texas to spine-tingling reports in Portland, Oregon, Vermont, and the UK, we explore the most infamous Black Eyed Kid stories that have fueled decades of fear. Listeners will hear how these eerie children are tied to legends of demons, vampires, changelings, ghosts, alien-human hybrids, and government experiments, and why the rule is always the same: never let them in. We also unpack the rise of creepypasta, the explosion of TikTok horror videos, and how thousands of people online swear the Black Eyed Kids are real. Are they paranormal entities, energy parasites, or just an internet-born myth that refuses to die? Join us for a spooky, sassy, and laugh-out-loud funny exploration of one of the internet’s most enduring pieces of paranormal folklore.

Whether you’re a fan of creepypasta legends, obsessed with TikTok urban myths, or just love haunted history mixed with comedy, this episode of Loreplay has it all: terrifying encounters, bizarre theories, and Dayna’s signature comedic take on the world’s weirdest lore. Subscribe, share, and remember — when the knock comes, don’t let them in.

Site Sources 

• Wikipedia: Overview of the legend, origin, and folklore context
  Wikipedia
• Atlas Obscura: Deep cultural analysis and lasting impact
  Atlas Obscura
• Historic Mysteries: Early coverage on Brian Bethel’s account
  Historic Mysteries
• USC Digital Folklore Archives: Folk meaning and comparative legends
  USC Digital Folklore Archives
• Medium - Horror Hounds: Visual descriptions, storytelling tone
  Medium
• So Supernatural Podcast: Anecdotes and patterns in personal tales
  Wave AI
• Fandom / Creepypasta Files: Community lore structure and tropes
  creepypastafiles.fandom.com
• Kickstarter / Film Listings: BEKs in indie films like Sunshine Girl
  Wikipedia
• Business Standard: International folklore coverage and narrative patterns
  The Business Standard