When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. 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. "[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. Dark Alliance: Gary Webb, Christian Rummel: 9781522694397: Amazon.com It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". "To get back at his editors?". Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. 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. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. [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. 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. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. [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, 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. When they married, she was aged just 21. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. 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. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. 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. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. Gary's ex-wife Susan Bell states: "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide." An interesting OPINION, but she supplies no convincing evidence to illustrate what she means by this. And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. 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. A Celebration of Life will be . When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. color: #ddd; Gary Webb: More Pieces In The Suicided Puzzle - Pt 1 - Rense The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. 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 . Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. 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. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. "I am scared," the voice replies. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. Gary Webb Obituary (2009) - Elgin, IL - Elgin Courier News - Legacy.com "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. In a three-part expos, investigative journalist Gary Webb reported that a guerrilla army in Nicaragua had used crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles' black neighborhoods to fund an attempted coup of Nicaragua's socialist government in the 1980s and that the CIA had purposefully funded it. Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica 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. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. His. 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. "The cause of death was determined to be self . 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. [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. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. He really did believe that," she says. 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. But the report was correct. 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.' He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. Ceppos failed to reply to one phone message and six emails. He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' 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]. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. [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. Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. The response from the American press took two months to arrive. Webb may indeed be physically dead, but his research is more alive today than ever before, and continues to haunt the shadow government and snowball into a monster that will undoubtedly have its eventual revenge. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. His assignments included investigating racial profiling by the California Highway Patrol and charges that the Oracle Corporation had received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001. Gary Webb | Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. [51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. The normal process is, or should be, that a reporter files a story and is robustly challenged by his paper's lawyers and editors - who, if satisfied that the report is accurate - publish, then defend the writer to the hilt. The new movie Kill the Messenger, based in part on a 2006 book by a former student of mine, eulogizes Webb . reports. "[72] California Representative Maxine Waters, who was Webb's strongest supporter in Congress after the "Dark Alliance" controversy broke, issued a statement after Webb's death calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists that our country has ever seen. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. 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. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. 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." "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. font-size: 34px; 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. Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. [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. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. [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. A January 1997 article in American Journalism Review noted that a 1994 series Webb wrote had also been the subject of a Mercury News internal review that criticized Webb's reporting. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career "He rang me up that day. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. Famously known by the Family name Gary Stephen Webb, was a great Engineer.He was born on August 31, 1955, in Carmichael, California.Carmichael is a beautiful and populous city located in Carmichael, California United States of America.. Gary Webb Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. 'It's just good vibes': Cooper Webb, Eli Tomac in tight Supercross Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. "[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." 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 famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and - reddit Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. Obituary | GARY HAYS WEBB of Neenah, Wisconsin | WESTGOR FUNERAL HOMES His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. 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. 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. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. 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. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. 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. It was also posted on The Mercury News website with additional information, including documents cited in the series and audio recordings of people quoted in the articles. She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. 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. Kill the Messenger True Story vs. Movie - Real Gary Webb It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. I have also followed up on key topics raised by Paul Cottrell will leading industry experts like Dr. Peter McCollough on the Tommy Carrigan Show, weekly in 2021 and 2022. 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. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. 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. Gary Webb - Wikispooks .article-native-ad svg { Family (1) The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. Webb chose the second option. 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. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? [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. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. The story had little immediate impact. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. Gary Webb Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. His victory in the event last year gave him . ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors.