His death was especially traumatic to the family since - as the coroner said - it could not be established whether he died instantly, or bled to death. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. OR was he like Epstein When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News The Tragic 2004 Death Of Investigative Journalist, Gary Webb As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". Call 911 for assistance. In the column, Ceppos defended parts of the article, writing that the series had "solidly documented" that the drug ring described in the series did have connections with the Contras and did sell large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles. [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and his death that was ruled a suicide, is the common sense notion that this was clearly assassination true? . 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. color: #ddd; padding:0!important; Both Gary's ex-wife Susan and his brother Kurt viewed the body and they confirmed the location of the wounds to me when I met them. Today, Narco News, with support from The Fund for Authentic Journalism, is pleased to announce that the Dark Alliance website has a new, and this time permanent, home at Narco News. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. In 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories exposing the connection between the CIA and the crack cocaine that was being sold in So. Jimmy Webb's battle with ex-wife Patsy Sullivan continues - New York Post Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. We had been here before." News coverage noted that there were widespread rumors on the Internet at the time that Webb had been killed as retribution for his "Dark Alliance" series, published eight years before. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. [69], Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. 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. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. A time of fellowship and remembrance is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. It noted that Blandn and Meneses claimed to have donated money to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, but found no information to confirm that it was true or that the agency had heard of it. 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. Cuts and amendments were made at the request of Ceppos, executive editor of the Mercury News, and Webb's immediate editor Dawn Garcia, among others. "[74] Mary Anne Sharkey, Webb's editor at The Plain Dealer, told writer Alicia Shepard in 1997 that Webb was known as 'the carpenter' "because he had everything nailed down. I first heard about Webb eight years ago, I tell Bell, from the Paris-based journalist Paul Moreira. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and stated that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. 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. [19] The series was published in The Mercury News in three parts, from Sunday, 18 August 1996 to 20 August 1996, with a first long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. Ricky Ross (drug trafficker) - Wikipedia After a local newspaper reported that Webb had died from multiple gunshots, the coroner's office received so many calls asking about Webb's death that Sacramento County Coroner Robert Lyons issued a statement confirming Webb had died by suicide. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. In a three-part series published in the San Jose Mercury News, "Dark Alliance," Webb alleges that not only was the CIA aware cocaine sold in the U.S. during the 1980s was funding the Nicaraguan Contras, they were complicit in its distribution. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. By 1997, Bell tells me, Webb - whose 30-year career had earned him more awards than there is room for in her study - had been reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Cupertino. After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated. The Los Angeles Times and other major papers published articles suggesting the "Dark Alliance" claims were overstated and, in November 1996, Jerome Ceppos, the executive editor at Mercury News, wrote about being "in the eye of the storm". Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News When I first heard the news, I tell Bell, I was inclined to believe the conspiracy theories that still proliferate on the internet, suggesting that Webb had been assassinated - either by one of the drug dealers he'd met while writing Dark Alliance, or by the intelligence services who were supposed to police them. "He told me, not long before he died, that he didn't want to get up in the mornings," she says. The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. It was accurate. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. "[76] Scott Herhold, Webb's first editor at The Mercury-News, wrote in a 2013 column that "Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. "He definitely was depressed. And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". 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." One instalment of the LA Times's 18,000-word rebuttal of Webb's piece, published in October 1996, sought to minimise the importance of his key witness, Ricky Ross. He crashed and shredded his clothes, face and body on a barbed-wire fence." In a 2013 article in the LA Weekly, Schou wrote that Webb was "vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandn. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. Gary Webb on the CIA's Role in the 1980s LA Crack Epidemic - Citizen Truth Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. Writing on the Los Angeles Times opinion page, Schou said, "Webb asserted, improbably, that the Blandn-Meneses-Ross drug ring opened 'the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles,' helping to 'spark a crack explosion in urban America.' Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. "Which was that, if he wanted a future within the political establishment of the United States, then he should concentrate on other aspects of life.". Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? Webb, according to Bell, was a man who, more than most, found that his mood and self-esteem fluctuated in accordance with his professional fortunes. 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. [66] [16] As part of The Mercury News team that covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Webb and his colleague Pete Carey wrote a story examining the causes of the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. Poor Gary Webb. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. It was truthful. "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.". [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. Webb's pieces were not dealing with nameless peasants slaughtered in some distant republic, but demonstrated a clear link between the CIA and the suppliers of the gangs delivering crack to the ghetto of Watts, in South Central Los Angeles. Although it did find that both men were major drug dealers, "guilty of enriching themselves at the expense of countless drug users," and that they had contributed money to the Contra cause, "we did not find that their activities were responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, much less the rise of crack throughout the nation, or that they were a significant source of support for the Contras. He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? [31] In their front-page article, reporters Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus wrote that "available information" did not support the series's claims and that "the rise of crack" was "a broad-based phenomenon" driven in numerous places by diverse players. So he blew her off. "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. [72] A New York Times profile of Webb in June 1997 noted that two of his series written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer had resulted in lawsuits that the paper had settled. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. Gary Webb's wife, Sue Webb (now Sue Stokes), said that he had been depressed for years due to his inability to get hired at a daily newspaper. "[75], Jonathan Krim, The Mercury News editor who recruited Webb from The Plain Dealer and who supervised The Mercury News internal review of "Dark Alliance," told AJR editor Paterno that Webb "had all the qualities you'd want in a reporter: curious, dogged, a very high sense of wanting to expose wrongdoing and to hold private and public officials accountable." But the report was correct. "[78], While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series's claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. This emotive last phrase refers to Webb's experience in the immediate aftermath of publication of his three lengthy articles, in the summer of 1996. Every year since investigative journalist Gary Webb took his own life in 2004, I have marked the anniversary of that sad event by recalling the debt that American history owes to Webb for his. I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. A series of expose articles in the San Jose Mercury-News by reporter Gary Webb told tales of a drug triangle during the 1980s that linked CIA officials in Central America, a San Francisco drug . *, '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. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. In February, Gary Webb gave his ex-wife. This drug ring "opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles" and, as a result, "The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America."[23]. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Gary Webb | Obituary | The Daily Item font-size: 34px; * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. Film of this encounter survives. Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. 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. Gary Webb Obituary (2009) - Elgin, IL - Elgin Courier News - Legacy.com "[55] In June 1997, The Mercury News told Webb it was transferring him from the paper's Sacramento bureau and offered him a choice between working at the main offices in San Jose under closer editorial supervision, or spot reporting in Cupertino; both locations were long commutes from his home in Sacramento. In August of 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his life. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". [4] When Webb's father retired from the Marines, the family settled in a suburb of Indianapolis, where Webb and his brother attended high school. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. 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. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. His was the story of a man who gains information of wrongdoing, then, attempting to act in the public interest, seeks protection from his superiors, and the forces of law, and does not receive it. 1) It presented only one interpretation of conflicting evidence and in one case "did not include information that contradicted a central assertion of the series." 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. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. He accepted Christ at an early age. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. His victory in the event last year gave him . Army. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. He wrote well. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Webb moved his wife and two young children to a suburb and continued a tradition he had started in Cleveland, restoring their small house with the help of how-to books, installing wainscoting and custom tile, new cabinets and gardens, while putting in overtime at the paper. At the end of March, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column. [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. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. 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 After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. 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. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. E&P Staff. I ask Bell. 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. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. font-weight:500; Lynn Rd, Ranger WV - Rehold Address Directory But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. Steven Webb . In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. Webb was an assertive figure who drove fast cars and powerful motorcycles, hung heavy metal posters in his office and, at certain times in his life, smoked a fair amount of cannabis. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. margin-top: 10px; He said: 'No. His career ended, his livelihood was destroyed and certain games were started to be . When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. That was just the way he was.". The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . If he could have chosen his own epitaph, it might have been a line from the letter he posted to Bell, immediately before he killed himself: "I do not regret," Webb told her, "anything that I have written." Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. But as Krim told Webb's biographer Nick Schou, "The zeal that helped make Gary a relentless reporter was coupled with an inability to question himself, to entertain the notion that he might have erred. Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. The follow-up reporting in the Los Angeles Times and other papers has been criticised for focusing on problems in the series rather than re-examining the earlier CIA-Contra claims. ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Gary Webb | Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. Webb chose the second option. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Gary Webb, MD, FRCPC, FACC - The Donohue Funeral Homes Inc. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. }. We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. Jack Blum, who was the lead investigator for Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, which produced a highly damning 1989 report on drug-smuggling in the guise of national security, is one of several commentators to have questioned aspects of Webb's original reporting. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. But as his ex-wife told the . Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press [46] Overholser was harshly critical of the series, "reported by a seemingly hotheaded fellow willing to have people leap to conclusions his reporting couldn't back up." GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. My wife has kept me grounded for . . 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. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. .article-native-ad svg { The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. The legendary civil-rights activist Dick Gregory was arrested while he protested outside the CIA's headquarters; Gregory began referring to the organisation as "Crack in America". Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. [59], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in "Dark Alliance" were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency.

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