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Save 50% with early-bird passes. 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. He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). "To get back at his editors?". [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb was found dead from an apparent suicide, as Democracy Now! Dispelling the Rumors: Gary Webb's Death Confirmed As Suicide OR was he like Epstein? Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. Sue remarried two years ago. 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. Dark Alliance: Gary Webb, Christian Rummel: 9781522694397: Amazon.com [55] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute. Gary Webb - Wikispooks line-height:1.5; Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. Age 43 years. 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. Dec. 13, 2004. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. The link between drug-running and the Reagan regime's support for the right-wing terrorist group throughout the 1980s had been public knowledge for over a decade. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. He made that very clear. The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb - The Telegraph So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. "People told me that," she says. It found that Blandn received permanent resident status "in a wholly improper manner" and that for some time the Department "was not certain whether to prosecute Meneses, or use him as a cooperating witness." The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." (Strawser) Webb. Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. He really did believe that," she says. The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. '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. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. "[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. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. Webb, Gary Gary T. Webb, age 67, of Hamilton, Michigan, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family Thursday, November 11, 2021. "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.". He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. [39] The Post refused to print his letter. But the report was correct. Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. "He definitely was depressed. 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. Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". Gary Webb | Obituary | The Daily Item Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. Webb's ex-wife, Sue Bell, discounted theories Tuesday that her husband had been murdered, saying the 49-year-old Webb had been distraught for some time over his inability to get . She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. 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. "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. 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. Why Journalist Gary Webb Died - LewRockwell By the end of September, three federal investigations had been announced: an investigation into the CIA allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. WRITTEN IN PAIN - Los Angeles Times 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. "[55] In June 1997, The Mercury News told Webb it was transferring him from the paper's Sacramento bureau and offered him a choice between working at the main offices in San Jose under closer editorial supervision, or spot reporting in Cupertino; both locations were long commutes from his home in Sacramento. Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press In a three-part series published in the San Jose Mercury News, "Dark Alliance," Webb alleges that not only was the CIA aware cocaine sold in the U.S. during the 1980s was funding the Nicaraguan Contras, they were complicit in its distribution. 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. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. "He rang me up that day. "Back then. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. Dark Alliance - Dark Alliance ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". 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". [36] McManus wrote that Blandn's and Meneses's contributions to Contra organizations were significantly less than the "millions" claimed in the series, and stated there was no evidence that the CIA had tried to protect them. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Return of the messenger: How Jeremy Renner's new film Kill The "[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]. [63]Dark Alliance was a 1998 Pen/Newman's Own First Amendment Award Finalist, 1998 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, 1999 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award Finalist, and 1999 Firecracker Alternative Booksellers Award Winner in the Politics category. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. "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. American Journalism Review - Archives ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. 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. Dr. Gary A. Webb, MD | Marco Island, FL | Geriatrician | US News Doctors Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. "He had six in a short period of time." 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." When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. 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. 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. margin-bottom: 20px; "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. "Everyone got out and left the person who had made the noise - issued the report - alone. Shortly before I left for Sacramento, Moreira, who knew Webb, had shown me unbroadcast footage which shows the French reporter making a phone call to a media commentator in the US, asking him about Webb's death. 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 . [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." "[58], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." . How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb . The normal process is, or should be, that a reporter files a story and is robustly challenged by his paper's lawyers and editors - who, if satisfied that the report is accurate - publish, then defend the writer to the hilt. 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. If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' Relationships with other women ended badly. 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 . 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. His wife is Sue Webb (m. 1979-2000) Gary Webb Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. 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. Newsweek called Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff". 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. Call 911 for assistance. 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 padding-bottom: 20px; She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. 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. 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". The drugs went to South Central LA. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. 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. 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. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. "I am scared," the voice replies. 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. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. "He walked in one day," Bell recalls, "and said, 'You are not going to believe what I just found out.' [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". When Gary originally broke this mind blowing story, the arrogant authority's assumed they could simply ignore him and hope he'd go away. Gary Webb FRCPC Obituary (1943 - 2021) - Legacy Remembers Special Reports - Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories And The Cia In - PBS Webb may indeed be physically dead, but his research is more alive today than ever before, and continues to haunt the shadow government and snowball into a monster that will undoubtedly have its eventual revenge. "[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." 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. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. He was born August 27, 1968 in Saginaw, Michigan to Taylor Jr. and Loretta Webb. [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. .article-native-ad { Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. "[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." .article-native-ad svg { "The cause of death was determined to be self . Emma Lee Webb of Crossett, Arkansas | 1947 - 2023 | Obituary I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. 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 failed because the climate was more sceptical then. 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh.

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