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 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. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. [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. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. 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.. 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 was previously married to Sue Bell. [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. 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. that the "federal government bore some responsibility, however indirect, for the flood of crack that coursed through black neighborhoods in the 1980s"). [39] The Post refused to print his letter. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. "Back then. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. "[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. 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. 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. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. in Central America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Webb&oldid=1138520387, This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36. Family (1) 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. Jack Blum, who was the lead investigator for Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, which produced a highly damning 1989 report on drug-smuggling in the guise of national security, is one of several commentators to have questioned aspects of Webb's original reporting. 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. "To get back at his editors?". Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. 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]. Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. 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. font-weight:500; 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. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. 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. An editorial in the Times, while criticizing the series for making "unsubstantiated charges", conceded that it did find "drug-smuggling and dealing by Nicaraguans with at least tentative connections to the Contras" and called for further investigation. In 1986, Webb wrote an article saying that the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Frank D. Celebrezze accepted contributions from groups with organized crime connections. "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. [28] Maxine Waters, the representative for California's 35th district, which includes South-Central Los Angeles, was also outraged by the articles and became one of Webb's strongest supporters. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Leen, who covered the cocaine trade for the Miami Herald in the 1980s, rejects the claim that "because the report uncovered an agency mindset of indifference to drug-smuggling allegations", it vindicated Webb's reporting. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. It was also posted on The Mercury News website with additional information, including documents cited in the series and audio recordings of people quoted in the articles. 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". [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. "The cause of death was determined to be self . In the six years he worked at its Sacramento office, he won the HL Mencken award, for a story exposing corruption in California's drug enforcement agency, and his Pulitzer prize - won jointly, as part of a Mercury News team covering the 1990 Loma Prieta earthquake. "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 . A Celebration of Life will be . According to a description of Webb's injuries in the Los Angeles Times, he shot himself with a .38 revolver, which he placed near his right ear. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. Its pointed to as one of the clearer cases of CIA intervention as revenge for Webb revealing damaging secrets about the agencies involvement in drug smuggling. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. 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. He really did believe that," she says. [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." "And to an extent, they succeeded.". [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. 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. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. [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. 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. His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. [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. 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. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. .article-native-ad strong { "They had him writing obituaries," she said. 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. Webb, Gary Gary T. Webb, age 67, of Hamilton, Michigan, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family Thursday, November 11, 2021. She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. He made that very clear. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? 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. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. 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. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. .article-native-ad { 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. OR was he like Epstein? He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. We had been here before." He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. 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. "You do not understand the power of these people," he adds, referring to the US intelligence services. Ceppos failed to reply to one phone message and six emails. Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . Webb chose the second option. 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. The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. The second volume, "The Contra Story," was issued in a classified version on April 27, 1998, and in an unclassified version on October 8, 1998. And the importance of exposing them. 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. 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. 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". [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. . I first heard about Webb eight years ago, I tell Bell, from the Paris-based journalist Paul Moreira. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. [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. In and out of work, he had a reputation for taking risks. 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. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. }. "He had six in a short period of time." [66] Webb was an assertive figure who drove fast cars and powerful motorcycles, hung heavy metal posters in his office and, at certain times in his life, smoked a fair amount of cannabis. "[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." Corrie had primary biliary cirrhosis, a genetic liver disease that already had. She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. He became an investigator for the California State Legislature, published a book based on the "Dark Alliance" series in 1998, and did freelance investigative reporting. . [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. "He was crying. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. 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. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. 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. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. 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. "[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]. [40] Ceppos also asked reporter Pete Carey to write a critique of the series for publication in The Mercury News, and had the controversial website artwork changed. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. "[78], While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series's claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." 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". 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. "People told me that," she says. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. 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. } [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' 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. 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. 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. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. The follow-up reporting in the Los Angeles Times and other papers has been criticised for focusing on problems in the series rather than re-examining the earlier CIA-Contra claims. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. 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. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. And it was ignored by the US media, for all of those reasons. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. 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. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret .