He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. Webb, whose plans to become a journalist had begun when he was 13, but never included equine death notices, resigned from the Mercury News a few months later. Pictured as a teenage fan: Gary Numan with Gemma, his now wife, getting his autograph in 1985 years before they got together Gary was 600,000 in debt, and on the verge of going under in. "People told me that," she says. Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. 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. His. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". 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 But the biggest loss he had was the writing. The drugs went to South Central LA. 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. 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. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. Film of this encounter survives. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. He was a former member of Bethlehem . Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. Gary Webb, 49, Journalist Who Wrote Disputed Articles, Is Dead 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. But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. "The cause of death was determined to be self . 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. By: E&P Staff The death of investigative reporter Gary Webb has been confirmed as a suicide, according to a coroner's statement. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". 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. 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. 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. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. [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. 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". Steven Webb . [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. A Celebration of Life will be . line-height:1.5; 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." Gary Webb and 'Kill the Messenger': Reporter played by - cleveland Webb followed up Baca's leads at the California State Library, examining Congressional records and FBI reports. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. According to Walt Bogdanich, a former colleague on the Plain Dealer who has won two Pulitzers and now works for The New York Times, Webb was the best retriever of information from public records he has ever seen. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. 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. "Do not quote me. It was just more than he could take.". "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post", he stated. 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. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. 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.. What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. 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 . Critics view the series' claims as inaccurate or overstated, while supporters point to the results of a later CIA investigation as vindicating the series. Gary Webb Obituary (1944 - 2022) - Portland, OR - The Oregonian 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. [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. The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. 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? She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. Dr. Gary A. Webb, MD | Marco Island, FL | Geriatrician | US News Doctors Garcia is deputy director of the John S Knight Fellowships in Journalism at Stanford University. [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. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. [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. padding-left: 10px!important; On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. "I am scared," the voice replies. It was good that his story forced those reports to come out, but part of what made that happen was based on misleading information. ", "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. The Open Mic: A Few Words with Cinematographer Ian Webb The feeling was that with other news outlets calling for Webb's head, the paper's credibility depended on their joining in on the attacks. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Gary Webb : Murdered For Exposing The Truth - Educate Inspire Change I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. He also had this inherent belief that the truth could not harm him. My wife has kept me grounded for . 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 whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. It was truthful. That was just the way he was.". 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. 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 . Kill the Messenger True Story vs. Movie - Real Gary Webb 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? Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed. Dark Alliance: Gary Webb, Christian Rummel: 9781522694397: Amazon.com [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. [18], Webb began researching "Dark Alliance" in July 1995. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. "He rang me up that day. Obituary | GARY HAYS WEBB of Neenah, Wisconsin | WESTGOR FUNERAL HOMES "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. The legendary civil-rights activist Dick Gregory was arrested while he protested outside the CIA's headquarters; Gregory began referring to the organisation as "Crack in America". It's . [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 significant legacy of the Webb case, "the reason this whole affair remains so significant today," Blum says, "is this: the knowledge that, if one individual dares raise such serious issues, they risk confronting a tremendous apparatus that is prepared to whack them hard, and there is very little they can expect by way of support.
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