Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. We had been here before." The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. "Back then. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. I felt she really trashed me. padding:0!important; Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. in Central America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Webb&oldid=1138520387, This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36. Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. By 1997, Bell tells me, Webb - whose 30-year career had earned him more awards than there is room for in her study - had been reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Cupertino. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). 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. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. '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. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. Steven Webb . Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. ", "Reporter's suicide confirmed by coroner", "Repercussions From Flawed News Articles", "Herhold: Thinking back on journalist Gary Webb and the CIA", Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks, "Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what 'Kill the Messenger' says", "Jeremy Renner's 'Kill the Messenger' Gets Fall Release Date", The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions, United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States, Central Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, "Secrecy, Conspiracy, and the Media During the CIA-Contra Affair", Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, "Inside the Dark Alliance: Gary Webb on the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion", 'A NATURAL STORY': Tribute to 'Dark Alliance' and Journalist Gary Webb, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, Archive of Gary Webb stories at Sacramento News and Review, "Frontline: Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. Save 50% with early-bird passes. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". When he was engaged, he worked hard. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 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. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." 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'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). "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. and Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. 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. 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. Dec. 13, 2004. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals support. 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. margin-top: 10px; Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. 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. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". .article-native-ad svg { 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 chose the second option. Both Gary's ex-wife Susan and his brother Kurt viewed the body and they confirmed the location of the wounds to me when I met them. } To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. [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. 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.". 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. Walter Bogdanich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who worked with Webb on The Plain Dealer, told American Journalism Review editor Susan Paterno "He was brilliant; he knew more about public records than anybody I've ever known. 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. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. The normal process is, or should be, that a reporter files a story and is robustly challenged by his paper's lawyers and editors - who, if satisfied that the report is accurate - publish, then defend the writer to the hilt. Can these things possibly be? The whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. 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". OR was he like Epstein? We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. "[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]. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. His. 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 Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. "He rang me up that day. 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. 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. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. 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. [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." By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. 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 ask Bell. 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. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. 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. He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. (Strawser) Webb. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. His series of articles - which prompted the distinguished reporter and former Newsweek Washington correspondent Robert Parry to describe Webb as "an American hero" - incited fury among the African-American community, many of whom took his investigation as proof that the White House saw crack as a way of bringing genocide to the ghetto. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. So he blew her off. In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. "Do not quote me. Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. Ross was also released early after cooperating in an investigation of police corruption, but was rearrested a few months later in a sting operation arranged with Blandn's help. In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. .article-native-ad { "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. Moreira - a senior news producer for Canal Plus - has established a reputation for courage and independence of mind in his own foreign reporting, and was recently described by Le Monde as "the Che Guevara of news media". A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. I'm glad that I didn't dissuade him, because it was important to get the truth out but for Gary Webb, there was a very high price to pay." Like Schou, Corn cites the inspector general's report, which he says "acknowledged that the CIA had indeed worked with suspected drugrunners (sic) while supporting the contras. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? He was a former member of Bethlehem . By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. And the importance of exposing them. . Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. padding-left: 10px!important; "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. 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. 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." In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. The second volume, "The Contra Story," was issued in a classified version on April 27, 1998, and in an unclassified version on October 8, 1998. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. But as his ex-wife told the . 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. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. 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. 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. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. Family (1) Why bring up old white people atrocities against black people now? Ricky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross (born January 26, 1960) is an American author and convicted drug trafficker best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s. "I am scared," the voice replies. That was just the way he was.". It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. 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 .