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"He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. 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. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. "People told me that," she says. I ask Bell. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. So he blew her off. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. 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. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. "That's right," says Blum. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". 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. [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. "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. It was accurate. It's . "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. 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. 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. 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 [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. Newsweek called Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff". 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. "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell says. margin: 0 45px; Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. In the column, Ceppos defended parts of the article, writing that the series had "solidly documented" that the drug ring described in the series did have connections with the Contras and did sell large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles. Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. 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. The story they printed was just awful. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. That was just the way he was.". . Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. E&P Staff. . The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. According to the report, the Inspector-General's office (OIG) examined all information the agency had "relating to CIA knowledge of drug trafficking allegations in regard to any person directly or indirectly involved in Contra activities." Army. "[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. He was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. Although it did find that both men were major drug dealers, "guilty of enriching themselves at the expense of countless drug users," and that they had contributed money to the Contra cause, "we did not find that their activities were responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, much less the rise of crack throughout the nation, or that they were a significant source of support for the Contras. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. 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. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 - Gary Webb, a reporter who won national attention with a series of articles, later discredited, linking the Central Intelligence Agency to the spread of crack . In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. 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". 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." Can these things possibly be? [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. His victory in the event last year gave him . She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. 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. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. 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. 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. 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. They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. 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. In interviews after leaving The Mercury News, Webb described the 1997 controversy as media manipulation. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. "He had six in a short period of time." We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." Steven Webb . Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. He accepted Christ at an early age. I felt she really trashed me. color:rgb(46,179,178); This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." Maxine Waters found a govt employee ran the South Central LA drug ring & The DOJ removed that section of the report : r/conspiracy 3 yr. ago Posted by shylock92008 He said: 'No. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. 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. "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.". This did not happen in Webb's case. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. ", The significant legacy of the Webb case, "the reason this whole affair remains so significant today," Blum says, "is this: the knowledge that, if one individual dares raise such serious issues, they risk confronting a tremendous apparatus that is prepared to whack them hard, and there is very little they can expect by way of support. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. 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. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. [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. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. Thank you." Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. } 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. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. margin-bottom: 20px; Because the gentile (european caucasian, lepers, fake jews) or white folks agenda has always been to destroy the black man, ever since pharaoh tried to murder Christ by murdering Hebrew babies, until now. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. 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. "I am scared," the voice replies. [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. Webb chose the second option. He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. .article-native-ad p { She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. Regarding issues raised in the series's shorter sidebar stories, it found that some in the government were "not eager" to have DEA agent Celerino Castillo "openly probe" activities at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, where covert operations in support of the Contras were undertaken, and that the CIA had indeed intervened in a case involving smuggler Julio Zavala. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. 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. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. But as his ex-wife told the . He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. margin-top: 10px; When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. Calling the Post's overall focus "misplaced", Overholser expressed regret that the paper had not taken the opportunity to re-examine whether the CIA had overlooked Contra involvement in drug smuggling, "a subject The Post and the public had given short shrift. After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandn, Meneses and Ross, it concluded that "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. 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. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. "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 . GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. 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. [43] He did this in a column that appeared on November 3, defending the series, but also committing the paper to a review of major criticisms. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. But you say - dear God. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. 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. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. Sue remarried two years ago. And it ruined that reporter's career. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. 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. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. 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. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. [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. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. 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. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." 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. (Strawser) Webb. He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. "To get back at his editors?". 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. It was just more than he could take.". American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb.
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