But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. 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]. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. He was born January 28, 1950 in Middletown, OH to Paul and Dorothy (Hawkins) Webb. 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. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. Gary Webb was born on March 21, 1959 to Wayne and Peggy Davie Webb in Lamesa, Texas. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. [72] A New York Times profile of Webb in June 1997 noted that two of his series written for the Cleveland Plain Dealer had resulted in lawsuits that the paper had settled. And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. His. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. Gary Webb, a journalist at The San Jose Mercury News, thought it was a far-fetched story to begin with, but in 1995 and 1996, he dug in and produced a deeply reported and deeply flawed three-part . The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". Gary Webb, a hero of authentic journalism, an inspiration to truth-seekers around the world, a friend to all of us at Narco News, but now an unemployable outcast in the world of commercial newspapers, took his own life on December 10, 2004. Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. Army. 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. Almost. "[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]. His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. "To get back at his editors?". 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. [55] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute. "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. "[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 leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. "[79], Writing after Webb's death in 2005, The Nation magazine's former Washington Editor David Corn said that Webb "was on to something but botched part of how he handled it." Take it from someone who knew him well. It was truthful. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. "[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. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Celebrity. Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and his death that was ruled a suicide, is the common sense notion that this was clearly assassination true? Kill the Messenger, a movie starring Jeremy Renner, just opened, about the life and death of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb, who committed suicide in 2004. WEBB, Gary T. - Age 55, of Goodrich, died Thursday, May 15, 2003 at his residence. 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. "Like enjoy it.". By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. 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". 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. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also took note and wrote to CIA director John Deutch and Attorney General Janet Reno, asking for investigations into the articles' allegations. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. Obituaries / August 21, 2021. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. Webb, who most recently had been writing for the Sacramento News & Review, is survived by his ex-wife and three children. [71], After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. [16] As part of The Mercury News team that covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Webb and his colleague Pete Carey wrote a story examining the causes of the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct. '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. [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. The drugs went to South Central LA. 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. "Gary was given the choice of relocating either to San Jose," says Bell, "or to Cupertino". 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. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. 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. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. "[58], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." 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." 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. 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." The complete lack of desire to ask the difficult questions makes me want to scream. A man who was wrongfully arrested and sent to prison on remand has been awarded 100,000 in compensation from Police Scotland. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". We had been here before." In 2015 Gary Webb, from Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway . 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 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. 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. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA. There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. 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. Do not quote me on anything.". "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell says. [42] The extent of the criticism, however, convinced Ceppos that The Mercury News had to acknowledge to its readers that the series had been subjected to strong criticism. 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. The response from the American press took two months to arrive. I ask Bell. 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. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. 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 series. Gary divorced from his wife in 2000, though the two remained close during his final years. Webb, a former San Jose Mercury News reporter, was found dead in his Carmichael home Friday morning. "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. 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. "[72] California Representative Maxine Waters, who was Webb's strongest supporter in Congress after the "Dark Alliance" controversy broke, issued a statement after Webb's death calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists that our country has ever seen. Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. WEBB, Mr. Gary Lee, our beloved son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle went home with his heavenly Father Monday, August 29, 2011 at University of Michigan Hospital. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. His father was a British Airways bus driver based at Heathrow Airport, and his mother Beryl later ran his fan club at the height of his fame. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigative reporting at The Washington Post, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." 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. ". He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. At the end of March, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column. "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.". * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. 17 years ago, Gary Webb wrote a series of articles that said some bad things about the CIA and drug traffickers. [51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. In the academic world to file was about a police horse which had of. And finding her he leaves behind the love of his life and adoring of. Began writing for the school paper, the Northerner or, '' says Bell ``. Worth his Net Worth has been amazing, '' Bell says of Goodrich, died,. 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