Nexus - 0401 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Casolaro the Danny Conspirators ‘Octopus: Suspicious deaths surrounding the Inslaw case have the signature of a secret network whose mission it is to subvert truth and justice at any cost. Part 2 Arriving just a few minutes before his flight, [Abbie] called me and started talking in a stream as soon as I picked up the phone: "This f***ing truck, this f***ing truck swerved; f***ing truck." I didn't get a chance to ask him what truck. Then, just as suddenly as he'd begun, his tone changed, grew quieter and conspiratorial: "Jack, don't believe anything you might hear on the radio or see in the newspapers tonight. Whatever it is, it's not true." (From Run, Run, Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman, by Jack Hoffman and Daniel Simon, a Jeremy Tarcher/Putnam Book, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1994, p. 336.) nvestigator Danny Casolaro uncovered a secret network whose sphere of influence extends over everything from computer software piracy to alien hardware conspiracy. In August 1991 he was found dead in a Martinsburg, West Virginia hotel, deep slash- es cut in both wrists. Some dismissed his death as the suicide of a disillusioned writer. Others recognised it as a murder, committed as a result of something Casolaro had brushed up against in the course of his research into this cabal, which he called "the Octopus". MYSTERIOUS INSLAW DEATHS Danny Casolaro's main informant, Michael Riconosciuto, could claim a dark credibility from the fact that colleagues in his shadowy world continued to fall as Casolaro pursued his investigation. An attorney from Philadelphia, Dennis Eisman—known as the "Fatal Vision lawyer" because of his involvement in the Jeffrey McDonald case—was in touch with Casolaro and was scheduled to travel to Washington to defend Riconosciuto, planning also to meet with a woman who had evidence of the threat to his client. In April 1991, Eisman was shot dead in his car in Philadelphia. According to one source, just prior to Eisman's death indictments were pending against him and other attorneys for narcotics trafficking and money laundering. The indictments never appeared. As soon as Michael Riconosciuto found out that Eisman was dead, he called Virginia McCullough, a well-known conspiracy researcher who maintained contact with Casolaro. McCullough says that Riconosciuto was "absolutely panicky in jail". She says that Riconosciuto told her, "They've killed my attorney", and asked her to telephone another attorney, James Guthrie, who was working on his case, to warn him. McCullough did, and Guthrie told her, "I'm out of here." On Ist April 1991, nine days after he issued his affidavit in the Inslaw case, Michael Riconosciuto was arrested by police on one count of distributing methamphetamine, man- ufactured at Lakebay in Washington state. Investigators for the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives met with Riconosciuto in Tacoma, spent six hours taking depositions from him, and asked him for proof of his statements by way of legal documents. According to one report, Riconosciuto asked for clear "Lawyer-Client Privilege" labelling on documents when he called them in from his attorney, as a precaution against search and seizure by government agencies. Nevertheless, Riconosciuto's jailers opened the privileged packages and refused to forward them. Instead, the report goes on, they contacted the NSA (National Security Agency) which sent a team to review the material. By the end of December 1991, the Agency had still not commented on when the documents would be returned to Riconosciuto.* Casolaro, who had been conferring with Riconosciuto regularly since late 1989, flew to by Kenn Thomas ©1996 Editor/Publisher Steamshovel Press PO Box 23715 St Louis, Missouri 63121, USA Web site address: http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma Editor/Publisher Steamshovel Press PO Box 23715 St Louis, Missouri 63121, USA Web site address: http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma NEXUS - 31 by Kenn Thomas ©1996 DECEMBER 1996 - JANUARY 1997