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Webb chose the second option. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. [11], In 1983, Webb moved to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he continued doing investigative work. Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. Webb, one of the boldest and most outstanding reporters of his generation, was the journalist who, in 1996, established the connection between the CIA and major drug dealers in Los Angeles, some of whose profits had been channelled to fund the Contra guerrilla movement in Nicaragua. Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb. The new movie Kill the Messenger, based in part on a 2006 book by a former student of mine, eulogizes Webb . But once the flak really started to fly, from the nation's grandest newspapers, Ceppos - having come under exactly what form of pressure it is difficult to know - printed a retraction which Webb dismissed as spineless. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. .article-native-ad svg { "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. [57], The report covered actions by Department of Justice employees in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U.S. Baca claimed that a drug dealer with close links to the CIA had framed her boyfriend, who was also in the cocaine business. 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. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. He recently told the American Journalism Review (whose scrupulously researched piece, by Susan Paterno, is the only serious documentation of the Webb case I could find anywhere in the orthodox American media) that Webb's critics in rival newspapers, "quoted these CIA guys - who had a tremendous amount to hide - as though they were telling the truth. A time of fellowship and remembrance is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. 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. } By a fortunate coincidence of timing, the report was released on a day when the Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated every front page in the country. The Department of Justice Inspector-General's report was released on July 23, 1998. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. On Dec. 9, 2004, the 49-year-old Webb typed out suicide notes to his ex-wife and his three children; laid out a certificate for his cremation; and taped a note on the door telling movers, who were . The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress. Webb came home and put his belongings in order, dropping his Kentucky Post poster in the bin. 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. *, '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. By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. 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. After the series's publication, the Northern California branch of the national Society of Professional Journalists voted Webb "Journalist of the Year" for 1996. "They had him writing obituaries," she said. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. He made that very clear. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. 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. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. His career ended, his livelihood was destroyed and certain games were started to be . When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. After examining the investigations and prosecutions of the main figures in the series, Blandn, Meneses and Ross, it concluded that "Although the investigations suffered from various problems of communication and coordination, their successes and failures were determined by the normal dynamics that affect the success of scores of investigations of high-level drug traffickers These factors, rather than anything as spectacular as a systematic effort by the CIA or any other intelligence agency to protect the drug trafficking activities of Contra supporters, determined what occurred in the cases we examined. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". Webb moved his wife and two young children to a suburb and continued a tradition he had started in Cleveland, restoring their small house with the help of how-to books, installing wainscoting and custom tile, new cabinets and gardens, while putting in overtime at the paper. Gary Stephen Webb(August 31, 1955 - December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. Webb's pieces were not dealing with nameless peasants slaughtered in some distant republic, but demonstrated a clear link between the CIA and the suppliers of the gangs delivering crack to the ghetto of Watts, in South Central Los Angeles. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. We had been here before." It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. His corpse was discovered on the seventh anniversary of his resignation from the Mercury News. "I am scared," the voice replies. 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. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. Both sides were left angry and disappointed. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Webb's ex wife, Susan Bell told reporters that she believed Webb had died by suicide. I ask Bell. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." 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. Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. "People told me that," she says. "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. The drugs went to South Central LA. . Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. 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. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . 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. [71] When asked by local reporters about the possibility of two gunshots being a suicide, Lyons replied "It's unusual in a suicide case to have two shots, but it has been done in the past, and it is in fact a distinct possibility." [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. . 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.. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. Webb, Bell explains, had written four letters explaining what he was about to do - one to her, one to each of their three children - and mailed them immediately before he killed himself. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". Webb's ex-wife, Stokes, now remarried and still living in Sacramento, had heard it all before, too. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. "[38], Surprised by The Washington Post article, The Mercury News's executive editor Jerome Ceppos wrote to the Post defending the series. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. 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. Blandn and Meneses were Nicaraguans who smuggled drugs into the U.S. and supplied dealers like Ross. ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." 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. Gary Webb (304) 778-2546: Jamie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. But you say - dear God. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. Her husband began his career on The Kentucky Post, and rapidly proved himself to be the sort of character who can be a secretive agency's worst nightmare: a full-blooded provocateur who liked to put the hours in at the library. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. "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 . He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. "[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." line-height:1.5; [39] The Post refused to print his letter. 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. 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. He was so depressed. 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. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. The story had little immediate impact. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. 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. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. 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. 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. 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 Drugs Has a Life of Its Own", "Pivotal Figures of Newspaper Series May Be Only Bit Players", "Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade", "Examining Charges of CIA Role in Crack Sales", "History Fuels Outrage Over Crack Allegations", "Ex-L.A. Times Writer Apologizes for "Tawdry" Attacks", "Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos' Letter to the Washington Post", "Washington Post response to Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos", "Despite critics, a good story Crack and the contras", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Epilogue", "CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: Conclusions", United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career? Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. "Which was that, if he wanted a future within the political establishment of the United States, then he should concentrate on other aspects of life.". [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. 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". .article-native-ad p { "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. What was new about Webb's reports, published under the title "Dark Alliance" in the Californian paper the San Jose Mercury News, was that for the first time it brought the story back home. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. He wrote well. 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." E&P Staff. His victory in the event last year gave him . It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. In August of 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his life.

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