The entirety of the akashic records thing sounds stupid and looks like it was thrown in to create drama. I know that it's an idea from Theosophy, but it just looks out of place here.
Second, eh. Kind of looks like a stretch for the 120 years ago, "normal" look in Pennsylvania. It wasn't until 1940 that even 50% of people in the US had a high school diploma. Most of the US was still rural (and largely still is). Like, yeah, it's not realistic that he did those things 120 years ago. However, it also just looks like the author is appealing to the reader by talking about this even though it's not actually "normal" or "average".
Then this whole villain explaining things is so cliched. Even his motivation looks kind of stupid and nonsensical (people like normal), but whatever. I'll see how it plays out next chapter.