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Joseph Daniel Casolaro (June 16, 1947 – August 10, 1991) was an American freelance writer who came to public attention in 1991 when he was found dead in a bathtub in room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his wrists slashed 10–12 times. A note was found, and the medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.〔Ridgeway, James and Vaughan, Doug. "The Last Days of Danny Casolaro," ''The Village Voice'', October 15, 1991, p. 34 ff.〕 His death became controversial because his notes suggested he was in Martinsburg to meet a source about a story he called "the Octopus." This centered on a sprawling collaboration involving an international cabal, and primarily featuring a number of stories familiar to journalists who worked in and near Washington, D.C. in the 1980s—the Inslaw case, about a software manufacturer whose owner accused the Justice Department of stealing its work product; the October Surprise theory that during the Iran hostage crisis, Iran deliberately held back American hostages to help Ronald Reagan win the 1980 presidential election, the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and Iran-Contra.〔Ridgeway, James and Vaughan, Doug. "The Last Days of Danny Casolaro," ''The Village Voice'', October 15, 1991, write that: "In particular, Casolaro was interested in what he called the "Octopus," a network of individuals and institutions that he believed had secretly masterminded a whole series of scandals, from the Iran-Contra affair and the S&L debacle to the BCCI collapse and the 1980 October Surprise deal." See also Lewis, Neil A. ("Reporter Is Buried Amid Questions Over His Pursuit of Conspiracy Idea" ), ''The New York Times'', August 17, 1991, who writes: "Friends of the journalist said he was looking into a connection between the Inslaw matter and the Bank of Credit and Commerce International ... Elliot Richardson, a former United States Attorney General who now represents Inslaw in its suit against the Justice Department, said ... "it involved B.C.C.I., drugs and the persistent but unproven allegations that in 1980 some members of Ronald Reagan's Presidential campaign team worked to delay the release of American hostages in Iran to damage President Jimmy Carter's re-election chances."〕 Casolaro's family argued that he had been murdered; that before he left for Martinsburg, he had apparently told his brother that he had been frequently receiving harassing phone calls late at night; that some of them were threatening; and that if something were to happen to him while in Martinsburg, it would not be an accident. They also cited his well-known squeamishness and fear of blood tests, and stated they found it incomprehensible that if he were going to commit suicide, he would do so by cutting his wrists a dozen times 〔Lee, Gary. (Area Writer Investigating Inslaw Case Found Dead ), ''The Washington Post'', August 13, 1991, p. A8.〕 A number of law-enforcement officials also argued that his death deserved further scrutiny, and his notes were passed by his family to ABC News and ''Time Magazine'', both of which investigated the case, but no evidence of murder was ever found.〔Committee on the Judiciary. (House Report 102-857:The Inslaw Affair, Investigative Report ), September 10, 1992, accessed August 22, 2008. Also see (House Report 102-857 ), subsection "Findings", item 13, page 110.〕〔Lee, Gary. (Writer's Papers Shed Little Light on His Death; Casolaro Sought to Prove `Octopus' Theory Encompassing Hostage Delay, Inslaw, BCCI ), ''The Washington Post'', August 19, 1991.〕 ==Early life and career== Casolaro was born into a Roman Catholic family in McLean, Virginia, the son of an obstetrician, and the second of six children. One of his siblings fell ill and died shortly after birth. A younger sister, Lisa, died of a drug overdose in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s. Casolaro attended Providence College until 1968. He married Terrill Pace, a former Miss Virginia. The couple had a son, Trey, and divorced after ten years, with Casolaro granted legal custody of his son.〔Rosenbaum, Ron. "The Strange Death of Danny Casolaro," ''Vanity Fair'', December 1991.〕 Casolaro's interests included amateur boxing, writing poems and short stories, and raising pure bred Arabian horses. He also dabbled in journalism, looking into issues such as the Soviet naval presence in Cuba, the Castro intelligence network, and Chinese communist smuggling of opium into the U.S. according to his own ''curriculum vitae'' (though it remains unclear how much he had had published).〔 At the time of his death, he had written and published one novel, ''The Ice King'', with Vanity Press. Towards the end of the 1970s, he dropped his interest in journalism and acquired a series of computer-industry trade publications, which he began selling towards the end of the 1980s. In early 1990, he decided to take up journalism again and, soon after, took an interest in the Inslaw case, of which his IT contacts had made him aware.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Danny Casolaro」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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