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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Danny Casolaro.md
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@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ On August 5, 1991, Casolaro phoned retired Army CID officer Bill McCoy claiming
Casolaro arrived at the Sheraton Hotel in [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]] on August 8, 1991, to meet a source who had promised crucial information about the Octopus investigation. On the afternoon of August 9, he met Honeywell engineer William Richard Turner at the hotel, receiving documents Turner had brought. That evening, he was seen at the Heatherfields cocktail lounge with an unidentified man described by witnesses as "maybe Arab or Iranian." Later that night, he told adjacent-room tenant Mike Looney that his source had failed to appear. He purchased coffee at a convenience store around 10:00 p.m.; those were his last confirmed movements.[^1]
Casolaro asked his cousin, Dr. [[Louis Petrillo]], a New York psychologist and part-time author, to help him find an agent, and in September 1990 Petrillo arranged for him to meet a New York City literary agent.[^4] Petrillo attended the brunch in New York with a Creative Artists Agency representative and the December 17, 1990 meeting with [[Time Warner]] and [[Little, Brown and Company]] representatives.[^4] On August 7, 1991, Casolaro spoke by telephone with Petrillo. In a letter dated August 17, 1991, Petrillo wrote that Casolaro sounded "enthusiastic" and was "looking forward to meeting with a 'source,'" and that in the preceding months he had spoken frequently with his cousin and had seen no "symptoms or character traits" that could be associated with a potential for suicide.[^4] When investigators later spoke with Petrillo, he said he now believed Casolaro "could very well have committed suicide," and that he was prepared to change the conclusions of his August 17, 1991 letter. He also told investigators that Casolaro was absorbing huge amounts of information and had trouble organizing it.[^4] This Dr. Louis Petrillo is a different man from Louis F. Petrillo, the president of Bayshore Bank of Florida in Miami.
Before leaving for Martinsburg, Casolaro had warned his brother Anthony: if anything happened to him there, "it would not be an accident."[^1]
### Death and Autopsy
@ -63,7 +65,7 @@ In 2024, Martinsburg police released records under a Freedom of Information Act
The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s September 1992 report noted that Casolaro had "encountered dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations" and recommended further investigation into the circumstances of his death. The committee found no evidence that DOJ had sought to influence the local West Virginia investigation.[^2]
The Bua Report, completed in March 1993, concluded that the physical evidence "strongly supported" the suicide finding, that DOJ had not influenced the local investigation, and that Casolaro had possessed "ample reason to commit suicide," being unemployed, financially dependent on family, facing a balloon mortgage, and unable to sell his book.[^4]
The Bua Report, completed in March 1993, concluded that the physical evidence "strongly supported" the suicide finding, that DOJ had not influenced the local investigation, and that Casolaro had possessed "ample reason to commit suicide," being unemployed, financially dependent on family, facing a balloon mortgage, and unable to sell his book.[^5]
FBI task force members assigned to examine Casolaro's death privately "questioned the conclusion of suicide" and recommended further investigation; expressing doubt about the ruling reportedly "risked one's career" within the Bureau as of December 1992. FBI documents related to Casolaro remain partially withheld from public release under national security exemptions, while the Bureau simultaneously claims the files are missing - a contradiction noted by MuckRock journalists who filed FOIA requests.[^1]
@ -75,9 +77,9 @@ Casolaro's investigation intersected with the drug-trafficking networks document
### The research files
Casolaro's research files, photographed by [[Christian Hansen]] at the Missouri State Historical Society and published on the Internet Archive, include a folder labelled "Promotional Material" of corporate and weapons literature, hand-numbered "BD|AI|PM-01" onward. Its items are a brochure for the Inter-Probe modular energy transfer catalyzer (PM-01), a printed page numbered 207 on fuel air munitions (PM-02), a [[Brunswick Corporation]] defense division cover sheet and drawing for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon for urban warfare dated October 1976 (PM-03), a sales sheet of the defense division of the Chilean firm [[Industrias Cardoen]] (PM-04) and a fax of the resumes of the associates of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], whose fax counters run 141 P01 to 141 P12 (PM-05) and whose page headers carry the date June 20, 1990 and times from 16:53 to 17:01.[^5] In the order of the photographs the folder runs PM-04, PM-02, PM-03, PM-05, PM-01.[^5] The packet names [[Carter Cornick]], [[Eugene Propper]], [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|E. Lawrence Barcella]], [[Francis J. McNeil]], [[James B. Motley]] (a vice president of [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]]), [[Mayer Nudell]] and a former CIA counterterrorism chief whose entry carries no name.[^5] The files also contain a folder of 1980s newspaper and magazine material on [[Frank Terpil]] and [[Edwin Wilson]], folders of Wackenhut annual reports, correspondence, profiles and newsletters, and, in a folder of Department of Defense publications, a magazine article by David Corn on Barcella and the Pan Am 103 bombing.[^6]
Casolaro's research files, photographed by [[Christian Hansen]] at the Missouri State Historical Society and published on the Internet Archive, include a folder labelled "Promotional Material" of corporate and weapons literature, hand-numbered "BD|AI|PM-01" onward. Its items are a brochure for the Inter-Probe modular energy transfer catalyzer (PM-01), a printed page numbered 207 on fuel air munitions (PM-02), a [[Brunswick Corporation]] defense division cover sheet and drawing for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon for urban warfare dated October 1976 (PM-03), a sales sheet of the defense division of the Chilean firm [[Industrias Cardoen]] (PM-04) and a fax of the resumes of the associates of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], whose fax counters run 141 P01 to 141 P12 (PM-05) and whose page headers carry the date June 20, 1990 and times from 16:53 to 17:01.[^6] In the order of the photographs the folder runs PM-04, PM-02, PM-03, PM-05, PM-01.[^6] The packet names [[Carter Cornick]], [[Eugene Propper]], [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|E. Lawrence Barcella]], [[Francis J. McNeil]], [[James B. Motley]] (a vice president of [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]]), [[Mayer Nudell]] and a former CIA counterterrorism chief whose entry carries no name.[^6] The files also contain a folder of 1980s newspaper and magazine material on [[Frank Terpil]] and [[Edwin Wilson]], folders of Wackenhut annual reports, correspondence, profiles and newsletters, and, in a folder of Department of Defense publications, a magazine article by David Corn on Barcella and the Pan Am 103 bombing.[^7]
The INSLAW folder of the research files includes a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 that names Industrias Cardoen and its owner [[Carlos Cardoen]]. It states that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], in an affidavit filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, said that Cardoen told him in January 1989 that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Earl Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS, and that the sale was consummated in Santiago, Chile.[^7] Brian called the allegations "nonsense," according to the report.[^7] The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] dates the affidavit February 17, 1991.[^8]
The INSLAW folder of the research files includes a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 that names Industrias Cardoen and its owner [[Carlos Cardoen]]. It states that [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], in an affidavit filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, said that Cardoen told him in January 1989 that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Earl Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS, and that the sale was consummated in Santiago, Chile.[^8] Brian called the allegations "nonsense," according to the report.[^8] The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] dates the affidavit February 17, 1991.[^9]
### Bibliography
@ -88,8 +90,9 @@ The INSLAW folder of the research files includes a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* rep
[^1]: Ridgeway, James, and Doug Vaughan. "The Last Days of Danny Casolaro." *Village Voice*, October 15, 1991; West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Second Autopsy Report, Dr. Frost, January 1992; Martinsburg Police Department records released under FOIA to Zachary Treitz and Christian Hansen, 2024; "FBI Cites Mystery FOIA Exemption to Withhold Danny Casolaro Death Video," *MuckRock*, February 2018.
[^2]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty."
[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.
[^5]: Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," Internet Archive items casolaro-notebooks (PromotionalMaterial.pdf) and PromotionalMaterial, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^6]: Danny Casolaro papers, folders "CIA Frank Terpil Renegades," "Wackenhut - Newsletters" and "DOD PUBLICATIONS," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files (the Corn item is headed "SPECIAL EDITION - TERRORISM / Did It Blow Up Flight 103?").
[^7]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis," clipping in the INSLAW folder, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt. Sole source for the affidavit's contents as reported there.
[^8]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74.
[^4]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (U.S. Department of Justice, March 1993), pp. 137 (August 7, 1991 call, August 17, 1991 letter, later interview), 146 (September 1990 agent meeting; "part-time author"), 148 to 149 (December 1990 New York meetings) and 154 (his account of Casolaro's state of mind). https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.
[^6]: Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," Internet Archive items casolaro-notebooks (PromotionalMaterial.pdf) and PromotionalMaterial, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^7]: Danny Casolaro papers, folders "CIA Frank Terpil Renegades," "Wackenhut - Newsletters" and "DOD PUBLICATIONS," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files (the Corn item is headed "SPECIAL EDITION - TERRORISM / Did It Blow Up Flight 103?").
[^8]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis," clipping in the INSLAW folder, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt. Sole source for the affidavit's contents as reported there.
[^9]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74.