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

This is the true story of Ed Gein, the quiet, polite handyman from Plainfield, Wisconsin who became the Butcher of Plainfield and the inspiration behind 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, with the rest of his grim collection coming from graves he admitted robbing.

We also untangle how one man's life inspired 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 him 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 Psycho, 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

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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.

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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

• 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.

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