Save 50% with early-bird passes. [60], It found nothing to support the claim that "the drug trafficking activities of Blandn and Meneses were motivated by any commitment to support the Contra cause or Contra activities undertaken by CIA." Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. 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.' A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. } On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Gary Stephen Webb, Pulitzer prize-winning US investigative journalist, typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; he laid out a certificate for his cremation; he taped a note on the door telling movers - who were coming the next morning to move him out of his rental house near Sacramento - to But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". "I'd get discouraged," she said, "but I never really gave up hope." Back in 1997, SN&R brought the controversy about Gary Webb to readers with "Secrets and Lies," a cover story about why the mainstream media attacked . We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. [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. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". 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. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. "He was crying. [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. 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. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". 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. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. [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. [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. *, 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion' is published in the UK by Seven Stories Press, priced 11.99, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. "He had six in a short period of time." 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. "People told me that," she says. When he was engaged, he worked hard. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. 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. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. "[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." But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. .article-native-ad { ", "Reporter's suicide confirmed by coroner", "Repercussions From Flawed News Articles", "Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA", Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks, "Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what 'Kill the Messenger' says", "Jeremy Renner's 'Kill the Messenger' Gets Fall Release Date", The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions, United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, "Secrecy, Conspiracy, and the Media During the CIA-Contra Affair", Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, "Inside the Dark Alliance: Gary Webb on the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion", 'A NATURAL STORY': Tribute to 'Dark Alliance' and Journalist Gary Webb, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, Archive of Gary Webb stories at Sacramento News and Review, "Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. [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." When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. There were no offers. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. He made that very clear. [71] When asked by local reporters about the possibility of two gunshots being a suicide, Lyons replied "It's unusual in a suicide case to have two shots, but it has been done in the past, and it is in fact a distinct possibility." She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. "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.". A Celebration of Life will be . So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? He was previously married to Sue Bell. 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. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. 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. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. He was so depressed. 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. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. 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. . margin: 0 45px; "[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." He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' "Do not quote me. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. "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. Emma Lee Webb. When Webb pressed the Mercury News to allow him to investigate the LA connection further, his own newspaper issued a retraction which earned its editor, Jerry Ceppos, wide praise from rival publications, but effectively disowned Webb, who then suffered the kind of corporate lynching that reporters are usually expected to dispense rather than endure. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. "That's right," says Blum. In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! But as his ex-wife told the . Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. 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 . Webb chose the second option. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. He is from United States. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. 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.". 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. [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. The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. 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's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. 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.

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