The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

A headless body hung in a Wisconsin barn, strung up like a deer carcass. That was what police found when the Ed Gein case broke open on the first day of hunting season in 1957, and it was only the beginning of what waited inside his farmhouse.

This is the true story of Ed Gein, the quiet, polite handyman from Plainfield, Wisconsin, who became known as the Butcher of Plainfield and inspired some of the most terrifying characters in film history. We trace how a domineering, deeply religious mother named Augusta shaped a lonely boy who never broke free, and how that obsession curdled into something monstrous after her death. You’ll hear what really happened to shopkeeper Bernice Warden and tavern owner Mary Hogan, what investigators discovered among the rubbish and rot inside his home, and the detail most people get wrong: Gein only ever confirmed two murders.

The rest of his grim collection, he said, came from graves he had robbed. We also untangle how one man’s life fed three wildly different films; Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and  The Silence of the Lambs, and ask the uncomfortable question of how much sympathy a story like this can hold. A true crime story about isolation, control and the real horror behind Hollywood’s nightmares.

Topics included

The discovery in the barn on the first day of hunting season

The murder of Bernice Warden and the antifreeze receipt that gave Gein away

Augusta Gein and a childhood built on isolation and religious fear

The suspicious death of Ed’s brother Henry

What police found inside the farmhouse

The confirmed victims versus the grave robbing

Mary Hogan and the women who resembled his mother

The schizophrenia diagnosis and a lifetime in an institution

How Gein inspired Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill

Whether the story deserves any sympathy at all

Resources and Further Reading

Ed Gein - Wikipedia

Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original ‘Psycho’ – by Harold Schechter

"Monster, The Ed Gien Story (2025) - Netflix

Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
Community & Calls to Action
Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
Support us: Sign up to Patreon
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Princess Diana thought she was marrying into a fairytale. By the honeymoon, she had to send a memo just to have lunch with her own husband. This is Princess Diana before the icon, before the cameras, before the People's Princess the world thought it knew. 

In Part 1 of our Princess Diana trilogy, we go right back to the beginning: a wealthy but emotionally cold childhood, parents locked in a bitter divorce, and a young Diana Spencer who grew up convinced she was never quite good enough. 

We follow her into the strangest courtship imaginable, a handful of heavily chaperoned dates with Prince Charles, a royal “audition” she didn't know she was failing or passing, and an engagement agreed after the couple had met barely a dozen times. 

From the first day, the cracks are there. The press hounds her relentlessly, the palace offers no support, and Camilla Parker Bowles never quite disappears. Behind the gloss of the 1981 royal wedding watched by 750 million people sits a lonely teenager, struggling with bulimia and the slow, dawning realisation that this was never going to be the love story she imagined. 

A story of family, fame, royal scandals and the human cost of becoming a symbol. 

This is where it all begins. Part 1 of 3. 

 

Topics Include 

Diana's emotionally cold childhood and her parents' bitter divorce

The custody battle and the sense that she was a disappointment

Diana's extraordinary, instinctive gift for empathy

How Charles and Diana actually met — through her older sister

Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles before the marriage

The royal “audition” and the search for a suitable bride

The whirlwind engagement after barely a dozen meetings

The 1981 royal wedding and its hidden tensions

Loneliness, bulimia and royal protocol on the honeymoon

The discovery that reignited the Camilla affair

Resources and Further Reading 

Diana’s childhood and family background - Britannica

Diana’s struggles with bulimia and mental health - Vogue

Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words - by Andre Morton

The Diana Chronicles - by Tina Brown

Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
Community & Calls to Action
Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
Support us: Sign up to Patreon
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Genie Wiley was locked away for thirteen years, but rescue was only the beginning of one of psychology’s most haunting cases.

This episode follows the story of Genie Wiley, a child kept in near-total isolation, deprived of language, movement, comfort and the outside world until she was discovered at thirteen. Her case became a landmark in debates around language acquisition, childhood development and the critical period hypothesis — but behind the research papers was a vulnerable girl who needed care, safety and time.

We trace Genie Wiley’s childhood isolation and abuse, the Los Angeles welfare office discovery, and the scientists, linguists, psychologists and caregivers who became involved after her rescue. The case raises a deeply uncomfortable question: when does helping a child become studying her? And when does science start taking more than it gives?

