The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

Two brothers called 911 in tears. What followed became a national argument about murder, abuse, money and whether a courtroom could ever untangle a family’s worst secrets. The Menendez Brothers case follows Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in Beverly Hills in 1989. This episode revisits The Menendez Brothers through the murders, the infamous trial, the abu...

A white Bronco on a freeway, a glove in a courtroom and a verdict that split America in real time. OJ Simpson became the centre of the Trial of the Century after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman turned a beloved American football star into the defendant in one of the most watched famous trials in modern history. This episode revisits OJ Simpson through the police investigation,...

A simple caving trip became a nightmare underground, where every rescue attempt made the impossible feel even more unbearable. Nutty Putty Cave tells the tragic story of John Edward Jones, who became trapped in a narrow passage in Utah in 2009. This episode revisits Nutty Putty Cave through the cave entrapment, the rescue operations, the claustrophobia, the engineering challenges and the devastati...

At 01:23:40, a safety test became a catastrophe, and the world learned the cost of secrecy in radioactive detail. The Chernobyl Disaster began with the explosion of Reactor 4 on April 26, 1986, but the story stretches far beyond one moment in Soviet nuclear history. This episode revisits The Chernobyl Disaster through the RBMK reactor design flaws, the critical decisions that led to the nuclear re...

A scientist put ten strangers on a raft, crossed the Atlantic and waited for sex, violence and chaos. The crew had other ideas. The Acali Experiment was a 1973 human behaviour study led by anthropologist Santiago Genovés, who hoped to explore aggression, sexuality and conflict during a 101-day Atlantic voyage. This episode revisits The Acali Experiment, the so-called Sex Raft, as weird history, sc...

A dream cruise lost power, plumbing and dignity, then drifted into legend under one unforgettable name: the Poop Cruise. Poop Cruise tells the story of Carnival Triumph, the 2013 cruise ship disaster that stranded thousands of passengers in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine-room fire crippled power and sanitation. This episode revisits Poop Cruise through sewage leaks, red bag sanitation, failed...

The river looked calm until a hippo exploded from the reeds and turned a safari paddle into a fight to stay alive. When Hippos Attack follows the terrifying Zambezi River attack that turned two tourist canoe trips into overlapping survival stories. This episode revisits When Hippos Attack through Phil Longden’s injuries, the capsized canoe, crocodile danger, the miracle paddle and the brutal reali...

A dive to the Titanic wreck became a modern disaster story about ambition, warnings and the crushing pressure of ignored risk. Oceangate Titan Disaster revisits the 2023 Titan submersible implosion, when a deep-sea tourist expedition ended with the deaths of all five people aboard, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. This episode follows the Oceangate Titan Disaster through the carbon fiber sub...

Everyone thinks they know the punchline. The real story is about third-degree burns, corporate spin and a lawsuit turned into a national myth. McDonald's Hot Coffee Case follows Stella Liebeck, the 79-year-old woman badly burned by coffee served at dangerously high temperatures. This episode revisits McDonald's Hot Coffee Case through the injuries, the settlement offer, the trial, the media distor...

Seven people took ordinary medicine and died, leaving behind a panic that changed every bottle on every shelf. Tylenol Murders revisits the 1982 Chicago cyanide killings, when capsules laced with poison killed victims including Mary Kellerman, Adam Janus, Stanley Janus, Theresa Janus, Mary “Lynn” Reiner, Mary McFarland and Paula Prince. This episode follows Tylenol Murders through the unsolved poi...

A heist mastermind recruited Craigslist decoys, planned an inner-tube escape and somehow made bank robbery feel like slapstick. D.B. Tuber tells the absurd true crime story of Anthony Curcio, the former athlete who staged an armored truck robbery in Monroe, Washington, using decoy workers, a creek getaway and a plan inspired by D.B. Cooper. This episode revisits D.B. Tuber as funny true crime, mod...

Behind the shops, escalators and food court, a hidden apartment quietly existed inside a working mall for four years. Secret Mall Apartment follows artist Michael Townsend and the Trummerkind collective, who transformed an unused space inside Providence Place Mall into a hidden home. This episode revisits Secret Mall Apartment as a strange true story about eviction, gentrification, guerrilla livin...

An Irish widower sought a new life in North Carolina. Instead, his final weeks became the centre of a family tragedy that crossed continents. A Deadly American Marriage follows the Jason Corbett case, where Jason Corbett was killed in 2015 after his marriage to Molly Martens collapsed into violence, accusation and courtroom battle. This episode revisits A Deadly American Marriage through Jason’s m...

