EPISODE 92 | Octopus's Garden: Dan Casolaro, INSLAW & Death (WIW 10)

A number of unusual deaths, law enforcement software, mob families, casinos, drug running, arms dealing, and a possible nationwide, possible international, conspiracy known as the Octopus – this wild and complicated tale reads like a whole series of thriller novels and is further proof that the world is weird indeed.

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SECTIONS

1. 01:59 - Complicated Life - 1977: The weird death of Charles “Chuck” Morgan, Don Devereux investigates
2. 08:48 - Herbie Goes Bananas - 1990: Joseph Bonanno aka Joe Bananas aka Don Peppino, Devereux helps Unsolved Mysteries on a story about Morgan, Doug Johnston dies across the street from Devereux's house, Dan Casolaro contacts Devereux in 1991
3. 12:58 - Squid Game - 1973-1991: Dan Casolaro, dilletante & part-time journalist, starts poking around into rumors around INSLAW's PROMIS software, the 1980 October Surprise theory, Iran Contra and the BCCI Scandal
4. 21:36 - Danger Man & the Octopus - 1989-1991: Casolaro encounters Michael Riconosciuto ("Danger Man"), begins to see the shape of the Octopus, starts getting threats
5. 25:43 - Meeting in Martinsburg - 1991: Casolaro goes to Martinsburg, West Virginia but never makes it home, weirdness at his funeral, unanswered questions and "missing" files
6. 32:47 - You Better You Bet - 1978-1981: Cabazon murders in Rancho Mirage, the the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino  in Indio, secret government dealings, mafia dudes, INSLAW and Michael Riconosciuto again, Wackenhut, drug running, software trojan horses, hitman James Hughes
7. 40:35 - Giant Octopus Kraken - 1982-1991: Riconosciuto's roommate is killed, NSA guy Alan David Standorf is killed, Riconosciuto's lawyer is killed, journalist Anson Ng Yong is killed in Guatemala while researching much of all this, arms running, INSLAW, BCCI, and the DOJ
8. 44:33 - Death & Espionage - 1976-2001: John Munson tries to frame Riconosciuto, then his girlfriend dies; the Spiro family are killed in Southern California; arms dealer turned Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe, counterintelligence agent Robert Hanssen turns double agent
9. 50:10 - Trying to make some sense of it all

• Music by Fanette Ronjat

Lapsus Linguae: I consistently mispronounce the name of Michael Riconosciuto thruoghout this episode, only finding out after I had recorded and edited that it should be closer to "Re-con-SHOO-toh" My bad.

More Info:

• The Odd Mystery behind Charles C. Morgan's Death
• Cold Case: Strange evidence found in '77 on, near man's body
• Joe Bonanno Tuscon Arizona Crew Members video 
• The Kinship of Killers
• FBI Phoenix History
• The Odd Death of Charles C. Morgan on Unsolved Wiki
• Chuck Morgan on Unsolved Mysteries
• A Case of Mistaken Identity? The Strange Death of Doug Johnston
• Devereux Reports website
• Danny Casolaro on Alchetron
• Danny Casolaro on Unsolved Mysteries
• The Last Days of Danny Casolaro article plus several links
• The Strange Death of Danny Casolaro New York Times article, reprinted
• What Killed Danny Casolaro? Washington Post article
• THE STRANGE DEATH OF DANNY CASOLARO in Vanity Fair
• FBI files on Dan Casolaro
• Dan's file titled CIA Frank Terpil Renegades
• Danny Casolaro's files and notes
• Danny Casolaro Died for You backstory
• The Mysterious Death Of Danny Casolaro
• The INSLAW File
• The INSLAW Affair - chapter 17 of The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal by Cheri Seymour
• The INSLAW Affair documents
• Federal Corruption: INSLAW by Harry V. Martin

• The Promis Threat: An Octopus Slouches Toward Mena, Arkansas, Area 51 and The International UFO Congress in Las Vegas by Kenn Thomas, Steamshovel press, #7

• Octopus Revisited by Kenn Thomas
• The Undying Octopus: FBI and the PROMIS affair Part 1
• Black Arcadia - Danny Casolaro and the Octopus - Parts 1-3
• Parts 4-7, Lindsay Biziak Murder parts 1-2
• Parts 8-10
• The INSLAW Octopus in Wired
• Code for PROMIS software
• BCCI SCANDAL: BEHIND THE 'BANK OF CROOKS AND CRIMINALS' in the Washington Post
• The Dictator-Run Bank That Tells the Story of America’s Foreign Corruption
• BCCI Scandal document
• Danny Casolaro and the Octopus Syndicate video
• Casolaro Murder excerpts from The Village Voice
• Cabazon: How 'Indian gaming' began - LaRouche article
• Arrest in 1981 tribal murders revives old mystery
• Badlands - article in Spy Magazine about many of these stories
• Worldwide Conspiracy, Or Fantasy? -- Felon's Story Checks Out - Kind Of
• Journalist Investigating Bank Was Second To Die
• Guatemala: Journalist's Murder May Be Linked With Bcci Scandal
• Murder in Rancho Santa Fe
• Investigators closed a mysterious murder case Wednesday and blamed...
• Secret Government Program Linked To Local Murders? KESQ new story on murders, INSLAW and more
• Transcript of interview with Ari Ben-Menashe for Journeyman.tv
• Justice Department records confirm PROMIS scandal’s ties to Israel
• How an FBI Sting Took Down KGB Spy Robert Hanssen on Spyscape
• How Robert Hanssen Spied for the Soviets
• Because there's a LOT more to this, the timeline from Danny Casolaro Died for You

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