Welcome to Otherworld Patreon. I'm your host, Jack Wagner, as usual. This episode you're about to hear is an interview I did quite a few months ago with Zach Trites and Christian Hansen, the creators of American Conspiracy, The Octopus

Murders. The Octopus Murders is a four-part docu-series on Netflix that delves into the

mysterious death of investigative writer Danny Castellaro in 1991. I'm going to do my very best

to explain the general premise of the octopus murders and what Danny was researching,

but it's extremely complicated, and I suggest you watch the series if you haven't before,

although I think this interview will be interesting on its own if you haven't.

Danny Casillero was a journalist investigating what he believed was a vast conspiracy he called the octopus, linking government corruption, corporate greed, and covert operations.

Central to his theory was the alleged theft of something called promise software.

It was a powerful tracking program, and he believed the

U.S. government stole that, essentially, from its creators. He believed it was modified for espionage

and sold to foreign governments. Casillero also connected this to other scandals like the Iran-Contra

affair and the October Surprise Theory,

uncovering essentially a web of illicit activities spanning the globe that involved

U.S. intelligence and many other characters.

In 1991, while pursuing these leads, Castellaro was found dead in a hotel bathtub under very suspicious

circumstances. This was ruled a suicide, although there were missing documents. He also warned

people about threats on his life. His family was also very suspicious that this was a suicide.

It came to a very, very abrupt and

suspicious end. In this series, Christian and Zach tell Danny's story and retrace his steps while

continuing the research and uncovering even more information about the octopus. What I think is

particularly interesting about this series

and why I wanted to have them on the show is that while making it over the course of many years,

...