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 was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. 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. There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". }. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. 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. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. [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. And it ruined that reporter's career. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. "[62] It also found no evidence to support Webb's suggestion that several other drug smugglers mentioned in the series were associated with the CIA, or that anyone associated with the CIA or other intelligence agencies was involved in supplying or selling drugs in Los Angeles.[62]. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. "[79], Writing after Webb's death in 2005, The Nation magazine's former Washington Editor David Corn said that Webb "was on to something but botched part of how he handled it." I mean - please.". "[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. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. "Do not quote me. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. 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 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. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. [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. By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . ", 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. [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. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. color: #ddd; 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. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time. He recently told the American Journalism Review (whose scrupulously researched piece, by Susan Paterno, is the only serious documentation of the Webb case I could find anywhere in the orthodox American media) that Webb's critics in rival newspapers, "quoted these CIA guys - who had a tremendous amount to hide - as though they were telling the truth. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. margin: 0 45px; They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. 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. Family and friends will gather to celebrate his life of 59 years at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at Lamesa Continue Reading Leave a Message, Share a Memory Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". 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. Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." 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. Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the George Washington University's National Security Archive, was one of the first to suggest that Webb had overplayed his hand in the Mercury News version of "Dark Alliance". Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. 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, 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. 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. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". Ross, currently serving life, was already infamous; he had been profiled in the LA Times in December 1994, by writer Jesse Katz, at a time when Ross was at liberty and in penitent mood. [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. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; 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. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. 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. The third article, by Mitchell and Fulwood, covered the effects of crack on African-Americans and how it affected their reaction to some of the rumors that arose after the "Dark Alliance" series. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. .article-native-ad { 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." [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. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. Shortly before his death, his motorcycle had been stolen (it was recovered by his family after his death). But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. E&P Staff. According to Walt Bogdanich, a former colleague on the Plain Dealer who has won two Pulitzers and now works for The New York Times, Webb was the best retriever of information from public records he has ever seen. [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. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. We had been here before." [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." "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 . With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. 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. 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. While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. font-weight:500; When he was engaged, he worked hard. Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. 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]. [65], Within "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On" essay Webb stated he believed there was an active "collusion between the press and the powerful" to report freely on inconsequential matters, "but when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff We begin to see the limits of our freedoms". Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. Army. But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. Save 50% with early-bird passes. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. color:rgb(46,179,178); By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. Thank you." Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). 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. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. His. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. When his body was found, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was on the DVD machine, and his favourite CD, Ian Hunter's live album Welcome to the Club, was in the CD player. He is from United States. 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 introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. margin-bottom: 20px; By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. 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. Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. line-height:1.5; So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? Film of this encounter survives. 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. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. 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. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021 Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. "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". And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. 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. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. (Strawser) Webb. margin-top: 10px; Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. . "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. 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. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President of Knight Ridder, the Mercury News's parent company; he retired from this position last month. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. Emma Lee Webb. It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? I felt she really trashed me. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. padding-left: 10px!important; "[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. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. Age 43 years. Steven Webb . .article-native-ad strong { In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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." "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. ", 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 report called several of its findings "troubling." [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. 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. padding-bottom: 20px; "I am scared," the voice replies. Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. But you say - dear God. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. 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. 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. According to Bell, Webb had been unhappy for some time over his inability to get a job at another major newspaper. Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' 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? "Like enjoy it.". "He definitely was depressed. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. OR was he like Epstein? What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. 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. Am J Mens Health, 2018 Mar 1:1557988318758788. doi: 10.1177/1557988318758788. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. [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. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. [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. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". 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. "[58], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." 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. But once the flak really started to fly, from the nation's grandest newspapers, Ceppos - having come under exactly what form of pressure it is difficult to know - printed a retraction which Webb dismissed as spineless. He was a former member of Bethlehem . 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. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. 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. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. [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. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. 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. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
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