American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders is a new Netflix docuseries based on the events surrounding the mysterious death of a journalist.
Danny Casolaro was investigating the biggest story of his career, involving government corruption, unsolved murders and scandals, when he died back in 1991.
The documentary follows photojournalist Christian Hansen, who wanted to finish Casalaro's investigation, and his friend Zachary Treitz, who narrates the action and who directed the series.
So what's American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders all about?
Is American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders based on a true story?
Sort of!
The account of the investigation that Danny Casolaro started in the late 1980s and which took over his life, was absolutely true, and so is the present-day story told by Christian Hansen.
But what's not certain is whether the huge web of corruption Casolaro thought he'd uncovered was real!
How did Danny Casolaro get involved in the story?
Casolaro was a freelance journalist, working on a tech newsletter called Computer Age, in the late 1980s. The newsletter shared stories about developments in what was then a very new industry!
As part of his work on the newsletter, Casolaro stumbled on a story about stolen computer software.
A company called INSLAW had developed some software — back in the early 1980s — that they claimed had been stolen by the US government!
Danny set out to investigate what was the truth about this PROMIS software.
What happened before Casolaro got involved?
Software company INSLAW had developed software called PROMIS that tracked crimes and criminal court cases.
It had been bought by the US Department of Justice, along with police departments and the courts.
But in the second year of the three year contract, the Justice Department stopped paying their bills. INSLAW was forced into bankruptcy.
Bill Hamilton, INSLAW's CEO sued and won — but thanks to some movement high up among bankruptcy judges, the company didn't get a penny that they were owed.
So WHY did the US government go to such lengths to destroy INSLAW?
That's when Danny Casolaro got involved.
What did Casolaro uncover?
From that simple beginning, Casolaro believed he'd uncovered a huge political scandal.
He discovered a series of apparently related international crimes that went right to the top of government. The same names kept appearing — eight former government officials. Casolaro grew to believe that these eight men were in effect controlling the world. He called the theory The Octopus because of those eight strands.
He realized the story was too big to be an article and decided to write a book instead.
How is the story told?
The story is told by Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, who are investigaing the same story as Danny Casolaro, 30 years on.
The docuseries features interviews with people who were involved at the time as well as members of Danny's family.
And it blurs the lines between Casolaro's investigation and that of Hansen and Treitz by using Christian Hansen himself to play Danny Casolaro in the reconstruction of important moments.
What happened to Danny Casolaro?
In 1991, Casolaro went to meet a source in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Before he went, he joined his family at a birthday party, and after the guests had left, he filled brother Tony in on the story he was working on.
He told Tony he'd had some threats and added that if anything happened to him, it wouldn't have been an accident.
Danny Casolaro never came home from Martinsburg — he was found with his wrists slit in a hotel bathtub.
The police found a suicide note and declared that the journalist had taken his own life. But brother Tony was convinced he'd been murdered.
Paramedics who'd attended the scene also thought it was suspicious.
And there were more mysteries surrounding the writer's death, too — including files and papers going missing.
What happens in episode one?
Episode one sets up the story, talking about Danny's investigation and his death. The following three episodes explore Christian and Zachary's part in the story and the shadowy source called Michael Riconosciuto.
Is there a trailer?
Yes. The trailer begins with news reports of Danny Casolaro's death and brother Tony's declaration that he thought Danny was murdered.
It has an explanation of the Octopus and a brief glimpse of the PROMIS software.
It mentions other murders and ends with a message given to Christian Hansen, warning that he's going to get himself killed.
How to watch American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders
American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders is available to watch now on Netflix worldwide.
