Casolaro

There was a suicide note, written in handwriting Casolaro's sister identified as Casolaro's own: "To those whom I love the most, please forgive me for the worst possible thing I could have done," the note read.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008

In 1991, when journalist Danny Casolaro was found floating in a blood-filled bathtub with a shoelace wrapped around his throat, the coroner ruled it a suicide.

Stalking the Octopus | Disinformation 2008

But people who knew Casolaro and knew why he was at the Sheraton Inn in Martinsburg, Va., where his body was found, never believed it was anything but murder.

Stalking the Octopus | Disinformation 2008

Then Casolaro was found in the bathtub with his wrists slashed.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008

Casolaro, 44, was a Washington-based freelance reporter who was working on a bombshell book-a megexpose that, he said, involved the Iran-contra scandal, the October Surprise, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and a pattern of allegedly shady dealings by the Reagan Justice Department.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008

On Aug. 10 Casolaro was found dead in the bathtub of a motel room in Martinsburg, W. Va., an apparent suicide.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008

Friends said Casolaro had had a tough time with his research-but recently, his brother said, Danny was elated by a seeming breakthrough.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008

Danny Casolaro: Was working on a book about a far-reaching global criminal syndicate with roots in the U.S. government that he had called The Octopus that tied together elements of the Reagan-Bush administration, an old boy CIA network, the theft of the legendary PROMIS software, international gangsters, BCCI figures and government contractors.

The Serendipitous 'Suicide' of the D.C. Madame 2008

That led Casolaro to Martinsburg, where he expected to meet a source who had evidence of computer-hardware thefts from a major defense contracting firm.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008

Casolaro, who had previously published fiction and done some freelance reporting for a Washington-area newsletter, began investigating the Inslaw case in 1990.

A Victim Of 'The Octopus'? 2008