Welcome to the one hundred and forty fourth episode of the Supernatural Occurrence Studies podcast
So Somewhat Paranormal. My name is Jason Knight, host of the show,
and with me as always is Oh It's Oscars back the producer extraordinaire and podcast
co host Oscar. Before we begin tonight's topic, I do want to mention
our hearts and our thoughts and prayers are with Louisiana this evening. Hurricane Ida
is just battering Louisiana places like Grand Isle, New Orleans, Metaie, Mandeville,
Saint John's Parish, countless other parishes, some of which I can't even
pronounce. But you know, New Orleans is near and dear to my heart,
and this bitch Ida is just ravishing Louisiana. It's you, It's your
second home, right, It really is, It really is. I'm a
New Orleanian, I guess at heart. And what's crazy now, it's it's
really faux pas to compare hurricanes against one another or to one another. But
sixteen years ago today is when Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Yes, yeah,
as a category three and Ida hit as a category four. There's emergency workers
been in the business forty years saying they have never seen something like this and
they live through Katrina, right right. So it's just I've been riveted watching
it all day, all day long, on every screen in the house.
So I just, you know, just want to say that I'm there with
you in spirit. The Supernatural Current Studies podcast is there with you in spirit,
and we know you'll bounce back, strong town, strong people. So
I just wanted to mention that, Yeah, for sure. The other thing
is, if you want to skip our wonderful intro, please go to the
show notes. There will be a time stamp there waiting for you to get
you to the topic. Yeah, all right, Oscar, what has been
going on? Thank you for handling episode one hundred and forty three. I
loved your intro. Thank you you. You know, Uh, solo casting
is it's a different bead breed of difficulty. So I was flexing muscles that
I'm not used to. That was like the fifth take at least, and
I had to cutting and spice the the better parts of other takes to make
it all fit. I mean, it sounds seamless. It just sound good.
But I'm saying like it wasn't one take that wasn't. In one sitting,
I couldn't even tell because I was like, I'm like, am I
saying that? And I realized I'm rambling sometimes, like yeah, you know,
because Jay's not here, I'm not saying he doesn't want Like I'm explaining,
like why am I saying it like that? Because I'm talking to myself.
That's a weirdo. I've never done it, so it's got to be.
So yeah, it's it was weird, and in general, I'm a
weirdo, especially when I'm by myself, so it didn't help matters, like
I talked to myself all the time. So yeah, so that was a
little rough. Well it came out good. I'm glad you all liked it.
I assume if you listen to this, then you should via the last
episode. That's right. They came back for more. So you did something
right right, right, But yeah, I was I was out traveling.
I took the family on a vacation. We were in Florida in New Smyrna
Beach for the week, and I just couldn't research and get a topic together.
So I appreciate you doing that. I hope our listeners like the Patreon
sneak Peak Hotel Cecil. If you want to hear more things you will not
hear on this public feed, including video casts, join our Patreon Patreon dot
com, Forward Slash Supernatural Current Studies podcast, or just go to this episode
show notes click on the Patreon link. It'll get your right to us.
We have a library of audio and video content. They're just waiting for you.
So support your favorite show. Yeah, totally. What else have you
been up to? Nothing after? You know, coming home from vacation.
Vacation was fantastic, like I said, but the problem is you got to
come back to reality. And you know, now that I have this new
position at work, I came back to just mess of playing catchup. So
I'm not gonna say I regretted the vacation. I most certainly did not regret
the vacation, but I got to figure out a plan because we're going again
in December. It was really hard to come back to work because I was
just completely overwhelmed. Did you get did you give yourself that extra buffer a
day? I did? I did? Wonder did they work? Wonders?
But like you know, yeah, I was, you know, able to
unpack, clean up, do what we need to do answer some emails for
work, kind of make sure the cat's okay, make sure the cat's alive.
Right, Uh so I did take a vacation with the vacation very very
important. Take a vacation from your vacation for days, bro, they're important.
M Yeah, as the guy who barely goes on vacation. By the
way, we got to get you on more vacations, more podcast vacations.
Maybe, yeah, those are work. They're not a vacations. Okay,
wrong, they're fun. This show is fun, but it's work. Okay,
that's not a vacation. I want to do nothing on a beach,
not like read something for a research paper or something on a read speaking to
research paper. Oh, I gotta say this here. You're telling me offline
after this topic that we're gonna get into tonight your topic. Yes, that
is all I mean. You might have one hundred plus page script Oscar spector.
Yeah. You can see the look of his face. Are you burnt
out? Yes? I was burnt that before I wrote even one word of
the script. Yeah, this around how it's gonna come out. I need
to find a fucking linear. It's anything linear. I need to find a
way to write this, but I did find a way. I spent this
week up until very late last night finishing it Part one only, by the
way, But don't worry. Part two is looking to be a little bit
more difficult, but it's I'm coming on better shape, right because I have
a lot more I can use this as a way to springboard from two Part
two. I'll explain all that later, but yeah, it's it's been a
trial for sure. It's been fun. Wow. Well, I can't wait
to get into it. I'm thoroughly intrigued by the topic you chose in the
roads it goes down. Yeah, I was trying to tease you earlier off
fire about it, and I'm gonna be tea. This is a gigantic teas.
I'm sorry in advance. This is a gigantic teas. There's so much
I won't tell you yet on this first episode, but I'm getting ahead of
myself. Besides all this, what I've been up to you is that nothing
much necessarily I have. I got myself a little blink camera and I'm videotaping
my my Shuger gliders in their cage. I got bird's eye view looking down
and so it's the latest model as far as I can tell, one of
them. And and so you can talk like a baby honor. You can
talk through it, you know, even if you're like miles away. And
I did that. I check it periodically. I have its censored to motion
sensornio, so when they wake up and move around, it lets me know,
and it records for like two I remember the time, like three minutes.
And it's been fun watching what they do when I'm not around, you
know, when I'm at work or whatever. And I gotta to say.
Zelda, the youngest one, youngest by two months, by the way,
she the first day I put the camera on her, and for most days
after that, I noticed that she loves that wheel that I put in there.
Loves it so much that every time I would check it period of two
hours at work, I would just go on and I'm I'm gonna look what
they're doing. She was still on the wheel after like six hours. Sometimes
like what the hell is she doing? And like, no, wonder,
she's so not interested in doing anything. When I get home, she's like,
man, she's fucking tired. She's making that wheel her bitch, and
it's it's fun and it's funny. Every time I'm looking at Mutter not be
in the wheel, you know, and I'm like, give Lily a chance
to play in the wheel girl, But but no, either Lily doesn't want
to or she doesn't get a chance to play. That is ridiculously cute.
It is very cute. And they obviously lick the camera for you know,
once or twice because they're like new thing and stuff. It's been a c
it's been It's just a cute thing that I'm into. I've been into lately.
Besides that, you know, not not a whole lot. I had
something in my brain a minute ago, but I forgot. Oh yeah,
you know, there is something not it's weird. It's weird, and it's
almost like a question for our audience. But I know we haven't gotten a
lot of feedback from them, but like, maybe it's cool, maybe this
could work. I've been thinking about and what do you think of this.
I've been thinking about doing or trying to do our shows in a smaller condensed
version and putting in them on TikTok. I know nothing about TikTok. I
didn't I missed that train, I guess, but I mean it's still on.
But yeah, I know it's insanely popular. Obviously, you're always sending
me cool creepy tiktoks and stuff and right, and some of them, you
know, you never know if they're real or not. Obviously, I'm not
saying that everything I send you is one hundred percent real, but some of
them are. I mean, with with an episode that's one hundred paid script,
I don't know how we would do it, you know, but right,
but no, no, maybe not this one. Maybe don't start with
this one, you know, go simpler, right, I think I'll be
a good way not only to promote and stuff, but like to like have
like an alternate version to get people in and on what we do here,
because everything, all these mediums are different flavors for different people and how they
want their information or entertainment delivered, and that's what we do. Essentially.
We do give information, we do give all the stuff, but like we
really entertainment device really, and I think that could be kind of fun.
You know, I've been researching it. I would sa I'm not saying you're
gonna do it. I'm just saying, what do you think of the idea
of it? I mean saying any I'm down. I don't know how to
do it, but I'm all for it any way to help market the show.
We keep getting these comments on like YouTube or even a Patreon, you
know, people saying how do these guys not have more subs? You know?
And the plain simple truth is we are ship at marketing, complete butter
ships at it. We're really bad at it, like we're ye, fantastically
awful. We just don't we put and we know there's so much brain powers
devoted to life, family and the show in general, like the content that
really do not expand any effort whatsoever and anything else that's right. I never
think about it. I literally never think about it. People will be like,
aren't you on Twitter? I'm like, it's the first time I thought
of it in months. Yeah, no, it's It's true, same with
me. That's why any word of mouth, you know, listeners help help
spread love for the show. We could use it. iTunes reviews really help,
but yes, anything to help market us. And in a similar different
note, though, I've been doing a lot more. I mean for the
last about three shows worth, so like the last six weeks. Over the
last six weeks or so, I've been you know, twitch streaming a lot
more on on our Twitch channel, you know, not consistently, it's been
it's been a little bit inconsistent, but it's been a few times a week
to sometimes, you know, multiple days, grow playing games, weird games.
I'm about to play a Cthulhu esque HB Lovecraftian game, maybe even tonight.
I don't know how tonight's going to go. But yeah, mostly nights,
sometimes in the afternoon. And there's always been like one or two people
that I've totally joining. Now I don't talk to him very often. No
one says anything. I don't say anything either, but I just playing when
people join, So that's kind of whoever it is, thank you for joining
us. That's where we are. Thanks for always being there. They when
they get the notification they're on it. That's fantastic and I think that's great.
Yeah, where we are. Thank you. So that's been that's been
also fun of fun been doing that. If you want to check us out.
What's the Twitch channel? And no way Chicago Chicago's SOS or is it
s West chicagohost Oh, dude, you totally put me on the spot.
I thought you knew. I thought you could you're so good at this that
I thought you might have known. I will place it in the show notes,
right, I'm writing it down mortem, so editing, maneuver, editing,
magic, editing magic. I just wrote it down. Ad twitch cool
done, Yeah, yeah, it will happen. Cool anyway, what I
mean? Terrible at marketing? Terrible? Yeah, we get bad at it
anyway, But we have a Twitch channel I put I do games, and
I try to do creepy games, and I've been successful overall, but every
once in a while do play like a fun, lighter game. I don't.
I can't. Not everything is supernatural, but you know, sometimes it
is. Anyway. That said, for that, I think you should tell
us. Now that I mentioned a Twitch channel, you should tell us how
else people can find us. Yeah. The easiest way OSCAR for people to
get to the Supernatural Occurrence Studies podcast is by going to our website, Chicago
Ghost Podcast dot com. From Chicago Ghost Podcast dot com, you can get
to all of our social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
and of course Patreon. Again, if you want to support the show
get exclusive content, join our Patreon. You're rusty, I am rusty.
Oh my god. See the Patreon link. In this episode, show notes,
we have a phone number Chicago area code eight seven two five to two
nine zero seven sixty seven. That Chicago area code eight seven to two five
zero seven six seven. Leave us a message, send us a text.
We'll probably read them and play them on the show. So sorry, that
felt so unnatural. Okay, all right, I know I can feel you
feeling unnatural about it. No, when we said you're rusty, it reminded
me of this thing. Like there's just like I don't know if he's a
doctor or a nurse, you know, local person that comes into my store
every day orders an advance you know, on the phone, right, and
his name is Rusty, and he's like I remember one of my coworkers he's
like, oh yeah, I gotta hear from overorder. And then one of
my partners or whatever said like, are you rusty? And he's like yeah,
I'm like, nah, you've been at it for a while now.
Sometimes just it cracked everyone. I was just like a really well timed joke
there, and you just reminded me of it. That's it. It was
very good, kind of quasi dad joke. I like it. Oh yeah,
no, I'm sure yeah. Sorry, that's it. Do you have
anything else? I don't truly take a break. Yes, listeners, welcome
back to the show. Well, the lights are turned down low, the
ceremonial candle is lit, and the drinks are flowing. Let's start this show
now, Oscar. I know you have a whole intro. I'm gonna pass
it off to you in a moment, but I just want I just want
the listeners to know if they saw the title of this episode, the octopus
murders, this has nothing to do with an eight legged mollusk, does it.
