The 1980s were a time of allegation and scandal in America. From the 1980 October Surprise, 1985-87 Iran-Contra Affair, and 1986-91 BCCI scandal, the decade seemed only to be going downhill. And in the midst of it all, the US Justice Department was accused of stealing PROMIS, a piece of software that could be used to create a programme that would allow the US government to spy on whomever used it.

Danny Casolaro was a writer, poet, and investigative journalist. At the start of the 1990s, he began exploring what had happened to PROMIS, and it led him to see the theft of this software as being at the heart of America’s other major scandals. Before he could finish his investigation, however, Danny was found dead in a hotel bathtub, with both his wrists slashed.

Did he kill himself, as the police believed, or was he murdered?

That is the question at the heart of American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders, a new docu-series on Netflix, directed by Zachary Treitz. He and co-executive producer Christian Hansen are Matthew Sherwood’s guests in this episode of Factual America. Together, they discuss what they found as they retraced Danny Casolaro’s footsteps in the last days of his life and what it was like for Zachary watching Christian disappear down a conspiracy rabbit hole before he himself followed him.

In the process Zachary and Christian uncover a murky web of scandal at the heart of American government. Or do they? Which of the incredible stories of Michael Riconosciuto, one of Danny’s major sources, and others can ultimately be believed? The filmmakers race around the country to interview subjects and get to the root of the story – all with the support and patience given to them by Netflix in the making of the series.

American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders takes a deep dive into the darkest corners of American business and politics. Make sense of it with Zachary and Christian in conversation with Matthew Sherwood.

Watch the episode at https://factualamerica.com

“Once you dip your toes into [this story] it's almost like a tar... some sort of magic ooze that kind of gets into you, as soon as you touch it. It's like what they say about the abyss... you stare into it and it stares back. This is that story. You touch it and it touches you and it kind of consumes you.” – Zachary Treitz

Get the future of podcasts.