Matt Allison Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 That Michael Riconosciuto guy was like the spiritual doppleganger of Gerry Hemming... The show was entertaining enough, but I think to people that have researched the JFKA for years, and know how much BS gets floated in government conspiracy tales, there's gonna be more than a few eyeroll moments. Danny Casolaro had been living off money he took from 2nd mortgaging his house, and the bill was about to come due. If what he knew was actually dangerous, then you'd think he wouldn't have been turned down for a book deal due to lack of proof. So he was broke and unable to find someone to fund the story of the rabbit hole he'd gone down. IMO the odds are pretty good that he did indeed commit suicide. But I'm certainly open to evidence showing otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Burrows Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 11 minutes ago, Matt Allison said: That Michael Riconosciuto guy was like the spiritual doppleganger of Gerry Hemming... The show was entertaining enough, but I think to people that have researched the JFKA for years, and know how much BS gets floated in government conspiracy tales, there's gonna be more than a few eyeroll moments. Danny Casolaro had been living off money he took from 2nd mortgaging his house, and the bill was about to come due. If what he knew was actually dangerous, then you'd think he wouldn't have been turned down for a book deal due to lack of proof. So he was broke and unable to find someone to fund the story of the rabbit hole he'd gone down. IMO the odds are pretty good that he did indeed commit suicide. But I'm certainly open to evidence showing otherwise. How do you slash a wrist when the tendons in the wrist holding the knife have been severed? And why were his papers missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 (edited) 2 hours ago, Robert Burrows said: How do you slash a wrist when the tendons in the wrist holding the knife have been severed? And why were his papers missing? Just watched the first episode. The paramedic's observation sharing describing the deepness of the wrist's cuts is intriguing. The drawing ( autopsy drawing? ) showing the twelve cuts and their depth seems to verify his account. Then there is the Casolaro's brother's statement that Danny C. told him that if something bad happened to him "it would be no accident."? Regarding Casolaro's personal finances losses perhaps being a main driving force behind his desperate decision to end his life: Casolaro's family was quite wealthy. They were also very close. Danny Casolaro was beloved to an adoration degree by his family. It's seems reasonable that Casolaro's family would not have just stood by and watched him descend into financial ruin without helping him in some way. Was DC's pride so great however that he would choose to commit suicide and in such a gory blood spattering way before asking his family to help with his financial stresses? Or, were their other deep emotional issue demons Casolaro was dealing with? That he kept hidden from family and friends? Depression? Anxiety and trauma? Sexual issues? Self-esteem issues? Sometimes the warmest, most charming and engaging and thoughtfully sensitive people can carry the deepest emotional struggles and pains. Beyond those who are considered less so, even self-centered and cold. Edited March 8 by Joe Bauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Brancato Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 4 hours ago, David Andrews said: Probably no one else is so undignified as to bring this up, but what separates the Z-film that RB Nichols showed the reporter from the not-so-deepfake that Bill Cooper unwisely pedaled for years? Nichols' version was faked on film, not video? If a film fake was circulating as far downstream as Nichols, then someone at some intelligence-friendly film lab was proud enough of their 1963 work to create extreme fakes in order to show off their capabilities, and Nichols and other intel bottom feeders were using the fakes to awe, influence and mislead viewers. My note on The Octopus Murders: the credibility of Danny Casolaro's research would have been underscored by explaining the Ted Shackley-GHW Bush axis at CIA that created the private, international intelligence network known as the Safari Club to counteract the Jimmy Carter-Stansfield Turner budget and personnel cuts at CIA. That, and some exploration of how banks like BCCI and Nugan Hand operated as funders of illegal clandestine ops through investments made by several countries' intel services, not just CIA's. It was the background that enabled and informed the Reagan admin's Contra war in Central America and its flows of arms, supplies, capital and drugs. David - I’ll check out these two videos later, but just wanted to say I appreciate your mention of the Safari Club, and the Shackley/Bush axis, and I wish the film had gone into more depth on the octopus itself. But perhaps the choice was this documentary or none. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Andrew Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 4 hours ago, Robert Burrows said: How do you slash a wrist when the tendons in the wrist holding the knife have been severed? And why were his papers missing? They also mentioned that he had a plastic bag over his head. Based upon the cutting of the tendons, the bag over his head and the missing notes…it does lend credence to the notion that he was snuffed out. Given the context I find it strange that he was embalmed with such haste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Andrews Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 (edited) 2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said: David - I’ll check out these two videos later, but just wanted to say I appreciate your mention of the Safari Club, and the Shackley/Bush axis, and I wish the film had gone into more depth on the octopus itself. But perhaps the choice was this documentary or none. Thank you. I don't think it's a bad documentary, I just think it should have been sharper on the origin issues you cite. The doc puts forth that the Octopus was created by a set of named characters (Shackley, Cline, etc. ...but not Paul Helliwell), but not how these characters created Safari Club and the Octopus network. Along the way they busted out a number of criminally managed US savings and loan companies, causing a financial crisis. All this is more important to understand than that these characters were machinating before the creation of CIA, an assertion the narrative leans on heavily without saying why it's significant. We know what's going on, but the general audience might not. Better