Compact Murder

In December 1980, John Lennon was returning to public life with new music, fresh interviews and plans for more recording. On 8 December, he signed an album for a man waiting outside his New York home. Hours later, that same man shot him. This episode of Compact Murder traces Lennon's final years and the events of that day, follows the urgent attempt to save his life, and explores the public grief, criminal proceedings and remembrance that followed the loss of a husband, father and musician at forty. Visit our website: Compact Murder Find us on our social media sites: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Youtube #CompactHistories #CompactMurder #JohnLennon #TheBeatles #MusicHistory #TrueCrimeHistory #HistoryPodcast #YokoOno #DoubleFantasy #StrawberryFields

On 24 January AD 41, the Roman emperor Caligula was killed by officers who were supposed to protect him. How did Germanicus's popular young son become the target of a conspiracy inside his own court? This episode of Compact Murder follows his rise, the growing hostility surrounding his reign and the plot led by Cassius Chaerea. Drawing on ancient accounts while questioning their most sensational claims, we trace the assassination in a palace passageway and the violent struggle that followed. Killing the emperor was one thing. Deciding Rome's future was another. Visit our website: Compact Murder Find us on our social media sites: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Youtube #CompactMurder #CompactHistories #Caligula #AncientRome #RomanHistory #HistoricalCrime #HistoryPodcast

On 25 February 1957, the body of a young boy was discovered inside a cardboard bassinet box in Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighbourhood. He was malnourished, extensively bruised and had been killed by blunt-force trauma, yet no one came forward to identify him. Photographs and posters were distributed across the city, thousands of leads were investigated and numerous theories emerged, but the child became known only as the Boy in the Box, or America's Unknown Child. More than 65 years later, advances in DNA analysis and forensic genetic genealogy finally restored his name: Joseph Augustus Zarelli. This episode follows the investigation from the discovery in 1957 to the identification announced in 2022, while examining the evidence, the unverified claims and the murder that remains unsolved. Visit our website: Compact Murder Find us on our social media sites: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Youtube #CompactMurders #TheBoyInTheBox #JosephAugustusZarelli #UnsolvedMurder #ColdCase #TrueCrimeHistory #Philadelphia

Ed Gein's name became synonymous with horror after police entered his isolated Wisconsin farmhouse in November 1957. What they discovered exposed two murders, years of grave robbing and a secret collection of human remains. This episode follows Gein from his controlling and isolated childhood to the deaths of his family, the murder of Mary Hogan and the disappearance of Bernice Worden. We examine the investigation, his psychiatric confinement and the mythology that later transformed a double murderer and body snatcher into one of true crime's most distorted figures. Visit our website: Compact Murder Find us on our social media sites: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Youtube #EdGein #CompactMurders #TrueCrime #CrimeHistory #Plainfield #WisconsinHistory #MurderCase #HistoricalCrime

On a remote chicken ranch in 1920s California, Gordon Stewart Northcott imprisoned and murdered young boys while terrorising his teenage nephew into silence. When Sanford Clark finally revealed what had happened, investigators uncovered shallow graves, bloodstained evidence and a case involving missing children, contradictory confessions and one of the most notorious police failures in Los Angeles history. This is the disturbing story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. Visit our website: Compact Murder Find us on our social media sites: Facebook Instagram Pinterest Youtube #CompactMurders #TrueCrime #WinevilleMurders #GordonNorthcott #WalterCollins #HistoricalCrime #CrimeHistory #UnsolvedMysteries