It was august 10th, 1991.
In Martinsburg, West Virginia, a member of the wait staff at the Sherrington hotel opened up room 571 for cleaning.
In the bath tub, in a pool of bloody water, they found the body of American freelance writer Danny Casolaro. His wrists had been slashed multiple times and his blood was sprayed on the walls and floor. The scene was so gory that the housekeeper passed out upon seeing it.
Under his body there was the razor blade, two white plastic bags and a beer can. Since there was a wine bottle nearby and no sign of a struggle reported, the police ruled it officially as a suicide. Supporting their conclusion was the presence of a suicide note, written on a legal pad on the desk that read:
"To those who I love the most: Please forgive me for the worst possible thing I could have done. Most of all I'm sorry to my son. I know deep down inside that God will let me in."
Casolaro was in Martinsburg to meet a source related to the story he had been working on which he referred to as “The octopus”.
The Octopus, according to Casolaro, was an international secret political clique, which he had uncovered during an investigation on the Islaw case in the 80’s. Islaw.inc was a Washington D.C based software manufacturer who developed a highly sophisticated people tracking program called “Promis” (prosecutor’s management information system) which they had developed for the United States department of justice. The PROMIS program was a people tracking program that was able to combine countless databases no matter what operating programs they were hosted on or what language they were in. When used in the court system, PROMIS could track everyone involved in cases, from judges to defendants to defense lawyers.
The Islaw case became a scandal. They sued the department of justice for refusing to pay for advanced versions of their program, and accused them of pirating and selling on Trojan copies of the tracking program to other countries in order to spy on them. The withheld payments eventually forced Islaw Inc. into bankruptcy, and feeling that they were the victim of a conspiracy, the company filed for a civil suit.
Accused of forcing Islaw Inc. into liquidation and stealing their program to sell to foreign nations as part of their own covert intelligence operations, despite Islaw complying within the terms of their contact, the department of justice lost the case to the tune of 6.8 million dollars, which would be awarded to Islaw Inc.
Casolaro Had been investigating the possible links between Isaw, The Iran-contra, the BCCI closure and the October surprise, and before his death, had been receiving death threats at his home.
His housekeep confirmed that he regularly received these calls from people telling him that he was going to die. Casolaro told his brother that he if was hurt, or died in an accident, that it was not suicide, it was murder.
His family was not informed that Danny had been found dead until two days after.
His body had been embalmed without their knowledge and his research papers were never found.
Casolaro, the son of a physician, was said to have been extremely squeamish around blood. So much so that he was unable to go through with a scheduled blood test earlier that month. The family said the nature of his suicide was completely out of character, and that if Casolaro ever was to take his own life, that this would be last way they would ever imagine him to do so.
At the funeral, an African American military man showed up in a limousine with another unknown man. He saluted Casolaro’s coffin, placed a medal on top of it and left.
Danny Casolaro had never served in the military, and nobody, neither his family nor friends could identify the mysterious military man.
So what really happened to American Freelance journalist Danny Casolaro?
Did he spill out his life by his own hand or did he simply get too tangled in the tentacles of the Octopus?
In Martinsburg, West Virginia, a member of the wait staff at the Sherrington hotel opened up room 571 for cleaning.
In the bath tub, in a pool of bloody water, they found the body of American freelance writer Danny Casolaro. His wrists had been slashed multiple times and his blood was sprayed on the walls and floor. The scene was so gory that the housekeeper passed out upon seeing it.
Under his body there was the razor blade, two white plastic bags and a beer can. Since there was a wine bottle nearby and no sign of a struggle reported, the police ruled it officially as a suicide. Supporting their conclusion was the presence of a suicide note, written on a legal pad on the desk that read:
"To those who I love the most: Please forgive me for the worst possible thing I could have done. Most of all I'm sorry to my son. I know deep down inside that God will let me in."
Casolaro was in Martinsburg to meet a source related to the story he had been working on which he referred to as “The octopus”.
The Octopus, according to Casolaro, was an international secret political clique, which he had uncovered during an investigation on the Islaw case in the 80’s. Islaw.inc was a Washington D.C based software manufacturer who developed a highly sophisticated people tracking program called “Promis” (prosecutor’s management information system) which they had developed for the United States department of justice. The PROMIS program was a people tracking program that was able to combine countless databases no matter what operating programs they were hosted on or what language they were in. When used in the court system, PROMIS could track everyone involved in cases, from judges to defendants to defense lawyers.
The Islaw case became a scandal. They sued the department of justice for refusing to pay for advanced versions of their program, and accused them of pirating and selling on Trojan copies of the tracking program to other countries in order to spy on them. The withheld payments eventually forced Islaw Inc. into bankruptcy, and feeling that they were the victim of a conspiracy, the company filed for a civil suit.
Accused of forcing Islaw Inc. into liquidation and stealing their program to sell to foreign nations as part of their own covert intelligence operations, despite Islaw complying within the terms of their contact, the department of justice lost the case to the tune of 6.8 million dollars, which would be awarded to Islaw Inc.
Casolaro Had been investigating the possible links between Isaw, The Iran-contra, the BCCI closure and the October surprise, and before his death, had been receiving death threats at his home.
His housekeep confirmed that he regularly received these calls from people telling him that he was going to die. Casolaro told his brother that he if was hurt, or died in an accident, that it was not suicide, it was murder.
His body had been embalmed without their knowledge and his research papers were never found.
Casolaro, the son of a physician, was said to have been extremely squeamish around blood. So much so that he was unable to go through with a scheduled blood test earlier that month. The family said the nature of his suicide was completely out of character, and that if Casolaro ever was to take his own life, that this would be last way they would ever imagine him to do so.
At the funeral, an African American military man showed up in a limousine with another unknown man. He saluted Casolaro’s coffin, placed a medal on top of it and left.
Danny Casolaro had never served in the military, and nobody, neither his family nor friends could identify the mysterious military man.
Did he spill out his life by his own hand or did he simply get too tangled in the tentacles of the Octopus?
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