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'Octopus Murders' conspiracy puts spotlight on journalist's mysterious 'suicide'
About three weeks before he was found with 12 slashes between his wrists in a West Virginia hotel room bathtub, journalist Danny Casolaro told his brother that “if an accident happens, it’s not an accident,” according to a new documentary.
Casolaro had spent years entangled in his investigation of an international cabal he called “The Octopus,” a thick web of conspiracies that he told prospective publishers of his book would be “the most explosive investigative story of the 20th Century,” according to the Netflix docuseries “American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders.”
On Aug. 10, 1991, housekeeping staff at the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, found Casolaro in a bloodied bathtub with his wrists slashed. He told friends and family that he had traveled there to interview a crucial source for his upcoming book.
Tommy Casolaro, the journalist’s brother, received word within a day that 44-year-old Casolaro had died, and that police deemed it a suicide.
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Casolaro was facing financial difficulties at the time of his death, writing to his agent that “in September, [he would] be looking into the face of an oncoming train.” Regardless, whether Casolaro took his own life has been hotly debated since his death, according to the Washington Post.
“In my six years as a medic, I’ve never seen anybody ever cut their wrists that many times – the left arm appears to have had eight cuts and the right arm appeared to have had four cuts. It just did not appear that he physically could have done that,” Don Shirley, a firefighter who responded to the scene, told documentarians.
“These were deep cuts… to the point where the tendons had been severed… You cut your tendons, you can’t hold something. Those are simple facts,” Shirley continued.
Casolaro, who covered Watergate in the 1970s and was writing for a tech publication he owned called “Computer Daily” at the time, began the investigation that would consume the rest of his life when he was assigned to research Inslaw.
The tech company that was bankrupted after building a novel software called PROMIS – short for Prosecutor’s Management Information System – for the U.S. Justice Department.
For the first time, the software made case information searchable in a computer database. In 1986, the Justice Department was accused of intentionally driving the software’s parent company into bankruptcy “through trickery, fraud and deceit” by withholding payment, former Attorney General Elliot Richardson said at the time.
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Danny Casolaro, right, was working on a book “about a handful of people who have been able to successfully exploit the secret empires of espionage networks, big oil and organized crime,” he told publishers. He was found dead with slashing wounds to his wrists in a hotel room on Aug. 10, 1991 at 44 years old. (Netflix)
In light of the PROMIS investigation, Richardson said that then-President Reagan’s DOJ was up to something “much dirtier than Watergate.”
Inslaw founder Bill Hamilton, who became a driving source in Casolaro’s research, alleged in court that the DOJ shirked payments for the software to intentionally drive the company under so that Earl Brian, owner of competing computer corporation Hadron and former director of California’s Department of Health Care Services when Reagan was California’s governor, could take control of their assets.
Moreover, Hamilton claimed that Brian had called before the company filed for bankruptcy seeking to purchase Inslaw, saying that he “had a way of making [Hamilton] sell” when he refused.
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“American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders” follows Christian Hansen’s attempts to retrace Danny Casolaro’s investigative steps to finish his book – and, he hopes, give more insight into his mysterious death. (Netflix)
Inslaw would later win a case against the Department of Justice for stealing its software in 1998 over claims that the government intentionally stole its software and distributed it illegally – but the case was overturned on appeal.
A theory, one component of Casolaro’s so-called Octopus, is that the Justice Department sold the software abroad to illegally spy on agencies that purchased it.
From there, Casolaro began uncovering prospective theory after prospective theory from interviews with his many furtive contacts.
With Casolaro’s family publicly questioning the suicide designation, citing the growing number of threatening phone calls Casolaro was receiving and the sensitive nature of his work, newscasters and reporters widely speculated about his death. However, as years passed, the case went cold.
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In his 10 years of researching “The Octopus,” Christian Hansen grows closer in resemblance to the man whose research he is trying to unravel. (Netflix)
However, 10 years ago, begetting the Netflix documentary, journalist Christian Hansen grew fascinated with the case and became determined to finish Casolaro’s book in an effort to learn how he died.
Zachary Treitz, Hansen’s childhood friend and the director of the four-part Netflix series, jumped onto the investigation out of concern for his obsessed buddy, but also to figure out if he was onto something.
In his research, showcased by calls to Casolaro’s often-cryptic sources and pages upon pages of laid out documents, Hansen became reminiscent of Casolaro – to make matters stranger, the dead journalist’s longtime friend Ann Klenk remarked that the men even looked alike.
Casolaro’s expansive theory is held up by a bizarre cast of prominent government officials and their affiliates and their links to a criminal underworld. Among them are suspected serial killer and government operative Philip Arthur Thompson, globe-trotting John Philip Nichols, potential spy Robert Booth Nichols and prominently-featured tech wizard Michael Riconosciuto.
Tommy Casolaro told filmmakers that about three weeks before his brother’s death, he told him that “if an accident happens, it’s not an accident.” (Netflix)
The Iran-Contra affair and the 1991 collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International – a financial institution that Casolaro thought made the web of schemes possible – were linked to the wide-spanning conspiracy.
