Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. font-weight:500; If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. . American Journalism Review - Archives 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. My wife has kept me grounded for . Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. 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." "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". Do not quote me on anything.". 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. 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. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere - Adweek By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. ", "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. "[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. [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. 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. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. "He rang me up that day. Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. 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. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. 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. And it ruined that reporter's career. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. Gary-Webb TL, Walker EA, Realmuto L, Kamler A, Lukin J, Tyson W, Carrasquillo O, Weiss L. Translation of the National Diabetes Prevention Program to Engage Men in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in New York City: A Description of Power Up for Health. ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". [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." } Webb's reports prompted three official investigations, including one by the CIA itself which - astonishingly for an organisation rarely praised for its transparency - confirmed the substance of his findings (published at length in Webb's 1998 book, also entitled Dark Alliance). Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered - BSNEWS Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. There were no offers. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. And the importance of exposing them. OR was he like Epstein? [39] The Post refused to print his letter. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. "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 . The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Poor Gary Webb. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. 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." 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 . 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. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. "[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." He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. It was accurate. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. 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. The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph The CIA/MSM Contra-Cocaine Cover-up - Consortium News But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. I first heard about Webb eight years ago, I tell Bell, from the Paris-based journalist Paul Moreira. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. 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. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. She acted opposite Dirk Bogarde in the groundbreaking film Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961), as the unsuspecting wife of a barrister who is a closet homosexual. Because the gentile (european caucasian, lepers, fake jews) or white folks agenda has always been to destroy the black man, ever since pharaoh tried to murder Christ by murdering Hebrew babies, until now. Blandn and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced high-purity cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "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.". The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. Return of the messenger: How Jeremy Renner's new film Kill The Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. He wrote well. He is from United States. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. "[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. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" Gary Numan's superfan wife had 'body lift' and exploding breasts Gary Webb - Spartacus Educational She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. 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. Gary Webb - Biography - IMDb It's . [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. [26] Other papers were slow to pick up the story, but African Americans quickly took note, especially in South Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series had been active. "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. "For the better part of a decade," it began, "a San Francisco drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funnelled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency.". "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? in Central America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Webb&oldid=1138520387, This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36. The new movie Kill the Messenger, based in part on a 2006 book by a former student of mine, eulogizes Webb . He was previously married to Sue Bell. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? Gary Webb Was Right | HuffPost Latest News "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. 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. 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." I ask Bell. [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. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. }. I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. OR was he like Epstein After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. 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. n 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles under the title "Dark Alliance" for the suggesting a CIA connection between anti-government contras in Nicaragua and monies raised from. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. 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. 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. 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. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News [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. 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." The Tragic 2004 Death Of Investigative Journalist, Gary 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. "[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]. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. . The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. 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. Its pointed to as one of the clearer cases of CIA intervention as revenge for Webb revealing damaging secrets about the agencies involvement in drug smuggling. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". 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. The attack on Gary Webb and his series in the San Jose Mercury News remains one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist's competence in living memory . 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. Gary Webb: Murdered For Exposing The Truth - A New Kind Of Human His victory in the event last year gave him . } Webb's pieces were not dealing with nameless peasants slaughtered in some distant republic, but demonstrated a clear link between the CIA and the suppliers of the gangs delivering crack to the ghetto of Watts, in South Central Los Angeles. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. Emma Lee Webb of Crossett, Arkansas | 1947 - 2023 | Obituary Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. 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. 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. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". The Death of Gary Webb - Beyond Chron In a three-part series published in the San Jose Mercury News, "Dark Alliance," Webb alleges that not only was the CIA aware cocaine sold in the U.S. during the 1980s was funding the Nicaraguan Contras, they were complicit in its distribution.