Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. [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. Webb was born in Corona, California. [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 cause of death was determined to be self . It was accurate. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. 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. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. "He had six in a short period of time." The room is decorated with his trophies: a Pulitzer prize hangs next to his HL Mencken award; also on the wall is a framed advertisement for The Kentucky Post. font-size: 34px; So he blew her off. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. It was truthful. "He definitely was depressed. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. In August of 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his life. Webb, whose plans to become a journalist had begun when he was 13, but never included equine death notices, resigned from the Mercury News a few months later. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. 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 . Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. . He is from United States. Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. "I am scared," the voice replies. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. 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. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. } [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. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. The whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? 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." LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 - Gary Webb, a reporter who won national attention with a series of articles, later discredited, linking the Central Intelligence Agency to the spread of crack . By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. But as Krim told Webb's biographer Nick Schou, "The zeal that helped make Gary a relentless reporter was coupled with an inability to question himself, to entertain the notion that he might have erred. 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. He was previously married to Sue Bell. "[64] Webb's longest response to the controversy was in "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," a chapter he contributed to an anthology of press criticism: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. padding-left: 10px!important; 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. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. "If there was an eye to the storm," Katz wrote, "if there was a mastermind behind crack's decade-long reign, if there was one outlaw most responsible for flooding LA's streets with mass-marketed cocaine, his name was Freeway Rick. [40] Ceppos also asked reporter Pete Carey to write a critique of the series for publication in The Mercury News, and had the controversial website artwork changed. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. 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.". margin: 0 45px; The consensus, insofar as one exists, is that he probably overstated both the amount of drug money made by Ross and Blandn, and the percentage of those profits diverted to the Contras. 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]. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. 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. 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. 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. "[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. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? font-weight:500; ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. "Ross," his report went on, dealt "on a scale never before conceived," with "a staggering turnover" of "50 to 100 kilos of cocaine a day". GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. Can these things possibly be? 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. [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. Dec. 13, 2004. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. 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. This emotive last phrase refers to Webb's experience in the immediate aftermath of publication of his three lengthy articles, in the summer of 1996. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. 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." On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. } Age 43 years. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. 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. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. 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. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. }. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to finance their fight against the government in Nicaragua. 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. He wrote that the series likely "oversimplified" the crack epidemic in America and the supposed "critical role" the dealers written about in the series played in it. But the report was correct. [10] The series, which examined the murder of a coal company president with ties to organized crime, won the national Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for reporting from a small newspaper. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. [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. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. 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. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. He made that very clear. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. He really did believe that," she says. ". 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. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. 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." Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. 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. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. He accepted Christ at an early age. When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. Thank you." By: E&P Staff The death of investigative reporter Gary Webb has been confirmed as a suicide, according to a coroner's statement. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. [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. 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. The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021. He was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. 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. 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. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. 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. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. 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. 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. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. He was so depressed. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. 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 It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." [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". Film of this encounter survives. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. 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. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. 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. Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. 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. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. reports. [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 ex-wife, Sue Bell, discounted theories Tuesday that her husband had been murdered, saying the 49-year-old Webb had been distraught for some time over his inability to get . Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "It was like someone had made a terrible noise, or a terrible smell, in a small room," recalls Jonathan Winer, Kerry's chief senate staff investigator . To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. [19] The series was published in The Mercury News in three parts, from Sunday, 18 August 1996 to 20 August 1996, with a first long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. [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. 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. 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. 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. "[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. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. 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. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. That was just the way he was.". When he was engaged, he worked hard. "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. } Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. The Los Angeles Times and other major papers published articles suggesting the "Dark Alliance" claims were overstated and, in November 1996, Jerome Ceppos, the executive editor at Mercury News, wrote about being "in the eye of the storm". To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. In the column, Ceppos defended parts of the article, writing that the series had "solidly documented" that the drug ring described in the series did have connections with the Contras and did sell large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the 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 . Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. "That's right," says Blum. They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated. One instalment of the LA Times's 18,000-word rebuttal of Webb's piece, published in October 1996, sought to minimise the importance of his key witness, Ricky Ross. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. Webb, Gary Gary T. Webb, age 67, of Hamilton, Michigan, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family Thursday, November 11, 2021. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. "[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 realise now he was thinking about suicide.". "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. 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. "[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. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. "Like enjoy it.". By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. 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. Parry, the first reporter to write about the US authorities' drug-running on behalf of the Contras, had survived a campaign by the White House to discredit first his story, then his reputation. By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. 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. WEBB, Mr. Gary Lee, our beloved son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle went home with his heavenly Father Monday, August 29, 2011 at University of Michigan Hospital. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. I felt she really trashed me. His victory in the event last year gave him . Shortly before his death, his motorcycle had been stolen (it was recovered by his family after his death). Emma Lee Webb. padding:0!important; 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. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. 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. 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. The story they printed was just awful. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. "He rang me up that day. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. And the importance of exposing them. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" Gary Webb, (born August 31, 1955, Corona, California, U.S.died December 10, 2004, Carmichael, California), American investigative journalist who wrote a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 on connections between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S.-backed Contra army seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist
