He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. 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. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. .article-native-ad strong { Noting that most of the activities discussed in the report had nothing to do with the people Webb reported on, Kornbluh told Schou, "I can't say it's a vindication. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. 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. Can these things possibly be? "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. [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. 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. Steven Webb . "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. E&P Staff. padding-left: 10px!important; Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. "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 . 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 wrote that the series likely "oversimplified" the crack epidemic in America and the supposed "critical role" the dealers written about in the series played in it. But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? [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. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. margin: 0 45px; GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. Army. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. 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. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. Ceppos failed to reply to one phone message and six emails. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. 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. Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. "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. At that time, Webb (pictured) was best known for the controversial three-part CIA 1996 expose he wrote the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the . The new movie Kill the Messenger, based in part on a 2006 book by a former student of mine, eulogizes Webb . Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. He is from United States. To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. 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]. Cuts and amendments were made at the request of Ceppos, executive editor of the Mercury News, and Webb's immediate editor Dawn Garcia, among others. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). 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." 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. 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. [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. A January 1997 article in American Journalism Review noted that a 1994 series Webb wrote had also been the subject of a Mercury News internal review that criticized Webb's reporting. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. 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. [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. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Attorneys' Offices. line-height:1.5; "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. [59], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in "Dark Alliance" were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency. "[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. "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. If he could have chosen his own epitaph, it might have been a line from the letter he posted to Bell, immediately before he killed himself: "I do not regret," Webb told her, "anything that I have written." With hindsight, Bell says, "the signs were there. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. 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. .article-native-ad svg { . By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. font-size: 34px; He was born at Emmanuel Hospital in. Gary Webb was at his desk in the Mercury News's Sacramento office, in July 1995, when he received a message to call Coral Baca, a Hispanic woman from the San Francisco Bay area, allegedly connected to a Colombian drug cartel. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. 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 made his early reputation as a reporter with the Plain Dealer before going on to fame and turmoil at the San Jose Mercury News. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. And when he got something in his head, he was determined to do it. "But that," pointed out Blum, who is now a Washington attorney, "in no way - in no way - diminishes the wrongness of what these bastards did. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." The second article described Blandn's background and how he began smuggling cocaine to support the Contras. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. 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". 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". [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' 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. The room is decorated with his trophies: a Pulitzer prize hangs next to his HL Mencken award; also on the wall is a framed advertisement for The Kentucky Post. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" "Back then. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. 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. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. When he was engaged, he worked hard. Gary Webb, (born August 31, 1955, Corona, California, U.S.died December 10, 2004, Carmichael, California), American investigative journalist who wrote a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 on connections between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S.-backed Contra army seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. Sue remarried two years ago. Shortly before his death, his motorcycle had been stolen (it was recovered by his family after his death). One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. Call 911 for assistance. He is the oldest son of Pulitzer Prize-winninginvestigative journalist Gary Webb, the subject of the 2014 film "Kill the Messenger," starring Hollywood heavyweight Jeremy Renner. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. Parry, the first reporter to write about the US authorities' drug-running on behalf of the Contras, had survived a campaign by the White House to discredit first his story, then his reputation. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." 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? "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.". 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. She acted opposite Dirk Bogarde in the groundbreaking film Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961), as the unsuspecting wife of a barrister who is a closet homosexual. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. The story had little immediate impact. 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. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California." Both sides were left angry and disappointed. This did not happen in Webb's case. It's . But you say - dear God. [46] Overholser was harshly critical of the series, "reported by a seemingly hotheaded fellow willing to have people leap to conclusions his reporting couldn't back up." "People told me that," she says. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. Webb chose the second option. [63]Dark Alliance was a 1998 Pen/Newman's Own First Amendment Award Finalist, 1998 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, 1999 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award Finalist, and 1999 Firecracker Alternative Booksellers Award Winner in the Politics category. Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. [55] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. A 1985 series, "Doctoring the Truth," uncovered problems in the State Medical Board[12] and led to an Ohio House investigation which resulted in major revisions to the state Medical Practice Act. By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. 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". "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. "That's right," says Blum. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". Begun 1996, the divorce and battle over cash of Grammy winner Jimmy Webb age 75, father of six, wed 22 years to Patsy, 64, daughter of late actor Barry Sullivan is getting longer. On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; 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. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. 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.. Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. That was just the way he was.". [19] The series was published in The Mercury News in three parts, from Sunday, 18 August 1996 to 20 August 1996, with a first long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. It found that CIA officials ignored information about possible Contra drug dealing; that they continued to work with Contra supporters despite allegations that they were trafficking drugs, and further asserted that officials from the CIA instructed Drug Enforcement Agency officers to refrain from investigating alleged dealers connected with the Contras. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. 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. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. It was accurate. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. It noted that Blandn and Meneses claimed to have donated money to Contra sympathizers in Los Angeles, but found no information to confirm that it was true or that the agency had heard of it. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. 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. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. ", 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. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. [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." On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. 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. In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. "[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. 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). "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 . Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. 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. 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. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. [62], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of "millions," contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. His. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations.
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