New York nightlife promised glitter, reinvention and excess. Then the Club Kids story ended in murder. Michael Alig was the flamboyant Club Kid figure who helped turn the 1990s NYC club scene into a neon carnival of fashion, drugs, celebrity and chaos. This episode revisits Michael Alig through the rise of the Club Kids, the Limelight nightclub, Peter Gatien, James St. James, rave culture, drug cu...

A silver balloon floated across Colorado, the world held its breath, and a six-year-old boy was nowhere inside it. Balloon Boy Hoax revisits the 2009 media frenzy around Falcon Heene, Richard Heene and Mayumi Heene, when a homemade helium balloon was believed to be carrying a child through the sky. This episode follows Balloon Boy Hoax from breaking-news panic to police investigation, reality TV a...

A gang tried to steal one of the world’s most flawless diamonds with a digger, a speedboat and far more confidence than sense. Millennium Dome Diamond Heist tells the outrageous true story of the plot to steal the Millennium Star Diamond from the Millennium Dome in London. This episode revisits Millennium Dome Diamond Heist through Lee Wenham, Ray Betson, William Cockram, Scotland Yard surveillanc...

A pizza delivery driver walks into a bank with a bomb locked around his neck, a cane-shaped gun in his hand, and a set of instructions that turn robbery into a deadly scavenger hunt. The Pizza Bomber Heist follows the astonishing case of Brian Wells, the Erie, Pennsylvania delivery driver pulled into one of the strangest true crime stories in FBI history. The Pizza Bomber Heist begins with the 200...

A forgotten Detroit musician records two albums, disappears from the American charts, and somehow becomes the voice of a revolution half a world away. Sixto Rodriguez tells the unlikely true story of the singer-songwriter whose music failed in the United States but became a protest soundtrack in apartheid-era South Africa. Sixto Rodriguez seemed to vanish into obscurity while Cold Fact and Coming...

A smiling husband pleads for his missing family on television, while the truth is already closing in around him. Chris Watts became the centre of one of the most disturbing modern true crime cases after the murders of Shanann Watts and their children in Frederick, Colorado. Chris Watts looks at the timeline behind the Watts family murders, the police bodycam footage, the failed lies, the interroga...

A missing teenager, a secretive city-state, and decades of rumours collide as the Vatican’s most haunting mystery grows darker. The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi Pt. 2 continues the story beyond the first vanished-girl headlines and into the maze of Vatican secrets, Mafia connections, stolen documents, and unanswered allegations. The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi Pt. 2 explores the later t...

A 15-year-old Vatican citizen vanishes after a music lesson, and the search for her becomes a doorway into one of the strangest mysteries in modern Catholic history. The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi Pt. 1 begins with Emanuela’s 1983 disappearance and the unanswered questions that have followed the Vatican for more than four decades. The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi Pt. 1 traces the early...

A Beatles song becomes a prophecy, a failed musician becomes a cult leader, and Hollywood’s counterculture dream curdles into murder. Chaos revisits Charles Manson, the Manson Family, and the killings that made Helter Skelter one of the most infamous phrases in true crime. Chaos follows the road from Spahn Ranch and 1960s counterculture to the Tate murders, the LaBianca murders, Sharon Tate, Tex W...

A saturation diver is trapped 300 feet beneath the North Sea, cut off from heat, communication, and breathable gas, with only minutes of oxygen left. Last Breath tells the astonishing true story of Chris Lemons, whose routine commercial diving job became one of the most terrifying underwater survival stories ever recorded. Last Breath follows the 2012 North Sea incident, the failed dynamic positio...

A dream road trip becomes a national missing persons case, and a carefully filtered van life story collapses into something far darker. Gabby Petito follows the disappearance and murder of the young travel creator whose case gripped the world through bodycam footage, social media investigation, and the search for Brian Laundrie. Gabby Petito traces the timeline from the couple’s cross-country jour...

A yacht delivery across the Atlantic turns into a floating nightmare of storms, dehydration, shark-infested waters, and impossible choices. Survival at Sea tells the harrowing true story of the Trashman yacht sinking and the ordeal faced by Deborah Scaling Kiley and her crewmates after their boat went down. Survival at Sea follows the routine voyage that became a disaster at sea, from brutal weath...