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. I ask Bell. [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. "Do not quote me. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. My wife has kept me grounded for . "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb 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. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . In the column, Ceppos defended parts of the article, writing that the series had "solidly documented" that the drug ring described in the series did have connections with the Contras and did sell large quantities of cocaine in inner-city Los Angeles. When he was engaged, he worked hard. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. Gary Webb Was Right | HuffPost Latest News Gary Webb's wife, Sue Webb (now Sue Stokes), said that he had been depressed for years due to his inability to get hired at a daily newspaper. "The cause of death was determined to be self . 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. . 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. After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. Regarding issues raised in the series's shorter sidebar stories, it found that some in the government were "not eager" to have DEA agent Celerino Castillo "openly probe" activities at Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, where covert operations in support of the Contras were undertaken, and that the CIA had indeed intervened in a case involving smuggler Julio Zavala. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. [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. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. 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. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. 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. "He thought I was being cowardly. Poor Gary Webb. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. [69], Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. 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. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? Why Journalist Gary Webb Died - LewRockwell It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? Although Blandn's cartel was undoubtedly one of the first to bring crack to LA, Webb was almost certainly suffering a rush of blood when he described the group as "the first pipeline" into the city. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. E&P Staff. Gary was born May 5, 1954, to his parents Worley and Margaret Webb, who preceded him in death as well as his brother, David Webb. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. .article-native-ad p { One of these was a 1986 raid on Blandn's drug organization by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which the article suggested had produced evidence of CIA ties to drug smuggling that was later suppressed. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. But his central thesis - that the CIA, having participated in narcotics trafficking in central America, had, at best, turned a blind eye to the activities of drug dealers in LA - has never been in question. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. 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. . He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. 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. 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." 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. Am J Mens Health, 2018 Mar 1:1557988318758788. doi: 10.1177/1557988318758788. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. padding-bottom: 20px; "He rang me up that day. 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. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. The consensus, insofar as one exists, is that he probably overstated both the amount of drug money made by Ross and Blandn, and the percentage of those profits diverted to the Contras. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. 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. 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. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. 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. [9], Webb's first major investigative work appeared in 1980, when the Cincinnati Post published "The Coal Connection," a seventeen-part series by Webb and Post reporter Thomas Scheffey. 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". It was truthful. "[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." His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. But the biggest loss he had was the writing. 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 . line-height:1.5; He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. But they underestimated the paradigm shifting power of the internet, and the intelligence of Webb, who not only listed the explosive story online . He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. [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. Gary's story, however, is far from over and could never be killed by something as trivial as a material bullet. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. I felt she really trashed me. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. 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? He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. (Strawser) Webb. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). } Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. OR was he like Epstein 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. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". The story had little immediate impact. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. 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.' 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. 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. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. 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. 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. But as his ex-wife told the . This emotive last phrase refers to Webb's experience in the immediate aftermath of publication of his three lengthy articles, in the summer of 1996. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". After a local newspaper reported that Webb had died from multiple gunshots, the coroner's office received so many calls asking about Webb's death that Sacramento County Coroner Robert Lyons issued a statement confirming Webb had died by suicide. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. 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." 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. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. 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. 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 [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. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". [66] Emma Lee Webb of Crossett, Arkansas | 1947 - 2023 | Obituary In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. font-size: 34px; Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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. How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Family (1) Gary Webb : Murdered For Exposing The Truth - Educate Inspire Change Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. Kill the Messenger True Story vs. Movie - Real Gary Webb She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. 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. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". 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 . Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" Ricky Ross (drug trafficker) - Wikipedia margin-top: 10px; An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. Tiffany L Gary-Webb | School of Public Health To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. . Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955. Dispelling the Rumors: Gary Webb's Death Confirmed As Suicide He was previously married to Sue Bell. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and - reddit Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. font-weight:500; He really did believe that," she says. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. The film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . [39] The Post refused to print his letter. Both sides were left angry and disappointed.