So is a secret government arms factory at the Cabazon Indian reservation in Indio, California. Tribal official Alfred Alvarez and his friends Patricia Castro and Ralph Boger were allegedly killed by Cabazon casino security lead Jimmy Hughes at the behest of Nichols, the tribe’s non-Indian financial consultant, when he asked too many questions about where the casino’s money was going.
Hughes faced felony charges that were later dropped. Nichols was later jailed in the plot, according to the documentary and local news outlets.
Hansen and Treitz vacillate on how much they buy theories bandied by Casolaro’s informants, like Riconosciuto, who the pair interviewed after he was released from a decadeslong prison sentence for 10 criminal counts related to methamphetamine and methadone.
Riconosciuto was jailed just eight days after providing an affidavit for the House Judiciary Committee supporting Inslaw’s claims, saying he worked under the direction of Brian in connection with the software. He said his arrest was retaliatory despite drug charges earlier in his life.
Director Zachary Treitz, left, with Christian Hansen, joins his friend in connecting with Danny Casolaro’s former sources.
Ultimately, the pair uncovered new details about the case never revealed to the public after police in Martinsburg granted Hansen’s public records request from 2013.
Among the paper documents in a box of evidence were statements from another woman in Casolaro’s hotel, claiming that she saw a dark-haired man enter blonde Casolaro’s room on the evening of his death. This detail was not previously included in news coverage, or even in FBI files on the controversial case.
The filmmakers guess, based on circumstances and a composite sketch, that Joseph Cuellar – a former military intelligence official who spoke with Casolaro about his theories in a diner weeks before his death – may have been the second man in the room.
Treitz told the Mirror he was “haunted” since he and Hansen made the connection – in the documentary, Cuellar’s son said that his father specialized in “psychological warfare” and detailed his abilities.
Michael Riconosciuto, a computer expert claiming to have knowledge of covert government operations, is pictured after documentarians pick him up from prison. He was jailed eight days after providing an affidavit regarding Inslaw’s claims that the Justice Department intentionally bankrupted them and stole their software on drug charges he claims are bogus.
Ultimately, Treitz and Hansen told GQ, neither has decided whether Casolaro was murdered or killed himself. In completing the documentary, the pair learned what Casolaro must have – and what may have caused him to take his own life.
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“You have to make a decision for yourself, which I did – are you going to go back to your normal boring life and enjoy small things like movies or barbecues instead of phone calls from the netherworld?” Cheri Seymour, a California-based writer and investigative reporter whose “The Last Circle” is about Casolaro’s reporting and death, told the filmmakers.
“I made a choice between learning the secret of everything, which I realized I would never do, or being happy and having fun,” Hansen said at the end of his 10 years of research and the documentary puzzling and convoluted enough to reflect its own narrative.
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Southeast
Florida designates Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations, DeSantis says
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Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.
The move mirrors a similar action taken by Texas in which Gov. Greg Abbott designated the CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.
“Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support,” DeSantis wrote on X.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantissaid CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated as foreign terrorist organizations. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
The governor’s order said the Muslim Brotherhood has long engaged in and supported violence, political assassinations and terror attacks on civilians with the intent of establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate.
It also said the group, as well as Hamas have active fundraising arms in the United States.
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The order said CAIR, which was created to challenge stereotypes against Islam and Muslims, has had individuals associated with it that have been convicted of providing and aspiring to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.
In a post on X, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said: “Great news! Thanks for this important Executive Order, Governor. We are ready to support!”
A joint statement by CAIR and its Florida chapter said the DeSantis administration has prioritized serving their interest of the Israeli government over the people of the state.
“He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court,” the statement said. “Like Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis is an Israel First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes. Governor DeSantis knows full well that CAIR-Florida is an American civil rights organization that has spent decades advancing free speech, religious freedom, and justice for all, including for the Palestinian people. That’s precisely why Governor DeSantis is targeting our civil rights group with this unconstitutional and defamatory proclamation.
“We look forward to defeating Governor DeSantis’ latest Israel First stunt in a court of law, where facts matter and conspiracy theories have no weight,” the groups added. “In the meantime, we encourage all Floridians and all Americans to speak up against this latest attempt to shred the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government.”
Florida’s designation is at the state level. It doesn’t carry the legal force of a federal Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) listing, which only the U.S. State Department can issue.
In Texas, Muslim and interfaith leaders have demanded that Abott reverse his proclamation regarding CAIR. In a lawsuit against Texas over the governor’s declaration, CAIR argued that it violates both the U.S. Constitution and state law.
Texas Gov. Greg Abott designated CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a foreign terrorist organization. (Getty Images)
The order violates its First Amendment rights and due-process protections, CAIR said, arguing that the state overstepped its authority because terrorism designations fall under federal, not state, jurisdiction.
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Southeast
Florida mom says teens ‘lured’ 14-year-old daughter into woods before shooting, setting her on fire: report
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The mother of murdered Florida teenager Danika Troy says her 14-year-old daughter was lured into the woods by one of the boys now charged with killing her, a teen she believed had romantic feelings for her.
In an interview with the New York Post, Ashley Troy said 16-year-old Gabriel Williams “pretended to have feelings for her,” leading Danika to trust him enough to follow him into the wooded trail where she was ambushed.
