gary webb wife

Steven Webb . Gary Webb famously died of two gun shot wounds to the head and - reddit "He told me, not long before he died, that he didn't want to get up in the mornings," she says. 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. How Gary Webb Linked The CIA To The Crack Epidemic - All That's Interesting The complete lack of desire to ask the difficult questions makes me want to scream. And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. 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. [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." When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . Gary Webb: More Pieces In The Suicided Puzzle - Pt 1 - Rense Gary Webb's Death Confirmed as Suicide | Editor and Publisher He was taken to hospital by air ambulance. 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. . As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. It reads: "There should be no fetters on reporters, nor must they tamper with the truth, but give light so the people will find their own way." Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. He accepted Christ at an early age. In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. 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. [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. Cooper Webb Wife Name Revealed: Who Is Professional SX/MX - Halla News Gary Webb, MD, FRCPC, FACC - The Donohue Funeral Homes Inc. Gary Webb (Investigative Journalist) Wiki, Biography, Age, Wife, Family 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. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021. [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. 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 . By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. Gary Webb - Spartacus Educational . It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. Instead, he found work in 1978 as a reporter at the Kentucky Post, a local paper affiliated with the larger Cincinnati Post. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati. "Back then. American racer Cooper Webb is married to his wife named Mariah Williams Webb. He is from United States. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. But Webb had one huge blind side: He was fundamentally a man of passion, not of fairness. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. "[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." Chasing Corona - by George Webb Why Journalist Gary Webb Died - LewRockwell After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. 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. [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. Webb 'Suicide' Looking More Like Murder - rense.com [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. [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 article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. "[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." What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. "He definitely was depressed. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. 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.". "This is an appalling charge," says a tense-looking Deutch. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. 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. Even 10 years after his tragic death, the media refuse to let him rest. "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 . To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. This support "was not directed by anyone within the Contra movement who had an association with the CIA," and the Committee found "no evidence that the CIA or the Intelligence Community was aware of these individuals support. [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. 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. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? He said: 'No. 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. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. . "He had six in a short period of time." The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. A secret deal allowed drugs to go unreported by the DCI. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to finance their fight against the government in Nicaragua. 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". Gary Webb's son on new movie "Kill the Messenger" - YouTube 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 They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. 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. Thank you." Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". He had also lost his house the week before his suicide. His own paper, the Mercury News, criticized the series in 1997 without providing many specifics. [34], The Los Angeles Times devoted the most space to the story, publishing a three-part series called "The Cocaine Trail." Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". 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." "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. Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers 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. Parry, the first reporter to write about the US authorities' drug-running on behalf of the Contras, had survived a campaign by the White House to discredit first his story, then his reputation. 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. The first detailed article on the series's claims appeared in The Washington Post in early October. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. 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 . [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. I mean - please.". But you say - dear God. Man Donates Liver To Ex-Wife - CBS News padding:0!important; "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". At the commemorative service for Webb, held at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento, Bell read out the letter Webb had written to his son Eric, now 17. } "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. "[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." font-weight:500; Celebrezze eventually sued the Plain Dealer and won an undisclosed out of court settlement. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. Watkins and Debbie (John) Foutch; grandchildren, Makenzie and Ashlynn Fogg. Much of the article highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to successfully prosecute them and stated that this was largely due to their Contra and CIA connections. "To get back at his editors?". The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. "Do not quote me. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. 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. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. 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. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. It was an amazing scoop - but one that would ruin his career and drive him to suicide. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. "[72] California Representative Maxine Waters, who was Webb's strongest supporter in Congress after the "Dark Alliance" controversy broke, issued a statement after Webb's death calling him "one of the finest investigative journalists that our country has ever seen. "By the end of his life he was just in a lot of pain," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell. Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. 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. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. "[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." [55] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute. 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. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. font-size: 34px; [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. "He rang me up that day. For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. "I think Kerry learnt a lesson from all this," reporter Robert Parry says. [71] "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. He was born Sept.10, 1957 in Willcox, Ariz. to RG Webb and Winnie Mae Shelton. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. Susan Bell: a shameful secret history - The Independent Do not quote me on anything.". "They had him writing obituaries," she said. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. 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. Cooper and Mariah were engaged before they finally tied the knot. 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. 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. [4] When Webb's father retired from the Marines, the family settled in a suburb of Indianapolis, where Webb and his brother attended high school. "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 . Gary Webb's family says his death was Suicide. OR was he like Epstein Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. "He was crying. Gary Webb | American journalist | Britannica Gary is survived by his loving wife of 41 years, Barbara; their son, Jeff; his nephew, Christopher (Stephanie) Webb; niece, Sara (Gary) Dugan; and . [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. 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. [56] He resigned from the paper in November 1997. [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." . . Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb How Kill the Messenger Will Vindicate Investigative Journalist Gary Webb Melinda Welsh September 29, 2014 This one has all the ingredients of a dreamed-up Hollywood. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. 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. "They use the giant corporate press rather than saying anything directly. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. .article-native-ad p { 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. 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. [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. Asking why crack became so prevalent in the Black community of Los Angeles, the article credited Blandn, referring to him as "the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California. Age 43 years. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. 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". 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. In August of 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his life. My wife has kept me grounded for . [19] The series was published in The Mercury News in three parts, from Sunday, 18 August 1996 to 20 August 1996, with a first long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. . The Man Who Exposed The Crips, Bloods & CIA Connection to - YouTube Emma Lee Webb. Poor Gary Webb. He wrote that the series likely "oversimplified" the crack epidemic in America and the supposed "critical role" the dealers written about in the series played in it. ", Many of these are in the series archive at. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". 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. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Attorneys' Offices. At the end of March, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column. Gary Webb - Biography - IMDb Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Noting that most of the activities discussed in the report had nothing to do with the people Webb reported on, Kornbluh told Schou, "I can't say it's a vindication. "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.". Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. 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. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. .article-native-ad svg { He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. He also defended the series in interviews with all three papers. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. 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. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. [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. Tiffany L Gary-Webb | School of Public Health Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. 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.

How Much Do Nurses Make Per Hour At Chop?, Jack Nicklaus Documentary Golf Channel, Articles G