Danny Casolaro/Simpson Murders: Joey Ippolito & The Octopus?

Message from a flounder:

Alex:

I've been rereading The Octopus, scanning it in my head if I was to turn it into film. Here's some interesting facts from chapter 16:

The last date Danny Casolaro was known to be alive, August 9, 1991, coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the Manson slayings in Los Angeles (and also the date that Wacko Jacko arrived in L.A. with his family to start his musical career.) The day his dead body was found was day two of Helter Skelter. Twenty-two skidoo, indeed.

One main reason Casolaro was in Martinsburg was to interview staff members for Senator Robert Byrd. He ... is alleged by a piece on The Temple of Set (in a fundamentalist Christian magazine) to be heavily involved in the legal setup of Aquino's Satanic Church. Do two rumors equal a truth? No, but in any case, Byrd is a "former" KKK member.

You also have this juicy bit: "The other thing that he was doing was making inquiries, over the telephone, to the Syndicate in Los Angeles. And those inquiries had rattled the cages of some people out there. And there was some concern that they might respond to the rattling by killing Danny. The claim that I have heard from some sources is that someone with mob responsibilities (I guess you'd call it) - some person in the mob - is a member of the leadership of 'the Octopus' and it's someone from the Los Angeles mob. And Danny was on to it."

Excuse me for overspeculation, but an L.A. mob leader with leadership in The Octopus. Say, what are the odds that it's Joseph Ippolito? He certainly fits the bill as much as anyone. That would tie the Bundy Murders and the Octopus as close together as possible. I may add that John Connolly, the dude who wrote about Casolaro in Spy Magazine, also had a cover story report, "Cafe Nostra", in the March 1994 issue, detaiing the Mafia's control of Los Angeles and Hollywood. In it, he named Ippolito as a major drug trafficker. Soon after, Spy was abruptly closed down by the publisher under mysterious conditions (it was the last issue), only to return later that year an embarrassing shell of itself.