You know it does not at legged and now it does not. Well,
you know they have brains in one of the modest tentacles. I did
not know that they have two brains and ship. Yeah, wow, that's
what. That's what makes them able to like move wriggle, like to let's
say, flee something and also catch something with their other tentacles they have like
they can multitask because they like two brains or something. It's like weird.
They're very weird. But no, that has nothing to do with the underwater
sea creatures. Interesting. Yeah, because the first time you told me about
this subject, that was my literal first question to you was, does octopus
actually kill people in this one? No, stupid, it's because of all
the tentacles where where this story goes, it has all the weaving happening,
right. Yeah, And it also surprised me further because you're more you are
much more in You're much more aware of conspiracies and fucking crypt all this ship
that we've done in the show, nearly exclusively. You've because I didn't know
anything about them. You're like, have you heard of this? No?
And the what's so famous? No? I never heard of it? You
know, it's now this time I give I give that to you. It
feels great, It's not you must feel all the time. Yeah. So
I know nothing about this topic, right, but it goes to places that
I think are going to blow people's minds. I know. I've done very
very very very high level research just to get names, dates, locations for
for tags, for keywords or when I post this, I just wanted to
get started on the episode, you know, get started on the post.
Some of the articles that I pulled up that center around this murder or these
murders, I guess you should say, blew my mind. Yeah, the
the tentacles where they go. It's it's just amazing. So I just wanted
to say that this is not about an octopus pornographic or pornographic right, No,
not at all. It's not petty. So with that Oscar, please
take it away. I've been dying to hear this. All right, sounds
good. Let's go into my overdramaticized introduction here. Probably should stop laughing.
Okay, where does the unraveling begin? When there are multiple entries and loose
strands and the fear of pulling on the wrong one will result in the loss
of valuable time, effort, and will. That is the ball of mess
and information I found myself in. I believe that disorganized nature of the embezzlement,
the forgery, lying, stealing, appointing, arresting, threatening, and
murdering that happens in this long tail actually makes it all seem more realistic,
more human. Unfortunately, this feat of unraveling nearly shriveled my interest in pursuing
this case to nothing because of how big and messy it was getting. I
am hartened, however, that I came across this case after many of the
answers have already been found by relentless people whose lives were you know, changed
by the events as you will hear shortly. Essentially, the victims or friends
of the victims did most of the legwork, and it is their personal connection
to the Octopus murders that really peaked my interest at the start. So this
story was first brought to my attention on TikTok by user user sorry at death
Wish Princess, who gets into this grand tale of a triple murder that occurs
in the nineteen eighties and the relentless search by one of the victim's daughters that
finally led to the killer decades later. Decades, not like a year or
two. The woman in the video mentions conspirators and co conspirators, as well
as another murder that happens ten years later, and she ends it all by
saying the reason she knows all of this is because she's the granddaughter of one
of the victims and that her mom was the one that found the killer.
Cut to months later, three books or actually four now and roughly eighty articles,
and here we are. I wanted to mention the TikTok user whose video
I will play later on to give people the ability to look her up if
you want early spoilers and maybe a rough outline. Since there are so many
characters, good and bad, from different sides and all walks of life,
Today's show will be centered solely on a triple murder in nineteen eighty one and
a parent suicide in nineteen ninety one and establish an overall bedrock of information and
people that makes this story stranger than fiction. And one monumental conspiracy, a
conspiracy that touches on all sorts of interesting keywords such as government involvement, presidential
involvement, the CIA, the mob, Native Americans, weapons manufacturing and selling,
privacy hindering, computer software, hitmen, journalists, the iron contrast scandal,
international dignitaries, political assassinations, and even aliens. Today's story will read
like a film. There's almost like a three act structure naturally in play,
and a headstrong protagonist that tries to make sense of her crazy life. My
advice to you is to try to pay attention. You never know the piece
of information that would lead to a connection or an answer. So with that
in mind, let's set the stage. The stage is Riverside County, California.
This particular county has a lot of heft As of the last census,
Riverside County is the fourth most populous county in California and the tenth in the
country. Pretty big. It's located in southern California and has mostly desert between
Los Angeles and Arizona. Most of Joshua Tree National Park is on Riverside and
where most of all peyote in the world is consumed. Hey. The city
of Indio, one of the biggest locations in the county, lies next door
to a small Indian reservation. Its resort cities are Palm Springs, Palm Desert,
Indian Wells, Lacinta, Rancho Mirage, and Desert Hot Springs, all
located in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County. I bring up Coachella because
it is where we'll spend a lot of our time in particularly Indio and Rancho
Mirage. That Indian reservation I teased a second ago is called Cabaison Band of
Mission Indians. It is a federally recognized tribe of the Kahuila Indians. I
hope I'm pronouncing that correct, whose original territory held twenty four hundred square miles
of land in southern California tribes splintered over the centuries into what are federally known
as Western Khila, Mountain Kahila, and Desert Kahila, the last one being
Cabison Band of Mission Indians, located seven miles outside of Indio, and the
tribe's headquarters located in Indio. It is a small tribe, having now enrolled
thirty eight enrolled members, according to the San Diego State University Library. That's
not to say that there aren't more, just not recognized as yet. Not
to mention maybe the children they are old enough, and the fact that each
federally recognized tribe sets its own rules for membership. Either way, it's a
small tribe thirty eight and there is no unemployment for the Cabison banned the Mission
Indians. You might have guessed already, but this tribe found gainful employment on
their land via a casino called Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. Have you heard of
it? I have not. No. Apparently it's a big deal. It
was built. I don't know, but it's California. So Cabison Band the
Mission Indians are known for three things. One is when they won the pivotal
court case California vi. Cabyson ban in the Supreme Court in nineteen eighty seven.
They argue that their high stakes Bengal parlors and poker rooms were lawful because
California state law couldn't touch it. This led to the second thing they're known
for, their actual casino, which spanned two hundred million dollars in two thousand
and four to refurbish. This is after having had several expansions for millions more.
The last thing Capston Banda Mission Indians are known for is what the public
claimed they were involved in with a man named John Philip Nichols, something called
the Wagon Hut Corporation, and finally, a triple homicide that occurred in nineteen
eighty one. Let's get into that. The following information comes from a myriad
of sources like local newspapers, retrospective magazine issues, and a good chunk from
a book titled Return of the Buffalo, The Story behind America's Indian Gaming Explosion.
Prior to midnight on June thirtieth, nineteen eighty one, three people were
murdered in cold blood Alfred m Alvarez, Ralph Arthur Boeger, and Patricia Roberta
Castro. An investigator from the Riverside County Coroner's Office, Robert Drake, filed
the report on the murder. Quote. I was contacted by telephone at seven
thirty four am on July first, nineteen eighty one by the Riverside County Sheriff's
Office in Indio. I was told of a triple triple homicide at thirty five
zero four to zero Bob Hope Drive in the rural area of Rancho Mirage.
The scene of this homicide is the backyard patio of the residence of Alvarez.
On that Bob Hope Drive. The three victims had been sitting in a semi
circle. Castro had been sitting on a single bed facing south, Alvarez was
sitting to her right on a wooden chair, and Boger had been sitting to
his right on a wooden chair facing north. They were discovered by friends of
Alvarez, William Callaway and Joe R. Benitez at about six forty am on
July first, eighty one. When found, Castro was lying back across the
bed head to the north. Alvarez was still sitting but slumped to the right,
while Boger was lying based down in the sand where he had fallen forward
from his chair. All three were dressed, and from the initial distant examination
it appeared that all three had been shot in the head and had been dead
for several hours. Alvarez, Castro, and Boger were each killed by one
bullet to the back of the head. Examination of the bodies and the crime
scene said that the killer slash killers were up close to their victims when they
pulled the trigger. They were killed by thirty eight caliber bullets. And the
reason I said killers like plural is because of how the victims were positioned when
they died. It was theorized that it was theorized by police that since the
shootings could not have occurred from afar, that it was most likely that the
victims knew the killers beforehand. This is because there are no signs of force
or running away from surprise attackers, and the fact that the victims were facing
each other proves the theory that no number of attackers could sneak up behind Castro,
Boger, and Alvarez without one of them seeing it first each other right.
They died in their last living positions, unaware of the thirty eight caliber
bullets heading their way. The main reason police believed that it was more than
one shooter, though, is because one or two of the victims were not
alerted when the first shot rang out. Say if they were maybe asleep or
drunk, you know, say that Bolger and Alvarez were killed first in their
chairs. Even though it is possible that Castro could have you know, sat
upright from the mattress she was laying in, she would have had enough time
to try to flee or face the shooter, and the crime scene would have
reflected that, but it didn't. The angle of each of the shots also
came from different directions, so it's not like one person standing shot shot and
the third person. You know, it was from different directions. Oh okay,
back of the head. Remember that I should note that the reason the
trio were chilling in the backyard was to escape the heat from inside, since
there was no air conditioning. It explains the mattress anyway. Autopsy did show
zero point fourteen percent plural fluid alcohol and Alvarez's system, while Bolger had point
oh eight alcohol content, which is the base used to determine driver intoxication in
California. There were no signs of drug use in the autopsies. Oddly,
Patricia Castro's body was not examined for autopsy, and the coroner does not state
why in his report, and I have no clue, by the way,
humhm. My theory is that this could mean that the killers were maybe not
known by the victims, that they had enough time to get into positions while
the two men were intoxicated, you know, pop pop, then head to
the wakings slash sleeping Castro for the final pop. I believe it's a stretch
to think that one killer did the shooting, no matter how drunk, but
it can mean that they weren't friends about as in company. You're saying,
we don't know that the hitman waited for the right time is what I believe
most likely. I say hitmen because that's what the police thought. That the
triple murderer had all the hallmarks of a professional hit. I'll get back to
this later on. One important thing about this triple homicide to note is that
nearly everyone, from local police to federal institutions, conspiracy theorists, friends,
co workers, and families of the deceased, not to mention yours, truly
believed that the target was Fred Alvarez. By the end of the story,
there is no way you'll think the shooters were at Alvarez's home for anyone else
but Alvarez. Okay, Castro and Bolger were innocent bystanders. Before we start
speculating as to why and who wanted Fred Alvarez dead, there is one theory
floating out there to suggest something else. Not long before his death, Fred
revealed to a doctor, Nikol and tribal members of the band of Mission Indians
that Patricia Castro's husband was soon to be released from prison and had passed the
word along he was going to kill his wife's lover. Police were told about
this, but nothing has come from it that I've read personally. That's the
one Castro angle anyway, you know, plus the possibility that she and Fred
were lovers, which is possible. I honestly do not have much on the
third victim, Ralph Boger. He had a family he barely saw, was
divorced, He smoked weed and rode his motorcycle. There was taught that he
had made drug dealings with the Hell's Angels and that he and Fred Alvarez have
been accused of drug deals. And while it does serve as a potential reason
for the triple slayings. The cleanliness of the crime scene and other information I
will bring up here say otherwise. Now, Alvarez wasn't that special either.
He was a big biker who became locally popular in his youth for wrestling and
playing college football. He was assertive, alpha and wasn't try to let his
temper intimidate you if it got him what he needed. There was drug use
and supposed drug deals, which again some people think is what led to his
demise in eighty one. But there's a mixed bag of highs and lows about
what people thought of Fred Alvarez. People liked them, people didn't. His
importance to this case is that he was a tribal member of the Cabison Band
of Mission Indians. He used to be one of the thirty something tribe members.
Oh okay, that's what makes them important to this case. He made
it as far as vice chairman before being demoted or voted out of that position.
Reading the excerpts from the disclosed Cabison Band meetings, you could tell that
Fred Alvarez was going through a tough time in the years before the tribes win
against the the state of California to build their grand casino. They did have
poker rooms, bingal parlors, and alcohol licenses to sell that shit. How
and where on reservation land were these amenities produced was up to the tribe's votes.
