Because Blandn cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he spent only 28 months in prison, became a paid government informant, and received permanent resident status. It concluded, however, that these problems were "a far cry from the type of broad manipulation and corruption of the federal criminal justice system suggested by the original allegations.". padding:0!important; [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. 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. The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. [10] The series, which examined the murder of a coal company president with ties to organized crime, won the national Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for reporting from a small newspaper. The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers 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. And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! He was so depressed. It was written by Jesse Katz, the same reporter who, less than two years earlier, had described Ross's conglomerate as "the Wal-Mart of crack dealing". 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. Webb chose the second option. Can these things possibly be? 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. When he was engaged, he worked hard. Call 911 for assistance. margin: 0 45px; [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. [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. He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. "That's right," 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." Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. By: E&P Staff The death of investigative reporter Gary Webb has been confirmed as a suicide, according to a coroner's statement. Army. Do not quote me on anything.". Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". The complete lack of desire to ask the difficult questions makes me want to scream. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. Gary Webb Obituary (2011) - Saginaw, MI - Saginaw News on MLive.com Newsweek called Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff". 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. His victory in the event last year gave him . The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. 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. Gary Webb Was Right | HuffPost Latest News Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. "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.". "[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." "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 . [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. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. But as Krim told Webb's biographer Nick Schou, "The zeal that helped make Gary a relentless reporter was coupled with an inability to question himself, to entertain the notion that he might have erred. * The agency's response was to try to prevent him from getting his doctorate, then block his advancement in the academic world. "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". "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. 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. His was the story of a man who gains information of wrongdoing, then, attempting to act in the public interest, seeks protection from his superiors, and the forces of law, and does not receive it. 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. The response from the American press took two months to arrive. [14] In 1984, Webb wrote a story titled Driving Off With Profits which claimed that the promoters of a race in Cleveland paid themselves nearly a million dollars from funds that should have gone to the city of Cleveland. The review was conducted primarily by editor Jonathan Krim and reporter Pete Carey, who had written the paper's first published analysis of the series. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. And when he got something in his head, he was determined to do it. "He started having motorcycle crashes," Bell says. 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. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News [39] Carey's critique appeared in mid-October and went through several of the Post's criticisms of the series, including the importance of Blandn's drug ring in spreading crack, questions about Blandn's testimony in court, and how specific series allegations about CIA involvement had been, giving Webb's responses. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. Investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories in 1996 for the San Jose Mercury News that documented the US-government-backed Contra insurgents' drug pipeline into Los Angeles. Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. Jimmy Webb's battle with ex-wife Patsy Sullivan continues - New York Post ", "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. Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. 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 . padding-bottom: 20px; By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. Today, Narco News, with support from The Fund for Authentic Journalism, is pleased to announce that the Dark Alliance website has a new, and this time permanent, home at Narco News. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed: Who Is Professional SX/MX - Halla News Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. 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. WRITTEN IN PAIN - Los Angeles Times "[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. Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press Gary Webb on the CIA's Role in the 1980s LA Crack Epidemic - Citizen Truth "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". 'It's just good vibes': Cooper Webb, Eli Tomac in tight Supercross On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Gary Stephen Webb, Pulitzer prize-winning US investigative journalist, typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; he laid out a certificate for his cremation; he taped a note on the door telling movers - who were coming the next morning to move him out of his rental house near Sacramento - to Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". 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 "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. Gary Webb's son on new movie "Kill the Messenger" - YouTube The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube color: #ddd; "Back then. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". 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. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. 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 . 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. [7] After transferring to Northern Kentucky, he entered its journalism program and wrote for the school paper, The Northerner. He cites the case of Alfred McCoy, now Professor of South East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. Sue remarried two years ago. 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.' One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. I mean - please.". He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. 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". } [26] Other papers were slow to pick up the story, but African Americans quickly took note, especially in South Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series had been active. There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. 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 it ruined that reporter's career. [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. 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. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. "He had six in a short period of time." margin-bottom: 20px; [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. My wife has kept me grounded for . Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. 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 Numan's superfan wife had 'body lift' and exploding breasts "[74] Mary Anne Sharkey, Webb's editor at The Plain Dealer, told writer Alicia Shepard in 1997 that Webb was known as 'the carpenter' "because he had everything nailed down. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. The Death of Gary Webb - Beyond Chron And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. . 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. But while calling the flaws in the series "unforgivably careless journalism," Overholser also criticized the Post's refusal to print Ceppos' letter defending the series and sharply criticized the Post's coverage of the story. Dr. Gary A. Webb, MD | Marco Island, FL | Geriatrician | US News Doctors Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Dark Alliance - Dark Alliance font-size: 34px; He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. American Journalism Review - Archives Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021 Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. 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.. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate.