Filmmakers led viewers on the same wild goose chase of interviewing the same mentally ill criminals, who contributed to Danny Casolaro’s murder. Many established facts were missing from the series.
The four-part series never mentions or barely mentions key evidence unearthed by the U.S. Justice Department Task Force on State and Local Government Corruption. Almost all the criminals interviewed by Casolaro were latter sent to prison by this task force.
Viewers would have obtained far more comprehensive and factual information by reading articles in “USA Today” and the “Washington Post” from that time period. It is quite odd that the filmmakers never utilized either publicly accessible resource. For example, Casolaro’s body had knife cuts and severe bruises on it, plus some finger nails had been pulled out.
by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner
Covert federal agents, working on the investigation, were questioned in November 1991 under very tight security. Nevertheless, several were later assassinated. The main hearings were held in February and March 1992. In March 1993, the new U.S. Attorney General, Janet Reno, requested that key witnesses, including myself, meet with her and her immediate staff to answer questions under oath. I had absolutely no knowledge of the Inslaw-Casolero Case, but had extensive knowledge of illegal activities by military personnel.
The initial investigation into Danny Casolaro’s activities and death led to a much broader investigation by the Justice Department into the astonishing number of law enforcement officers, witnesses and journalists, who had been murdered in northwestern Virginia, northeastern West Virginia and eastern Maryland. Attendance at these secret hearings were by invitation only. Witnesses were subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice Task Force on State and Government Corruption and sworn in, prior to giving testimony and answering questions.
The setting was much more relaxed than in a conventional courtroom. This was especially important for the group of four teenagers, bravely testifying about a Satanic Cult in the Shenandoah Valley.
A select team of nationally-recognized news organization executives, law professors and U. S. Department of Justice attorneys were permitted to ask any question, they so desired, of the witnesses. The most active journalists were executives from the Washington Post, USA Today and CBS.
DOJ court reporters recorded the appearances of witnesses. The depositions were then printed and bound under a US Dept. of Justice seal. My deposition was about 550 pages long. I did not have sufficient security clearance to read FBI Covert Agent Susan Karlson’s deposition and report, but it resulted in the Commonwealth of Virginia abolishing the Virginia Bureau of Investigation!
Approximately 25 witnesses were placed on the Federal Witness Protection Program. Many were moved to the Knoxville, TN area, but were later murdered during the George W. Bush Administration after the Asst. U. S. District Attorney, protecting them, was fired. All of the several dozen criminals imprisoned as a result of the Shenandoah Valley Investigation were pardoned by President George W. Bush.
Reality TV presented as investigative filmmaking
After seeing most of Part One of this series, I had high hopes of obtaining new factual information about the mysterious events of 35 years ago. The first part featured former U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson, a highly credible source, since he was a Republican not influenced by partisan objectives. He correctly stated that both the Reagan and George H. Bush Administrations were extremely corrupt and involved direct involvement of many federal employees on a massive scale in the international cocaine and heroin trade.
Unfortunately, thereafter the filmmakers dwelled on interviews with persons directly involved with drug trafficking and fraudulent use of federal funds at the very time that Casolaro was killed. Yes, he was murdered. The proof was presented in the Georgetown Hearings.
Here are some of the major omissions in the four-part Netflix series:
- Danny Casolaro did not originate the term “Octopus!” In fact, over a hundred TV and newspaper journalists had been murdered in 1991 by Octopus, prior to Casolaro’s death.
- Almost all of the paper documents and sketches presented in the films were created for the filmmakers and not by Danny Casolaro as intimated. Speculations by other conspiracy theorists about the involvement of major political figures were presented as Casolaro’s ideas.
- In no way was Danny Casolaro qualified to carry out a professional investigation of national security crimes, in which he had no vested interest. His lifestyle of spending long hours at bars greatly distorted his perception of the situation and caused him to rely on persons of minimal credibility. The fact that he took out a short term mortgage on his house to finance a quixotic adventure also shows poor judgment. Nevertheless, he and several professional journalists were murdered because of the Inslaw controversy.
- The filmmakers did not interview or even mention the six American University law professors, who took on the Casolero Family as pro bono clients after the murder.
- The Georgetown Hearings determined that both certain DOJ employees and the owners of INSLAW were not telling the whole truth in regard to the software that they fought over. Both sets of witnesses lied repeatedly to both the FBI and Danny Casolaro.
- The Georgetown Hearings determined that the city of Martinsburg, West Virginia violated a legion of state/federal laws and standard law enforcement procedures in its handling of the Casolaro Case. Circumstantial evidence is overwhelming that at least some city employees knew of the planned murder in advance or immediately thereafter.
- The Martinsburg Police made no effort to solicit witnesses to activities around Casolaro’s hotel room. When some key witnesses did come forward anyway with information that would eliminate suicide as a cause of death, their existence was concealed from the FBI and news media. Their critical information was not known until the Georgetown Hearings.
- Casolaro’s place of residence, Fairfax County, Virginia law enforcement was not notified of Danny Casolaro’s death until the following Monday afternoon. Normally, the moment a body is found with identification available – his driver’s license – his or her local law enforcement is notified.
- It is highly unlikely that a human would be able to make 10 deep gashes in his wrist before passing out from blood loss. Even the Martinsburg Medical Examiner’s sketch showed a massive bruise on Danny Casolaro’s abdomen. However, the Medical Examiner waived an autopsy and immediately removed internal organs and drained bodily fluids in preparation for embalming. West Virginia and Virginia law requires permission from relatives to embalm a body.
- Only after his body was fully embalmed, was his family notified of his death. They and the Fairfax City Police then requested an autopsy, which was performed by the Martinsburg Assistant Medical Examiner. The autopsy revealed the bruises, cuts and missing fingernails, but could not determine if he had been drugged.
The Truth is out there somewhere
The Americas Revealed 