They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. Vivian Corrie, a part of his liver in a life-threatening operation. "He rang me up that day. Blandn and Meneses' high-volume supply of low-priced high-purity cocaine "allowed Ross to sew up the Los Angeles market and move on. Shortly before his death, his motorcycle had been stolen (it was recovered by his family after his death). After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. font-size: 34px; The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. .article-native-ad svg { 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. 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. Thank you." 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. ", 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. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. 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. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. E&P Staff. 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. 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. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. 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. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. OR was he like Epstein? It was just more than he could take.". Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. 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. 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. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. In a three-part expos, investigative journalist Gary Webb reported that a guerrilla army in Nicaragua had used crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles' black neighborhoods to fund an attempted coup of Nicaragua's socialist government in the 1980s and that the CIA had purposefully funded it. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. When they married, she was aged just 21. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. There were no offers. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. 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. His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. But they underestimated the paradigm shifting power of the internet, and the intelligence of Webb, who not only listed the explosive story online . 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-bottom: 20px; Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. "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 . [48] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA.He wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, which initially backed his articles but later dropped him.Webb was put under pressure most certainly from the CIA under John Deutch for his reporting. In the six years he worked at its Sacramento office, he won the HL Mencken award, for a story exposing corruption in California's drug enforcement agency, and his Pulitzer prize - won jointly, as part of a Mercury News team covering the 1990 Loma Prieta earthquake. He really did believe that," she says. 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. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. [50] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series's claims. An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. 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 Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. 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. The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." After his resignation from The Mercury News, Webb expanded the "Dark Alliance" series into a book that responded to the criticism of the series and described his experiences writing the story and dealing with the controversy. 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. reports. By a fortunate coincidence of timing, the report was released on a day when the Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated every front page in the country. Age 43 years. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. .article-native-ad strong { When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". 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. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". 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. The story they printed was just awful. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. 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. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. 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. After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' 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. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. In February, Gary Webb gave his ex-wife. Depressed, he became increasingly unpredictable in his behaviour and embarked on a series of affairs; he was divorced from Bell in 2000, though he remained close to her throughout his life and lived in a house in nearby Carmichael. "Back then. "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. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. 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 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. 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. "You do not understand the power of these people," he adds, referring to the US intelligence services. [4] When Webb's father retired from the Marines, the family settled in a suburb of Indianapolis, where Webb and his brother attended high school. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". ", "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. color: #ddd; "[55] In June 1997, The Mercury News told Webb it was transferring him from the paper's Sacramento bureau and offered him a choice between working at the main offices in San Jose under closer editorial supervision, or spot reporting in Cupertino; both locations were long commutes from his home in Sacramento. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. 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 . Webb, one of the boldest and most outstanding reporters of his generation, was the journalist who, in 1996, established the connection between the CIA and major drug dealers in Los Angeles, some of whose profits had been channelled to fund the Contra guerrilla movement in Nicaragua. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. 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. [28] Maxine Waters, the representative for California's 35th district, which includes South-Central Los Angeles, was also outraged by the articles and became one of Webb's strongest supporters. [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". 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. Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. 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. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. 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. Ceppos failed to reply to one phone message and six emails. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. margin-top: 10px; He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. [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. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. "Do not quote me. This did not happen in Webb's case. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". 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 '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.