Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. It was just more than he could take.". 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. There were no offers. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. Tara Becker-Gray Lee News Network Jan 17, 2019 0 1 of 2 C. Webb The body found at a house fire at 13308 95th Ave. in rural Blue Grass on Thursday night has been identified as Cynthia Webb, 59.. [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. What was new about Webb's reports, published under the title "Dark Alliance" in the Californian paper the San Jose Mercury News, was that for the first time it brought the story back home. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." He crashed and shredded his clothes, face and body on a barbed-wire fence." "He was crying. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. "[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." Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. margin: 0 45px; Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". "I am scared," the voice replies. An editorial in the Times, while criticizing the series for making "unsubstantiated charges", conceded that it did find "drug-smuggling and dealing by Nicaraguans with at least tentative connections to the Contras" and called for further investigation. With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. 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." Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. This did not happen in Webb's case. font-size: 34px; 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. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. "[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. By: E&P Staff The death of investigative reporter Gary Webb has been confirmed as a suicide, according to a coroner's statement. 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. "He definitely was depressed. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. "[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. 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." He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. 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." ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. 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". Ricky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross (born January 26, 1960) is an American author and convicted drug trafficker best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s. But the report was correct. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. 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 . [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. Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. Blandn and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced high-purity cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. 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. [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. }. Ross was also released early after cooperating in an investigation of police corruption, but was rearrested a few months later in a sting operation arranged with Blandn's help. She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . 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. The second volume, "The Contra Story," was issued in a classified version on April 27, 1998, and in an unclassified version on October 8, 1998. Webb, whose plans to become a journalist had begun when he was 13, but never included equine death notices, resigned from the Mercury News a few months later. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. [54] Editors at the paper, on the other hand, felt that Webb had failed to tell them about information that contradicted the series's claims and that he "responded to concerns not with reasoned argument, but with accusations of us selling him out. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. Unable to get work from any major US newspaper, he spent the four months before his death writing for * a free-sheet covering the Sacramento area. Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. At the commemorative service for Webb, held at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento, Bell read out the letter Webb had written to his son Eric, now 17. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' [39] The Post refused to print his letter. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. The drugs went to South Central LA. He said: 'No. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. 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. 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. Family (1) Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. 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. In February, Gary Webb gave his ex-wife. "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. [48] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. 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. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. "But that," pointed out Blum, who is now a Washington attorney, "in no way - in no way - diminishes the wrongness of what these bastards did. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. . But while calling the flaws in the series "unforgivably careless journalism," Overholser also criticized the Post's refusal to print Ceppos' letter defending the series and sharply criticized the Post's coverage of the story. Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. He was so depressed. Army. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. 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. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. It was accurate. 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. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Depressed, he became increasingly unpredictable in his behaviour and embarked on a series of affairs; he was divorced from Bell in 2000, though he remained close to her throughout his life and lived in a house in nearby Carmichael. By a fortunate coincidence of timing, the report was released on a day when the Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated every front page in the country. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. His career ended, his livelihood was destroyed and certain games were started to be . There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). If you work through friendly reporters on major newspapers, it comes off as The New York Times saying it and not a mouthpiece of the CIA. "[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." 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. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. The link between drug-running and the Reagan regime's support for the right-wing terrorist group throughout the 1980s had been public knowledge for over a decade. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." 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." "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. color: #ddd; Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. . padding-left: 10px!important; 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. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. 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. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. The other article, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals support. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. The consensus, insofar as one exists, is that he probably overstated both the amount of drug money made by Ross and Blandn, and the percentage of those profits diverted to the Contras. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. [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. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. .article-native-ad p { On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. 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. After the publication of "Dark Alliance," The Mercury News continued to pursue the story, publishing follow-ups to the original series for the next three months. I mean - please.". 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. 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. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. Call 911 for assistance. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. Five years ago, a tragedy occurred in American journalism: Investigative reporter Gary Webb - who had been ostracized by his own colleagues for forcing a spotlight back onto an ugly government scandal they wanted to ignore - was driven to commit suicide. "If I had one dream for you," he wrote, "it was that you would go into journalism and carry on the kind of work I did - fighting, with all your might, the oppression and bigotry and stupidity and greed that surrounds us. He really did believe that," she says. 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. "That's right," says Blum. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. 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 . By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. 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. Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, discounted theories Tuesday that her husband had been murdered, saying the 49-year-old Webb had been distraught for some time over his inability to get . 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. The whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. [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. [14] In 1984, Webb wrote a story titled Driving Off With Profits which claimed that the promoters of a race in Cleveland paid themselves nearly a million dollars from funds that should have gone to the city of Cleveland. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. It concluded, however, that these problems were "a far cry from the type of broad manipulation and corruption of the federal criminal justice system suggested by the original allegations.". 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 Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. It was truthful. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. 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. that the "federal government bore some responsibility, however indirect, for the flood of crack that coursed through black neighborhoods in the 1980s"). In interviews after leaving The Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. And when he got something in his head, he was determined to do it. Relationships with other women ended badly. At that time, Webb (pictured) was best known for the controversial three-part CIA 1996 expose he wrote the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the . Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. 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. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. *, '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. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. 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. OR was he like Epstein? "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. reports. .article-native-ad strong { He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. 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. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. 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. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). Attorneys' Offices. 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". [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. An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. Although Blandn's cartel was undoubtedly one of the first to bring crack to LA, Webb was almost certainly suffering a rush of blood when he described the group as "the first pipeline" into the city. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. "Like enjoy it.". Age 43 years. 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. 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". Dec. 13, 2004. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. 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. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. [37], In 2013, Jesse Katz, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, said of the newspaper's coverage "As an L.A. Times reporter, we saw this series in the San Jose Mercury News and kind of wonder[ed] how legit it was and kind of put it under a microscope, and we did it in a way that most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns?
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