American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders, the latest true crime offering on Netflix, examines a tangled web of software, spies, crime, and politics. Following its release, director Zachary Treitz has opened up about one discovery in particular that “haunted” him.
There’s a lot to unpack in American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders. The four-part docuseries sees Treitz joining his friend, photojournalist Christian Hansen, on a trip deep into a rabbit hole first uncovered by the late writer Danny Casolaro.
Danny had been digging into a multi-tentacled conspiracy he named ‘The Octopus.’ But before he could finish his investigation, in August 1991, he was found dead in a hotel bathtub under suspicious circumstances.
Christian essentially picked up where Casolaro left off, with Netflix’s The Octopus Murders delving into all facets of the conspiracy, involving government spy software, a string of unsolved murders, and political scandals, not to mention the JFK assassination. While there are so many revelations, what, or should we say who, impacted Zachary the most?
The Octopus Murders director “haunted” by sinister discovery
Zachary told The Mirror that he was “haunted” by former military intelligence official Joseph “Joe” Cuellar – who many believe may be a suspect in Casolaro’s death – and the fact that there were so few “notes” on him.
“It has always kind of haunted me that there’s very few notes about that guy,” he said. “When you think about the possibility of Danny’s notes being gone [if he had been murdered], that’s always kind of haunted me. We have notes on everybody in the story, but there’s proportionately fewer on Cuellar.”
The filmmaker continued: “It’s circumstantial story, but I think that his son kind of told us in a succinct way that his dad was a military intelligence officer specializing in psychological warfare… he was a guy that got sh*t done. Him hanging out with Danny talking randomly, just chewing the fat, meeting up with him multiple times talking about his story, I just don’t buy it at all. He wouldn’t need to talk to Danny. He’s got plenty of interesting things that go on in his own life.”
Joe and Danny met at a bar called the Sign of the Whale and became friends, with the latter’s brother Tony saying in The Octopus Murders: “It turned out that he was quite familiar with everything Danny was doing… It seemed a bit coincidental. However, as we’ve all learned, it’s a small town.”
Joe reportedly told Danny that he could help him, saying, “I can help you connect the dots here. I have a friend who works at Justice. I’ll see what I can do.” While Danny was excited about potentially getting “the answers” from Joe, he wasn’t going through the easiest time. He was onto something with his investigation, and he was receiving death threats.
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Shortly before his death, he told his brother, “By the way, if an accident happens, it’s not an accident.” In August 1991, Danny went up to Martinsburg to meet with a source, with reports suggesting the meetup had been arranged by Cuellar. But before he could, he was found dead in the bathtub of his Sheraton hotel room.
Although police ruled the death a suicide, many believe he was killed before he could connect the dots completely. Firstly, his wrists had been slashed 12 times, with some cuts so deep they severed the tendons. Additionally, there were blood spatters around the room that were inconsistent with a suicide.
A theory doing the rounds after the release of American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders is that Joe killed Danny. Firstly, a witness described seeing someone vaguely resembling Joe entering Danny’s room on the night he died.
In the doc, Christian explains: “Cuellar lied to the authorities about where he was at the time of Danny’s death. I know that both Joseph Cuellar and Robert Booth Nichols also lied about the nature of their relationship with Danny.
“But for some reason, I don’t think that the investigators took them seriously enough to try and figure out what was really going on with these guys. And, on the other hand, if they did find out what was really going on, they were actively covering it up.”
Taking to Reddit, one Netflix fan commented, “Just a hunch – Cuellar did it,” to which another replied, “I second that hunch. Cuellar appeared out of nowhere, straight up entered Danny’s life (probably was checking the depth of the waters). He wanted to know how much Danny knows and once it was established that he knows way too much, Mission – Eliminate DANNY!”
A third added, “Definitely think Cuellar did it, witness spotting a look alike, whole bar meet up wasn’t a coincidence, notes and work missing. Unfortunately another unsolved cover up.”
American Conspiracy is available to stream on Netflix now – you can read more about if Inslaw still exists here, and find our full list of all the true crime and documentaries heading to streaming this month here.
