The spirolactam structure 1 reported in 1996 by Roggo et al. has been enantioselectively synthesized in 20 steps from (+)-Wieland-Miescher ketone. Spectra of this synthetic lactam differed from those of the natural spirolactam from the Roggo group, leading to the hypothesis that the natural lactammay be the regioisomer 27, a structure previously ascribed by Jarvis et al. to the natural product stachybotrylactam. This hypothesis was confirmed by the first total synthesis of (-)-stachybotrylactam (27). Double reductive amination of two molecules of aldehyde 29 with one molecule of L-lysine led by analogous chemistry to the first synthesis of the pseudosymmetric "dimer" 30, whose spectra corresponded to those of the natural "dimer" originally assigned structure 5 by the Roggo group.