Introduction

     What starts as a mysterious death in a hotel bathtub quickly unravels into something far more sinister. Danny Casolaro was a man who claimed to be uncovering a conspiracy of government corruption and corporate espionage. Casolaro called it “The Octopus,” a conspiracy he believed connected scandals like the Iran-Contra affair and the Inslaw PROMIS software conspiracy (Linsalata 1). Days before he was found dead, Casolaro told friends and family he was about to “wrap it up” (Rosenbaum 1).  His death sparked decades of suspicion: was it really suicide, or was he silenced for getting too close to the truth?