The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

In 2019, eBay went full villain in one of Silicon Valley’s biggest cyberstalking scandals. Today we’re diving into the fragile ego at the top, and the lengths the CEO went to in a harassment campaign against a wholesome suburban couple in Boston.

After critical posts hit a nerve, eBay’s CEO instructed their Global Security team to take down nay sayers at any cost. Today we track the emails, fake accounts, doorstep packages, and the FBI investigation that drags the whole operation into the light.

Topics include

EcommerceBytes, Ina and David Steiner, and the criticism eBay could not ignore

eBay cyberstalking tactics, fake accounts, and a harassment campaign gone rogue

Threat Matrix, private dossiers, and what Global Security thought it was doing

How the FBI traced the stalking back to eBay executives and DOJ charges

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
Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

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The West Memphis Three story is a nightmare of panic, pressure, and vanished evidence, where a confession mattered more than truth.

In 1993, three eight-year-old boys vanished in West Memphis, Arkansas, then turned up murdered in Robin Hood Hills. As the Satanic Panic crept into the investigation, police chased a satanic ritual narrative and built a case around Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelley, fuelled by a false confession and courtroom “experts” who should never have been there. Years later, the hair evidence in a ligature knot and the Alford plea that freed them leave one brutal question hanging: if they walked out, who never got caught?

Topics include

Satanic Panic hysteria and a wrongful conviction built on fear

Jesse Misskelley’s false confession and the interrogation tactics behind it

Paradise Lost and West of Memphis, and how the documentaries shifted the case

The Alford plea, the hair evidence in the knot, and why the case stayed unresolved

DNA testing and the long fight for full exoneration

Resources and Further Reading

West Memphis Three - Wikipedia

The Satanic Panic - Wikipedia

Paradise Lost (1996) - Documentry

West of Memphis (2012) - Peter Jackson

Devil's Knot - Mara Leveritt

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
Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

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McMillions exposed how McDonald’s Monopoly was quietly hijacked, turning “random” winners into a pattern the FBI could not ignore.

It started with a tip that sounded like sour grapes, but then the FBI noticed something odd: all the winners were connected. The lead led to the realisation that the McDonald’s Monopoly game was rigged, and had been for most of its existence. And the man behind it was Uncle Jerry, Jerry Jacobson. What emerged was a secret FBI initiative dubbed Operation Final Answer, and a co-ordinated national sting.

Topics include


Jerry Jacobson and the inside job at the heart of McDonald’s Monopoly


How game pieces were stolen, swapped, and funnelled to “winners”


The St Jude prize story and why it made perfect cover


Operation Final Answer and the FBI’s plan for simultaneous arrests


Simon Marketing and the blind spots that let it run for years

Resources and Further Reading

McMillions (2020) - TV Mini Series

McDonalds Monopoly Scam - 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
Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

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The Chowchilla bus kidnapping began like any school run, then veered into a buried alive ordeal no one could have imagined.

One moment a group of kids are arguing about snacks, the next they are being marched off a bus by men who clearly skipped Kidnapping 101. While the town panics, the abductors bungle their own plan and promptly disappear, leaving 27 people trapped underground with no idea what happens next. What unfolds is a mix of fear, grit, and surprisingly resourceful thinking as the captives take matters into their own hands.

 

Topics include


Chowchilla


Michael Marshall


Ed Ray


Buried alive schoolchildren


Largest child kidnapping case in US history

Resources and Further Reading

 

1976 Chowchilla kidnapping -  Wikipedia

Edward Ray - The City Of Chowchilla

They’ve Taken Our Children, 1993 - by Vern Gillum

The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping - Vox

Chowchilla bus kidnapping - Rare photos CBS

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
Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.

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The Suffolk Strangler turned Ipswich into a locked-door city. Five women vanish from the red light district and the road home becomes a crime scene.

In December 2006, the Ipswich murders unfold at terrifying speed as five women are found dumped on rural roads outside the town. Panic turns the streets silent, while the women at the centre of the story are reduced to headlines instead of humans. Inside Operation Sumac, detectives chase CCTV footage, a Ford Mondeo, DNA evidence and forensic fibres to close in on Steve Wright.

Topics include


Steve Wright and the Suffolk Strangler timeline


The Ipswich serial killer panic and the city’s response


Life and risk inside the Ipswich red light district


How was Steve Wright caught using CCTV footage and DNA evidence


What the case reveals about who gets protected in Ipswich

Resources and Further Reading

Ipswich serial murders -  Wikipedia

Wright guilty of Suffolk murders - The Guardian

Murder in the Red Light - Apple TV

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
Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus
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.