Dr. H. H. Holmes built murder into architecture, designing a hotel that functioned as a machine for sadistic pleasure, profit, and death.
During the chaos of the Chicago World’s Fair 1893, Holmes constructed a building that blurred the line between business and violence. Behind locked doors and false walls, guests vanished while insurance schemes quietly paid out. As bodies mounted and stories unravelled, the Pinkerton Agency closed in on a man who treated murder as logistics rather than impulse. This story cemented Holmes into infamy as one Americas first serial killer.

Topics include

• The design and purpose of the Murder Castle
• Holmes’ life as Herman Mudgett and his talent for reinvention
• Insurance fraud, false identities, and calculated killings
• The role of the Chicago World’s Fair 1893 in hiding the crimes
• How the Pinkertons finally caught H. H. Holmes

Resources and Further Reading

• H.H. Holmes - Wikipedia
• The Devil in the White City - by Erik Larson
• American Horror Story: Hotel - Ryan Murphy

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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Biosphere 2 was meant to prove we could build a world from scratch. Instead, it became a fight to keep the air breathable and the story from turning toxic.

In 1991, eight people sealed themselves inside a vast Arizona terrarium designed to test whether a closed ecosystem could sustain human life and one day help us survive on Mars. What followed was not just a biosphere experiment under glass, but a slow collision between science, survival, collapsing oxygen levels, and a press narrative determined to call it a joke. This week, we dig into what really happened inside Biosphere 2, why the project began to unravel, and whether it was ever the failure people still think it was.

Topics include

• The Biosphere 2 experiment and its original Mars habitat ambitions
• Why oxygen levels dropped inside the sealed ecosystem
• The biospherians, food shortages, and life inside the dome
• How media coverage helped distort the story of Biosphere 2
• Whether Biosphere 2 failed, or was misunderstood from the start

• Biosphere 2 - Wikipedia
• Life under the bubble - Discover magazine
• The Human Experiment - by Jane Poynter

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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Morgan Metzer survived a home invasion that ended with a far darker truth: the man who came to save her may have known exactly what happened.

On New Year's Eve in Canton, Georgia, a masked attacker entered a locked home, used intimate knowledge of the house, and left one woman bound, beaten, and terrified. The first person to find her was the ex-husband she still trusted, but the details of the night pointed somewhere far closer to home. This is a chilling story of gaslighting, coercive control, psychological abuse, and the case that later inspired Gaslit by My Husband.

Topics include

• The New Year's Eve home invasion at the centre of Morgan Metzer's story
• How gaslighting and coercive control shaped the years before the attack
• The warning signs of psychological abuse hidden inside an old relationship
• The real case behind Gaslit by My Husband

• Gaslit by My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story - Stream on Paramount
• Georgia man who attacked - CBS News
• From hero to villain - CBS News
• Saved by Her Ex-Husband - People.com

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.