I'm not going to get into the intricacies of a tribal organization, but
I will say that Fred Alvarez was a tribal officer. When he died,
he tried to get the votes to build his own poker room slash bar on
the land. A woman who worked closely with Fred mentioned to a reporter that
he had also wanted topless dancers, but that's beside the point here. After
creating a rift and a faction against the majority to get the votes, Fred
still lost not just a business opportunity, but he lost credibility within the tribe.
These meetings were happening somewhere between March and June of eighty one, weeks
before his death. There were complaints to the council that Fred was being uncooperative
to patrons of the established poker rooms and bingo parlors, that he did not
help others with their responsibilities on tribal land, that he selfishly expected help for
his business venture and was but hurt when he didn't get it. You know,
this led to a few things that give this triple murder conspiracy some complicated
spice. It was reported that Fred was meeting with journalists and telling close friends
that he had information of embezzlement occurring on Cabison Indian land. He hinted,
yeah, he hinted that a John Philip Nichols, who did work for the
Cabiston Band of Mission Indians, was into some very suspicious activity. So the
Nichols family, which is John Philip Nichols, or he was called Nichols Senior
sometimes his wife Joanne Nichols. I was confused Joan and Joanne. Sorry,
His wife Joanne Nichols and his son John Paul Nichols also worked for the Cabiston
Band of Mission Indians. But they weren't Indians themselves, they were not tribe
members, but they were instrumental to the business dealings. It's safe to say
that the reason Cabizon ban were able to get liquor licenses, cigarette licenses and
able to make important casino connections is in large part large part due to the
Nichols. I have a useful two pronged example that shows how productive and resourceful
this little family was, especially in the seventies and eighties. Quote doing this
meeting, Doctor Nichols, meaning John Phillips Senior, made two significant reports,
the first of which described recent trips he had taken to Taiwan, Korea,
and Japan and of his meeting with local and lumber purchasers in those countries.
His trips there were financed by Wallace Shipping Chartering Limited, a company trying to
market coal to those and other countries, and it was paying a monthly fee
to use doctor Nichols as a consultant. These fees were being used by Nichols
and the tribe to meet office expenses and stay alive as an economic development entity.
Nichols's second report, according to the Minutes, discussed the advantages of forming
an Indian security company and becoming eligible to apply for contacts with minority preference.
He indicated that Wackenhut Incorporated and Intersect Incorporated were both well known security firms which
have been interested in working with an Indian firm. After his presentation, Fred
Alvarez moved to drafted resolution calling for the formation of cabasan security company The motion
was seconded by John James and passed unanimously. These guys knew how to get
shit done, So John John Senior, he's a he's a mover and a
shaker. He's kind of the spon. He's the one that makes things connect
and happen. And that's exactly right. Does he make it? Does he
have a Is there like a type of a person in your head based on
that? Oh? Sure, I mean I know plenty of people who I
know very few who are like that, or or who want to pretend they're
like that anyway. Yeah, oh yeah, there's that too. But now
my question is did these murders happen on tribal land. No they did not.
Okay, the house on Rancha Mirage is like fifteen minutes away. Okay.
I was wondering because you know, tribal land, that's a whole nother.
Yeah, it's not justice system, you know. That's why I gave
That's why I gave the address, and I said, ran yeah, it's
not on trouble. The murders. Okay, I do, I do,
I do make the I do hammer that later, but ok no, I
would just for good questions. Let's see the reports lend some nuance into what
Cabyson Band was into and what led to their massive success in the nineties and
two thousands, not to mention that it helps explain key information and figures as
to the scope of this conspiracy. The reports tell us that while doctor Nichols
was employed at the as the reservation as a manager, he actually was more
of a resource developer and financial advisor. The reports also say that the reason
Cabizon Band's involvement with Wackenhutt and other companies was mainly financial reasons were mainly financial
reasons. Wackenhut will be dealt with in great detail at some point. Part
two. Do not worry. All of these reports say that John Philip Nichols,
whom Fred Alvarez allegedly told outsiders and insiders, was into some heavy shit
and very possibly illegal. There is no evidence of this, but people say
that Fred Alvarez disapproved of doctor Nichols's leadership and high status as a non member
of an Indian reservation, which may help explain why he wanted his own poker
room and dismissed the rest. It was also reported, though not in evidence,
again, that Alvarez knew that John Philip Nichols was in bezzling cassine funds
and had set up a meeting for July first, nineteen eighty one, the
day he was found dead, to try to fire him. Reading the minutes
from his final few meetings with the tribe, I have to say that there's
no evidence to support this. It should also be mentioned that it was tribal
policy to count their earnings made in those Bengo potters and poker rooms daily to
thwart any skimming, adding fuel to the fire. People have also said that
Alvarez new or suspected that Nichols involved the Cabison tribe into arms dealings with the
government, and I will get to that eventually. Yeah, these are the
threads that conspiracy theories from nineteen eighty to present day believe led to the triple
homicide. Interesting so, arms dealing, casinos, liquor licenses, tribal land,
shady money like gray area money. Right, Yeah, this wacken hut.
I'm curious to see w have you ever heard of them? Only?
I think I've I read it briefly when kind of looking for the keywords.
I mean, before today, I have not no interesting. Oh have you
really I wonder if it started out as kind of like a shell dummy company
to run money through or something to clean money. I'm not sure I can
tell you right now, and not not in a spoiler way. But they're
very real. So they're they're up and up, gotcha, I mean they
but they're just so big, they're huge. Yeah, Well, get more.
Yeah, that's an entire segment for part two, trust me, okay.
Now. The tribe that made a press release concerning this tragedy quote the
Cabiston Band of Mission Indians express its sorrow over the death of Fred Alfred Alvarez,
a member of the band. His untimely death, along with those of
Patricia Castro and Ralph Bolger, are most unfortunate. We publicly publicly express our
condolences to the immediate family and friends of the three victims. Since the deaths
did not occur on federal land, the state of California, County of River,
County of Riverside has jurisdiction, Mister blank Clark, the capable Sheriff of
Riverside County, has our full confidence in being able to solve these deaths.
We as a tribe will help and cooperate in any way we can with the
Sheriff's office. The Cabiston Banna Mission Indians respects the American judicial system and knows
that justice will prevail. We wish to state categorically that the unfortunate incident,
which involved the three victims, only one of whom was a tribal member,
was wholly unrelated to Cabistan tribal business or the operation of our tribal casino.
We are in possession of certain evidence, which we have already turned over to
the County Sheriff's office, which indicated that the murders may have been attributed to
personal relationships between the victims and other persons unconnected in any way with the Cabinson
Band. We are confident that when the case is solved, as it will
be, and all the facts are disclosed, their charges and innuendos will be
shown to be crownless. Until that time, we would only ask that the
press deal with this tragedy in a responsible and professional manner and not allow itself
to be used by those with ulterior motives. That is one hell of a
statement. Actually I cut some parts of it out, by the way,
but yeah, yeah, that's a hell of a state. Now. So
I'm taking because they mentioned right there, you know, these charges are unfounded.
Basically, I'm guessing they were already rumors swirling that amount an insane amount
of them. Yeah, I had something to do with Whack and this guy.
Okay, okay, And there they're plead to tell their their pleader the
press, to to like, hey, you know, you know, be
nice totally does not work. You're about to find really doesn't work. The
fact that we're here talking about it, it means that it didn't work.
Okay, okay, Like the very fact that there's so many books about it
that I'm fucking burnt out over. It's safe to say that this did nothing
to quell journalists, townsfolk, and conspiracy theories from making Fred Alvarez a martyr.
The tribe was harassed daily with questions of their involvement with the triple murder.
As frustrated as they were with journalists who were, you know, indeed
damaging the Cabizon Band image, the real fight was with the police. They
raided this federally recognized Indian land a couple times, taking lots of documents and
questioning everybody that might lead to an arrest. This is not strange behavior for
the tribe. Though for some time before Alvarez met his demise, county and
local police had some hate for this tribal territory. They opposed and fought the
selling of cigarettes, alcohol, and bringing gambling to their corner of the world.
Lots of court dates and threats, guys, it makes sense why the
tribe quickly made that press release and fully cooperated with statements and paperwork only a
day or two after the triple murders. It didn't help much, and since
Capustan band of Mission Indians got the last laugh with their big court win,
you know in the mid eighties, the harassment and traumatic image in the public
subsided over the years for the most part. Let's bring a woman in here,
a woman named Rachel Begley on board. Rachel Begley was thirteen years old
when her father, Ralph Boger, was killed in Rancho Mirage, California.
Much of the following comes from a Wired article in twenty eleven. Quote she
learned of her father's death from our television news bulletin. Her parents were divorced,
and though she spent occasional days with her dad riding in his motorcycle,
sidecar. She didn't know enough about his life to make sense of what had
happened. The police would eventually conclude that Boger and Alvarez were killed in connections
with shady doings at the nearby Cabison Indian Reservation, but Begley's mother shielded her
from all the murky details of the investigation. After the murders, Beglei went
through a rebellious face and fell in with a bad crowd. By the time
she was fifteen, she was pregnant and had dropped out of high school.
Eventually, she got her ged and moved to Iowa. She says she would
periodically wonder about the case and check in with the police, who never seemed
to have any new information. Beyond that, she didn't have time or tools
to delve too deeply. Then one night in two thousand and seven, she
idly typed her father's name into Google. She didn't find much, but as
she clicked through the few results that came up, she found a book titled
The Octopus, Secret Government and the Death of Danny Cassillaro, based on the
work of a fee French freelance journalists. The book argued that the nineteen eighty
one, triple slang was wrapped up in an enormous plot involving arm stealing,
private security firms, and the upper echelons of the Reagan administration. Skeptical but
intrigued Begley dug deeper and discovered that over the years, the murder case had
taken a curious life of its own, preserved on obscure websites and nurtured by
a grassroots community of obsessives. To these conspiracy theorists, Boger's killing was the
work of a secret syndicate they called the Octopus because its tangled tentacles supposedly reached
into some of the most powerful organizations in the world. The octopus, Man,
Is that a cool name for a secret murderous organization? Holy shit,
isn't it cool? Yeah? Yeah, I mean we're kind of like jo
thing about the bad part of this, but yes, yeah, yeah,
I know it's terrible. Yeah. Yeah. Would imagine being this this poor
girl, you know, finding this out about your dad. Your dad could
be involved in this massive conspiracy. Oh, if you believe what I believe
that he was just an innocent bystander, but he was still a part of
it technically. Yeah, I mean, and that's pretty sensational, isn't it.
You can see how Rachel Begley turns into like a Michelle McNamara type of
an investigator, just a just a more low rent but with a personal skin
in the game, right. You can see that. You can also see
how this this is catnip for reporters. The story sells itself. Rachel began
her investigation late in the game, but managed to find much of the important
information that links motives to the triple murder and other hits and shady dealings.
By hits, I mean assassinations. She discovered that police and initially suspected John
Philip Nichols of committing the murders because of what the local papers like Daily News
Voice of the Valley printed concerning Alvarez's speculation of embezzlement with the casinos. We
know the truth of that, but he was the first suspect investigators focused on.
Through Nichols, Rachel found out that he and Cabazon struck a partnership with
a private security firm that has clients around the globe called Wackenhut. Many books
and articles came out in the early nineteen nineties talking about this. Publications like
those led Rachel Begley to find out that the Cabson Slash wacken Hut partnership led
to the manufacturing of arms on federal Indian land. Ooh right. More digging
led to finding out that a big portion of the information and connections were discovered
by a freelance journalist who died in nineteen ninety one one, Danny Cassillaro.
I will focus on him soon enough. Quote most of the stuff I didn't
believe, Begley says, I thought all of these people were making money off
of my dad's murder writing these books. She was angry enough, in fact,
that she was determined to prove the speculators wrong. At the time,
Begley was working in customer service for an internet service provider which was moving its
back office operations to another state, and she was spending her days sitting idly
at her computer waiting to get laid off. Begley had once worked for a
collections agency, and she knew how to track people down. I went into
it with a mindset, I guess, almost like a police officer would.
She says. No one had ever been charged in the killings. Nicholas was
long gone. He had died of a heart attack in two thousand and one,
but Begley talked to albert as a sister who recounted her families thwarted efforts
to get to the to get the police to pursue the case she found.
She then found William Hamilton, the developer of the promised software, who had
collaborated with Casillaro on his investigation. Hamilton called her back on her cell phone
as she was leaving for work one day and then talked and talked until his
battery died. It was like boom, she said later on. He dumped
it all in my lap. Begley may have started out trying to be systi
octopus, but she gradually gave into the theories implications, which is that her
father had been caught up in a vast conspiracy and it had killed him.
You've said a lot there. There's a lot of little tidbits in that.
Well that that's why I gave you the beat sign, like, okay,
if you want to say something. So you alluded to a suicide in ninety
one at the top of the show during your intro, So here's becausing the
the next laro, right, kess Lara was the journalist who supposedly committed suicide.
The other thing you mentioned that was really interesting. Oh god, it
just flew out of my mind. Is that the helmet? Yes, yes,
the promise software? Thank you, the promise software? Y p r
M I s. I believe p R. I think it's the whole isn't
it the whole thing? R M I S. I don't think is that
what it is? I'm pretty sure it's just without the E but all capitalized.
It's a acronym. I thought it was PR. I saw that today
during the Maybe, but I've been reading it that way. Maybe I got
it all wrong in my head. Okay, I just wanted to bring it
up incause people wanted to follow that rabbit hole on their own and promised.
Yeah. That's another thing that I'm kind of encouraging slash discouraging along with the
show, is that if you want to find out in due time, by
all means, wait along with the script with me, and next time and
maybe next time after that, and then so you could get the pieces together
at I write it and as I tell it to you, I think will
be more fun. However, if you can't wait That's why I gave you.
That's why I gave him the TikTok user at the top. That's why
I'm giving all these names also, even though I'm not going to explain them
yet, I'm giving the names out of the case people who have not heard
of this at all, Like you want to look forward and a head you
got it? Got it? Yeah, those are the two big things I
pulled out there. For sure. For sure, that's a big ass fucking
thing. The promising, Oh yeah, here comes. I promise that I'll
get to it, to the promise software scandal soon enough. But I like
how Rachel said it. It was like boom, he dumped it all in
my lap. It's starting to feel like that's what I'm doing, stumping shit
on your lap. You know, already there's a bunch of new information,
but the bombardment is not over, continuing Rachel's discovery and trying to put a
fine finale bow to nineteen eighty one triple murders. Here's a news clip from
two thousand and eight. It is edited for time in years. Tonight,
we have an exclusive interview with the daughter of one of those murder victims.
Her search for her father's killers has jump started this cold case. Three people
executed in nineteen eighty one at this Ranchamurage home. There are few clues and
no arrests. Fred Alvarez was vice chairman of the Cabazon Banned Mission Indians.
Back then they had a card room. Today they have Fantasy Springs casino.
Oliverrez's friend, Ralph Boger was also murdered. He was likely at the wrong
place at the wrong time. His daughter Rachel, was never satisfied with a
lack of progress in the murder case. When I was sixteen, I decided
to go out and try and figure out what was going on with all this,
and I went down to the murder scene and to the reservation, and
a week later I was getting death threats. Fred Alvarez was planning to blow
the whistle on a business partnership between defense contractor Wackenhut Services and Cabazon manager John
Phillip Nichols to form Cabazon Arms. Nichols allegedly planned on using Indian land to
test and build pistols, assault rifles, sniper guns, and rocket launchers.
The partnership was interested in biological weapons that could be deployed in small countries.
I even have things in place should anything happen to me to where this will
not drop. We're not dropping this investigation either. We now have internal defense
contractor memos revealing two other local Indian tribes that planned on heavy weapons testing on
reservations. We'll expose them and our next investigation piece. If you've missed any
part of this thirty three part exclusive investigation more than one year in the making,
catch up with our reports on KSQ dot com if you didn't catch it.
That clip is the thirty third part of a long series that investigated the
triple murders and other deaths and connections. It's from WESQ dot com if you
want to see what they found. To say that they have a video version
of this podcast is only half correct. I believe I have more info,
but they actually talk to the people involved, so you know. The newsclip
doesn't mention that one of the weapons that were being manufactured on tribal land was
fuel air explosives, which will be key to remember later. Again, it
says that Alvarez was pissed off about this and that, but there isn't much
of his worries on paper or testimonies. As you would think. Regardless,
the weapons angle is worth killing someone over, and a man like John Philip
Nichols, as resourceful and connected as he was, could do it. A
good portion of the Wired piece of Rachel Begley's journey of discovery is spent on
learning the ropes of conspiracy circles, navigating through trial and error, reasonable and
nut jobs alike nut jobs, learning which sites were taken more seriously, who
could trust her inquiries, and in turn, who could she eventually trust.
This led to a friendship with a woman named Cherry Seymour. Quote. The
two sealed their friendship with a transaction of weather documents, the octopus community's customary
medium of exchange, copying Seymour's files, which the author had gathered from archives,
courts, and confidential sources. Hidden trailer, Begley glimpsed the far reaches
of the speculation, bio weapons, Lebanese heroin shipments, Howard Hughes and the
Yakuza. Oh my god, Howard Hughes and the yakaza two. How do
you put those in the same breath as this? I don't think that's ever
been spoken aloud. That's right said when I read the article That's exactly what
I said. I'm like, I don't think those two things I've ever been
combined in an entirety of history. Yeah, Oh my god, I'm just
fucking teasing on all right. Cherry Seymour's big contribution to this conspiracy she is
a book that was published in twenty ten titled The Last Circle Danny Casillaro's Investigation
into the Octopus and the Promised Software Scandal. This book, which I barely
started reading this weekend, is on the short list of must reads for anything
relating to the Octopus conspiracy. Thought there Moving on, Rachel Bagley began posting
on Facebook and YouTube to educate others, but to also gain the attention of
anyone that might be involved somehow. After several videos documenting her investigations, Rachel
was surprised to get a call from the cold case unit from Riverside County.
She was dismissed a year earlier as a nut job by Riverside County authorities,
but this time they called her to say that the investigation was being reopened.
Rachel focused and determined found a prime suspect in the murder of her father,
a man named Jimmy Hughes. Let's get into it. California has a state
version of the Freedom of Information Act called California Public Records Act, and the
grand majority of what I found about Jimmy Hughes comes from the families of the
murder victims, police Cabison Indian Tribe members obtaining files this way. They in
turn sent copies to people like Rachel Begley and Cherry Seymour who write books and
post videos, which is how I know. This is as direct as I
can get. Even though it's denied later, it's clear that Jimmy Hughes worked
for Cabazon Band of Mission Indians at least from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty four.
His role there was that of a security guard working under John Philip Nichols.
Paperwork calling him a security guard became hard to find after the triple murder
of Alvarez, Castro and Bolger, but it's clear in the minutes I read
from a meeting in August of nineteen eighty, the tribal Business Committee was trying
to set up a trap in Ski Range, and Jimmy Hughes, labeled that
security guard, was recommended for help. The report of that meeting reflect the
exhaustive planning that went into this range. But here's another big example of Hughes
on Cabazon payroll. Quote. On March third, nineteen eighty three, the
Cabizan Bingo Palace opened for business. This time the Riverside County Sheriff closed it
down. The tribe went to court, and on May sixth, nineteen eighty
three, Judge Waters issued a preliminary injunction against the county. He also imposed
a bond of fifty thousand dollars on the tribe. Like I said, the
cops didn't like the ship. Two years later, after a thwarting an attempted
takeover by Wayne Reader, Peter's accost John Patrick McGuire, and Jimmy Hughes,
which later devolved into charges by Reader of threats on Reader's life by Hughes on
counter charges, the tribe was hit by a twenty twenty Heraldo rivera TV report
that gave national coverage to distortions of reality. As a result, the tribe
would suffer to terrible public credibility problems until February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven.
Unquote Heroldo man Heraldo, Yeah, everyone knows him. I mean not
everyone. I guess he's that old now, but ask your parents, you
know. But yeah, the credibility problems until February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty
seven is timely because that's when they win the Court against the Supreme Court case
with against California to make their casino. So ah, I see, okay,
makes sense. I'm surprised the police were able to go on the tribal
lands and shut that yet a bingo hall. Again, I don't know how
it works, I mean neither. Yeah, so it must have happened.
I mean the clip did it so. A journalist for The Desert Sun,
a man named John Hussarma call him Hussar, from the mid eighties to the
mid nineties, wrote several articles smearing and convicting many people connected to Cabizon tribe
of crazy sounding things, mainly involving arms dealing in South America. What he
wrote about Jimmy Hughes is as follows and comes from from the book A direct
I mentioned earlier Return of the Buffalo, and I should say right now,
this is the only time I have sience to say it. Return of the
Buffalo tries to dismiss the conspiracy theories that people talk about with this tribe.
It kind of fails at it, but it does clear up some things,
so I think it did some good jobs too. Anyway, Sorry quote third
in Who's Sorry. Third in Hussar's string is the conviction of doctor Nichols,
followed by the fourth, which repeats the drug crazed allegations of one Jimmy Hughes
given the false title of former tribal security chief, a title he never held,
which is true. Hussar writes that Hughes had filed a statement in nineteen
eighty four charging there was profit skimming at the Cabazan Bingal Palace and that the
Cabazons and the Nichols's family were involved in gun running missions in Central and South
America. By publishing this, Hussar was republishing two blatant lies. There have
been no gun running missions by the Cabisans or the Nichols anywhere in the world,
and Hughes was never a Cabazan security chief. In his repetition of these
lies, he then added that Hughes claimed to be a batman for Nichols in
the Alvariz murder. At no time has Hussar written the truth about Hughes the
speed freak, although the truth was of available and Hughes was never a bagman
for Nichols or the cab soons for any purpose. Now that's the bias of
the book, right, that's how the book said. But what do you
think of that? Real quick because the couple truths couple not truths there.
One, he wasn't a security chief. He was a he was an officer,
security officer for sure, but you're right, he wasn't a security chief.
So right there, the journalist is getting something wrong, perpetruting a lie.
Like you said, the gun running is technically right only in the sense
that you're right, I guess they didn't do it themselves. But if they're
made there and sent out by someone else, same problem, different level,
you know. That's my thought on that anyway. But interesting how people are
trying to dismiss this stuff as you as you as you read more. That's
fucking weird, right, yeah, it's kind of that's hard to kind of
parcel some of this stuff. It was well known by several people at the
time that Jimmy Hughes had a taste for methan fatamine. Hughes was fired as
a security guard in nineteen eighty four and banned from the reservation. On his
way out, according to what was reported by the sheriff, quote, he
meaning Hughes, became argumentative and belligerent and invited me to step outside. I
stepped outside with him, but he made no effort to strike me. We
were joined by Charles wellmis security guard, Treasurer Wellmos, Virginia Wilmos Carol Teagarden,
all employees of the Bengal Palace. By the way, they sound like
strip of names. I'm sorry, Tea Garden, come on, what is
that? And Doctor John Nichols. Doctor Nichols tried to reason with him,
but to no avail. Jimmy Hughes directed his angle toward Doctor Nichols told him
his days were numbered. A minute or two later, just before entering his
car, he told Doctor Nichols quote, you better leave the state unquote.
On his way out of the parking lot, three or four shots were fired.
I can only assume they were fired by Jimmy Hughes unquote for real.
Hmmm, interesting, Okay, it's kind of an asshole. Clearly clearly said
that's what I wrote here. Clearly an asshole. We're after that. You're
pointing to the screen right like you can see me. So we got meth
head Jimmy. We don't know. We don't know how he's connected yet,
truly. Uh. I mean he's not too Abazon. That's established. That's
why I'm establishing here, and that he knew Nichols threatened him and all that
got fired from working there, banned from the reservation. But connected to the
triple murders. Well, he just said it, right, he said it,
and the heated thing that what people were saying that he was a batman
for the Alvarez hit. We don't know if he had said that yet,
but you know, he is pissed at Nichols for something or other. I
will get to that. Don't worry. All this will be explained, but
yes he is. You're going to find out he's something connected for sure.