“That’s how she was lured,” she said.
Williams and 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins have both been charged with first-degree premeditated murder in Danika’s death.
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The mom of Danika Troy, a 14-year-old Florida teenager, says she believes her daughter was lured into the woods by Gabriel Williams, who allegedly pretended to have romantic feelings before the girl was murdered. (GoFundMe)
Ashley said she is still desperate for answers. “I still need answers. I’m just left asking why,” she told the outlet. “She just wanted to be in love.”
Danika was reported missing by her mother on Dec. 1. The next day, a passerby discovered her body in a wooded area in Pace, a community in Florida’s Panhandle. Investigators said she had been shot multiple times and set on fire.
Authorities quickly identified the alleged killers, two teens who knew Danika from school, and took them into custody.
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Authorities said two teenagers are facing murder charges in the death of 14-year-old Danika Troy, who was found shot to death and burned in a wooded area in Florida after being reported missing. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Detectives initially believed the murder may have stemmed from a social-media dispute over Thanksgiving break. According to the sheriff’s office, the boys claimed they targeted Danika because she had blocked Blevins on social media and called Williams “worthless and a gang banger.”
Ashley rejected that narrative. “What those boys said is an excuse,” she told the Post.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson confirmed Thursday that Danika’s body had been positively identified and said investigators rapidly zeroed in on Williams and Blevins. Both suspects had prior “run-ins” with law enforcement, he said, though details were not released because of their ages.
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Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters that the suspects were supposedly friends with the victim from school. He said investigators were still working to determine a motive. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Johnson described the killing in stark terms.
“This is where it gets really horrific,” he said, explaining that Williams allegedly stole his mother’s handgun before shooting Danika. “It’s bad enough you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14. You’re 16. Shoot her multiple times, and then they set her on fire.”
The motive for the killing remains unclear. Johnson said the explanations the teens offered “don’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case,” adding, “so we don’t have a legit motive.”
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Both suspects remain held without bond at the Department of Juvenile Justice on first-degree murder charges. Prosecutors are coordinating with investigators as they determine whether the teens will be charged as adults.
“If you do an adult crime, you gotta do adult time,” Johnson said.
Ashley previously said she believes “evil influence” played a role in her daughter’s killing, but she wants accountability. She said she wants “nothing less than for them to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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Southeast
Miami in political crosshairs: Democrat hunts historic upset against Trump-backed candidate
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Voters in Miami, Florida, cast ballots Tuesday in a runoff election for mayor in a race that’s grabbed plenty of national attention in recent weeks as Democrats aim to end a decades-long losing streak in red-leaning Florida.
Democrat Eileen Higgins, a former county commissioner, is facing off against Republican Emilio Gonzalez, a former city manager backed by President Donald Trump.
While the election is technically nonpartisan, the ballot box face-off has become the latest showdown this year between Democrats and Republicans, with both parties pouring in resources.
And Democrats, energized by last month’s decisive 2025 election victories and by last week’s double-digit overperformance in a special election in a red-leaning congressional district in Tennessee, are aiming for victory in Miami for an office they haven’t held in 30 years.
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Democratic County Commissioner Eileen Higgins and Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed Republican candidate Emilio Gonzalez will advance to a runoff Dec. 9 that will determine Miami’s next mayor after no candidate received 50% of votes. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images; Rebecca Blackwell; The Associated Press)
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and allied groups have invested in the race.
DNC Chair Kent Martin told Fox News Digital that following last week’s “historic overperformance in Tennessee and the record Democratic momentum across the country this year,” the DNC is now “laser focused” on Miami’s mayoral runoff.
“The energy is on Democrats’ side and the DNC is all-in support of Eileen Higgins from now until Election Day,” Martin emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital last week.
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Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Florida has been helping Gonzalez.
And Trump, over the weekend, took to social media to try and boost Gonzalez.
“Miami’s Mayor Race is Tuesday. It is a big and important race!!! Vote for Republican Gonzalez,” the president wrote.
City of Miami mayoral candidate Emilio González speaks during a press conference outside his home on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Miami. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Florida was once the largest of the general election battleground states, but has shifted dramatically to the right over the past decade.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points in 2022, and Trump carried the state by 13 points in last year’s presidential election victory.
But Miami remains a rare blue oasis in the Sunshine State. Trump narrowly lost the city in last year’s presidential election, although the president won the wider Miami-Dade County by 11 points.
Higgins, a mechanical engineer and former Peace Corps director in Belize, focused on the issue of affordability and of making local government work better and faster during her campaign.
Eileen Higgins, a Miami-Dade County commissioner who is running for Miami mayor, speaks to supporters preparing to go canvas on her behalf, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Miami City Hall in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)
González, a veteran and senior adviser at an asset management firm, spotlighted the fight against overdevelopment and called for the elimination of property taxes for primary homes, as he bid for mayor.
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Higgins captured 36% of the vote in the Nov. 4 election, with Gonzalez coming in second at 19%, in the multi-candidate field.
The runoff winner will succeed term-limited Republican Mayor Francis Suarez, who grabbed national attention two years ago as he briefly and unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination.
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