I felt she really trashed me. [39] Carey's critique appeared in mid-October and went through several of the Post's criticisms of the series, including the importance of Blandn's drug ring in spreading crack, questions about Blandn's testimony in court, and how specific series allegations about CIA involvement had been, giving Webb's responses. Jimmy Webb's battle with ex-wife Patsy Sullivan continues - New York Post Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Gary Webb Resigns from the San Jose Mercury News Gary Webb : Murdered For Exposing The Truth - Educate Inspire Change Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. ", 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 second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. [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." American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. 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. The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. 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. 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. "I am scared," the voice replies. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. "Like enjoy it.". [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. 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. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. 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? George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. [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. Lynn Rd, Ranger WV - Rehold Address Directory Emma Lee Webb. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). 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. "He had six in a short period of time." Poor Gary Webb. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. "Back then. He was so depressed. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph A passing motorist - a heavily tattooed young man - gave him a lift home, then returned and stole the motorcycle, which police recovered from him three days after Webb's death. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. When they married, she was aged just 21. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; Webb was born in Corona, California. . Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. ". Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica 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.. The legendary civil-rights activist Dick Gregory was arrested while he protested outside the CIA's headquarters; Gregory began referring to the organisation as "Crack in America". He wrote well. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). 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." I mean - please.". "[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. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". 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." [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. 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. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. The Death of Gary Webb - Beyond Chron Gary Webb Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. 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 first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Webb, Gary Gary T. Webb, age 67, of Hamilton, Michigan, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family Thursday, November 11, 2021. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. 'Dark Alliance' - both as journalism and as a book - is a convoluted narrative, but the crucial link it establishes is between the "agricultural salesman" Oscar Danilo Blandn, a Contra sympathiser with close CIA links, and his best customer, an LA drug dealer known as "Freeway" Ricky Ross. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. 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. 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. On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' ", Many of these are in the series archive at. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. And it ruined that reporter's career. [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. But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. It's . [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. } 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 . Gary Webb (Investigative Journalist) Wiki, Biography, Age, Wife, Family The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. Army. [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." Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . He made that very clear. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. The link between drug-running and the Reagan regime's support for the right-wing terrorist group throughout the 1980s had been public knowledge for over a decade. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. padding:0!important; 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 was at his desk in the Mercury News's Sacramento office, in July 1995, when he received a message to call Coral Baca, a Hispanic woman from the San Francisco Bay area, allegedly connected to a Colombian drug cartel. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. 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. 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. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. .article-native-ad { 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. Susan Bell: a shameful secret history - The Independent And when he got something in his head, he was determined to do it. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. "[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. His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. Gary Webb: Murdered For Exposing The Truth - A New Kind Of Human 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. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. Film of this encounter survives. [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. "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. . [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. [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." 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. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. 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. Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. 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". 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. Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. Gary Webb on the CIA's Role in the 1980s LA Crack Epidemic - Citizen Truth "He told me, not long before he died, that he didn't want to get up in the mornings," she 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. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. 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. 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. Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers "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 of Crossett, Arkansas | 1947 - 2023 | Obituary The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. 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. In interviews after leaving The Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. 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. Do not quote me on anything.". After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California." He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. "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 . In 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories exposing the connection between the CIA and the crack cocaine that was being sold in So. color: #ddd; 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.