Heading back to Rachel Begley in two thousand and seven, she became interested in
Jimmy Hughes because of articles written in the eighties and nineties like Hussar's pieces.
A note to remember is that back in eighty four, Hughes implicated Nichols Senior
to police that he was using cash payments to unidentified contract killers for the Alvarez
hit, which he called US government covert action. He called it that we
don't know if it's true. After a while, police shifted suspicions to Hughes,
at which point fled town and the grand jury investigation stopped just let him
go. Well, he fled tom before they could, you know, properly
get him for it. But yeah, he told the police, Hey,
this guy might have killed loverus and like, well, why do you know
that? So they turned their heads to him and he led. Basically,
they call him an informant, and the report read, okay, yeah,
let's see where am I. But here's what Bagley found owned out and later
reported by places like WESQ, Fox News and Wired and so forth. Begley
discovered that Hughes became an evangelical minister stationed in Hondudas, but with programs all
over including the States, Honduras. Sorry I didn't say it the way way.
This ministry began, and this ministry began in nineteen ninety five, and
it provided services in Central America to battered women, drug addicts, and others.
The website doesn't exist anymore, but it did have an autobiographical essay that
was written by Hughes. It talks about how he had an elite military training,
which companies like the Wackenhut security firm was known for doing, and had
a career as a contract killer that his life was transformed when he was born
again. It was called Jimmy Hughes Hu's Ministries, and its headquarters was in
Miami, Florida. Jimmy Hughes kind of reminds me of David Burkowitz at the
end there, remember oh yeah, the big trains from me finding religion,
right, Yeah? Wow, what a convenient way to also have locations to
send guns to. Yeah, man, hot a gun running to Central America.
Maybe you know, established some places some people I don't know. Interesting
man. Begley found out that Hughes was scheduled to address an evangelical banquet in
Fresno, California, on February. On February two thousand and eight, Rachel
Begley had a hidden camera in her purse as she confronted Jimmy Hughes. Quote.
Hughes, a stocky fifty one year old with a graying bus cut and
raspy voice, bounded around, bellowing tales of his past brutality. Begley,
nervous and bleary eyed from a sleepless cross country flight, exchanged incredulous text messages
with an accomplice who had come along as backup, Mikael Alvarez, Fred's son.
Yeah, they banded totally Metica epos. When Hughes finished his performance,
Begley and Alvarez came forward with a rush of adrenaline, introducing themselves to the
Sweatsiak evangelist evangelist as the children of the murder victims. Can't say nothing about
that, Hughes stammered. It's a long time ago. It's in the past,
not for us, Begley said, insistently, we're trying to get resolution.
I don't care who got killed, Hughes shouted, attracting the bewildered attention
of others at the banquet. I was trained in the military. I killed
people all over the world, right or wrong, because the government ordered me
to. Hughes stalked off, fuming, and Begley began to cry. That
seemed to bother the minister, because he came back, speaking in a tone
that was softer but full of veiled menace. Apparently he had seen her web
videos. Are you aware that that goes all over the world? Are you
crazy? Lady, Hugh said, Think about your children. They need a
mother. He told Begley and Alvarez that the murder was a mafia hit,
and though he didn't explicitly admit to carrying it out, he intimated that he
knew much more. Your parents were involved in some very dangerous things, Hughes
said, It's a lot bigger than just the murder of this guy or the
murder of that guy. You're talking political people. You've got babies to take
care of mama. Go home tonight and be at peace. Suddenly the murky
crime had come into focus, and the conspiracy theories confronted with an unaccustomed feeling
vindication. Do you give me gave me the chills, I hope. So
when he came back, that gave me the chills. You got babies to
take care of mama. Yeah the way he said that, Now, what
a Hollywood scene. Yeah, this feels like I'm what a Hollywood scene?
Such a movie. I can see this guy stalking around on stage right getting
getting people whipped up in a frenzy. He's whipped up in the friends I
think Kevin's face, it could do it. Yeah, I know he's like
taboo right now, but that's why it would work. I don't think.
Yeah, he's been canceled. Uh. And then they have him come back
out and boom, right there in front of his face with the kids.
Oh, Vincent and Afria. He's a big guy. He could to Vincent
and Affria would be good. Sorry, I don't know why we're pitching this.
Yeah, then boom there's the kids of two of the murder victims.
Yeah, what a scene. Jesus right, here's something else here, part
of the same. All but one of the videos remain from Rachel Bagley's YouTube
channel, which is called Desert Faye, Desert and then Faye Fae all one
word if you want to look at up Desert Faye. I have no concrete
reason why. Maybe it was how Rachel was able to live in peace after
the events, but regardless, here's a clip of her confrontation with Jimmy Hughes
a long time ago. Where's in the past. I'm trying to get a
resolution a lot of things in my life. Something I want to forget about
the past. It is so awful and scary in my past. I don't
live there anymore. I don't got nothing to do with that. Shrew the
FBI, screw the police, shrew everybody else in my past. I don't
care about my past. There's the world I live in is shrewed up and
messed up. There's a lot of hurt, there's a lot of you know.
What what you need to do is like God, come in your heart,
and what you need to do to say, Lord, pray my father's
in heavens. I pray when I die, I go to Lord. Do
you have children? Now? Do you have children? Pray for your children,
love your children, to prevent your children. Listen, what's your name?
What's your name? Let me tell you something. You know, world
we live is full of a lot of things. But if you're a fast
need to do, no, I'm happy you're making me make amends for what
for acting in our thought. No no no, no, no no no
no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no. Excuse me. I'm fifty one years old.
I'll turn fifty one three days ago. I had to give a crap about
that. So let me tell you something. Let me put it very clear.
Let me put a care about people. People don't oh my life not
w's my life. And I'm not afraid of you. And I'm not afraid
of what people saying. Let me tell you something. I'm not afraid of
what people don't. Make me a break. Let me tell you something.
I go to bet at night with a clear conscience. I don't wake up
the boil with a clear contry. So let me tell you something about my
past. My past is dead. I don't care about my past, my
passes, my past is none of your business. There's none of your business.
There's nobody's business. I don't care who died. I don't care who
got killed. I was trained in the military. I kill people all over
the world. Right, we're wrong because the government or go to the colts,
go to the police and ask then, why don't they get off their
butt and take about the Nichols jail or somebody who has something to do with
it all. I'm not allowed to say anything. Don't you understand? Okay,
I'm not allowed to say anything? Is it not allowed to say nothing?
The catch is that there are there are other people. I know.
It's a little hard to hear and a little fast. So that's why I
wanted to mention the put in the dialogue of what he said first and then
put the clip in so hopefully you guys understood it fine enough and followed it.
But yeah, that's what the motherfucker said. So and that was from
her secret courting her heeading camera and her camera wow audio And obviously the camera
itself doesn't show anything because it's in the purse, so it's just the audio
really, but still it's all it's all him. Yeah, wow, Rachel
didn't take this line down. She joined forces with a man named John Powers.
Here's a bit of Powers from his LinkedIn bio that I found. He
began his career with law enforcement in nineteen eighty five with the Coastguard, and
starting in nineteen eighty nine, he began He's sorry he began. He spent
the next twenty six years with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department as a patrolman,
narcotics investigator, homicide detective, and finally sergeant. John was selected to develop
and implement a cold case team. While he was a homicide detective, John
Powers connected with Begley after seeing the video of her encounter with Jimmy Hughes,
saying, quote the statements she got from him, no police officer would have
ever been able to get unquote. Powers was tasked to get into the nineteen
eighty one murders and formed a partnership with Rachel Begley to arrest Jimmy Hughes.
That's right, because now it's reopened at this point. Yeah, yeah,
A few things to note at this time. Remember that grand jury investigation that
began in the eighties by Riverside police against Jimmy Hughes. This is when he
informed on the police that John Nichols was responsible right for paying someone off to
kill Alvarez. That investigation that had barely begun anyway, John Powers found it
odd that he could not find it. He said it had simply disappeared.
Of course, I don't know what that means. He doesn't know either.
After what the article called procedural wrangling, a warrant was finally issued for Jimmy
Hughes in August two thousand and nine. He was arrested at Miami Dade International
Airport in October trying to get to Hodudas fifty two years old. In two
thousand and nine, Hughes faced three counts of murder in the execution style shootings
of Cabison tribal official Alfred Alvarez and his friends Patricia Castro and Ralph Boger.
There was also a count of conspiracy to commit a crime very important. The
official reason for the warrant goes basically like this. Hughes conspired with John Philip
Nichols and his son John Paul, as well as other parties, to prevent
Alvarez from exposing illegal activities occurring at the Cabison Indian Reservation. It's beginning to
feel like the final fifteen minutes of a crime thriller movie. Jumping to July
one, the twenty ninth anniversary of the Triple murders, an important hearing takes
place in an Indian courtroom. Octopus community vets like Cherry Seymour sits among the
reporters. This is the part of the movie where justice is carried out,
but alas it does not quote. Then Michael Murphy, a dapper prosecutor from
the Attorney General's office, rose and delivered a shocking blow. We have lost
confidence in our ability to proceed with the prosecution, he said. Begley closed
her eyes tightly as the prosecutor gave a vague reason for his sudden about face,
something about new information and a reassessment of the evidence. Afterwards, Powers
stood next to Begley outside the courtroom as she addressed the television cameras sobbing.
The detective was disgusted by the outcome. The Attorney General's office gave no further
public explanation for its decision, but Power sensed that the prosecutors were eager to
dump the case. Murphy, he said, started to question the credibility of
the witnesses that Begley had uncovered. Throughout all this, Begley had used Twitter
and Facebook to mobilize the Octopus believers to pressure Murphy sorry, and at least
a few called the prosecutor to urge him to look beyond Hughes and dig into
the myriad connection that they had spent decades documenting. Begley's devotion and inventive use
of the Internet had helped ensnare Hughes, but the obsessions of her fellow travelers
may have helped to undermine the prosecutor's confidence. Oh Man Murphy declined to comment
unquote, so so her fellow conspiracy hm hmm. Like they went through hard
and they got they were too excited, like they like they found out that
the girl said yes to the first did and they go there and the two
fucking nervous. They talked too fucking fast. They're too excited, and they
ruined the date and they destroyed the credibility. Ye oh what a kick and
the teeth. I mean, you can't talk to conspiracy there is because if
we'rever actually proven, right, how are we going to contain themselves? How
how will you contain yourself? Jay? We can't, We can't, I
can't anyway. On July second, twenty ten, the l Day Time has
had a little more on this matter. Quote. During a court hearing in
Indio, Deputy Attorney General Mike Murphy told a Weverside County Superior Court judge that
his office was dropping the charges because of new evidence uncovered by state prosecutor prosecutors
sorry investigating the twenty nine year old case. Neither Murphy nor a spokesman for
Attorney General Jerry Brown provided details on those new findings. So I don't know
what it was. We conducted an exhausted and exhaustive review of the evidence.
Pro by the Sheriff's Department. We re interviewed key witnesses and uncovered additional evidence
tied to the case, said Evan Westrop, a spokesman for Brown. This
process and the new information of our office and the new information or office discovered
materially changed our assessment of the nature and quality of the evidence. Hughes was
expected to be released from jail, authority, said. The Attorney General's Office
asked that the charges be dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges could be filed at
a later date. The Attorney General's Office had been prosecuting the case because Hughes
is a distant cousin of Riverside County's District Attorney Rod Pacheco. Pacheco lost a
bid for reelection in June to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Paul Salerback, however,
creating the possibility that the new district attorney could take over the case.
So that's why I was sent to this other distric because there was an actual
conflict of interest here. Wow, didn't see that one coming. No,
I didn't see that one in either coming. But nothing's come from it.
I looked up in the sky it's pretty normal. Begley, who worked closely
with detectives from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, was livid about the prosecutorous decision
to drop the charges. This is a miscarriage of justice. The case against
him, since it was filed nine months ago, has not changed. Begley
said, I'm not going to give up. I'm not done. I'm going
to speak justice for my dad, Fred and Patricia Hughes, an ex Army
ranger and former security director at the Cabinson Casino and Tribess Bingo Operations, was
charged in October with the crimes dubbed the Octopus murders because the tentacles of complex
conspiracy spread worldwide. Nut now right away, I should say that this piece
reinforces a lie told back in news articles in the nineteen eighties when people thought
Jimmy Hughes was a security director, which he wasn't. He was just a
security officer. Is sis? Is this guy still around as far as that?
I'm okay, I mean I just looked at it present day. Yeah.
Yeah. And this this woman Begley Man, she has some balls,
I would say, so wow, Yeah, okay, I'm with you.
Yeah, I'm all right, we almost done with this one case. By
the way, there's two cases today, guys. Two murders, I mean
two deaths, are two different whatever, you know what I mean? Two
events? Two events. That's better. That's one and one. Yeah,
it's so crazy, Okay, I know now you see where I was going
through. I have two more loose ends here to tie two bombs. Maybe.
The Desert Sun reported something very interesting in December twenty seventeen. Oh,
you're gonna love this. This is so this is recent. Yeah, this
is the reason. Oh my god, you're gonna love this is why I
feel like I have more information. This is all past ten stuff. This
is the most recent I get. Fifty nine year old Russell Huber of Oroville,
California, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for
killing a man named Clyde Gregory Hayward on July sixth, nineteen ninety two.
Hayward was from Desert Palm, a resort city from Coachella Valley, and was
supposed was supposed to meet his girlfriend for a date on July second. His
pickup truck was found two weeks later on Highway ninety five with dried blood and
two three eighty shell casings found about one hundred yards from the vehicle. The
victims remains were found in a stream bed in Clark County, Nevada, in
February nineteen ninety three that long time, but warn't positively identified until May twentieth,
twenty fourteen. The NA sorry. The d NA analysis and meticulous forensic
work found Russell Huber in front of a jury, which only took three hours
of deliberations to arrive at a guilty verdict. Quote. Hayward's girlfriend, whose
name was not disclosed, told detectives at the time that she had turned down
a marriage proposal from her employer, John Nichols and believed he was behind her
boyfriend's disappearance, but there was no concrete evidence. The prosecution alleged that,
after being rejected by the victim's girlfriend, Nichols a range of fake business meeting
with Hayward under the guise of securing golf carts for a development project. Hayward,
a golf mechanic who previously had worked for a golf cart distributor, was
killed after he showed up to meet with Huber and Peter Boncour A longtime associate
of the defendant. According to the District Attorney's office, Russell Huber and this
Peter Boncour met in prison in the eighties. As I said before, this
Nichols family, especially John Philip Nichols, God shit done. So what happened
to the Nichols I mentioned how his wife Joanne worked in the offices of Cabison
Mission Tribe. She was pretty true blue and died working for them of natural
causes. John Paul Nichols, the son, is simply retired now. John
Nichols, I also mentioned, died in two thousand and one. I believe
it was heart failure. What's interesting is what happened. On July of nineteen
eighty five, John Philip Nichols pleaded no contest to two counts of solicitation to
commit murder, receiving a four year sentence. This murder for higher scheme went
awry because Nichols met with the two supposed hitmen, who turned out to be
police informed. Yeah, the two intended victims were residents of Indio, California.
I have no names for there would be victims. By the way,
Nichols was sixty at the time and due to ongoing health issues, and the
fact that no one was harmed it lessened the prison time. No motives were
mentioned by police when they arrested Nichols for the murder solicitations, but they believed
they were drug related. This drug angle might have originated from Nichols itself,
because he was placed in protective custody in Chino for it and was placed near
the infirmary for health reasons. So they were protecting them for something, or
he was protecting himself in advance from prison from the general population exactly. So
what do you think of this, these two things? What do you mean?
Well, Okay, I'm trying to say while I was saying it,
although I'm going to say it now, this motherfucker had Avaice killed Ran.
I mean, we it kind of sounds that way. I mean, we
find another headman hitman who brought another headman along, this boncoor guy. After
all this, after so many years in the twenty seventeen, right, they
find out that these two men in prison and this guy, the victim's girlfriend
dated or maybe was being sought after by this Nichols senior guy. Makes it
kind of connects too easily that these two headmen could have been the original killers
hired by Nicholas back then in eighty one. Well, you got to have
a someone in general or just in general for other things. You know.
If they killed this one guy in the eighties, right, yeah, he's
worked for me before, let's do it again. Or they've worked for me
before, let's do it again. Wow, Okay, interesting? Yep.
Not nice people, no, nice people, no, no, no no.
I think that out of the many lessons and takeaways the story brings,
one that must not be forgotten is that some choos never stay buried, and
that sometimes the conspiracy nuts are proven correct or as correct as history will allow
us. As promised, here's the TikTok video of Rachel Begley's daughter, tell
me conspiracy that sounds crazy but is true. I'll start the octopus murders.
What's that. Well, in nineteen eighty one, a Cabzon Indian tribal leader
named fred Alvarez, a Hell's angel named Ralph Boger, and their friend Patricia
Castro were murdered. In nineteen ninety one, there was a reporter named Danny
Cassilero. He was looking into the murders of those three. He even started
saying he probably had a break in the case and it could implicate people in
the US Justice Department. So naturally, a few days after saying that they
found him that of apparent suicide, twelve slashes on his wrist, one deep
enough to sever attendant. In two thousand and seven, the Hell's Angel's daughter,
she got a little curious and started looking into it too, and she
got threats, but she also got enough evidence to actually bring somebody to trial,
a trial that got dropped because of undisclosed new information. Why do I
know all this? Ralph Boger's my grandpa, and my mom was the one
getting threatened. Now I realized that there's still a lot of information left unexplained
on the table, plus the teases of outo left field keywords like the Reagan
administration and the fucking Yakuza. I still have another death to cover before we
enter tonight's show. At death Wesh, Princess talks briefly about a journalist that
was found dead after looking into the Triple murders in nineteen eighty one, and
that he had found some key information the circumstances around his apparent suicide, the
book he was working on, and the sources he was amassing is what makes
this story too big for one show. Part two will cover the big and
small players that I simply could not get into today, which is why this
next segment will interest you but also leave you wanting more. Let's get into
it. Whatever the number of sources and publications that talks about the nineteen eighty
one Triple murders, there's at least double that amount for this journalist. His
name was Joseph Daniel Cassilero. Everyone called him Danny or Daniel. And for
this segment, amongst the articles written in the nineties and two thousands, I
will use two opposing books as sources. One is called When Fiction Becomes Fact
The Death of Danny Castilero from June of this year, not this year.
Second book is titled The Octopus, Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casilero
from ninety six. And it's easy to tell which book believes in the conspiracy
which doesn't by the titles alone. All right, background on Danny Castilero goes
like this. Born in nineteen five seven, Danny came from a big Italian
American Catholic family in McLean, Virginia. McLean rested in northern Virginia in Fairfax
County, and his home to people from the military, diplomats, and government
official officials due to its close proximity to Washington, d C. The Casteleras
are not connected to DC in any way, but since Danny's father was a
doctor, the family was stable but not rich, you know, like rich
light maybe rich light. I don't know why I say those things. Danny
was seen as gregarious, a womanizer, and enjoyed a drink in his hand.
It's safe to say that he frequented the bars of any town he visited.
He married a former Miss Virginia named Tarrell Pace, and they had a
son together named Trey. After ten years, they divorced and Danny was granted
legal custody over Trey. His career has peaks and valleys, but nothing long
lasting or stable. He freelanced as a journalist for different publications here and there,
usually political and world news pieces, but Danny also was an amateur boxer.
He wrote poetry in short stories, and even wrote a novel titled The
Ice King in eighty one, the year of our triple slayings. From the
late seventies up to the end of the eighties, Danny Casilero acquired a series
of computer industry trade publications, which he sold. This last bit is useful
because when he decided to take up journalism again in the early nineties, his
entrance to this Octopus conspiracy was of a computer software scandal with the with the
US Department of Justice. Very interesting there. Danny was in the middle of
writing a book when he died. It was untitled, and most of the
papers were held in his briefcase or an accordion file holder thing, you know,
all those things. It became almost like a characteristic seeing Danny carrying his
papers nearly everywhere with him. I'm not going to get into the details,
but Danny was trying to find a publisher for his book. He needed the
advance and or the resources that the backing of a publishing house could bring for
him, but he was not successful. Three pitches, three meetings, and
they turned them down. Everything that went into writing the book, Travel Connections
Paperwork was self funded. Sources do not say that the book led to his
money troubles, but around the same time, Danny was talking to lawyers about
needing to sell the house he lived or he'd lose it due to back taxes.
In the past, Danny's supports system. His family did help him with
loans, but the house problem was too big to solve at the time of
his death. Now, in the days leading to his death, Danny's friends
and family were interviewed by US slew of people like local police, FBI journalists,
and others. There is a surprising amount of information of the days leading
up to his death, the day of, and the weeks afterward. It
is as meticulous of a character study as a big conspiracy legend like Lee Harvey
Oswald said that word Lee Harvey Oswald. Okay, I'll give you guys some
examples and highlights. I'm not going to tell you everything. Oh, that's
another book entirely just on the day to day everyone. They mentioned a lot
of names. I'm not gonna get into all it, but I'll give you
highlights and a little bit on each day. On August fifth, nineteen ninety
one, Danny spoke to his brother Anthony Casilaro about not being able to get
enough sleep lately because of phone calls he'd been getting in the middle of the
night. This wasn't a new thing, though Danny had been receiving these interruptive
calls for three months prior to his death. Quote. Later that day,
and Klank, a friend and journalist, saw Castilero's car parked outside Hunter's Bar
in Oakton, Virginia. Clank went inside and saw Castilero head slumped down sitting
at the bar. Cassilero looked terrible. Cassilero looked at Clank and said,
in a tone of disgust, I just broke in slaw. Bill Hamilton's going
to be real excited. Cassilero then told Clank, you can have the story,
and if you don't want it, you can give it to Jack Anderson.
Clink had once worked as a reporter for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. Cassilero
told Clank that he had got just gotten back from West Virginia and that he
was going back again. Clank was worried about Casilero. She said that his
mood was not one that one would expect of a journalist who had just broken
a big story. She ordered a pizza for him, begged him to eat
something, and left. Unquote. Tuesday, August sixth, Danny called two
journalists about the Octopus book treatment he'd sent to them for discussion. Here,
he mentions to his colleagues that he was leaving to meet an anonymous source that
would make a pretty big dent in this conspiracy. To Martinsburg, West Virginia,
a neighbor named Olga Mocros. I don't know why I say that way.
Olga Mocros was Danny's longtime housekeeper and she helped him pack for his trip.
Olga asked Danny if she should spare his she should prepare, sorry,
prepare his home for his son Trey, who was due to visit in about
two weeks. Danny Cassilera told her that she wouldn He sorry that he would
not see Trey anymore, and then he led her to his basement his basement
office, i should say, and showed Olga where he kept his will.
This was the last time she saw Danny. Olga told the Village Voice.
This is after, obviously that she answered several threatening calls that day. One
of them, for example, was a man that said this is a quote.
Now I will cut his body and throw it to the sharks. Shit.
On Wednesday, August seventh, Casilero's close drinking buddy friend came to his
house for a visit. He described Casilero's mood as exuberant and showed Mason papers
in his basement office. Mason recalls seeing a photocopy of a passport of a
young man named Ibrahim. This next bit is mildly important. Mildly important,
and the reason I'm bringing it up, and the reason I'm bringing up this
photo copy quote. On August twenty ninth, nineteen ninety one, weeks after
Danny's death, and on September twenty seventh, nineteen ninety one, the Martinsburg
Police received copies of a passport photo of an Arab named Hassan Ali Ibrahim Ali.
This may have been this same photograph that Castilero had shown to Ben Mason
in his basement office on Wednesday, August seventh. There is no evidence that
Castelero ever met Ibraim, or that Ibraim, whoever he is, had anything
to do with Castilero's death. It's odd, but I wanted to mention that
connection because his friend saw a photography of a passport. It said, Abraim
looked Arab got to this time later he recognizes it, you know, recognized
that's such a personal document. Yeah, for someone to have a copy of
basement, Yeah, yeah, very weird. I don't have much on that
right now, but it's odd. On Thursday, August eighth, Castilero drove
to Martinsburg, West Virginia and checked into the Sheraitan Inn just off of Interstate
eighty one. Check in was between noon and one o'clock in the afternoon.
He mentioned to the desk clerk that he was late for a meeting, so
he'd have to open his room later, which is Room five to seven,
and the clerk did notice Danny carrying a beat up black or brown briefcase.
He wasn't sure. Danny headed to the bar at the Stone Crab Inn and
mentions to the bartender, Tom Hatches, whom he recognized the year previous working
at the Sheraton, ind that he's waiting to meet some Arabs. No one
came, so at about one point thirty Danny asked for some change and went
outside where a payphone was stationed, but no one saw or heard the call.
From here, he goes to Pizza Hut and drinks considerably more than his
food portions, which was a small pizza. Leaving at four pm. Cassilero
then heads to Hartsfield's Lounge and the bartender recalls his orders, starting off as
bottled beer but switching to draft because it was cheaper. They should tell you
a lot about his drinking. There's three different places he's drinking in the afternoon,
just saying motherfucker drinks quote Hittrick. The bartender did not see Cassilera talking
with any one else that night. However, the bar maid, Kim Waters,
told a different story. The police originally met her by chance when they
went to the home of one of the shirts and desk clerks to interview him
three days after Cassilero's death. She happened to be at at the desk clerk's
home. The police showed her Casilero's photograph. She said she remembered seeing him
at the bar, but could not remember anything else. Later that day,
she contacted the police, saying she had not remembered that Cassilero had arrived at
the bar at about five ten p m. And that he had sat at
a table with another man whom she described as dark skinned, like maybe Iranian
or Arabian. Oh Waters recalled that both men were drinking draft beer, and
that the Arabian man was drinking very fast and was very insistent that the bar
maids served him quickly. She claims to have served four beers each to Castelero
and the other man. She said the other man paid for all the beers
in cash. Three days later, Waters helped the police prepare a composite drawing
of this Arabian person. No one has been able to determine who this person
is was, if indeed there was such a person. Wow, Okay,
some plots definitely thickening here, like corn starts on Sunday. I don't know.
I gotta think Dona Rodde Bakers realized I'm a star on Sunday. Yeah,
okay. That last part, if indeed there was such a person,
is the bias of the author coming out against any actual conspiracy like in play,
but I digress does the meeting with the Middle Eastern fellow at Heartfield's heart
Heather Sorry, Heatherfields, I said, heart Fields. It's heather Fields Lounge.
Be this Ibrahim or related to him in some way? I don't know.
Friday, August ninth is the last day Danny Casselera was seen alive.
Danny told the front desk that he'd been staying an additional night. He wasn't
originally going to stay the nextra night. It was just supposed to be one
night, but he asked for another. Here's where I gotta tease you guys
with something juicy, but snatching it back right after. Danny Cassillo had two
prime sources, actually fountains of information for his Octopus book. One of them
was a man named Bill Hamilton, who's involved neck deep with the inslaw scandal
and the promised software and they had a strong friendship. Bill was worried for
Danny on that Friday because there had been days since their last phone call Monday
to be exact, and they keep in touch nearly every day. It's kind
of cute. Actually, they used to play chess over the phone. Yeah,
I love that. It's a real romance. Bill knew of the meeting
but not the person, but that it was related to the Octopus and expected
him back home earlier. Bill ended up calling Danny's ex and in turn would
wait to hear back from Danny. Obviously, it never happened. From the
afternoon, Castelero's whereabouts are mostly known drinking beer here, coffee, or eating
something there. At about six pm, he plays a collect call to his
mother's house, saying that he might not make his niece's birthday party since he
was still in Martinsburg. A little after midnight, Castilero walked across the street
to the convenience store for some coffee and made conversation with the clerk and another
witness before returning back to the hotel. The only times that are unaccounted for
are between noon and two o'clock and six and nine pm, but he was
most likely in the hotel room. That's what people say. That's kind of
what I say too, I guess. The next day, Saturday, August
tenth, Castilera was supposed to check out at noon, so while at around
one o'clock, the maid assigned to the fifth floor went in, noticed the
bathroom door hallway halfway open, saw blood and called for help. Quote Castillaro's
nude body was in the bathtub, The water was bloody, the water temperature
was cold. The tub was about three to half was about half to three
fourths full. Castillarra was sitting with his feet toward the faucet. He was
leaning against the side of the tub, his head slumped over the side.
His right arm was hanging over the side of the tub, and his right
hand was lying flat on the floor. His left hand was submerged underwater,
tucked beneath his left thigh. Both of Castilaro's wrists had cut wounds. The
fingernails on the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger of his right hand appeared
to have been chewed. Danny's wrist had been deeply slashed three or four on
his right wrist and seven or a right on his left wow. Blood was
splattered on the walls and the floor. Next to the bathtub rested the wrapper
from the razor blade and a half empty bottle of a Portuguese white wine.
An ashtray with three cigarette butts was on top of the toilet tank, as
well as a pack of cigarettes among Danny's fingerprints. Another was found on the
ashtray, and it has not been identified to this day. Unfortunately, beyond
speculation, I have nothing else on this ashtray. There were no signs of
a struggle or fourth entry to the bathroom or hotel room. The rooms adjacent
and a cross room five point seventeen were full as part of one party of
people in town for a soccer game. They heard nothing unusual throughout the night,
and they didn't leave their rooms till morning. His wallet and identification was
found in the room. The police also found a large black cope bag which
contained an empty bottle of Vicodin pills, one box of hefty trash bags with
two bags missing from the role, an unopened second bottle of the same white
wine, one corkscrew, and three packs of cigarettes. I should note here
that the vicant empty bottle of Vikadin was the last remnants of his subscription he
had from a dental surgery he had the year previous. I see they heard
that later. I didn't write that here. I don't know why. Lastly,
illegal pad was found on the nightstand in room five point seventeen. A
single page was torn from the pad and it read to those who I love
the most, Please forgive me for the worst for the worst possible thing I
could have done. Most of all, I'm sorry to my son. I
know deep down inside that God will let me in. Oh man, that's
sad. Yeah, we don't say yeah, Well, I mean, so
if you killed himself. There's a couple of reasons, I guess right.
One is sounds like he was in sort of financial ruin, which is very
embarrassing for an adult male. Right it's a bad place to find yourself.
Very embarrassing. Uh too, you know he was onto this octopus thing?
Did someone kill him and stage the scene? But ThReD and his family you
know him, right? Yeah? Yeah? Absolutely? And then of course
this uh, this dark skinned fellow, you know, we don't know who
he is and what happened to him? The source, right, the source,
Yeah, the Wow, there's a lot going on. There, a
lot going on here. You're right. Signs of suicide are parent and no
one would think otherwise or anything else upon first hearing the details or walking into
the bathroom. Right, this might be the best time to insert another clip.
Have you heard of a show called Unsolved Mysteries? You know, I
have? I love it? Yeah, I've on't seen a few episodes that
way. It's a TV show that started in nineteen eighty seven and had eleven
seasons with different celebrity hosts. Not unlike Twilight Zone, Unsolved Mysteries has had
a resurgence lately when Netflix renewed it on their platform. The show focused on
real cases of perplexing disappearances, shocking murders, and paranormal encounters, kind of
like SOS, the TV show you know, Oh, one could only dream.
One could only dream, right? Can you imagine being at a TV
show host? I don't that I could do it? My hair, I
forget it. I'm the makeup tone noise. On March tenth, nineteen ninety
three, Unsolved Mysteries released their twenty fourth episode of their fifth season. In
one of the topics, the first one actually was about Danny Casilero. Let's
hear a segment of it. It is edited for time and spoilers. Just
a few days before Danny Castilearro died, he told friends that he was on
the verge of breaking a huge story. Danny claimed to have proof that some
officials in the US Justice Department were corrupt. Many suspect that Danny's death was
not a suicide. They believe that he was murdered because he was the man
who knew too much for direct connections with some of the underworld crime figures.
Not only Danny Casilo stepped into a world that he didn't belong in, the
type of people that he became involved with lae just as a matter of course,
they lie, they cheat. There are people who've been involved in numerous
murders, dealing drugs, deal in Halms and Danny Casilo thought he could find
his way through this labry by himself. That was a mistake. Then the
guys that I've been working with, my contacts, and they're calling me and
say, look, Danny, you're getting too close. You're going to get
hurt. Back off. A week before he died, Danny told his brother
Tony that he had been receiving death threats. I don't recognize your voices.
I don't know where they're coming from. They're just saying you are going to
die. I'll tell you this, Solf when I go to Martinsburg. If
something happens to me, or if I should get hurt, don't believe it's
an accident. Danny arrived in Martinsburg with all of his notes and documents two
days before he died. He was scheduled to meet with several informants and complete
his investigation. He believed one of these new contacts would deliver key evidence about
the finances of the Octopus. The day before he died, Danny met with
William Turner. He was a former employee of a major defense contractor. He
has some documentation. Do you have something for me? According to Turner,
he gave Danny papers showing the corruption that Danny believed was tied to the octopus,
but within twenty four hours, Danny Castilero was dead. There was no
sign of Turner's documents or Danny's research papers. To this day, not one
of those papers has been found. The media was all over the story.
West Virginia authorities opened the formal investigation and ordered an autopsy. Assistant medical Zamer
for the State of West Virginia he said, well, you know, he's
already been embalmed, and that's going to make it a little difficult. And
I said, what are you talking about. He's already been embombed. And
he said, well, he was embombed apparently already. He said, you
didn't know that. I said, absolutely not. I said, we didn't
give any permission. I'm now going to cut the sutures to examine the wounds.
The autopsy confirmed that Danny had bled to death from the twelve razor cuts,
but more importantly, it revealed that Danny wasn't alone in his hotel room
during his last moments. There was on The actual autopsy report described a bruise
on the arm and a bruise on the head, which were never accounted for.
I was told there were no signs of any struggle. Additionally, the
tips of three fingernails were missing from one hand when Danny's hotel room was cleaned
the day after. Is that by a professional cleaning crew? Important evidence was
destroyed. One of the housekeepers saw two bloody towels in the bathroom minutes after
Danny's body was found. It looked like they were used to wipe blood off
the bathroom floor. The police reports of the investigation certainly not a professional Fingerprints
get lost, messed up. They drained the tub without austraina sloppy work.
Police have a rule in this country, and government people have a rule.
When they screw up, they cover up. Said, but true. Do
I think they covered up here? Yes? I do. Even Danny's funeral
was clouded by mystery. At the funeral, a highly decorated military officer arrived
in a limousine near the end of the service. No one recognized him.
What did they do? The man carefully placed a medal on the casket just
before was lowered into the ground. And we went back to Francis's house,
Danny's mother's house, And I said Francis, who was the military man,
and she said, I thought, you know, and we asked everyone there.
There had to be fifty people at Francis. No one knew who they
were. No one. Sorry if the editing was choppy, but I didn't
want to spoil you guys on information that is way too dense, especially in
a TV program. If you do watch the episode, just know that there's
two layers deeper that I'll be sharing in part two. According to what I
have, the embalming did occur before the family was notified. Martinsburg City paramedic
David Brining was asked by Charles Brown, owner of Brown's Funeral home, if
the body could be embalmed. Brianing did release the body, and because the
death was deemed to be a suicide, no autopsy was necessary. Two mistakes
occur from this. The first is that Brown doesn't do a full job of
embalming Danny's body, missing his bladder and liver. The second is that Brining
should have made sure that the next of kin was notified first before releasing the
body. Under West Virginia law, a deceased body may not be embalmed unless
the authorities have first made due inquiry as to the desires of the next of
kin. However, it was common practice for funeral homes in Martinsburg to do
this when dealing with outsiders, people who didn't live there. This part was
reported heavily and cited as a strange fact that supports conspiracy and murder. I
cannot say for sure, people do make mistakes and all, but adding in
the revolving evidence of what Danny knew and what we know, and it doesn't
look good for just the suicide, you know what I'm saying. I mean,
it certainly raised eyebrows. Yes, yes, for sure when I read
that, Like, come on, anyway, I mean, do they even
make any attempt to contact Trey for example Danny's no, no, no,
I'm about to get into a little bit of that, but no they don't.