to discuss the deeds. Edited March 8 by David Andrews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 48 minutes ago, Simon Andrew said: Based upon the cutting of the tendons, the bag over his head and the missing notes…it does lend credence to the notion that he was snuffed out. Plastic bag over his head when found? Please. If that is true it is so incongruous relative to 99+% of other wrist slashing in the bath tub suicide scenes you have to consider another scenario. And, if he had his briefcase and notes upon arriving to the hotel and his room...and never left. How did they disappear? I assume this hotel did not have a security camera system? If they did, they might have been able to see Casolaro leaving the hotel or perhaps walking through the lobby that evening after his initial arrival and check in? Or perhaps captured footage of others coming and going who didn't check in or if they did - stay after checking in? It's sounding more like the Dorothy Kilgallen false suicide story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Brancato Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 I never got around to the next trading card set I wanted to do - tales from the dead. So many good ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Allison Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 11 hours ago, Robert Burrows said: How do you slash a wrist when the tendons in the wrist holding the knife have been severed? And why were his papers missing? First he sliced one wrist, then, with that wrist bleeding but still functional, he sliced the other wrist even deeper. All his work and papers were still in his home after his death. His friends said he had been in a downward spiral, and he had anti-depressants in his system at autopsy, meaning he been diagnosed with depression. And then there was the alcohol he consumed the night before he died. He killed himself in the morning, 1-4 hours before he was found. During my years studying the JFKA, I have encountered every personality type presented in this TV series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Burrows Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Matt Allison said: First he sliced one wrist, then, with that wrist bleeding but still functional, he sliced the other wrist even deeper. All his work and papers were still in his home after his death. His friends said he had been in a downward spiral, and he had anti-depressants in his system at autopsy, meaning he been diagnosed with depression. And then there was the alcohol he consumed the night before he died. He killed himself in the morning, 1-4 hours before he was found. During my years studying the JFKA, I have encountered every personality type presented in this TV series. The papers that I'm referring to were reportedly missing from his hotel room, not his house. Edited March 8 by Robert Burrows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 (edited) Just finished watching the final episode. Not sure what to fully make of the presentation. I will say however, that the extremely nefarious cloak and dagger to murderous degrees context of the Docudrama is something we can all agree is much more a reflection of true fact reality...than not. Real life, White House level high government position holders E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy were part of secret teams who performed illegal deeds that sounded not too different and intimidating than the ones described in this series. Someone in the Nixon Creep world stated that the Watergate and Daniel Ellsberg break-ins were just...the tip of the iceberg! Liddy once proposed putting LSD on Nixon threat muckraking journalist Jack Anderson's personal car steering wheel? What happened to Danny Casolaro and the three casino security workers and Michael Reconosciuto cohort Jack Morasca happened. Somebody did this and got away with it. I've always sensed that corruption even to our highest levels of government was 100X more prevalent than the average American citizen could even imagine throughout the 20th century and most likely through today. This depth of corruption to murderous degrees is totally believable imo. Edited March 10 by Joe Bauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 (edited) Quote from a person supposedly involved in some high security work position. Admittedly shared 20th person however. "If the average person knew 'half' of what's really going on in the world, they might very well go into their backyard and kill themselves." I'll never know half of what's really going on in the world, and cowardly or not...I think I don't want to know. Edited March 11 by Joe Bauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Wexler Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 Matt. I tend to agree with your take. And I especially agree, as I said earlier, re seeing these kinds of characters in JFK. JFK people could have saved Octopus people a lot of time. I see it in other cases too. No one understands the capacity of others for grifting, quasi-truth telling, hoaxing, delusion and fabulism (if that is a word.) But astute JFK people have a sixth sense for it after a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 I watched it last night and I am doing some research on the case. As Stu says, this is a complex case because there is a lot of extraneous stuff that was applied to the Inslaw case, much of it by Hamilton and Michael Riconosciuto. The latter's story about the October Surprise seems just simply wrong to me. And if you can buy it he was also involved with the MJ 12 case. To call him a "spinner" is maybe giving him too much credit. I also wonder about the whole Trapdoor angle to Promis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Andrews Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 (edited) 4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said: I watched it last night and I am doing some research on the case. As Stu says, this is a complex case because there is a lot of extraneous stuff that was applied to the Inslaw case, much of it by Hamilton and Michael Riconosciuto. The latter's story about the October Surprise seems just simply wrong to me. And if you can buy it he was also involved with the MJ 12 case. To call him a "spinner" is maybe giving him too much credit. I also wonder about the whole Trapdoor angle to Promis. Jim, for a view on the October Surprise, try Prelude to Terror: The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network, by Joe Trento. https://www.amazon.com/Prelude-Terror-Americas-Private-Intelligence/dp/0786714646 Edited March 11 by David Andrews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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