This is dark history, hidden histories and one of those strange true stories where the facts are already devastating enough. For listeners interested in psychology case studies, child neglect, developmental psychology, scientific ethics and what really happened after the headlines, Genie Wiley’s story remains as heartbreaking as it is important.

Topics Include

Genie Wiley’s childhood isolation and abuse

The Los Angeles welfare office discovery

The critical period hypothesis

Language acquisition after childhood deprivation

The scientists and caregivers who studied Genie

The ethical line between care and research

Resources and Further Reading

Genie Wiley - Wikipedia

The Mockingbird Don't Sing - IMDB

Starved, tortured, forgotten: - The Guardian

Wild Child Speechless After Tortured Life - ABC News

Genie - Encyclopedia Britanica

The Development of Language in Genie - UCLA Linguistics PDF

Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
Community & Calls to Action
Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
Support us: Sign up to Patreon
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A body on an Adelaide beach. A hidden scrap of paper. A mystery that seemed to end with a name, yet still refuses to feel solved.

The Somerton Man case is one of Australia’s most enduring real life mysteries: an unidentified man found dead on Somerton Beach in 1948, no ID in his pockets, and a tiny hidden clue reading “Tamám Shud”. This episode follows the Somerton Man mystery through The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the alleged code, the mysterious nurse Jessica Thomson, poison rumours, Cold War spy theories and the decades of speculation that turned a lonely death into one of the world’s great unexplained mysteries.

We also explore Derek Abbott’s DNA work and the breakthrough that may have finally identified the man as Carl Webb. But if the Somerton Man now has a name, why does the story still feel so unfinished?

For listeners of a documentary podcast, history podcast, Australian true crime, cold case podcast stories and strange true stories, this is a case about what really happened, what evidence can answer, and what it cannot. It is part historical mystery, part forensic puzzle, and part dark history: a dead man on a beach, a literary clue in his pocket, and a final line that still sounds like a challenge — Tamám Shud.

Topic Include

the body found on Somerton Beach in 1948

the Tamám Shud clue and The Rubaiyat

the Somerton Man code

Jessica Thomson and the nurse connection

Cold War spy theories and poison rumours

Derek Abbott and the Carl Webb DNA breakthrough

Resources and Further Reading

Somerton Man identified  - ABC News

Carl Webb The Somerton Man - ABC News

Somerton Man photographs - ABC Australian Story

Somerton Man - Wikipedia

Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
Community & Calls to Action
Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
Support us: Sign up to Patreon
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bob Lazar, Area 51, S-4 and Element 115 are concepts that all sit at the centre of one of the most famous UFO stories ever told — a claim that helped drag alien cover-up lore into the mainstream and turned Area 51 into modern conspiracy culture.

Sounds wild, and the actual story will leave you questioning everything you know. Because in 1989, renowned investigative journalist George Knapp introduced America to a man claiming the US military was hiding alien spacecraft near Groom Lake. That man would later reveal himself as Bob Lazar.

Today, we unpack Bob Lazar’s extraordinary claim that he worked at S-4 reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology, inside one of the most secretive military sites in America. He says had seen alien craft, watched test flights, and even encountered the mysterious Element 115 — the supposed fuel source behind the technology.

But today we proof test his claims, we’ll trace the missing credentials, the FBI raids, the shifting evidence, and the question that still divides UFO culture decades later: was Bob Lazar telling the truth or was he selling a myth.

Topics Include

Bob Lazar and the 1989 George Knapp broadcast

Area 51, Groom Lake and the secret S-4 facility

Element 115 and alien propulsion claims

The alleged flying saucers and “sport model” craft

Lazar’s missing credentials and credibility questions

UFO lore, government secrecy and public belief

Resources and Further Reading

Bob Lazar’s 1989 interview - 8 News Now

Out There - Desert Companion / KNPR

The Secret History of the U-2 - National Security Archive

Area 51 and the Accidental Test Flight - CIA

Moscovium - Royal Society of Chemistry

Bob Lazar & Jeremy Corbell - The Joe Rogan Experience

Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers - Netflix documentary page

S4: The Bob Lazar Story - WANA Channel documentary page

Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
Community & Calls to Action
Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
Support us: Sign up to Patreon
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.