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The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. The feeling was that with other news outlets calling for Webb's head, the paper's credibility depended on their joining in on the attacks. But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. font-weight:500; "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. A perceptive, engaging woman of 48, she has turned an adjoining study into a small shrine to her late husband, who would have celebrated his 50th birthday five weeks ago. . Webb was born in Corona, California. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. I have also followed up on key topics raised by Paul Cottrell will leading industry experts like Dr. Peter McCollough on the Tommy Carrigan Show, weekly in 2021 and 2022. He wrote well. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell says. 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. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. }. "[76] Scott Herhold, Webb's first editor at The Mercury-News, wrote in a 2013 column that "Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. [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. This did not happen in Webb's case. [66] He recently told the American Journalism Review (whose scrupulously researched piece, by Susan Paterno, is the only serious documentation of the Webb case I could find anywhere in the orthodox American media) that Webb's critics in rival newspapers, "quoted these CIA guys - who had a tremendous amount to hide - as though they were telling the truth. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. [39] The Post refused to print his letter. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. 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 is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. In May 1997, after an internal review, Ceppos stated that, although the story was right on many important points, there were shortcomings in the writing, editing and production of the series. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. . padding-bottom: 20px; In interviews after leaving The Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and stated that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. We had been here before." The complete lack of desire to ask the difficult questions makes me want to scream. A Celebration of Life will be . There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. Although Blandn's cartel was undoubtedly one of the first to bring crack to LA, Webb was almost certainly suffering a rush of blood when he described the group as "the first pipeline" into the city. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. 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. 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. [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. He was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. .article-native-ad strong { 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. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. "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 was taken to hospital by air ambulance. When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. According to Walt Bogdanich, a former colleague on the Plain Dealer who has won two Pulitzers and now works for The New York Times, Webb was the best retriever of information from public records he has ever seen. [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. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. 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. "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 . Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. "They had him writing obituaries," she said. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. When he was engaged, he worked hard. 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. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. His assignments included investigating racial profiling by the California Highway Patrol and charges that the Oracle Corporation had received a no-bid contract award of $95 million in 2001. It was just more than he could take.". "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." [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. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. 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. margin-top: 10px; Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. Today, Narco News, with support from The Fund for Authentic Journalism, is pleased to announce that the Dark Alliance website has a new, and this time permanent, home at Narco News. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. It was truthful. 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. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. "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 . Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. 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 . Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. 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 Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. "He had six in a short period of time." Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . He cites the case of Alfred McCoy, now Professor of South East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time. To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. 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's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. The Mercury News reporter came under sustained attack from the weightier US newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and, especially, the Los Angeles Times, infuriated at being scooped, on its own patch, by what it saw as a small-town paper. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. 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 By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. 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". By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. "[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. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. 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. But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. *, '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. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. "[78], While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series's claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." Army. 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. 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. [14] In 1984, Webb wrote a story titled Driving Off With Profits which claimed that the promoters of a race in Cleveland paid themselves nearly a million dollars from funds that should have gone to the city of Cleveland. } "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. 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. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. 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]. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). Both sides were left angry and disappointed. The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. Can these things possibly be? The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. [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. "He rang me up that day. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Webb, Bell explains, had written four letters explaining what he was about to do - one to her, one to each of their three children - and mailed them immediately before he killed himself. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. 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. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. 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 . Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. 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 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. 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. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. ". Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the George Washington University's National Security Archive, was one of the first to suggest that Webb had overplayed his hand in the Mercury News version of "Dark Alliance". It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. Unable to get work from any major US newspaper, he spent the four months before his death writing for * a free-sheet covering the Sacramento area. He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. "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.". "[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]. "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". 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. My wife has kept me grounded for . [54] Editors at the paper, on the other hand, felt that Webb had failed to tell them about information that contradicted the series's claims and that he "responded to concerns not with reasoned argument, but with accusations of us selling him out. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. The other article, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. 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. padding-left: 10px!important; Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. "Like enjoy it.". 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. 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.