American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders 2024 Tv Show Series Cast Crew Online
Through archival footage, reenactments and interviews with paramedics and law enforcement, as well as family members like Casolaro’s brother, Dr. Tony Casolaro, Treitz starts to tell the story of how Casolaro, who was the editor of a 1980s-era computer magazine, found this story. It starts with a company called INSLAW, which created software called PROMIS, which ran on a mainframe and allowed the Department of Justice to search and cross-reference evidence files that were previously only on paper. When the DOJ stopped paying INSLAW and its founder, Bill Hamilton, for the license for the software, not only did it send the company hurtling towards bankruptcy, but it led Hamilton to think the DOJ was stealing the code.
With Hamilton as a source, Casolaro started to uncover just who was involved in this decision, and when one avenue led to another, the tentacles of the aforementioned octopus became apparent. He even told his brother that, before he went to West Virginia to investigate an aspect of the case, if anything happened to him there, it won’t be an accident.
When Casolaro was found in a hotel bathtub filled with bloody water, his wrists cut multiple times, the local law enforcement and the coroner deemed it a suicide. But an observant paramedic realized he couldn’t make some of the cuts that were on his wrists.
Treitz does not fool around with a lot of storytelling gadgetry when it comes to telling the story of American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders. He doesn’t need to. Firstly, his way into the story is Hansen, who has more or less dedicated his journalistic career to this case over the last decade, to the detriment of his mental and physical health. Because Hansen and Treitz are friends, it certainly gives the director an inside look at how this case can become all-consuming.
But the series takes two tacks: How the pursuit of the case in the present is affecting Hansen as well as just what led to the murders of Casolaro and the others who were killed in relation to this case. Treitz combines those two tacks well, especially when Hansen gets in touch with Michael Riconosciuto, a software genius that Hamilton found out had the PROMIS code and was so dangerous, an NSA rep said that a person “could get killed just by mentioning that name.”
So the series is going to go down parallel but related paths, showing where Casolaro was going with his investigation at the same time as showing where Hansen is going with what he’s been able to look into based on Casolaro’s notes, recordings and other material. It’s a fascinating peek into how people who are trained to uncover the truth can get so far in the weeds on a story that has so many pathways and rocks to turn over, but at the same time it’s a fascinating look at just how the U.S. government — or any government for that matter — is doing things on a level that 99.9 percent of the people of the citizens aren’t even aware of.
