"[75], Jonathan Krim, The Mercury News editor who recruited Webb from The Plain Dealer and who supervised The Mercury News internal review of "Dark Alliance," told AJR editor Paterno that Webb "had all the qualities you'd want in a reporter: curious, dogged, a very high sense of wanting to expose wrongdoing and to hold private and public officials accountable." "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." 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 The Death of Gary Webb - Beyond Chron [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: American Journalism Review - Archives And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere - Adweek Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. Webb disagreed with this conclusion.[1][2]. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. Gary Webb | Obituary | The Daily Item "They had him writing obituaries," she said. Kill the Messenger True Story vs. Movie - Real Gary Webb "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. }. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. "Ross," his report went on, dealt "on a scale never before conceived," with "a staggering turnover" of "50 to 100 kilos of cocaine a day". .article-native-ad svg { "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. I first heard about Webb eight years ago, I tell Bell, from the Paris-based journalist Paul Moreira. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. color: #ddd; Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. 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. margin: 0 45px; The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. Susan Bell: a shameful secret history - The Independent Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. '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. Webb began to shift from cynicism to curiosity. line-height:1.5; It was truthful. He is from United States. The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . .article-native-ad strong { Garry Webb wrote the 1996 "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Dr. Gary A. Webb, MD | Marco Island, FL | Geriatrician | US News Doctors 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. 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. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. Family (1) "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. 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." A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. } We are in the living room of Bell's house just outside Sacramento, California. Gary Webb's painstaking investigation and the incindiary conclusions he drew from it were based mostly on public records, as detailed in the "notes on sources" section in "Dark Alliance", including: undercover audio tapes, declassified government documents from the CIA, DEA, FBI, L.A. Sheriff's Department, files from the Iran-Contra . 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 . He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. 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. 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. Eighteen Years Ago Today, Journalist Gary Webb Was Murdered After "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 . George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. 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". "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. But they underestimated the paradigm shifting power of the internet, and the intelligence of Webb, who not only listed the explosive story online . In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. "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. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. Gary Numan's superfan wife had 'body lift' and exploding breasts 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." ", "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. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. Tiffany L Gary-Webb | School of Public Health Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. A Celebration of Life will be . *, '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. "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. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. "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.". He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. 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. Newsweek called Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff". 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. 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 was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. 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. The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. 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. It was just more than he could take.". Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. Am J Mens Health, 2018 Mar 1:1557988318758788. doi: 10.1177/1557988318758788. 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.' After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated. She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered - BSNEWS My wife has kept me grounded for . Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. 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. Gary Webb - Wikispooks 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. Contemporary discussions of the series are discussed in the section on, Webb 2011, "Caltrans Ignored Elevated Freeway Safety. If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell says. He is survived by his loving wife, Wendie, of Elgin; grandmother, Eileen Carrier of Elgin;. Dispelling the Rumors: Gary Webb's Death Confirmed As Suicide reports. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. Emma Lee Webb. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. His series of articles - which prompted the distinguished reporter and former Newsweek Washington correspondent Robert Parry to describe Webb as "an American hero" - incited fury among the African-American community, many of whom took his investigation as proof that the White House saw crack as a way of bringing genocide to the ghetto. This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. .article-native-ad { I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . There were no offers. 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. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. [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." "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. [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. [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. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. We had been here before." 1) It presented only one interpretation of conflicting evidence and in one case "did not include information that contradicted a central assertion of the series." 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 CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. Gary Webb and the Iran-Contra-Cocaine Connection | WilderUtopia Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to finance their fight against the government in Nicaragua. Ross, currently serving life, was already infamous; he had been profiled in the LA Times in December 1994, by writer Jesse Katz, at a time when Ross was at liberty and in penitent mood. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. And when he got something in his head, he was determined to do it. Gary Webb Obituary (2011) - Saginaw, MI - Saginaw News on MLive.com Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. 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. 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 . Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. Five years ago, a tragedy occurred in American journalism: Investigative reporter Gary Webb - who had been ostracized by his own colleagues for forcing a spotlight back onto an ugly government scandal they wanted to ignore - was driven to commit suicide. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. 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. 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. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. He accepted Christ at an early age. Famously known by the Family name Gary Stephen Webb, was a great Engineer.He was born on August 31, 1955, in Carmichael, California.Carmichael is a beautiful and populous city located in Carmichael, California United States of America.. Gary Webb Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. I'm glad that I didn't dissuade him, because it was important to get the truth out but for Gary Webb, there was a very high price to pay." Both sides were left angry and disappointed. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. He wrote well. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. The whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. 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. Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. 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. Gary Webb was born on August 31, 1955 in Corona, California, USA. 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. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. "[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." Gary Webb photos on Flickr | Flickr Gary's ex-wife Susan Bell states: "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide." An interesting OPINION, but she supplies no convincing evidence to illustrate what she means by this. Voices: The Gary Webb saga still has lessons today There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. } In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. 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. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. But you say - dear God. The story they printed was just awful. The Warning in Gary Webb's Death - Consortium News Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. One instalment of the LA Times's 18,000-word rebuttal of Webb's piece, published in October 1996, sought to minimise the importance of his key witness, Ricky Ross. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. 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 . He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021. [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. } 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." It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Open Mic: A Few Words with Cinematographer Ian Webb [39] The Post refused to print his letter. 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". She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. 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. How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Poor Gary Webb. 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. Film of this encounter survives. padding-bottom: 20px; He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. 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. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. WRITTEN IN PAIN - Los Angeles Times Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . Save 50% with early-bird passes. [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. 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. 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. Return of the messenger: How Jeremy Renner's new film Kill The

Sydney Uni Rugby Team Lists, Womens Health Conference 2023, Articles G