ASMR | Unsolved Mysteries | Murder, Government Corruption, and INSLAW

Transcript

[Music] the original unsolved mysteries was a television show that used to scare the living carp out of me growing up in fact the show still sends chills down my spine if you're ever out alone driving or walking around late at night i dare you to put on the unsolved mysteries theme or one of the update themes and not get a little scared the original show ran from 1987 all the way until 2002 until the host robert stack sadly passed away throughout all of those years there were several incredibly interesting cases many of which remain unsolved even to this day the case that i'm going to be talking about today is simply baffling and involves the us government a contracted software company a private investigator and possible murder ins law began is a non-profit organization called the institute for law and social research the institute was founded in 1973 by william a hamilton to develop case management software for law enforcement office automation funded by grants and contracts from the law enforcement assistance administration the institute developed a program a called promise an acronym for prosecutors management information system for use in law enforcement record keeping and case monitoring activities when congress voted to abolish the leah in 1980 hamilton decided to continue operating as a for-profit corporation and market the software to current and new users in january 1981 hamilton established the for-profit inns law transferring the institute's assets over to the new corporation promise software was originally written in cobalt for use on mainframe computers later a version was developed to run on 16-bit minicomputers such as the dec pdp 11. the primary users of this early version of the software were the united states attorney's office of the district of columbia and state and local law enforcement both the mainframe and 16-bit mini-computer versions of promise were developed under lia contracts and in later litigation both innslaw and doj eventually agreed that the early version of promise was in the public domain meaning that neither the institute nor its successor had exclusive rights to it in 1979 the doj contracted with the institute to do a pilot project that installed versions of promise in four u.s attorney's offices two using the mini computer version and the other two a word processor version which the institute was developing encouraged by the results the department decided in 1981 to go ahead with a full implementation of locally based promise systems and issued a request for proposals or an rfp to install the mini computer version of promise in the 20 largest united states attorney's offices this contract usually called the implementation contract in later litigation also included developing and installing word processor versions a promise at 74 smaller offices the now for-profit inn's law responded to the rfp and in march 1982 was awarded the three-year 10 million dollar contract by the contracting division the executive office of the united states attorneys the contract did not go smoothly disputes between eousa and ins law began soon after its execution a key dispute over proprietary rights had to be solved by a bilateral change to the original contract this change was known as modification 12. eousa also determined that inn's law was in violation of the terms of an advance payment clause in the contract this clause was important to inslah's financing and became the subject of months of negotiations there were also disputes over service fees during the first year of the contract the doj did not have the hardware to run promise in any of the offices covered by the contract as a stopgap measure ins law provided promise on a time share basis through a vax computer in virginia allowing the offices to access promise on the ins law vacs through remote terminals until the needed equipment was installed on site eousa claimed that ins law had overcharged for the service and withheld payments the doj ultimately acquired prime computers and ins law began installing promise on these in the second year of the contract in august 1983. the word processor version promised installation however continued to have problems and in february 1984 the doj cancelled this portion of the contract following this cancellation the financial condition of ins law worsened and the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in february 1985 and that's when things get a little juicy the implementation contract called for the installation of the mini computer version of promise plus some later modifications that had also been funded by leah contracts and like the mini computer version were in the public domain in addition the contract data rights clause gave the government unlimited rights in any technical data in computer software delivered under the contract this presented a potential conflict with inn's law's plans to market a commercial version of promise which it called promise 82 or enhanced promise the issue came up early in the implementation contract but was resolved by an exchange of letters in which the doj signed off on the issue after ins law assured the doj that promise 82 contained enhancements undertaken by inn's law at private expense after the cessation of leah funding the issue arose again in december 1982 when the doj invoked its contract rights to request all the promised programs and documentation being provided under the contract the reason the doj gave for this request in later litigation was that it was concerned about ins law's financial condition at that point doj had access to promise only through the vac's time-sharing arrangement with ins law if ins law failed doj would be left without a copy of the software and data it was entitled to under the contract inslav responded in february 1983 that it was willing to provide the computer tapes and documents for promise but that the tapes it had were for the vax version of promise and included proprietary enhancements before providing the tapes inslah wrote in's law and the department of justice will have to reach an agreement on the inclusion or exclusion of the features the doj response to ins law was to emphasize that the implementation contract called for a version of promise in which the government had unlimited rights and to ask for information about the enhancements inslah claimed as proprietary ain's law agreed to provide this information but noted that it would be difficult to remove the enhancements from the time sharing version of promise and offered to provide the vax version of promise if the doj would agree to limit their distribution in march 1983 the doj again informed ends law that the implementation contract required ins law to produce software in which the government had unlimited rights and that delivery of software with restrictions would not satisfy the contract after some back and forth doj contracting officer peter vedeniks sent a letter proposing a contract modification under the modification in return for the software and data request doj agreed not to disclose or disseminate the material beyond the executive office for united states attorney and the 94 united states attorney's offices covered by the subject contract until the data rights of the parties to the contract are resolved to resolve the data rights issue the letter proposed that inslah identify its claimed proprietary enhancements and demonstrate that the enhancements were developed at private expense and outside the scope of any government contract after these were identified the government would then either direct ins law to delete those enhancements from the versions of promise to be delivered under the contract or negotiate within's law regarding the inclusion of those enhancements in that software inslaw eventually agreed to the suggestion and the change referred to as modification 12 was executed in april 1983. inslah then provided doj with tapes and documentation for the vax version of promise under this arrangement however innslaw had substantial difficulty demonstrating the extent of the enhancements and the use of private funding in their development it proposed several methods for doing this but these were rejected by doj as inadequate ins law's attempts to identify the proprietary enhancements and their funding ended when it began installing promise on the usao prime computers in august 1983.

by the end of the contract in march 1983 it had completed installing promise in all 20 of the offices specified in the implementation contract since none of the available versions of promise was compatible with the department's new prime computers inslav ported the vax version which contained ins law's claimed enhancements to the prime computers after ins law filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in february 1985 there were still disputes over implementation contract payments and as a result the doj was listed as one of ins law's creditors at the same time the doj continued its office automation program and in place of the originally planned word processor version of promis it installed the version ported to prime mini computers in at least 23 more offices when inslah learned of the installations it notified eousa that this was in violation of modification 12 and filed the claim for 2.9 million dollars which ins law said that was the license fees for the software doj self-installed ins law also filed claims for services performed during the contract for a total of 4.1 million dollars the doj contracting officer peter videnics denied all these claims inn's law appealed the denial of the service fees to the department of transportation board of contract appeals for the data rights claim however ins law took a different approach in june 1986 it filed an adversary hearing in the bankruptcy court claiming that doj's actions violated the automatic stay provision of the bankruptcy code by interfering with the company's rights to its software inslaw's initial filing claimed that the contract disputes arose because the doj officials who administered the contract were biased against inn's law the filing specifically mentioned promise ma project manager c madison brewer and associate attorney general d lowell jensen brewer had previously been ins law's general counsel but according to innslaw had been terminated for cause ainslaw claimed that brewer's dismissal caused him to be unreasonably biased against innslaw and owner william hamilton jensen was a member of the project oversight committee at the time of the contract he had helped to develop another competing case management software system several years earlier and ain's law claimed that this led him to be prejudiced against promise so that he ignored the unreasonable bias of brewer in february 1987 inslav requested an independent handling hearing to force the doj to conduct the adversary hearing independent of any department of justice officials involved in the allegations made in the hearing the bankruptcy court judge assigned to handle ian's law's chapter 11 proceedings judge george f bason granted the request and scheduled the hearing for june prior to the hearing ins law owners william and nancy hamilton spoke to anthony prosciutto then the deputy director of the executive office of the united states trustees a doj component responsible for overseeing the administration of bankruptcy cases pashutto told the hamiltons that the director of the eoust thomas stanton had pressured the u.s trustee assigned to the ins law case edward white to convert innslaw's bankruptcy from chapter 11 which is reorganization of the company to chapter 7 liquidation the hamiltons had inslaw's attorneys depose the people whom prosciutto had named one of them corroborated part of prosciutto's claims cornelius blackshear then a u.s trustee in new york swore in his deposition testimony that he was aware of pressure to convert the bankruptcy two days later however blackshear submitted an affidavit recanting his testimony saying that he had mistakenly recalled an instance of pressure from another case blackshare repeated his retraction at the june hearing on inslah's request pascuto also retracted part of his claims at this hearing and said instead that he did not use the word conversion judge basin however chose to believe the original depositions of prosciutto and blackshear and found that the doj unlawfully intentionally and willfully tried to convert inn's law's chapter 11 reorganization case to a chapter 7 liquidation without justification and by improper means in the ruling basin was harshly critical of the testimony of several doj officials describing it as evasive and unbelievable or simply on its face unbelievable he enjoined the doj and the eoust from contacting anyone in the u.s trustee's office handling the ins law case except for information requests ins law's adversary proceeding followed a month after the independent handling hearing the proceeding lasted for two and a half weeks from late july to august in a bench ruling on september 28th judge basin found that doj project manager brewer believing he had been wrongfully discharged by mr hamilton in inns law developed an intense and abiding hatred for mr hamilton and inn's law and had used his position at doj to vent his spleen he also found that the doj took converted stole ins law's enhanced promise by trickery fraud and deceit specifically he found that doj had used the threat of terminating advance payments to get a copy of the enhanced promise that it was not entitled to and that it had negotiated modification 12 of the contract in bad faith never intending to meet its commitment under the modification in his ruling judge basin again called the testimony of doj witnesses biased unbelievable and unreliable bankruptcy court judge basin was appointed to the district of columbia bankruptcy court in february 1984 for a four-year term he sought re-appointment early in 1987 but was informed in december that the court of appeals had chosen another candidate judge basin then suggested in a letter to the court of appeals that doj might have improperly influenced the selection process because of his bench ruling for inn's law after learning of this letter doj lawyers moved to recuse judge basin from the ins law case but their motion was rejected and judge bason remained on the case until the expiration of his term on february 8th 1988. in early february judge bason filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the judge the court of appeals had selected for the district of columbia bankruptcy court from taking office but the suit was rejected basin's last actions in the case were to file a written ruling on ins law's adversary proceeding and to award damages and attorneys fees to innslaw after judge bason left the bench the ins law's bankruptcy was assigned to baltimore bankruptcy judge james schneider schneider accepted inslah's reorganization plan at the end of 1988 after a cash infusion from ibm in the meanwhile doj filed an appeal of judge basin's adversary suit ruling in the district of columbia circuit court in november 1989 circuit court judge william bryant upheld basin's ruling reviewing the case under the clear errors standard for reversal bryant wrote there is convincing perhaps compelling support for the findings set forth by the bankruptcy court doj appealed the circuit court decision and in may 1991 the court of appeals found the doj had not violated the automatic state provisions of the bankruptcy code and that the bankruptcy court therefore lacked jurisdiction over inn's law's claims against doj it vacated the bankruptcy court's rulings and dismissed inn's law's complaint ins law appealed the decision to the supreme court which declined to hear the case inslaw's allegations against the justice department led to a number of investigations including internal department probes and congressional investigations by the senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations or psi and the house judiciary committee the doj eventually appointed a special counsel to investigate after the special counsel issued his report inslav responded with a lengthy rebuttal the doj then re-examined the special counsel's findings resulting in the release of a final department review during these federal investigations innslaw began making allegations of a broad complex conspiracy to steal promise involving many more people and many more claims than the bankruptcy proceedings had covered after judge basin's june 1987 bench ruling found several doj officials testimonies to be unbelievable doj's office of professional responsibility or opr opened an investigation of doj staff who testified at the hearing including c madison brewer peter vedenics and eost director thomas stanton it also opened a separate investigation of eoust deputy director anthony pascuto opr recommended prosciutto be terminated based on his hearing testimony that he had made false statements to the hamiltons but in its final report it found no evidence that the other officials investigated had applied pressure to convert inn's law's bankruptcy or lied during the independent handling hearing after judge basin issued his written ruling in january 1988 ins law's attorneys also complained to the doj's public integrity section that judge blackshear and u.s trustee edward white had committed perjury public integrity opened an investigation that ultimately found perjury cases could not be proven and recommended declining prosecution the first congressional investigation into the ins law case came from the senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations or psi psi's report was issued in september 1989 after a year and a half of investigation during the investigation ins law made a number of new allegations which take up most of the psi report ins law's new allegations describe the justice department dispute within's law as part of a broad conspiracy to drive innslaw into bankruptcy so that earl bryan the founder of a venture capital firm called biotech later info technology could acquire ins law's assets including its software promise ain's law owner william hamilton told psi investigators that brian had first attempted to acquire inn's law through a computer services corporation he controlled called handron hamilton said that he rejected an offer from haedron to acquire inn's law and that brian then attempted to drive law into bankruptcy through his influence with attorney general edwin messi both messi and brian had served in the cabinet of ronald reagan when he was governor of california and messi's wife had later bought stock in brian's company so that messi was willing to do this hamilton claimed the contract dispute with doj was contrived by brian and nessie with the help of associate attorney general jensen and promise project manager brewer hamilton also complained that a doj automation program project eagle was part of a scheme to benefit brian after he acquired promise and that an at t subsidiary at t information systems had engaged with the doj in a conspiracy to interfere with ins law's efforts to reorganize he also told psi investigators that the doj had undermined bankruptcy court judge basins of reappointment and had attempted to undermine inn's law's lead counsel in the bankruptcy suit earl bryan was born in 1942 and served in the army medical corps in vietnam after leaving the service in 1970 he was appointed first as director of california's department of health care services or dhcs then secretary of health and welfare during his term as secretary bryan succeeded in implementing a requirement for a two dollar copayment from medi-cal recipients for each doctor's visit but failed in an attempt to curtail medical benefits available under medi-cal when the state lost a suit brought by the california medical association in 1974 brian resigned his cabinet post and ran for the u.s senate seat held by senator alan cranston democrat of california but lost the republican primary brian then turned to business and in 1980 established his own company biotech capital a venture capital firm that invested in companies developing medical technology biotech later shifted its focus to news and information services acquiring interest in the financial news network or fnn in changing the name biotech in 1987 to info technology in 1988 the company acquired united press international or upi one of the two major american news wire services at the time info technology encountered financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy in 1991 as did fnn and upi in 1995 brian was charged with conspiracy and fraud for inflating the value of fnn and upi in an attempt to secure loans to shore up the companies he was convicted of the conspiracy charges in 1996 and sentenced to four years in prison senate investigators found no proof for any of innslaw's new allegations the report noted that the bankruptcy court ruling had not concluded that jensen had engaged in a conspiracy against inn's law and that their own investigation had found no proof that jensen and messi had conspired to ruin ins law or steal its product or that brian or hadron were involved in the conspiracy to undermine inn's law and acquire its assets the report did re-examine the bankruptcy finding that the doj had pressured the united states trustee to recommend converting inn's law's bankruptcy from chapter 11 to chapter 7 and found that the eost director thomas stanton had improperly tried to get special handling for ins law's bankruptcy he did this the report stated in order to gain support for the eoust from the doj the report concluded that the subcommittee found no proof for a broad conspiracy against inn's law within the doj or a conspiracy between doj officials and outside parties to force inn's law into bankruptcy for personal profit however it criticized doj for hiring a former ins law employee brewer to oversee inn's law's contract with eousa and for failing to follow standard procedures in handling inn's law's complaints it also criticized the doj for a lack of cooperation with the subcommittee which delayed the investigation and undercut the subcommittee's ability to interview department employees following the psi report the house judiciary committee began another investigation into the dispute by the time the report was released in september 1992 inslah's bankruptcy suit had been first upheld in the dc circuit court then vacated by the d.c appeals court the house report thus took a different approach to several of the legal issues that the senate report had discussed like the senate report much of the house report dealt with new evidence and new allegations from innslaw ainslaw's new evidence consisted of statements and affidavits from witnesses supporting innslaw's previous claims the most important of these witnesses was michael verkanashutto who swore in an affidavit for inn's law that businessman earl bryan had provided him with a copy of innslaw's enhanced promise supporting ins law's earlier claims that brian had been interested in acquiring and marketing the software a new allegation was also introduced in reconnaissauto's affidavit reconnaissauto swore that he added modifications to enhance promise to support a plan for the implementation of promise in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide according to reconnaissauto was spearheading the plan for this worldwide use of the promise computer software another important witness was arie ben manashi who also provided affidavits for inn's law that brian had brought both public domain and enhanced versions of promise to israel and eventually sold the enhanced version to the israeli government committee investigators interviewed ben monashi in may 1991 and he told them that brian sold enhanced promise to both israeli intelligence and signatories armed forces receiving several million dollars in payment he also testified that brian sold public domain versions to iraq and jordan on the issue of inslah's rights in enhanced promise the house report found that there appears to be strong evidence supporting judge basin's finding that doj acted willfully and fraudulently when it took converted and stole inn's law's enhanced promise by trickery fraud and deceit like judge basin the report found that doj did not negotiate with inn's law in good faith citing a statement by deputy attorney general arnold burns as one of the most damaging statements received by the committee according to the report burns told opr investigators that department attorneys informed him in 1986 that ian's law's claim of proprietary rights was legitimate and that doj would probably lose in court on this issue house investigator found it incredible that doj would pursue litigation after such a determination and concluded this clearly raises the specter that the department actions taken against inn's law in this matter represent an abuse of power of shameful proportions on the new allegations brought by inn's law although the committee conducted extensive investigations the report did not make any factual findings on the allegations it did include that further investigation was warranted into the statements and claims of ins law's witnesses the report also discussed the case of danny casalaro a freelance writer who became interested in the ins law case in 1990 and began his own investigation the democratic majority called upon attorney general dick thornberg to compensate inn's law immediately for the harm that the government had egregiously inflicted on ins law the republican minority dissented and the committee divided along party lines 21 to 13. danny casalaro is actually the subject matter of this video his case which was featured on the march 10 1993 episode of unsolved mysteries to this day remains unsolved but before it was mentioned on this episode it was previously mentioned in the segment about a man named doug johnston also in this mix-up is a man named charles morgan whose case still remains unsolved to this day it was originally aired on unsolved mysteries on february 7 1990. 39 year old chuck morgan was a successful businessman who was the president of his own escrow agency he was also a potential witness in a state land fraud case involving a known crime boss on march 22 1977 he left his tucson arizona home to drive two of his daughters to school after dropping them off he vanished three days later he arrived back at his home according to his wife ruth he was missing a shoe had a plastic handcuff around one ankle and had his hands tied together with a plastic zip tie he could not speak but with a pen and paper he wrote down that he had been kidnapped and tortured he also wrote that a hallucinogenic drug had been painted on his throat he claimed that this drug would drive him insane or kill him if he ingested it he asked ruth to move his car because he did not want them to know that he had returned home however he would not say who they were he also told her not to call the police because a hit would be put out on the lives of them and their family members for one week ruth nursed chuck back to health by feeding him with an eye dropper before his voice returned he began to allude to a secret identity he claimed that he had worked as an agent for the federal government and he fought against organized crime he also claimed that they had taken his treasury identification he said that he escaped from his captors near phoenix's sky harbor airport after his kidnapping chuck became justifiably paranoid he began wearing a bulletproof vest he also started driving his daughters to and from school he informed the school that nobody else should be allowed to pick them up on june 7th two months after his initial disappearance chuck vanished again shortly before his second disappearance he told his father that if anything were to happen to him there was a letter he had written that would tell them who was responsible the letter was never found however nine days later an unidentified woman called ruth and said chuck is all right ecclesiastes 12 1-8 this is a reference to a bible passage which reads in part men are afraid of a high place enough terrors on the road remember him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to god who gave it two days later chuck was found shot to death despite the fact that he was found wearing a bulletproof vest his body was found in the desert 30 feet off the highway in the san juan springs area he had been shot once in the back of the head with a bullet from his 357 magnum which was lying beside him no fingerprints were found on it gunshot residue was found on his left hand indicating he had fired a weapon in his car police found a note that had directions to the crime scene written in his handwriting also founded the car were several weapons ammunition and a cb radio strangely a piece of one of his teeth was found wrapped in a white handkerchief in the back seat a pair of sunglasses was also found that did not belong to him strangely chuck e clipped a two dollar bill inside his underwear written on the bill were seven spanish names from the letters a to g also ecclesiastes 12 was written with the verses one through eight marked by arrows drawn on the bill's serial number this was the same reference that the female caller had made to ruth on the back of the bill the signers of the declaration of independence were numbered one through seven also a crude map was drawn which shows several roads between tucson and the mexican border the town's robles junction and sasebi were marked these towns are apparently known for smuggling two days after chuck's death an anonymous woman spoke to an officer for the pima county sheriff's department on the telephone she claimed that he was supposed to meet her at a local motel shortly before he died she claimed that her nickname was green eyes and that she was the same woman that had called ruth several days earlier she also claimed that at the motel chuck showed her a briefcase containing several thousand dollars in cash he said that the money would buy him out of a gang contract that had been put on his head surprisingly despite the bizarre evidence authorities ruled that chuck committed suicide they believed that he did so either because of financial difficulties or fears for his safety his family and a