Danny Castellaro was a man with a dream. He'd been a writer for most of his life and was able to make a full-time career out of it, but barely. He was in his early 40s, and he still wasn't where he wanted to be. He was an exceptionally curious man, an intelligent, and ambitious man, and he wanted to do something he felt was truly important. He wanted to make a name for himself as a serious, respected,

investigative reporter. The opportunity he was looking for seemingly fell into his lap in the summer

of 1990, but it wouldn't appear to be that opportunity right away. A former colleague told Danny about

a strange legal battle between the software company called Insla and the

Department of Justice. Danny contacted the owner of Insla, Bill Hamilton, and the two men discussed

some serious allegations against the government. Hamilton accused the Department of Justice of a major

theft that cost him millions and millions of dollars and drove his company into bankruptcy.

As it turns out, this inslaw case was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg for Danny Castellaro.

Bill Hamilton was the key that opened the door to a world of not somewhat boring legal battles

over who owed who money, but instead a major conspiracy. Who really pulls the strings in the U.S.

government? Is there actually a shadowy cabal resting behind our elected officials and are members

of this cabal the real decision makers, the real puppet masters? And are the strings they're

pulling being pulled mainly for good or for greed?

Over the next year, Danny would meet a fascinating and mysterious cast of nefarious characters allegedly involved in government conspiracies and some of the biggest scandals in U.S. history, including the Iran hostage crisis, the 1990 election scandal, and the Iran-Contra affair.

He learned about secret deals, secret weapons development, production and sales,

illegal international and domestic intelligence operations, and several unsolved murders.

Getting too close to the truth seemingly had led to a lot of suspicious deaths.

As Danny met new sources, he started making new connections and uncovering new conspiracies. Danny started calling these interconnected conspiracies the octopus, believing that a

high-ranking government official, generally in the intelligence game, was connected to each

tentacle. Danny became obsessed with unmasking what he considered the truth, pursuing leads

full time, and putting himself in dire financial straits and dangerous situations to gather more

and more titillating information. Roughly a year into his investigation, in the summer of 1991,

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