Episode 348 - The Hex Hollow Murder with CRIMES OF…

We have a very special episode today… in collaboration with… US! That’s right, Two Girls One Ghosts is joined by our other podcast, Crimes Of. In this special Two Girls One Ghost / Crimes Of crossover episode, we uncover the true story of The Hex Hollow Murder: a real-life horror fueled by fear, folklore, and witchcraft. In 1928, three men killed a Pennsylvania farmer they thought was a witch. What followed was one of the most bizarre trials in American history. Don’t forget to subscribe to Crimes Of wherever you get your podcasts & check it out on Youtube. About Crimes Of: Hosted by Sabrina Deana-Roga and Corinne Vien of Two Girls One Ghost, Crimes Of... is a weekly true crime anthology series that explores a new theme each season: from crimes of the paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Crimes Of… is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crimes-of/id1838511303 Don’t Miss out on all things Crimes Of… YouTube: @crimehousestudios Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia Watch the video version here. Have ghost stories of your own? E-mail them to us at [email protected] New Episodes are released every Thursday and Sunday at 12am PST/3am EST (the witching hour, of course). Corinne and Sabrina hand select a couple of paranormal encounters from our inbox to read in each episode, from demons, to cryptids, to aliens, to creepy kids... the list goes on and on. If you have a story of your own that you'd like us to share on an upcoming episode, we invite you to email them to us! If you enjoy our show, please consider joining our Patreon, rating and reviewing on iTunes & Spotify and following us on social media! Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Discord. Edited by Jaimi Ryan and produced by Emma Leventer and Jaimi Ryan, original music by Arms Akimbo! Disclaimer: the use of white sage and smudging is a closed practice. If you’re looking to cleanse your space, here are some great alternatives! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm so excited. I'm getting my whole body MRI scan from Prenuvo in a couple of weeks.

• 0:05Corinne Vien?

  It's honestly so important. It's like one of those things where getting older and aging has provided me so many anxieties about like what's going on.

• 0:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I recently had some medical issues in my family and everyone in my family is like, let's just do everything we can to get ahead and take our own health into our own hands. Prenuvo's whole body scan is a radiation-free MRI designed to help provide a detailed, non-invasive look at your body in under an hour, and it helps evaluate across major organs and systems, including the brain, spine, abdomen, pelvis, and more. Prenuvo's whole body scan can help detect many cancers, aneurysms, and hundreds of other conditions. And they have memberships that bundle MRI scans, blood panels, and a personalized results review to track your health year after year.

• 0:47Corinne Vien?

  To learn more about Prenuvo and get $300 off your whole body MRI, go to prenuvo.com/tgog and use code TGOG. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O.com/tgog. Terms and conditions apply.

• 1:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Receive $300 off Prenuvo whole body scans and executive and comprehensive memberships through January 31st. For full details, visit Prenuvo's website to read their terms and conditions and privacy notice. Prenuvo gifted me a whole body scan. A Prenuvo scan is a screening service, not diagnostic. Diagnosis and treatment are determined by your healthcare provider. Two girls, one ghost. Two Girls, One Ghost is the most haunted podcast in America.

• 1:23Corinne Vien?

  Where each week we dive into all things strange, spooky, and supernatural, and share stories of paranormal encounters from our community of listeners.

• 1:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Satisfy that spooky itch and entertain your inner witch with Two Girls, One Ghost.

• 1:36Corinne Vien?

  Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out on YouTube at Two Girls, One Ghost.

• 1:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But be warned, side effects might include a haunting or two. Listen at your own risk.

• 1:45Corinne Vien?

  Howdy.

• 1:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  We have a very special episode today for all of you.

• 1:50Corinne Vien?

  It's kind of a collab.

• 1:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It is, and we are collabing with two girls.

• 1:54Corinne Vien?

  They're so cool. We know them really, really well.

• 1:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Do we?

• 1:59Corinne Vien?

  We try to learn more about them every day.

• 2:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Every day. We're trying to get closer and closer with them. Their names are Sabrina and Corinne. We're collabing with ourselves. Who knows?

• 2:08Corinne Vien?

  We have a new show. It's called Crimes of, and it is a true crime podcast where we have different seasons where we cover true crime cases. And it's still the two of us together, kind of like riffing and doing the

• 2:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Riffing, DJing. It's actually just a DJ podcast? No, no.

• 2:26Corinne Vien?

  We're dabbling into some really interesting true crime cases.

• 2:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 2:30Corinne Vien?

  And

• 2:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But this season.

• 2:31Corinne Vien?

  Our second season, it's all about paranormal meets true crime.

• 2:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 2:37Corinne Vien?

  And there's one topic that has been on our list on Two Girls One Ghost.

• 2:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yours specifically, for so long.

• 2:42Corinne Vien?

  I had it on my list for a really long time.

• 2:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 2:44Corinne Vien?

  And now we're covering it on Crimes of.

• 2:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's called The Hex Hollow Murders. And so we were like, let's do a collab with us. And we're gonna show you and give you an episode of Crimes of, The Paranormal, The Hex Hollow Murders, um, where Corinne and I share the story with you. And we just wanted to give you a little teaser and taste of the format of Crimes of. If you like Two Girls One Ghost, we think you'll, we hope you'll like Crimes of. Each season, uh, season in quotes because it's like eight episodes.

• 3:16Corinne Vien?

  It's a weekly show.

• 3:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 3:18Corinne Vien?

  But we break them up into certain like topics and themes.

• 3:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So like the first season was Crimes of Infamy, and we covered a lot of different notorious killers who inspired big

• 3:28Corinne Vien?

  Horror movies.

• 3:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Horror movies.

• 3:29Corinne Vien?

  We still find a way to make it, make it a little bit more

• 3:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Spooky.

• 3:32Corinne Vien?

  Horror.

• 3:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes. So this current season is Crimes of Paranormal. The Hex Hollow Murders is wild. It's a tragic and spooky story that inspired an urban legend. So here's that story and go check out more episodes of Crimes of on Crime House Studios on YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

• 3:54Corinne Vien?

  Enjoy.

• 4:23Speaker 02

  This is Crime House.

• 4:29Corinne Vien?

  Today's case is super creepy. And to get you all excited for the story, we are going to play a little game of Would You Rather? So we will pick two shocking moments from today's case. And we're going to see which one you think is the lesser of two evils.

• 4:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  This week, we're covering the story of the Hex Hollow Murders, where a practicing witch named Nelson Raymeyer was brutally murdered.

• 4:54Corinne Vien?

  Sabrina, here are the choices for Would You Rather. Would you rather live your whole life convinced that you've been cursed? Or would you rather spend the night inside a haunted house, knowing that the ground beneath you might open up and just drag you to hell?

• 5:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, given that we know this case, and you will all see why we picked this, I'd much rather spend the night in a haunted house, knowing that the ground might open up and drag me to hell.

• 5:24Corinne Vien?

  What would be your tactic for not being dragged to hell? Glue yourself, tape yourself to the wall?

• 5:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm down for hell. I run very cold.

• 5:30Corinne Vien?

  If the floor is lava, then just grab a ceiling, right?

• 5:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  See, I run cold. Like, I'm down. And I also...

• 5:35Corinne Vien?

  But then that's the end of your life.

• 5:37Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then I'll haunt people.

• 5:38Corinne Vien?

  Okay. Well, there's your answer.

• 5:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Because some people, I feel like, might be like, oh, like, I want to spend my life thinking I've been cursed.

• 5:46Corinne Vien?

  That was my initial response, what I would have chosen. But then I was starting to think about just like, the anxiety and the paranoia to live the rest of your life, having everything seem to like, go against you and fail, and how hard that would be mentally. So I might take my chances in the hellish house, too.

• 6:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I feel like we've joked so many times that we are cursed.

• 6:07Corinne Vien?

  Well, there was a, I think that there actually was maybe a Two Girls and a Ghost curse at one time.

• 6:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But we never took it so far that we were like... We have to curse the person who cursed us back or whatever. It was just kind of like, ah, the silly little thing that we joked about. But unfortunately, we cannot say the same about one man named John Blymeier, because he was certain that he and his family had been hexed by a local witch. So John Blymeier recruited two friends who were willing to do whatever it took to end this hex for good.

• 6:50Corinne Vien?

  Welcome to Crimes of the Paranormal, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. We are your hosts, Sabrina DiAniroga and Corinvian.

• 6:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society. This season, we are diving into cases where the evidence doesn't end at bloodstains and fingerprints, but drifts into the unexplainable, into the unknown.

• 7:15Corinne Vien?

  If you're loving Crimes of, please follow, rate, and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community, and we also just love hearing from you. You can also catch us on YouTube, where we include visuals that bring every case to life. Subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free early access. And if you can't get enough true crime, go search and follow Crime House Daily, our team's twice-a-day show bringing you breaking cases, updates, and unbelievable stories from the world of crime that are happening right now. Today, we're talking about the Hex Hollow murder. In the 1920s, in York County, Pennsylvania, brow porai, a form of witchcraft, played a very real role in many people's lives.

• 7:56Corinne Vien?

  When a man named John Blymeier became convinced that he had been cursed, he sought a way to end this curse. But undoing a curse wasn't going to be an easy task. And unfortunately, John Blymeier went to deadly extremes to make it happen.

• 8:16Corinne Vien?

  A warning before we begin. This episode contains descriptions of murder, torture, and violence. So please listen with care. On November 27th, 1928, six-year-old Nelson Raymeyer was murdered by three people, John Blymeyer and his accomplices, Wilbert Tess and John Curry. John Blymeyer was convinced that Nelson had cursed him, despite there being zero credible evidence. And this was a brutal attack, and Nelson Raymeyer was the victim of a senseless horrific crime by members of his own community. John Blymeyer's paranoia and his suspicion led him and his accomplices to do unspeakable things.

• 8:59Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And when you hear the term witchcraft, I feel like most people think of the Salem witch trials, or even, you know, the more globally horrific witch trials from all over the world. But when you think of those, you also think they're so far in the past, like hundreds and hundreds of years ago, between the 15th and 17th centuries.

• 9:16Corinne Vien?

  Right, removed from us.

• 9:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Except, it's not as far back in history as we'd like to think, because less than a century ago, in York County, Pennsylvania, which is a small community, a local healer named Nelson Raymeyer was murdered for his practices. We actually record this podcast in Salem.

• 9:34Corinne Vien?

  Yes, right where the witch trials happened. We're actually, basically steps away from where the judge unfortunately lived during this time. So we are kind of on the ground that-

• 9:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Haunted land.

• 9:48Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 9:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Where innocent lives were taken.

• 9:51Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 9:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Because again, witches were not killed in the Salem witch trials.

• 9:55Corinne Vien?

  It is so interesting, because it's like, I feel like when we've researched cases, depending on when it happened in history and where it happened, being a witch is either a horrible thing, or it's like, the best compliment you could ever receive.

• 10:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Today, call me a witch, it's the best compliment.

• 10:10Corinne Vien?

  It is such a compliment.

• 10:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Like, in addition to calling you mommies, you're all our witches.

• 10:15Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 10:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And it's a term of endearment, we love you.

• 10:17Corinne Vien?

  So proud to be a baby witch.

• 10:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  A baby witch.

• 10:20Corinne Vien?

  But, you know, everyone has their own feelings about witchcraft and spells and curses, and they certainly can be used for bad. So we do want to hear what you think, so let us know, let us know your thoughts on witchcraft. But if there's one thing that this particular story has taught us is that there are no limits to what can motivate murder. Anything can be twisted by fear, and when superstition becomes stronger than reason, even the unthinkable can be justified.

• 10:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's Thanksgiving Day 1928. It's a gray, cold morning that settles over the rolling hills of York County, Pennsylvania, the kind of chill that seeps into your bones before the day even starts. Outside his farmhouse, David Vanover pauses. Something feels off. The wind carries a strange sound across the fields and the cries of livestock, bleating, mooing, squealing. He realizes it's coming from his neighbor Nelson Raymire's land, just a few miles away. That's odd. Nelson's always very diligent when it comes to his animals. So why, David wonders, are they crying out as if they hadn't been fed in days?

