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Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. "Do not quote me. color: #ddd; The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. [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. It's . 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. "[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." Writing on the Los Angeles Times opinion page, Schou said, "Webb asserted, improbably, that the Blandn-Meneses-Ross drug ring opened 'the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles,' helping to 'spark a crack explosion in urban America.' 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). Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. "He thought I was being cowardly. [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. Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. How Gary Webb Linked The CIA To The Crack Epidemic - All That's Interesting During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. 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. He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. That was just the way he was.". Gary Webb and the Iran-Contra-Cocaine Connection | WilderUtopia Gary Webb - Wikispooks 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 . Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. 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. Emma Lee Webb. On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career 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. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. Gary Webb (Investigative Journalist) Wiki, Biography, Age, Wife, Family The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. "But that," pointed out Blum, who is now a Washington attorney, "in no way - in no way - diminishes the wrongness of what these bastards did. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. .article-native-ad p { 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. [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. Gary Webb and 'Kill the Messenger': Reporter played by - cleveland In interviews after leaving The Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. But you say - dear God. Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. color:rgb(46,179,178); The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube "That's right," says Blum. Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. Dec. 13, 2004. margin-bottom: 20px; In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. 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 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. Gary Webb Obituary (2011) - Saginaw, MI - Saginaw News on MLive.com 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. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. that the "federal government bore some responsibility, however indirect, for the flood of crack that coursed through black neighborhoods in the 1980s"). His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. WRITTEN IN PAIN - Los Angeles Times 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. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. *, 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion' is published in the UK by Seven Stories Press, priced 11.99, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. [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. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. padding:0!important; Film of this encounter survives. [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. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. He was previously married to Sue Bell. Dark Alliance - Dark Alliance Webb moved his wife and two young children to a suburb and continued a tradition he had started in Cleveland, restoring their small house with the help of how-to books, installing wainscoting and custom tile, new cabinets and gardens, while putting in overtime at the paper. Attorneys' Offices. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. Ceppos failed to reply to one phone message and six emails. [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". Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed: Who Is Professional SX/MX - Halla News Gary Webb: Murdered For Exposing The Truth - A New Kind Of Human "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. Because Blandn cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he spent only 28 months in prison, became a paid government informant, and received permanent resident status. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . When they married, she was aged just 21. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. }. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. 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. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. Lynn Rd, Ranger WV - Rehold Address Directory We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . 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". His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". 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. [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." 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. .article-native-ad { Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". His corpse was discovered on the seventh anniversary of his resignation from the Mercury News. 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. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. And it ruined that reporter's career. "He rang me up that day. 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." Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. 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." [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. [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. 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. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. 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. Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. A series of expose articles in the San Jose Mercury-News by reporter Gary Webb told tales of a drug triangle during the 1980s that linked CIA officials in Central America, a San Francisco drug . [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. margin: 0 45px; Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. 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. 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? 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 . 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. And the importance of exposing them. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. He made that very clear. [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. 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." He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. The story had little immediate impact. He was a former member of Bethlehem . When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . [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. His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. He was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. ". The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. Save 50% with early-bird passes. "You do not understand the power of these people," he adds, referring to the US intelligence services. My wife has kept me grounded for . How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb 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." "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. 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. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. His victory in the event last year gave him . Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. Gary Webb on the CIA's Role in the 1980s LA Crack Epidemic - Citizen Truth He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. At the end of March, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. 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. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. But his central thesis - that the CIA, having participated in narcotics trafficking in central America, had, at best, turned a blind eye to the activities of drug dealers in LA - has never been in question. Ricky Ross (drug trafficker) - Wikipedia [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. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. 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. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. "Back then. "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. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' "[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. Family (1) The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph 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. 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. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. [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. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time.