His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". [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. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. From the outset of his career, Webb distinguished himself by uncovering official malfeasance, winning national . [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. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. 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]. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. "[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. There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". 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.. One of these was a 1986 raid on Blandn's drug organization by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which the article suggested had produced evidence of CIA ties to drug smuggling that was later suppressed. The mainstream press, now known as the legacy. I felt she really trashed me. When removal men arrived, on the morning of 10 December 2004, they found a sign on his front door, which read: ''Please do not enter. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. The hard-charging investigative reporter's career imploded in the wake of his much-criticized "Dark Alliance" series about the CIA and crack cocaine. [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. 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. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." In 1986, Webb wrote an article saying that the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Frank D. Celebrezze accepted contributions from groups with organized crime connections. His behavior became increasingly unpredictable and he embarked on a series of affairs, eventually divorcing from his wife Sue in 2000. . 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. When they married, she was aged just 21. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? ", The significant legacy of the Webb case, "the reason this whole affair remains so significant today," Blum says, "is this: the knowledge that, if one individual dares raise such serious issues, they risk confronting a tremendous apparatus that is prepared to whack them hard, and there is very little they can expect by way of support. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. Gary Webb was an investigative reporter, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. I mean - please.". It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? 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. 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.' Before his death, John Singleton maintained that Snowfall is its own account of how the crack epidemic began on the West Coast . "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell 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. Gary and Karla James Webb married and blended their families on January 7, 1989 in O'Donnell, Texas. Call 911 for assistance. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. [63]Dark Alliance was a 1998 Pen/Newman's Own First Amendment Award Finalist, 1998 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, 1999 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award Finalist, and 1999 Firecracker Alternative Booksellers Award Winner in the Politics category. 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. Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. "[25] It also found disparities in the treatment of Black and White traffickers in the justice system, contrasting the treatment of Blandn and Ross after their arrests for drug trafficking. 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. 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. Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. 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. "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.". After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. That was just the way he was.". He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb in "Kill the Messenger." (Chuck Zlotnick/Focus Features) Webb resigned and wrote a book defending his reporting. It was just more than he could take.". [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. In 2015 Gary Webb, from Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway . Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. Shortly before I left for Sacramento, Moreira, who knew Webb, had shown me unbroadcast footage which shows the French reporter making a phone call to a media commentator in the US, asking him about Webb's death. He accepted Christ at an early age. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. According to the report, the Inspector-General's office (OIG) examined all information the agency had "relating to CIA knowledge of drug trafficking allegations in regard to any person directly or indirectly involved in Contra activities." Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. 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." 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. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. This did not happen in Webb's case. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. The drugs went to South Central LA. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. He was born January 28, 1950 in Middletown, OH to Paul and Dorothy (Hawkins) Webb. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". "I am scared," the voice replies. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". [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. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. 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". 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 born in Hammersmith, London. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. [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. Funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 19, 2003 at Goodrich United Methodist Church, 8071 S. State Rd., Goodrich, Pastor Karl Zeigler will officiate. 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. "He thought I was being cowardly. Furthermore, the duo has been blessed with two daughters, Persia Numan and Raven Numan. 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. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. gary webb obituary WEBB, Gary W. Age 67, passed away Monday, March 27, 2017 in the home he built in Madison Township. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". According to Bell, Webb had been unhappy for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. On December 10th, 2004 Gary Webb was found dead of two (allegedly self-inflicted) gunshots to the head. The CIA denied the charges, and every major newspaper in the country . Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . 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. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. Age 57 of Newcomb, Tennessee passed away Friday, August 20, 2021 at the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. "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". 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". [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. After gaining access to secret grand jury transcripts in 1996, and following the subsequent paper trail that followed therein, Gary Webb made the shocking discovery that government informant, Oscar Danilo Blandn, was covertly selling tons of cocaine for the Central Intelligence Agency in South Central Los Angeles, and other parts of the country. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." But while Webb overreached, some key findings in "Dark Alliance" were on target-and important. 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. 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. 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. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. [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 first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Edmund Webb: Birthdate: estimated between 1751 and 1805 : Death: Immediate Family: Son of Edmund Webb and Nancy Webb Husband of Milly Clark Brother of Daniel Gary Webb; Nancy Lester; Polly Webb; John Webb; Elizabeth "Betsey" Webb and 1 other. The real Gary Webb talks about his 1996 story "Dark Alliance," which criticizes the CIA's involvement (or lack thereof) with regard to the cocaine coming into the U.S. during the 1980s. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. 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. 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. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' 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. Such a case normally would have sparked little notice. Gary Webb is dead. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. 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. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. The Mercury News reporter came under sustained attack from the weightier US newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and, especially, the Los Angeles Times, infuriated at being scooped, on its own patch, by what it saw as a small-town paper. "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. 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. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. 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