• 11:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Concerned, David decides to pay Nelson a visit. He walks to Nelson's farm and finds the animals restless, pacing, stomping their hooves against the frozen ground. So David stops long enough to feed them, water them. But as he approaches the farmhouse, David notices a new sensation, a smell. He can't place it. It smells like burnt wood and something else. Whatever it is, it's extremely unpleasant. David looks around, but he doesn't see Nelson anywhere. And now, feeling even more uneasy, he goes to get another neighbor, Oscar Glatfelder, and together they approach Nelson's house. They knock. There's no answer.

• 12:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The silence feels ominous, heavy. Now growing more nervous, they circle Nelson's home until they find a window, and David and Oscar peer inside. What they see will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Nelson Raymeyer lies face down on his floor. His head twisted at an unnatural angle against a pile of firewood. A rope is looped around his neck. Blood spatters the floor and the walls. And parts of the room are scorched, blackened by a fire that never fully took. And there's that smell again. The scorched odor of burnt wood. And beneath it? The unmistakable stench of death.

• 12:59Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  David finally realizes what that smell was. It is the smell of Nelson Raymeyer himself. His body charred and rotting, lying in what was once his sanctuary. Now a scene from hell.

• 13:13Corinne Vien?

  By the time his neighbors, David Vanover and Oscar Glattfelter, found him. Sixty-year-old Nelson Raymeyer had been dead for two days. In such a small community, news like this, it traveled very fast. And it was super clear that Nelson Raymeyer had been brutally murdered in his home. And the case very quickly attracted press who descended on York County to cover the case. And it didn't take long for police to find culprits. Thirty-three-year-old John Blymeyer and his two accomplices, eighteen-year-old Wilbur Hess and fourteen-year-old John Curry. But why? Why did this group of three potentially kill this beloved member of their community in such a violent manner?

• 13:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So in order to understand this, of what happened and why, we're going to go back to before the murder took place. It's 1920s and York County, Pennsylvania is this area of mostly small farms, rolling hills, tight-knit communities. And life was ruled by the seasons, by church bells and the sound of livestock. It was a very quiet place. Many of the people living here were Christian and descendants of German immigrants who had come to Pennsylvania in the 1700s. And while many, many years had passed since they immigrated here, their traditions and practices remained prevalent and strong. And when something went wrong, when a child got sick,

• 14:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  cattle stopped producing milk, they didn't always call a doctor.

• 14:44Corinne Vien?

  No, they'd call a powwower or a braukhrai practitioner called a braukhrai. And to be clear, this term doesn't really have anything to do with Native American practices of holding powwows, which are cultural celebrations of dance and other traditions. But in this specific case, the definition of the term powwow is something totally different. But for the purpose of this episode, not to get too confused, we will refer to these practitioners as Heksenmeisters, practitioners of braukhrai.

• 15:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Braukhrai was a centuries-old form of folk magic that actually worked in tandem with their Christian beliefs. Braukhrai was a mixture of scripture, charms, rituals, and incantations used for healing, protection, and banishing evil. It was faith in action. We even have "The Long Lost Friend", which is a book that a lot of Heksenmeister's braukhrai practitioners used. A Heksenmeister could heal, protect, and bless, and anyone could be a practitioner as long as you were born with the gift. Believers often used special gifts that detailed rituals and prayers to tackle almost any problem.

• 15:55Corinne Vien?

  It's very similar to a shaman.

• 15:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Very, yes. They had basically phrases you could repeat to help prevent toothaches. They had forms of letters you could write to help aid your crops. They could help stop wounds from bleeding. And from the outside, and from an outside perspective, it could be seen as witchcraft. But to those who believed, it was very, very real. But with this, there was also a dark side. Heksenmeisters were called to protect. Protect from what, you may ask? Well, even in this book, "The Long Lost Friend", there are rituals to protect against evil.

• 16:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Hex doctors, because where there is good, there is evil. And in the wrong hands, a practitioner could curse.

• 16:43Corinne Vien?

  And this is what brings us to Nelson Ray Meyer, because Nelson, he was born and raised in York County. And in 1928, the six year old was living a very modest, quiet life. He was alone on his farm, taking great care of his animals. And people in the community thought of him as really kind and really friendly, a man who kept to himself. But he was also a little bit unusual. He was a little bit eccentric.

• 17:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And there are a couple of things here at play. So for one, he had a wife and kids, but his wife and kids had actually moved out of the home and moved like some a mile down the road and they were living separately, but they never got divorced. And they even stayed amicable.

• 17:21Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, it sounds so strange, but I actually grew up with a friend in middle school whose parents were divorced, but they all lived together in the same house. And they, it was a four story home and then two.

• 17:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Great co-power.

• 17:34Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, it was like the bottom floor was the dad's, the top floor was the mom. The two middle was like the group family space. They vacation together, travel together. So like, sometimes people.

• 17:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Today it makes sense.

• 17:47Corinne Vien?

  Realize, yeah, like we were supposed to be friends.

• 17:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And we can co-parent. Yeah.

• 17:51Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 17:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But back then in 1928, this is unusual and just a little bit odd.

• 17:57Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 17:59Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So the second thing is that Nelson kept quite a lot of socialist literature, which at the time, in the social climate of the time, this was considered dangerous.

• 18:09Corinne Vien?

  Hmm. But despite those oddities, Nelson was still a very beloved member of this community. And he was also known as a hexenmeister, a practitioner of Braukhrai. And he was the good kind, right? He wasn't dabbling in the dark, doing bad hexes and conjuring evil.

• 18:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  He was known good.

• 18:28Corinne Vien?

  Yes, he was a healer and he helped people in the community. But not everyone believed that Nelson was using his gift for good. Specifically, 32-year-old John Blymeier.

• 18:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So John Blymeier also grew up in York County, Pennsylvania, but he didn't have an easy upbringing. And he was plagued with illness, fatigue, stomach pains, low energy. And while his family didn't have a ton of money, they spent a lot of money bringing him to all types of doctors, both medical science doctors and hexemasters, Braukhrai doctors. They tried everything to cure poor John, but nothing seemed to work. John continued to suffer in pain. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, he couldn't relax. One doctor suggested that John had a nervous disease, and I'm going to try really hard to say this correctly, hypochondriacal melancholia. But today, I think we would probably diagnose,

• 19:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  we, us medical professionals here, would probably have diagnosed John with anxiety and depression.

