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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. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. "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.". Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. 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 . "To get back at his editors?". His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. [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 story they printed was just awful. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. The reports of the three federal investigations into the claims of "Dark Alliance" were not released until over a year after the series's publication. "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. 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. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. He was so depressed. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. Ceppos failed to reply to one phone message and six emails. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. 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. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. 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. Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Melinda Welsh September 29, 2014 This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood. OR was he like Epstein? [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. . Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. 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. .article-native-ad strong { When he was engaged, he worked hard. 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 . 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 first one, "The California Story," was issued in a classified version on December 17, 1997, and in an unclassified version on January 29, 1998. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. font-weight:500; 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. 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. Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? "That's right," says Blum. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. font-size: 34px; "[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." The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. Attorneys' Offices. "[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]. 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. '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. Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint OConnor had a solid featurethe other day about Kill the Messenger, the journalism true-tale movie opening Friday with Jeremy Renner starring as the late Gary 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. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. The drugs went to South Central LA. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. In February, Gary Webb gave his ex-wife. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. 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. 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. (Strawser) Webb. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". 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. Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. He cites the case of Alfred McCoy, now Professor of South East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. The complete lack of desire to ask the difficult questions makes me want to scream. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. Gary Webb's painstaking investigation and the incindiary conclusions he drew from it were based mostly on public records, as detailed in the "notes on sources" section in "Dark Alliance", including: undercover audio tapes, declassified government documents from the CIA, DEA, FBI, L.A. Sheriff's Department, files from the Iran-Contra . 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. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. margin-top: 10px; Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. Am J Mens Health, 2018 Mar 1:1557988318758788. doi: 10.1177/1557988318758788. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. "Do not quote me. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. 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. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". 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. According to a description of Webb's injuries in the Los Angeles Times, he shot himself with a .38 revolver, which he placed near his right ear. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. [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." ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". It was written by Jesse Katz, the same reporter who, less than two years earlier, had described Ross's conglomerate as "the Wal-Mart of crack dealing". By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. [51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. 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. And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. 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. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. "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. [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.