He Uncovered a Rogue CIA Conspiracy. Then He Was Found Dead.

Conspiracy theories are dangerous in more ways than one, and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders is—among many, many things—an exposé about the irrevocable damage that can come from falling down the rabbit hole. Produced by Mark and Jay Duplass (Wild Wild Country), Netflix’s four-part true-crime docuseries is an investigation into what its primary subject believed was “the political conspiracy of the century.” Yet the further it proceeds down its hopelessly winding path, the more it becomes a portrait of the hazards posed by such sleuthing and thinking. Enticing viewers with the promise of world-shattering secrets and then miring them in a thicket of debatable facts, dubious conjecture, and manic fantasy, it’s an expert case of true-crime form echoing its content.

Designed to make one’s head spin until it hurts, American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders (Feb. 28) is the tale of Danny Casolaro, a writer who was found dead in a Sheraton hotel bathtub on Aug. 10, 1991, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Police swiftly dubbed this a suicide, since Casolaro had been alone, his wrists had been cut, and he’d left a farewell note. Those closest to the outgoing and loving man, however, thought otherwise. For one, Casolaro’s wrists had 12 separate slash wounds that were so deep, they’d severed the tendons. Moreover, there was blood all over the room, in places that made no sense if he’d simply been ending his life. Most suspicious of all, though, was the fact that just a few short weeks before his demise, Casolaro had told his brother Tony that if something happened to him, it wouldn’t be an accident.