• 19:30Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 19:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But mental health in 1928 wasn't where it is now.

• 19:34Corinne Vien?

  No. In 1928, one of the doctors admitted John Blymeier to a psychiatric hospital. And it was there that he was given electric treatments. And he was determined to be suffering from delusions. And John hated this facility. I'm sure most people, if not everyone in this facility hated it.

• 19:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 19:53Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, they were really not good places. But from what we know of them in the 1920s, there was reason for John to hate it so much and reason for him to do what he did. He knew that these shock treatments were not helping him and that these medical professionals were maybe harming him more than helping. And so he decided that he needed to get out. He wanted to return to the healers, to the hex doctors. And so what did John do, Sabrina?

• 20:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  He ran away. And he ran away to his wife. And details here are kind of vague, but this is where, as you probably know already from the beginning of this episode, John Blymeier is sus. He apparently tried to kill his wife, and he was arrested. He was released after four months, and he was finally able to seek out those healers. So he went healer after healer, asking for help, trying to figure out what was plaguing him, why he was in so much pain. But there were little to no answers. John continued to suffer. And on top of the physical pain, John couldn't seem to hold down a job either. And then tragically, in 1928, two of his three children died.

• 21:00Corinne Vien?

  And after an especially intense fight, his wife left him. A reminder, he tried to kill her. And after so much pain and so much heartbreak, John was like, I need answers. And so he sought out more healers. And soon, the answer became clear.

• 21:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  John must have been cursed. In his mind, if he's cursed, a supernatural problem requires a supernatural solution. So he sought out the help of a few local hex doctors or hexenmeisters, hoping that one of them could help free him from his hex. The first few hexenmeisters told John what he wanted to hear, that yes, he was cursed, that what he was suspecting was real, and that with magic, they could help him. But whatever spells or rituals they performed, they didn't seem to work, or they didn't seem to satisfy John. So he kept looking for other healers who could take on his problem more aggressively and in a more complete way. Because no simple protection spell was working.

• 22:02Corinne Vien?

  Enter the River Witch of Marietta, which is such a cool name.

• 22:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know, I love that name.

• 22:08Corinne Vien?

  Her human name was Emma Knoll.

• 22:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Her human name.

• 22:14Corinne Vien?

  Sort of just her like, you know, her stage name, the River Witch of Marietta. So Emma Knoll, we don't really know much about Emma. She might have been around 70 years old, but some people said that she was closer to 90. So she was older, an older witch. And supposedly, Emma kind of looks like the typical old witch. You know, she had practically no teeth. Her eyes were really dark, impenetrable. And she had an abnormally long tooth in her upper jaw that kind of stuck out right outside of her mouth. And she was this powerful practitioner of Braukhrai. So John went to see her, and finally, after years and years of suffering, John got an answer. Emma Knoll had an answer for him.

• 22:58Corinne Vien?

  And he finally found out who put this lifelong curse on him.

• 23:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm so excited. I'm getting my whole body MRI scan from Prenuvo in a couple of weeks.

• 23:11Corinne Vien?

  It's honestly so important. It's like one of those things where getting older and aging has provided me so many anxieties about like what's going on.

• 23:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I recently had some medical issues in my family and everyone in my family is like, "Let's just do everything we can to get ahead and take our own health into our own hands." Prenuvo's Whole Body Scan is a radiation-free MRI designed to help provide a detailed, non-invasive look at your body in under an hour, and it helps evaluate across major organs and systems, including the brain, spine, abdomen, pelvis, and more. Prenuvo's Whole Body Scan can help detect many cancers, aneurysms, and hundreds of other conditions. And they have memberships that bundle MRI scans, blood panels, and a personalized results review to track your health year after year.

• 23:53Corinne Vien?

  To learn more about Prenuvo and get $300 off your whole body MRI, go to prenuvo.com/tgog and use code T G O G. That's P R E N U V O dot com slash T G O G. Terms and conditions apply.

• 24:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Receive $300 off Prenuvo Whole Body Scans and Executive and Comprehensive Memberships through January 31st. For full details, visit Prenuvo's website to read their Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice. Prenuvo gifted me a whole body scan. A Prenuvo scan is a screening service, not diagnostic. Diagnosis and treatment are determined by your healthcare provider. Two Girls, One Ghost. Two Girls, One Ghost is the most haunted podcast in America.

• 24:30Corinne Vien?

  Where each week we dive into all things strange, spooky, and supernatural, and share stories of paranormal encounters from our community of listeners.

• 24:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Satisfy that spooky itch and entertain your inner witch with Two Girls, One Ghost.

• 24:43Corinne Vien?

  Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and check us out on YouTube at Two Girls, One Ghost.

• 24:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But be warned, side effects might include a haunting or two. Listen at your own risk.

• 24:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's November of 1928. John Blymeyer sits nervously before Emma Knoll, the river witch of Marietta, in her creaking wooden home. He's paid her about three visits already, but so far, all she had told him was that he was, in fact, cursed. There's something different about today, though. John can tell that Emma has something on her mind. The energy... Maybe the witch has a new spell to try? Maybe this time, John can get closer to freeing himself from this terrible hex. Silently, Emma jesters for John to hold out his hand. He complies, and the witch smoothes out a single $1 bill across his palm. "When he removes the dollar bill,

• 25:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  he will see the face of the man who placed the curse on him. It will appear right there in the palm of John's hand." John wipes his thoughts completely, so the only thing on his mind is the money in his hand. After a few moments, he rips the bill away and stares down. He cannot believe what he sees, because there, in the center of his palm, he swears he sees the face of a man. But not just any man. He sees, without a doubt, a familiar face. That of Nelson Raymeyer.

• 26:19Corinne Vien?

  And John, in this moment, he is equal parts shocked and thrilled, right? Because finally, he has an answer for all of his suffering. Nelson had lived in York County, too, but he was a Braukhrai practitioner and a recluse, and widely known as kind of this eccentric, strange person. And someone John's parents actually took him to as a child. So he did have prior contact with this guy.

• 26:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right.

• 26:45Corinne Vien?