reporter named don devereaux believe that he was murdered some investigators also suspect that his death was not a suicide shortly after chuck's death his impounded car was broken into while it was in police possession around that same time his office was also ransacked three weeks after his death two men claiming to be fbi agents arrived at the morgan home they told ruth that they had to look through the house they tore the house apart and searched for quite a while it is unknown if they ever found anything or if they were even fbi agents when devereaux contacted the fbi they claimed that they had never even heard of chuck morgan there are several rumors surrounding this case including that chuck was killed because he was involved with illegal activity or was doing secret work for the government his death seems just as unexplained as the events leading to it although chuck claimed that he was working against organized crime some believe that he was actually involved with it during the 1970s tucson along with other cities in arizona became a place that the mafia moved to due to its warm climate and controversial criminal justice system led by former new york don joseph bonanno more than 500 racketeers moved to tucson during the 1970s their influence led to several gangland style killings in the area one of the more famous being the murder of investigative reporter don boles what made arizona most attractive to crime syndicates was a unique state law that allowed them to buy land through outnumbered blind trust accounts this would allow them to remain anonymous and successfully launder money chuck did real estate escrow work for at least one mafia family they may have used him to do escrow work for purchases of gold bullion and platinum this was a more convenient way for them to launder money starting in 1973 it appeared that he was doing several million dollars of escrow work in bullion and platinum in reality there was no boolean or platinum instead the money was moved through several escrow accounts and legitimized on one occasion chuck mentioned to ruth that money laundering was occurring in tucson however he claimed that he was not involved in it he also stated that the less she and the children knew about his activities the better it would be for them it is theorized that chuck morgan was killed by members of organized crime in the tucson area it is possible that the mafia family that he worked for had him killed because he knew too much one theory is that organized crime bosses put the word out that they wanted chuck dead a hitman then told chuck so he came up with the money in order to buy the hitman off however when the two met in the desert the hitman killed him anyway and took the money this theory has not been confirmed although it was not mentioned in the segment of unsolved mysteries chuck was a secret witness in an extensive land fraud investigation and was interviewed about it in may 1977 shortly before his death it is not known if this had anything to do with his death also not mentioned was that chuck had been seen at several restaurants and motels on the west side of tucson after his disappearance and before his death after the case aired unsolved mysteries received several calls relating to chuck's death don devereaux investigated several leads that came up as a result of the program he learned that chuck was heavily involved in money laundering activities through his tucson escrow company from 1973 to his death in 1977 he was also involved in large gold and platinum transactions he apparently received a large amount of money from these activities and some of this money allegedly came from southeast asia devereaux discovered that chuck kept duplicate records of the illicit transactions devereaux now believes that chuck was killed because he still had these records three months after the broadcast doug johnston was found shot to death in his car outside of his phoenix office interestingly he worked across the street from deveraux's office and drove an almost identical car devereaux now believes that he was supposed to be killed instead of doug a year after doug's murder devereaux was contacted by a writer from dc named danny casolaro he agreed to share with him the information that he had uncovered about chuck's illegal gold transactions however danny died suspiciously before he received the information all three cases remain unsolved at 11 pm on may 14th 1990 35 year old doug johnston left for his night shift at a computer graphics company an hour later he was found shot to death in his car in the company parking lot he had been shot behind his left ear from a distance of at least 12 inches at first authorities believed that his death was a suicide however he was right-handed there was no powder residue in his hands and most importantly there was no gun found at the scene for unknown reasons authorities have not determined that doug's death was either a suicide or a homicide his family and friends are convinced that his death was a homicide they do not believe he would have committed suicide because he had just finished school and gotten a new job he was also very close to his family and friends interestingly doug had a similar house and drove a similar car to don devereaux who lived across the street from the parking lot where doug was killed he was a journalist whose work was allegedly a threat to mob figures in phoenix he was also investigating the suspicious death of charles morgan in 1991 devara was contacted by a writer from washington dc named danny casalaro devereaux agreed to share with him the information that he had uncovered about charles's money laundering and gold transactions however before deverell could even mail his research danny was found dead with his wrist slashed in a hotel bathroom his death was ruled a suicide but devaroa believes that he was murdered six months after dany's death devaroe learned from another journalist that there was a hit placed on him but that doug was mistakenly killed as a result devereaux also learned that there were apparently other people that wanted him dead a cia official and an informant for israeli intelligence confirmed the death threats to him at 12 30 pm on august 10 1991 44 year old investigative reporter danny casalaro was found dead in his hotel room near martinsburg west virginia a maid had found him in his bathtub both of his wrists had been slashed several times police were called in to investigate they soon found an apparent suicide note that read to my loved ones please forgive me most especially my son and be understanding god will let me in in the bathtub they found a razor blade it was determined that danny's wrists had been slashed a total of 12 times there were eight cuts on his left one and four on his right one one cut was deep enough to sever a tendon investigators found his wallet with credit cards and money still in his room there appeared to be no signs of forced entry or a struggle as a result they ruled his death a suicide for unknown reasons his family was not notified of his death for two days they're convinced that he was murdered when dany's brother tony contacted the police he was stunned to learn about the day in notification he asked about danny's papers his investigation and his overall life the officer did not know about any of it the papers that he had had with him included hundreds of notes and documents from his year-long investigation they have never been found danny's family also noted that he was afraid of blood tests and needles so they felt that it would be unlikely that he would commit suicide by slashing his wrists just days before his death he told several friends that he was close to breaking the story that he had been investigating it started as an inquiry into a computer software theft however it soon turned into an investigation of government corruption that allegedly implicated u.s justice department officials some believe that he was killed because he knew too much his investigation began in august 1990 when he interviewed bill and nancy hamilton the owners of a computer software company called ins law they had developed a powerful program called promise that allegedly revolutionized information management for law enforcement agencies in 1980 the u.s justice department purchased promise to handle their millions of case files initially it worked well with the department however during the second year of their three-year contract the justice department began to withhold payments from inn's law this eventually led to ins law filing for bankruptcy bill and nancy discovered that the canadian government had acquired promise despite the fact that they did not sell it to canada bill and nancy spoke to michael rikonoshutto who claimed to have worked with the cia on numerous top secret projects he claimed that people involved in covert operations in south america and the middle east had distributed promise he also claimed that the money received from selling it was used for other covert operations in august 1989 the inn's law scandal became known to congress and the house judiciary committee opened a formal inquest reconnaissauto testified about his knowledge regarding the case within a week of submitting his sworn affidavit to the committee he was arrested on drug charges by agents of the justice department former attorney general elliot richardson also testified before the committee after months of investigation danny believed that he had uncovered an unsavory network of u.s officials organized crime members and intelligence agents he called the network the octopus he claimed that it was behind several scandals of the 1980s including the iran contra scandal the bcci scandal the bnl affair and the now discredited october surprise he was apparently in contact with several shadowy figures a week before his death danny told tony that he had been receiving frequent death threats he also said that if he did die that tony should not believe that it was an accident on august 8th 1991 he arrived in martinsburg with several briefcases planning to meet with informants and conclude his investigation he claimed to have been tracking the finances of the octopus and believed that one of his new contacts would deliver new evidence some of it would include irs printouts of certain individuals the day before his death danny met with another source william turner who was a former employee of a major defense contractor according to him he handed over paperwork describing corruption that dany believed was tied to the octopus the next day danny was dead and william's document were missing along with the rest of danny's papers due to the controversy surrounding danny's death the west virginia authorities convened a formal inquest which included a complete autopsy tony claimed that danny had been embalmed without the family's permission the autopsy confirmed that bleeding from the wrist cuts were the cause of his death it also suggested that he was not alone at the time specifically there was a bruise on his arm and head also the tips of three of his fingernails were missing danny's family learned that his hotel room was cleaned by a professional cleaning crew the day after his death they inadvertently discarded important evidence interestingly one of them remembered seeing two bloody towels in the bathroom it appeared that someone had tried to clean the blood off the floor prior to when the professional crew arrived one strange footnote to this case occurred at danny's funeral during the burial a highly decorated military official appeared and placed a medal on his casket nobody knows who he was or what connection he may have to this case danny's family and many others are convinced that his investigation into inn's law and the justice department led to his death several people believe that danny was murdered by a secret clandestine government agency dubbed the octopus but such a presence is unconfirmed at best his family believes that they killed him because he learned too much during his investigation of inn's law and the u.s justice department in october 1991 william p barr succeeded dick thornburg as attorney general in november barr appointed retired federal judge nicholas j bua as a special counsel to investigate the allegations in the inn's law case boo was granted authority to appoint his own staff and investigators to impanel a grand jury and to issue subpoenas in march 1993 he issued a 267-page report the report concluded that there was no credible evidence to support ins law's allegations that doj officials conspired to help earl bryan acquire promise software and that the evidence was overwhelming that there was no connection between brian and promise it found the evidence woefully insufficient to support the claim that doj obtained enhanced promise through fraud trickery and deceit or that doj illegally distributed promise inside or outside of doj found no credible evidence that doj had influenced the selection process that replaced judge basin it found insufficient evidence to confirm the allegation that doj employees sought to influence the conversion of inn's law's bankruptcy or commit perjury to conceal the attempt to do so finally it concluded that the doj had not sought to influence the investigation of danny casalaro's death and that the physical evidence strongly supported the autopsy finding of suicide buuwa's report came to a number of conclusions that contradicted earlier proceedings and investigations judge basin had found that doj's claim it was concerned about inslah's financial condition when it requested a copy of promise was a false pretext bua rejected this finding as just plain wrong the house report had cited deputy attorney general burns's statements as evidence that doj knew it did not have a valid defense to inslah's claims bua found this interpretation entirely unwarranted bubba was particularly critical of several of ins law's witnesses he found that michael graconischuto had given inconsistent accounts in statements to the hamiltons his affidavit and in testimony at his 1992 trial for manufacturing methamphetamine bulla compared reconnaissauto's story about promise to a historical novel a tale of total fiction woven against the background of accurate historical facts bua found arie ben minashi's affidavits for inn's law inconsistent with his later statements to buwa in which ben minashi said that he had no knowledge of the transfer of ins law's proprietary software by earl bryan or doj and denied that he had ever said this elsewhere ben minashi said that others simply assumed that he was referring in his previous statements to innslaw's promise but acknowledged that one reason he failed to clarify this was because he was going to publish a book and he wanted to make sure that his affidavit was filed in court and came to the attention of the public buwa also noted that the house october surprise task force had examined ben minashi's october surprise allegations and found them totally lacking in credibility demonstratedly false from beginning to end riddled with inconsistencies and factual misstatements and a total fabrication he specifically observed that the task force found no evidence to substantiate ben monashi's october surprise allegations about earl bryan inn's law responded to the boer report with a 130 page rebuttal and another set of new allegations in an addendum these allegations included the claim that the doj's office of special investigations was a front for the justice department's own covert intelligence service and that another undeclared mission of the justice department's covert agents was to ensure that investigative journalist danny casalaro remained silent about the role of the justice department in the inns law scandal by murdering him in west virginia in august 1991. by this time janet reno had succeeded barr as attorney general after bill clinton's election as president reno then asked for a review of buu's report with recommendations on appropriate actions in september 1994 the department released a 187 page review written by assistant associate attorney general john c dwyer which concluded that there is no credible evidence that department officials conspired to steal computer software developed by inns law incorporated or that the company is entitled to additional government payments the review also reaffirmed the earlier police findings that castellar's death was a suicide and rejected ins law's claim that osi agents had murdered castellaro as fantasy with no corroborative evidence that is even marginably credible in may 1995 the united states senate asked the u.s court of federal claims to determine if the united states owed ins law compensation for the government's use of promise on july 31 1997 judge christine miller the hearing officer for the u.s court of federal claims ruled that all of the versions of promise were in the public domain and that the government had therefore always been free to do whatever it wished with promise the following year the apple authority a three-judge review panel of the same court upheld miller's ruling and in august 1998 informed the senate of its findings a 1999 book by the british journalist gordon thomas titled gideon spies the secret history of the mossad repeated the claims of arie ben minashi that israeli intelligence created and marketed a trojan horse version of promise in order to spy on intelligence agencies in other countries in 2001 the washington times and fox news each quoted federal law enforcement officials familiar with debriefing former fbi agent robert hansen as claiming that the convicted spy had stolen copies of a promised derivative for his soviet kgb handlers later reports and studies of hansen's activities have not repeated these claims so do you think that the doj stole the promise software from inn's law whatever ben minashi's claims is michael rakana shuto a believable source and what if danny casalaro doug johnston and charles morgan it's so interesting to me how a court case involving payments over government software weaved so many webs how one murder led to another which led to another who was guilty and who was innocent perhaps we'll never know subscribe and visit my social you