. [26] Other papers were slow to pick up the story, but African Americans quickly took note, especially in South Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series had been active. He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. Gary Webb was at his desk in the Mercury News's Sacramento office, in July 1995, when he received a message to call Coral Baca, a Hispanic woman from the San Francisco Bay area, allegedly connected to a Colombian drug cartel. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Begun 1996, the divorce and battle over cash of Grammy winner Jimmy Webb age 75, father of six, wed 22 years to Patsy, 64, daughter of late actor Barry Sullivan is getting longer. It was just more than he could take.". Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. It was written by Jesse Katz, the same reporter who, less than two years earlier, had described Ross's conglomerate as "the Wal-Mart of crack dealing". [10] The series, which examined the murder of a coal company president with ties to organized crime, won the national Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for reporting from a small newspaper. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. Leen, who covered the cocaine trade for the Miami Herald in the 1980s, rejects the claim that "because the report uncovered an agency mindset of indifference to drug-smuggling allegations", it vindicated Webb's reporting. Family (1) Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. The series follows the stories of several characters whose lives are fated to intersect including CIA operative Teddy McDonald who helps to secure guns for the Contras. } One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. He really did believe that," she says. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. *, 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion' is published in the UK by Seven Stories Press, priced 11.99, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. In August of 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his life. Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint OConnor had a solid featurethe other day about Kill the Messenger, the journalism true-tale movie opening Friday with Jeremy Renner starring as the late Gary Webb. We had been here before." Gary was born May 5, 1954, to his parents Worley and Margaret Webb, who preceded him in death as well as his brother, David Webb. It found that Blandn received permanent resident status "in a wholly improper manner" and that for some time the Department "was not certain whether to prosecute Meneses, or use him as a cooperating witness." Thank you." Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Webb typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; laid out a certificate for his cremation; and taped a note on the door telling movers, who were . [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. The first article, by Katz, developed a different picture of the origins of the crack trade than "Dark Alliance" had described, with more gangs and smugglers participating. Like Schou, Corn cites the inspector general's report, which he says "acknowledged that the CIA had indeed worked with suspected drugrunners (sic) while supporting the contras. A passing motorist - a heavily tattooed young man - gave him a lift home, then returned and stole the motorcycle, which police recovered from him three days after Webb's death. An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. His corpse was discovered on the seventh anniversary of his resignation from the Mercury News. Noting that most of the activities discussed in the report had nothing to do with the people Webb reported on, Kornbluh told Schou, "I can't say it's a vindication. WEBB, Mr. Gary Lee, our beloved son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle went home with his heavenly Father Monday, August 29, 2011 at University of Michigan Hospital. The feeling was that with other news outlets calling for Webb's head, the paper's credibility depended on their joining in on the attacks. In May 1997, after an internal review, Ceppos stated that, although the story was right on many important points, there were shortcomings in the writing, editing and production of the series. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. [62], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of "millions," contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. Army. 'Dark Alliance' - both as journalism and as a book - is a convoluted narrative, but the crucial link it establishes is between the "agricultural salesman" Oscar Danilo Blandn, a Contra sympathiser with close CIA links, and his best customer, an LA drug dealer known as "Freeway" Ricky Ross. Her husband began his career on The Kentucky Post, and rapidly proved himself to be the sort of character who can be a secretive agency's worst nightmare: a full-blooded provocateur who liked to put the hours in at the library. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . Maxine Waters found a govt employee ran the South Central LA drug ring & The DOJ removed that section of the report : r/conspiracy 3 yr. ago Posted by shylock92008 Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. Webb, Bell explains, had written four letters explaining what he was about to do - one to her, one to each of their three children - and mailed them immediately before he killed himself. Webb, one of the boldest and most outstanding reporters of his generation, was the journalist who, in 1996, established the connection between the CIA and major drug dealers in Los Angeles, some of whose profits had been channelled to fund the Contra guerrilla movement in Nicaragua. Webb was born in Corona, California. Poor Gary Webb. He cites the case of Alfred McCoy, now Professor of South East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. The drugs went to South Central LA. "I'd get discouraged," she said, "but I never really gave up hope." Back in 1997, SN&R brought the controversy about Gary Webb to readers with "Secrets and Lies," a cover story about why the mainstream media attacked . I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. A 1985 series, "Doctoring the Truth," uncovered problems in the State Medical Board[12] and led to an Ohio House investigation which resulted in major revisions to the state Medical Practice Act. [50] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series's claims. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. [43] He did this in a column that appeared on November 3, defending the series, but also committing the paper to a review of major criticisms. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. There has been speculation that he may have met with foul play because he had received two gunshot wounds to the head, The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. [28] Maxine Waters, the representative for California's 35th district, which includes South-Central Los Angeles, was also outraged by the articles and became one of Webb's strongest supporters. He made that very clear. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." Webb made his early reputation as a reporter with the Plain Dealer before going on to fame and turmoil at the San Jose Mercury News. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandn, Meneses and Ross, it concluded that "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. reports. OR was he like Epstein? Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." This did not happen in Webb's case. A Celebration of Life will be . In the six years he worked at its Sacramento office, he won the HL Mencken award, for a story exposing corruption in California's drug enforcement agency, and his Pulitzer prize - won jointly, as part of a Mercury News team covering the 1990 Loma Prieta earthquake. He wrote that the series likely "oversimplified" the crack epidemic in America and the supposed "critical role" the dealers written about in the series played in it. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. [36] McManus wrote that Blandn's and Meneses's contributions to Contra organizations were significantly less than the "millions" claimed in the series, and stated there was no evidence that the CIA had tried to protect them. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. Webb's reports prompted three official investigations, including one by the CIA itself which - astonishingly for an organisation rarely praised for its transparency - confirmed the substance of his findings (published at length in Webb's 1998 book, also entitled Dark Alliance). n 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles under the title "Dark Alliance" for the suggesting a CIA connection between anti-government contras in Nicaragua and monies raised from. Relationships with other women ended badly. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. I ask Bell. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". That was just the way he was.". [57], The report covered actions by Department of Justice employees in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U.S. "[58], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. I'm glad that I didn't dissuade him, because it was important to get the truth out but for Gary Webb, there was a very high price to pay." [35] The second article, by McManus, was the longest of the series and dealt with the role of the Contras in the drug trade and CIA knowledge of drug activities by the Contras. The first one, "The California Story," was issued in a classified version on December 17, 1997, and in an unclassified version on January 29, 1998. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. His series of articles - which prompted the distinguished reporter and former Newsweek Washington correspondent Robert Parry to describe Webb as "an American hero" - incited fury among the African-American community, many of whom took his investigation as proof that the White House saw crack as a way of bringing genocide to the ghetto. Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President of Knight Ridder, the Mercury News's parent company; he retired from this position last month. Pictured as a teenage fan: Gary Numan with Gemma, his now wife, getting his autograph in 1985 years before they got together Gary was 600,000 in debt, and on the verge of going under in. Newsweek called Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff". He is the oldest son of Pulitzer Prize-winninginvestigative journalist Gary Webb, the subject of the 2014 film "Kill the Messenger," starring Hollywood heavyweight Jeremy Renner. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". [9], Webb's first major investigative work appeared in 1980, when the Cincinnati Post published "The Coal Connection," a seventeen-part series by Webb and Post reporter Thomas Scheffey. In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also took note and wrote to CIA director John Deutch and Attorney General Janet Reno, asking for investigations into the articles' allegations. Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. By: E&P Staff The death of investigative reporter Gary Webb has been confirmed as a suicide, according to a coroner's statement. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Melinda Welsh September 29, 2014 This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood. By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021 Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie. I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. "He was crying. According to a description of Webb's injuries in the Los Angeles Times, he shot himself with a .38 revolver, which he placed near his right ear. "Ross," his report went on, dealt "on a scale never before conceived," with "a staggering turnover" of "50 to 100 kilos of cocaine a day". According to Walt Bogdanich, a former colleague on the Plain Dealer who has won two Pulitzers and now works for The New York Times, Webb was the best retriever of information from public records he has ever seen. Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. In February, Gary Webb gave his ex-wife. He crashed and shredded his clothes, face and body on a barbed-wire fence." "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA.He wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, which initially backed his articles but later dropped him.Webb was put under pressure most certainly from the CIA under John Deutch for his reporting. According to Corn, Webb "was wrong on some important details, but he was, in a way, closer to the truth than many of his establishment media critics who neglected the story of the real CIA-contra-cocaine connection." [42] The extent of the criticism, however, convinced Ceppos that The Mercury News had to acknowledge to its readers that the series had been subjected to strong criticism. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. Am J Mens Health, 2018 Mar 1:1557988318758788. doi: 10.1177/1557988318758788. Gary E. Webb, a dedicated husband, dad, pappy, coach, mentor, teacher, supporter, hero, and best friend, was called home by the Lord while surrounded by family. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. The new movie Kill the Messenger, based in part on a 2006 book by a former student of mine, eulogizes Webb . He accepted Christ at an early age. With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. Its pointed to as one of the clearer cases of CIA intervention as revenge for Webb revealing damaging secrets about the agencies involvement in drug smuggling. .article-native-ad { }. When they married, she was aged just 21. The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigative reporting at The Washington Post, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. "[64] Webb's longest response to the controversy was in "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," a chapter he contributed to an anthology of press criticism: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. "He rang me up that day. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. My wife has kept me grounded for . We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. "Do not quote me. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. Emma Lee Webb. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. He wrote well. According to the report's "Epilogue," the report was completed in December 1997 but was not released because the DEA was still attempting to use Danilo Blandn in an investigation of international drug dealers and was concerned that the report would affect the viability of the investigation. Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. Moreira - a senior news producer for Canal Plus - has established a reputation for courage and independence of mind in his own foreign reporting, and was recently described by Le Monde as "the Che Guevara of news media". Investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News that documented the US-government-backed Contra insurgents' drug pipeline into Los Angeles. "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. . * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. Call 911 for assistance. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." "For the better part of a decade," it began, "a San Francisco drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funnelled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency.". [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? His. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. margin: 0 45px; We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. He became an investigator for the California State Legislature, published a book based on the "Dark Alliance" series in 1998, and did freelance investigative reporting. It was accurate. "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA.

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