  After all this time, all these years of torment, finally, he found who he was looking for. But could this man be the reason for all of his life's miseries? He told Emma what he saw in his hand and she insisted that this must be the witch responsible for the curse.

• 27:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And this news is beyond shocking to John. At first, it doesn't even make sense because he has known Nelson since he was a boy.

• 27:10Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 27:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  When he was around five years old and John's illnesses like became more serious, the family called Nelson to their home and Nelson supposedly saved John's life.

• 27:21Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, because he's a good, kind guy and a wonderful healer and practitioner.

• 27:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then Nelson also gave John a job picking potatoes on his farm. So like he's known Nelson for 20 years, which at this point is now two thirds of his life. He's 32.

• 27:35Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 27:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But if everything Emma is saying is true, Nelson is purposefully making John suffer.

• 27:43Corinne Vien?

  Which is just kind of hard because it's like Emma's saying, yes, it's him, it's him. But she didn't conjure up his image. Like, this is John saying that this is who's responsible.

• 27:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. And John is not about to question the ancient practices of his people. So by the end of the session, John Blyemeyer knew exactly how to break this hex.

• 28:05Corinne Vien?

  All he had to do was secure a lock of Nelson's hair and bury it in the ground six to eight feet deep, or he needed to find Nelson's copy of Long Lost Friend, a common Brahmanite text, and burn the book to ash. So either option should successfully end the hex on John. So easy enough, right? Harmless enough.

• 28:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But as you already know, from the beginning of this episode, wrong. So John Blyemeyer leaves his appointment with Emma Noel. He's feeling optimistic for the first time in a very long time. He's this close to being healed. The hex would be over soon. And serendipitously to John, he meets a man named Milton Hess, and this meeting changes their lives forever. So Milton Hess was a factory worker who lived on a farm in town with his family. One day while on a break at work, he stepped outside and ran into John Blamire. The two of them work at the factory. They now get to talking and Milton confides in John. He tells John that he and his family are having tons of problems on their farm lately. Animals are going missing, the harvests are failing.

• 29:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  One of Milton's sons, Wilbert, had been so sick for his entire life. But that's not even the end of it.

• 29:19Corinne Vien?

  Milton Hess went on to explain that his sister-in-law owned the farm next door. And the two of them had been having land disputes that were so volatile that he actually wouldn't be surprised if his sister had paid a witch to put a hex on him. So alarm bells are ringing in John's head and he's like, ooh, this sounds oddly familiar. And his mind starts to run and he's thinking, well, if Nelson Raymeyer was as malicious as it seems, then maybe he did curse John. And what's to say that Nelson hadn't put multiple curses on multiple people? And it seals that belief when he learns the next fact. That the Hess farm was less than 10 miles away from Nelson Raymeyer's farm.

• 30:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So now John is convinced that Nelson Raymeyer has hexed not only him, but also the Hess family as well. But great thing, he knows how to remove the hex, right? So John forms a plan. All he needed to do was to get Milton Hess on board to help him.

• 30:23Corinne Vien?

  Right. And he was like, well, this won't be very difficult because I myself am born with a gift. John has a gift. He was born with the gift and abilities needed to be a powerful Brahman practitioner. All he had to do was tell Milton Hess of the curse that he could help him remove it too, because he had this ability. John had this reputation.

• 30:45Corinne Vien?

  Because there were rumors around town that he actually was a powerful brahara. One story said that one afternoon, while John was on his break at a cigar factory, a rabid dog approached him and his coworkers aggressively. It was foaming at the mouth, ready to attack, when John stepped forward and recited an incantation, and it worked instantly. The dog stopped foaming at the mouth, it became docile, friendly, and it even followed him around for a while.

• 31:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So basically, having this background and like this rumored belief that he was a practitioner of brahara as well, it almost made it easier to convince Milton Hess.

• 31:22Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 31:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That yes.

• 31:24Corinne Vien?

  And also, like, let's remember that the two people he convinced to be his accomplices were young men. One was a child and one was still a teenager.

• 31:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes, but Milton Hess is like an older father, but he convinces him that both his whole family and John have been cursed by Nelson Raymeyer. So he told John to handle the matter, and he even allows his son, 18-year-old Wilbert Hess, to assist. And John brought along one other accomplice, his prodigy, 14-year-old John Curry. Like John Blymeyer, Curry had lived a life full of misery and bad luck. He'd suffered a horrible abusive childhood at the hands of his stepfather and had recently run away from home. So he really took to John and looked up to him.

• 32:08Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. On November 25th, 1928, John Blymeyer met these two boys at the Hess family farm, and they were going to discuss their next move. Step one was to visit Nelson and get a lay of the land. It had been a really long time since he saw Nelson in person because he was really just being treated as a child at the time, and now he was an adult. So he wanted to see what he was up against, who he was up against, which is kind of like an aggressive way to go at it.

• 32:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Totally.

• 32:35Corinne Vien?

  So on November 26th, 1928, he and John Curry drove out to the area where Nelson Raymeyer lived. And this is a really remote part of York County. It's called Raymeyer's Hollow, and it was very difficult to navigate. The hollow's full of trees, there's a few farms, just very little else. It's very remote.

• 32:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, so much so that John didn't even really know how to get to Nelson's farm. And he knew that Nelson Raymeyer had an estranged wife named Alice who lived in the hollow nearby. So he stops at Alice Raymeyer's home and asks like, hey, how do I get to Nelson's? And she thinks that these are presumably paying customers. So she directs them.

• 33:15Corinne Vien?

  She doesn't think it's out of the ordinary.

• 33:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. She gives the two of them, John Curry and John Blymeyer, directions to Nelson's house. And they continued deeper into the hollow. When they arrived, Nelson happily welcomed them into his home and they even, like Nelson even invites them to spend the night.

• 33:33Corinne Vien?

  Which is so sad.

• 33:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  He's so sweet.

• 33:34Corinne Vien?

  Older man who's like, oh, I've known you since you were a child. And I know this other guy's dad. And it's just like.

• 33:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Exactly.

• 33:42Corinne Vien?

  He's just a friendly guy.

• 33:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And they do spend the night. The three of them speak for a while before.

• 33:47Corinne Vien?

  Sleepover with him.

• 33:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know. They talk for a while before Nelson tells John and Curry, like, I'm, I need my rest. I'm gonna go to bed. But during the sit down, in the back of his mind, John Blymeyer is actually sizing Nelson up. Nelson Raymeyer is a tall, husky guy. At six feet tall, Nelson towered over John Blymeyer and John Curry. So it appears that Nelson Raymeyer is still physically fit. And if these three are going to steal a lock of Nelson's hair, John Blymeyer is thinking it's gonna be a little bit more difficult.

• 34:22Corinne Vien?

  Which is so frustrating because I wish they just asked him for a lock of hair and said like, oh, I think you cursed me. And then it's like, no, I didn't. And it's like, well, if you didn't, then prove it. Give me a lock of your hair.

• 34:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  There's so much about this that I wish went differently. But so Nelson Raymeyer goes to bed and John Curry and John Blymeyer search around the house for Nelson's copy of Long Lost Friend. But they don't find anything.

• 34:44Corinne Vien?

  I was just going through in my mind of like, where he probably kept it. And I was like, is he sleeping with it underneath his pillow? But then I was like, well, he's been practicing it for so long. What if he doesn't need it? It's just all.

• 34:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right.

• 34:54Corinne Vien?

  In his head. Mind. The next morning, John Blymeyer and John Curry went home and they relayed all of this information to Will Burtess. So they decided to pay Nelson another visit that night. So now on November 27th, 1928, the trio drove back to Nelson's house. And keep in mind, John Blymeier has told Curry and Hess that all they have to do is procure a lock of Nelson's hair. That is the task at hand for these three men. But at the time, John Blymeier clearly had some other things in mind because he brought with him 25 feet of rope to bind Nelson with.

• 35:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So when they arrive, John strides to the front door and knocked briskly. The entire house was pitch black, like clearly Nelson's not expecting guests. From somewhere inside, the trio heard the sound of Nelson calling, who's there? John replied, saying that he forgot a book at Nelson's house the previous day when they spent the night. And so maybe comforted by the voice or believing John Blymeier has nothing but good intentions, he comes downstairs, unlocks the door and lets the three men into his living room to have a look around.

• 36:07Corinne Vien?

  I mean, they had just spent the night too. So it's like,

• 36:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know.

• 36:10Corinne Vien?

  Why didn't, when he was sleeping, why didn't you go sneak in and get a lock? This just all.

• 36:14Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Again, so many things I wish had gone differently.

• 36:17Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 36:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But I really do believe, and we'll talk about this later, but I think John Blymeier was just kind of living in a delusion.

• 36:24Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, he was, had a lot of illness.

• 36:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. But Nelson turns his back to his three visitors, which, I mean, not that anything would have saved him, but perhaps he was trying to make them a warm cup of tea. And taking this moment, John Blymeier rushes Nelson. He throws his arms around him and shouts for the other two boys to come help. And so Curry and Wilbur are thrown off guard because again, they thought they were coming here just for a lock of hair, but now all of a sudden John Blymeier.

• 36:53Corinne Vien?

  Hug the guy and sniff it from the back. Like just so many ways to make this like an easy thing.

• 36:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But now John Blymeier is getting aggressive and violent, but they do as they're told and they wrestle Nelson to the ground. John starts barking orders, telling the boys to tie Nelson's legs with the rope they brought. But before they can, Nelson escapes. And he had been hearing John Blymeier say, the book, the book, the book, over and over. So he thinks he's being robbed and he literally goes to get, this breaks my heart. He gets his pocketbook and he gives it to them.

• 37:23Corinne Vien?

  Oh.

• 37:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Thinking that they're there for money. But it's too late. John is growing more and more furious by the minute. He orders Curry and Hess to get Nelson by any means necessary. Curry, while trying to tie him up, gives Nelson a few kicks and Hess joins in too. Then noticing a pile of firewood, John grabs a log and smashes it against Nelson's head again and again. And this is where it's like so clear that the it's like overkill because he then grabbed a wooden chair and slams it on top of Nelson's head, sending wood chips flying across the room. The original plan of getting a lock of hair is now a distant memory.

• 38:04Corinne Vien?

  Nelson tried to fight off his attackers, but he was growing weaker by the second. He was outnumbered. He was being viciously attacked and hit in the head. And Curry and Hess were finally able to fully restrain Nelson. But once that was done, John still wasn't satisfied. He felt this fury rising in his chest, so he grabbed the remaining piece of rope, tied it into a noose, and placed it around Nelson's neck. And then he told John Curry to choke Nelson, which is exactly what the 14-year-old did. In a matter of minutes, Nelson Raymeyer was dead. And what began as a potentially peaceful visit had turned into a murderous rampage.

• 38:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Nelson Raymeyer's body lies limp and bloody on his living room floor. What was once a place of refuge is now his deathbed. It's late at night on November 27, 1928, and no one is coming to help him. Standing above Nelson's body, 32-year-old John Blymeyer doesn't feel terror at what he, Wilbert Hess, and John Curry had just done. He feels relief. Sure, their original plan hadn't been so violent. Get a lock of hair, bury it outside, or take Nelson's copy of The Long Lost Friend and burn it to free them from the hex. But now Nelson lies before them, lifeless. The witch is dead. Meaning now surely they'll be free.

• 39:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  John tears his eyes away from the body to survey the scene. There's blood everywhere, on the walls, the floor, and on his own clothes. That will have to be dealt with. But behind him, Wilbert Hesk can barely stand still. His hands tremble, his voice cracks, and he begs for them to leave. This wasn't supposed to happen. He thought they were going to retrieve a lock of hair, break a hex. But now, he's an accomplice to murder. John doesn't move. His eyes have gone distant, flat. They must get rid of the evidence first. John wipes the surfaces, burns his own jacket, and then decides, we must burn it all, starting with Nelson.

• 40:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Together, the three men cover Nelson's body with a flammable straw mattress and douse it in lamp oil. Then Curry, just fourteen years old, strikes a match. He passes it to Blimire, who takes it, drops the flame, and sets the crime scene ablaze. The fire catches, dancing up the walls of the farmhouse. And the three men step outside into the cold November night air. They watch the fire grow, planning to watch the house, the witch, the evidence, and the curse go up in flames. But the flames sputter. And that's when they feel it. Someone is with them in the darkness. Someone, no, something, is watching them. They turn to look.

