August 30, 2023

Octopus’s Garden: Dan Casolaro, INSLAW & Death (WIW 10)

54 minutes

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

01:59 - Complicated Life - 1977: The weird death of Charles “Chuck” Morgan, Don Devereux investigates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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