I mean they do eventually, but not before the embalming. It's my
point. You know. The Cassilera family weren't notified of Danny's death until August
eleventh. Martinsburg police say it was miscommunication within the officers, but again,
who knows regardless. Upon hearing the news, Anthony Cassilero immediately asked Detective Swarth
Swartwood, sorry, who was assigned to Casilero and placed the initial call to
perform an autopsy immediately that his brother had warned him that his life might be
in danger. There are a couple of conflicting things in the Unsolved Mysteries clip,
though. The first is that the paramedic Brining did find a bruise on
Cassilero's arm, but an injury, even a minor one, was not mentioned
to the head of the head, so the video says it was a headwe
Banara there was no one in her report. The video also talks about how
a professional cleaning crew came the next day to rid the room of any evidence.
That is not true or at least rubs against with what I read,
which is that the room was left undisturbed the rest of Saturday and all day
Sunday. What is odd is that police did not officially seal the room before
they left. The hotel manager left the room undisturbed. It was a civilian
who kept the room undisturbed, not the authorities. Now, the bloody towels
in the bathroom is interesting. Officials said that Danny, in a drunken stupor
or and delirium from the loss of blood, saw the blood on the floor
and wanted to clean it up, you know, to not make a mistake
or I'm a mess. Sorry. I guess it is possible, but logically
it could mean that someone was there or came afterward and cleaned the bloody footprint
they made in the bathroom. With the other mistakes Martinsburg police made, it
is just as likely that evidence of struggle or suspicious activities were found in room
five point seventeen, but the trampling done by authorities caused them to cover it
up to avoid shame and repercussion. M hmm. There's a lot more to
talk about, but we are nearing the end here. But what do you
think of that so far? Why would they leave the room unsealed? Do
they want someone to walk in there and screw screw the crime scene? Well,
it's obvious that they thought it was a simple suicide, but still I
don't know how that works with I don't know how procedure works in that sense,
but either way, they should probably keep away anyone that might come in.
Right, it's still bloody and shed, absolutely right, and then a
bruise to the head. Yeah, so right, So the edit magic of
editing, You didn't actually hear the clip. Everyone else did. But on
the clip in the Unsolved Mysteries they say that two bruises were found on Danny's
body that the brother was not aware of. You know, he was only
aware of the slashes to his wrists, right, But one bruise was on
his arm, upper arm, and then the other supposedly his head. That's
what the Unsolved Mysteries clip says. That is not true with what I read.
The paramedic brinding found the bruise on the arm, sure, but not
the head. So community the differences like where they embellished something? Okay,
at least what I could find. The other one being the towels maybe,
but I want to mention as much of the details as I can, at
least the weird ones. And yeah, use towles clean up bloody footprint.
Right, that was all my theory right there, But yeah, still that
could be that. Wow, where am I fuck hold on? Okay?
Here's two more things that the clip talks about are Bill Turner and the military
presence at Danny's funeral. The Bill Turner element is a cog in a bigger
discussion, and I honestly don't know if he and Danny met on August ninth,
nineteen ninety one. As he said, either way, his role in
the Octopus conspiracy is more than just a meeting. The fun thing about the
military officer that no relative or friend of Danny's recognized is that I do not
yet know what that's about. I'm still very much reading and discovering new things
each day, but I'll try to get to the bottom of it. Maybe
just one of his sources or something could be. But we don't know why
he had a home general looking guy. You know, we don't know anything
about him so far. I don't yet. Yeah. One thing that I
haven't mentioned, and this is kind of important, and I'm surprised you haven't
thought of it. You know what's missing the hotel room. I don't Keith,
no, his work, his papers, where's his briefcase? I mentioned
everything that was found in the room that was not one of them. Oh
Oh shit, there you go. What you'd say about that? Sorry,
I'm sleeping on the job. Yeah, because you mentioned how everyone always talks
about how characteristic. Yes, yes, his beat up brown or black m
briefcase which was at the restaurants, right bartender seen it and everything? Yeah,
keep it in his car sometimes when he drank. But they searched his
car and they found nothing. Nothing like that. Well, that's as volumes
right there. It's still missing, by the way, it's gone. Really
it's gone. It's connected to the octopus. Then, I mean, there's
the evidence right there. Yeah. I really wanted to say it to the
very end. I'm at the last paragraph here, but yeah, well think
his his wallet was left there. Nothing, He's were there too, That's
why they found the car, and like, everything looks fine in the car,
but they didn't find the fucking briefcase. But the briefcase. Wow,
well played, accordion of files. Nothing. I like the way you set
that up. Well played, Thank you. I want to put that in
there for sure. So that's a big that's one of the big conspiracy hold
lots, like, hey, what about the fucking papers? You know?
Anyway, In the meantime, know that I am supremely confident that even a
veteran skeptic of conspiracies will raise their eyebrows when I'm done with all of this.
The connections are too big to fail easily researchable. What becomes complicated is
discerning what is embellished and what isn't what's complicated or too easy to connect.
There is a lot of interesting scraps of information left on the ground floor for
this show that could almost double the word count. With that, keep in
mind that the next show will define a generation of lying, backstabbing, and
killing and all in the name of money, power and disbelief. Join us,
won't you? For the Octopus conspiracy? Cool? Because others this thing
will be a hot box. Do you have a Do you have windows in
that room? Yeah? Yeah, well obviously is sticking out of a window,
but the windows. Oh it's a window unit. Oh, I'm surprised
I can hear it right that. Yeah, that's why I thought you thought
I meant central area. No, no, yeah, I mean if I
put this thing, yeah, I don't think I could hear it. Oh
yeah, then now I could hear a little bit. Even at that point.
It's just very faint. It's cool. I'm surprised. I'm I'm happier
I could keep it on. Oh, I'm doing something from the plast from
the past. So you know, I told you I've been listened to our
previous episodes. One of them we talked about how well there was a there
was a bit of episodes there in a row where I will come to your
house. This is before COVID obviously, and we record there and you would
obviously serve me some drink, and one of them was UV blue and Fanta.
So guess what I got? No way, mm hmm. That episode
reminded me, so I to re stock last week or week before I got
the UV Blue. Yeah, i'man drinking in here and there. Cool,
I don't have any I don't have any UV Blue. I have to get
some. Yeah, gotta get some. Yeah, that that's a yeah.
We're listening to our episodes has really helped me out here on some stuff.
Cool, like like what I know some ideas that you were listening last time?
Oh yeah, that that means that's I guess that's what I mean.
The UV Blue is probably like a weird example compared to others. But all
right, do you want to do I assume both back to back this one
in Patreon? Yeah, what do you wanna or do you wanna? Okay,
well, do you want to see where we are after the main one?
Yeah? Okay, that's because we have until technically Wednesday, right for
Patreon Tuesday Tuesday, it's right, because we're not do anything on the first
of the next month, on the end of this month. Yeah, so
if anything tomorrow, I don't know what you're up to. Uh, just
I mean I'm out how many well, how many pages is this first episode
here? Oh? Thirty four? Shit? Shit? If I what,
I don't know if I'll be it's already eleven almost eleven thirty. I don't
know if I could do because tomorrow is a workday. I do have beats
also, where like you might want to ask questions and shit or whatever.
But yeah, thirty four And honestly it might be the shortest one if I
make two more parts. So I think I'm gonna break one hundred pages total.
I was saying, what might break one hundred pages? You have no
idea what there is out there? So what's up? Oh that's something I'm
gonna have to mention and I'm gonna have to work that in there somehow,
that this topic overall might break one hundred page script right and m okay,
like part two again. I mean I haven't just done this thing. I
mean I literally finished this part one last night, and I think I'm gonna
have to like wing the very end a little because I think I just wrote
it. I was like five am. This is five am. But after
six ye, I don't remember anymore. I was like trying getting to go
to sleep, but I can't wait till the market. I'm recording, right,
I have to work, so I'm like I'm running and I'm just put
his fucking ending whatever ended, and I'm like thinking doing work, like I
should probably figure out how juice your ending there. So all right, let's
see, let's see how this goes. All right, waiting for the countdown,
You got the vapors, right, You're good. I went and I
reached over to my mouth to like press stop because I've been recording with I'm
like, wait, I'm must stop this. Oh no, I'll rolling right.
I'm like, what the what am I doing? Jesus hold yourself?
Are you rust at doing the s O show? Yeah? You know,
one thing I realized with doing this, this particular Octopus show, is that
I'm really better reading. Takes me so long to read you mean read the
script that you write or no, no, no resources, read the sources
I see. I see. Also, fascinatingly, I that's the right word.
I never you know, I always kind of like I tend to for
all of our previous shows. I think almost it's not a one hundred percent,
nearly a hundred percent of all of our previous shows that I've ever done
research for, I always start with Wikipedia and I go from there, you
know, I find whatever they have sourced, and then go from there.
And the need to build levels deep as you can. Yeah, this one
opposite. I never even touched Wikipedia only to find some background informal town,
like just basic info on the on a county and a town. Never even
looked at the Wikipedia. That's how much shit. I didn't need it anything.
It's cool. Yeah, that is wild man, didn't even need it.
That blew my mind that two days ago when I realized, I'm like,
like, that's true, shit, because you're you're so right. I
mean, usually of the place to start, Yeah, it really is.
It gets kind of the juices flown. It gives you real good high level
information, and then, like you said, you branch out from there and
go deeper and deeper. But to not have to do that, that's great,
m And I even realize you didn't have to do it. Yeah,
because I started with the books. That's why. Probably is it Okay,
is it okay for me to mention, you know, I'll come up with
something to say. But the octopus murders, Yeah, that's what it's called.
I mean, no, mean, I have a whole intro that intro
said, you know, you know, I'm just talking dramatic about it.
So there's a little flare in the beginning, not much at the end because
like I said, I wrote it very fast at the end. But otherwise,
yeah, I really I should try to hit I had this whole theory
in my head about this whole thought process in my head of like showing how
you know, these people ain't no angels, including Danny Kesseler. He had
problems, So I hope I did a good job of portraying the you know,
he had problems and issues. It could still be suicide. It could
also very much not likely. It's like equal parts both, you know.
Yeah, but I mean I think anyone would lean towards most likely conspiracy.
I mean, I can my theory honestly on this is that honestly is that
he was threatened, convincingly threatened, either in person or through the phone,
to commit suicide to save his family, save his probably his kid, let's
say, and and then someone came in check to make sure it was done,
cleaned the footprint, took the papers, and left one hundred percent.
That's had to have That's what happened. That's very good. That's what I
think happened. I think he really did commit suicide in the video. Again
you have you have seen the unsolved mysteries yet, But in the video they
mentioned and the other sources mentioned this too, that one of the cuts on
his left fist was so deep that it cut at tendon. I didn't mention
it, even though it's meant and other sources. One because I forgot,
but two it's because I don't think I would have mentioned it, or I
would have said it just to dismiss it, because it's not set in the
reports and the and the parameters start to support the autopsy they did after the
embombing, which led to nowhere. Because the embombing gets what can clear out
all toxics of anything in there anyway, it fucks up the autopsy. There's
no results. The bombing fucked everything up. That's why I made him sure.
I put it there because the brother wanted the autopsy right immediately. But
it was embombed already. All the upetance is fucked up. What can you
get out of it except for a surface level shit that and nothing would deliver
the no. No. But it was common practice for West Virginia to do
that with outsider but they were but they weren't supposed to do that until the
next of kin was notified. They skipped that step. It was still a
step they skipped, but it was still common practice to do that. Yeah,
very weird. It is weird. Sh