• 41:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And there, standing in the road, is a shadow, staring at them. Terrified of what they're seeing, the three murderers flee into the woods, stumbling over roots and frozen ground, but they do not stop until they reach the Hess farm some seven miles away.

• 41:23Corinne Vien?

  And once they felt a safe distance away from whatever that shadow was, the group decides, well, they must have just scared themselves, right? And John Blimeyer, he basically forces Curry and has to stay quiet about what happened. This would remain between the three of them. No family, no friends, no one could ever know what happened. The two boys swore, yes, yes, John, we will keep our mouths shut.

• 41:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Which lasted about a day, and I imagine that they're scared of John Blimeyer. They just saw him.

• 41:54Corinne Vien?

  You say what you need to say to like, get out of that situation. You're in like the deep woods in this deep hollow with this.

• 42:02Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Terrifying man.

• 42:02Corinne Vien?

  Yes, unpredictable terrifying man. So it was as if this old curse had been replaced with a new one. And this new one was the form of guilt for what they had done, specifically for the two boys, the accomplices. Eighteen year old Wilbert Hess struggled the most, and after the murder, he just could not sleep. He was up all night replaying the memory of what happened. It was plaguing him night after night.

• 42:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 42:28Corinne Vien?

  So the following morning, when he woke up, he had to confess. So he told someone, well, actually he told three people. He told his mother, his brother and his sister in law, all about the murder of Nelson Ray Meyer. And he told them in great detail. They did not turn him in. If anything, they tried to comfort Wilbert, saying that it sounded like things got out of hand. But unfortunately for Wilbert, that was just the beginning of his problems. Unbeknownst to all three, the fire they had started in Nelson's house had gone out quickly.

• 43:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  We'll talk about this in a minute, but it's so bizarre that that happened. They doused the house and Nelson in lamp oil, flammable lamp oil.

• 43:10Corinne Vien?

  It's like old wooden house.

• 43:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes. So it should have completely burnt down.

• 43:16Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 43:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But thank goodness it didn't.

• 43:18Corinne Vien?

  By Thanksgiving Day, 1928, only two days after the murder, Nelson's neighbor, David Vanover, had found his body. The news of the murder shocked everyone in New York County. And it was really hard to imagine how something so terrible and so brutal could take place here.

• 43:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And that someone like a human could do that.

• 43:37Corinne Vien?

  Yes. And they were like, well, who could this be? One person had a pretty strong hunch, Nelson's wife, Alice Raymeyer.

• 43:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Because she did not forget that visit from John Blymeyer and John Curry the night before Nelson's murder. So Alice told the police about it. The cops followed up on this tip, quickly tracked down both John Blymeyer and John Curry. They asked about the visit and then they learned about Wilbert Hess's involvement. And by December 1st, four days after the murder, local newspapers published confessions from all three of them.

• 44:12Corinne Vien?

  Hmm. And the motive is what turned this case into this international spectacle. So this was not some like love triangle gone awry or robbery gone wrong. Nelson Raymeyer was murdered because of his beliefs, because he was a witch. And reporters descended upon York County to talk to anyone who could give them any sort of strong opinion about witchcraft.

• 44:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Because it's 1928, it is centuries after the Salem witch trials and witch trials in general. So now all of a sudden, there's this new murder that-

• 44:43Corinne Vien?

  Of a community of witches, a witch, a witch on witch crime.

• 44:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  A witch murder, yeah.

• 44:48Corinne Vien?

  Alice Raymeyer spoke very tearfully to the press, telling them that she didn't believe in Braucherei and that Nelson's fixation is actually one of the reasons that their marriage fell apart. But the tragedy of Alice's story wasn't the kind that headlines of the newspapers wanted. They were far more interested in the bizarre, bizarre nature of this crime.

• 45:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 45:08Corinne Vien?

  To many publications outside of the region, it felt outrageous that someone could just be killed because they practiced witchcraft.

• 45:14Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And people also didn't really realize like witches still existed.

• 45:18Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 45:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Granted, they didn't call themselves witches, but stereotypically-

• 45:22Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 45:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  He fell under the category of a witch, yeah.

• 45:25Corinne Vien?

  Right. And also it's like, that was so long ago that you just kill someone because they're a witch.

• 45:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right.

• 45:31Corinne Vien?

  It seemed weird. Headlines talked about the quote unquote "simple people" of York County, a place where spells and curses still posed as a real threat. But the truth was that witchcraft did feel very real to many of the people in the area and to the three defendants and their families.

• 45:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. Wilbert's own mother told the press that after Nelson Blymeyer was killed, all of the troubles that their family had been dealing with virtually disappeared. The cows were producing milk again, the chickens were laying eggs again, like everything was back to normal. Even the family seemed healthier and happier, and nobody had gotten seriously ill since that night back in November when Nelson was murdered. She believed that Wilbert Curry and John Blymeyer had actually done the necessary thing to free themselves from dark magic, which of course, the jury would have the final say about that. And also, we know the solution was so simple.

• 46:24Corinne Vien?

  Get the lock of hair.

• 46:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But they took it to the extreme.

• 46:28Corinne Vien?

  On January 7th, 1929, the trials began in earnest. So John Blymeyer, John Curry, and Wilbert Hess were all tried separately for their involvement in this crime. The defense had different strategies for each of the defendants. Wilbert and John Curry were painted as superstitious children who were swayed by John Blymeyer into committing this crime, and they thought that they were just helping their families.

• 46:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Which is true.

• 46:53Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 46:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They are children.

• 46:55Corinne Vien?

  Quite literally.

• 46:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They're young.

• 46:57Corinne Vien?

  The truth.

• 46:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And they thought they were going for one thing, and it turned into something horrific.

• 47:00Corinne Vien?

  Right. And like, imagine your panic as like, something's happening, and then there's this guy that you're told is really scary and ruining your family, and then there's this other scary man telling you like, "Get on him, do this!" You're just panicked. You're doing it!

• 47:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 47:12Corinne Vien?

  For John Blymeyer, they presented the case of basically him being this insane troubled person, whose delusions of witches and curses drove him to commit a terrible act.

• 47:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Which I do believe is true. They also tried to keep the witchcraft out of the trial, thinking it would bring negative press, but at this point, it was too late. Like, the news cycle was running with this story already, so it was hard to keep out.

• 47:37Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. And despite the defense's best efforts, it was not enough to convince the jury. And in January of 1929, all three defendants were found guilty of murder, which I actually was very surprised by. I thought at least one of the kids would get away.

• 47:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know.

• 47:53Corinne Vien?

  In a way, they kind of maybe did, because Wilbert Hess was sentenced to 10 to 20 years behind bars for second degree murder, which was a lesser sentencing than John Curry. So both John Curry and John Blymeier were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in the first degree.

• 48:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But guess what? Not a single one of them served those entire sentences. John Blymeier, Wilbert Hess, and John Curry were all released early. Wilbert was released in 1939 after serving 10 years, which I can get behind. That same year, John Curry was released under one condition, that he joined the army, and he later wound up serving-

• 48:32Corinne Vien?

  Which is like, that's a weird, let's not encourage that.

• 48:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  No. But he did later serve as a cartographer for the Eisenhower administration. Fun fact. And John Blymeier spent 23 years and five months imprisoned at Eastern State Penitentiary, which we-

• 48:52Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, very haunted location.

• 48:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Very. And also, again, it's the 1920s. We, we know about how terrible conditions were at these institutions, so we can imagine it was pretty terrible for John Blymeier. But by and large, all three of these men lived the rest of their lives with little fanfare, and supposedly, according to all three of them, no more curses. Although you could argue they're cursed to spend life in prison.

• 49:23Corinne Vien?

  It is hard because it's like the fact that things went well after that. Like I believe two things to be true. I do think that Nelson was innocent.

• 49:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  100%.

• 49:34Corinne Vien?

  And at the same time, I also think that maybe something did shift within the families. Maybe it was like their own mental state.

• 49:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's, yes. All of this comes down to mental, like, we can convince ourselves-

• 49:47Corinne Vien?

  The energy you're putting out in the world comes back to you.

• 49:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, the power of thought. And there's so much that, yeah, we can convince ourselves of things. And I think John Beimeyer was so convinced he believed in this folk magic, in the good and the evil of Braukherai, that he truly believed he was cursed. He believed every terrible thing that happened in his life was not because of anxiety, depression, which they didn't have the ability to diagnose it like that back then, or not because he wasn't a good worker, or whatever it may be. It had to be a curse.

• 50:18Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. And I mean, just like the Hess family too, everything going well with their family, their farm, the dairy cow is producing milk. Like, I also feel like, they say like, animals and kids, you know, like they pick up on your anxieties, and that can totally be true for this family. Like, the kids told about what happened, right? Like, families were made aware. And so, in their minds, they're like, oh, we're free.

• 50:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. Power of thought. And unfortunately, the lack of mental health care back then, I think, made it more difficult for John Beimeyer to see things in a different way.

• 50:58Corinne Vien?

  Right. And this, it seems so wild of a story, but you covered on Two Girls One Ghost, a Ouija board murder that is-

• 51:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 51:07Corinne Vien?

  -pretty similar in terms of-

• 51:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes.

• 51:11Corinne Vien?

  -blaming the supernatural powers of others.

• 51:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And it was a lot of manipulation. It's the story of Clotilde Marchand in the 1930s. It's a really wild story, but it is a lot of power of- What's the word, like convincing someone to do something for you?

• 51:30Corinne Vien?

  The power of persuasion?

• 51:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yes, that's the word I was looking for, persuasion. There we go.

• 51:35Corinne Vien?

  All right, well, to this day, the murder of Nelson Ray Meyer haunts the woods of York County. To some, it's just another local ghost story, a spooky tale of a witch's curse mixed with supernatural paranoia. But to others, it's nothing more than a senseless tragedy.

• 51:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But this true life horror has actually birthed an urban legend in Ray Meyer's Hollow, which is now called Hex Hollow. And locals say that the place is cursed. It is a place where the devil walks, and some say that if you visit the Hex Hollow farmhouse on Halloween night and perform a ritual, the ground will split open to hell. Now, we know that this is an urban legend, that it has been created out of something really horrific that happened, but there are reports of ghostly activity. Driving down the long dirt road that leads to the old Ray Meyer farmhouse, some people's headlights might flicker, or the lights will burn out entirely. Your car might stall, and some even report seeing a figure in darkness.

• 52:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, there's two mysteries here that are still left with Nelson Ray Meyer's case. Who or what was the shadow watching the three murderers? And despite dousing Nelson's body with lamp oil, the fire seemed to extinguish. So how could that happen?

• 52:50Corinne Vien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, here's the theory. Was it Nelson's spirit that was standing in the shadows? And two, there is a incantation, a ritual that you can speak. It's in The Long Lost Friend that you can say to extinguish fire with just words. So was his final act as a practitioner of Braharaai, to utter these words, extinguish the fire so that his murder would be solved? Unfortunately, that's my theory, but we don't know those for sure. I think we can all agree, though, that this was a horrific tragedy, and Nelson did not deserve the violent end he got.

• 53:28Corinne Vien?

  No. John Blighmeyer, Wilbert Hess, and John Kerry could have let Nelson live. All they needed was a lock of his hair and maybe his book. They could have taken those things, done as Emma Knoll had said, and maybe they would have felt justice. But that is not how this story ends.

• 53:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 53:45Corinne Vien?

  Curse or no curse, they took a man's life, and there's nothing supernatural about that.

• 53:59Corinne Vien?

  Thank you so much for listening. We are your hosts Sabrina DiAniroga and Corinne Vien. Join us next Tuesday for another peek inside Crimes of the Paranormal. And if there are any cases you would like us to cover, let us know in the comments. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on all social media @CrimeHouse. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Crimes of wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback really truly does make a difference.

• 54:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And also let us know if you've been to the Hex Hollow and experienced anything paranormal, or what your urban legends are, because we are so curious.

• 54:34Corinne Vien?

  Until then.

• 54:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Bye, mommies!