He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. It was just more than he could take.". He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He went into the bedroom, and picked up a .38 that had belonged to his father. Sue remarried two years ago. Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. margin-bottom: 20px; Webb made his early reputation as a reporter with the Plain Dealer before going on to fame and turmoil at the San Jose Mercury News. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. Unable to get work from any major US newspaper, he spent the four months before his death writing for * a free-sheet covering the Sacramento area. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. padding:0!important; "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 . 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. A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. Webb, according to Bell, was a man who, more than most, found that his mood and self-esteem fluctuated in accordance with his professional fortunes. 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. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. 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. I believe that we fell short at every step of our process: in the writing, editing and production of our work. Vivian Corrie, a part of his liver in a life-threatening operation. He was previously married to Sue Bell. I felt she really trashed me. "Gary Webb was left to fend for himself. reports. padding-bottom: 20px; The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. He wrote well. [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. 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. 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. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. "People told me that," she says. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. . 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. She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. Gary is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beverly Webb; children Margaret . In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. 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. He accepted Christ at an early age. Some editors regarded him as stubborn to the point of insolence. But, Ceppos wrote, the series "did not meet our standards" in four areas. "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. It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. He made that very clear. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. .article-native-ad p { He is from United States. 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. The first article, by Katz, developed a different picture of the origins of the crack trade than "Dark Alliance" had described, with more gangs and smugglers participating. Going to the CIA to ask if they've ever profited from drug sales in Los Angeles, I suggested to Kornbluh, is rather like asking Fagin if he has ever picked a pocket. Emma Lee Webb, age 75, of Crossett, AR passed away Monday February 27, 2023, in her home surrounded by her family. 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? Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. [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." On one road trip, in 2001, he came off the motorcycle and split his helmet open. His corpse was discovered on the seventh anniversary of his resignation from the Mercury News. 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". "He definitely was depressed. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. "[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." The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. 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. font-size: 34px; "[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]. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. 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. }. [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. 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. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. If the antagonism of competing publications was predictable, what happened to Webb within his own newspaper was not. And the importance of exposing them. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. ", Webb had already been cremated and his ashes scattered in the bay off Santa Cruz two weeks before. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). Webb put in a call to Robert Parry. Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. 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's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. This did not happen in Webb's case. [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. 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. After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. 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. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". This is why Webb's "Dark Alliance" series is an essential source, a primary text that every journalism student should study. In 1997 Ceppos was awarded the US Society of Professional Journalists' National Ethics Award. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. The article discussed Webb's contacts with Ross's attorney and prosecution complaints of how Ross's defense had used Webb's series. [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. [60], It found no information to support the claim that the agency interfered with law enforcement actions against Ross, Blandn or Meneses. 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. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in The Mercury News in 1996. The first one, "The California Story," was issued in a classified version on December 17, 1997, and in an unclassified version on January 29, 1998. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. 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. "For the better part of a decade," it began, "a San Francisco drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funnelled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency.". But Ian Webbknows all too well the emotions that come with that experience. Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. The story had little immediate impact. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. [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. "They had him writing obituaries," she said. After his resignation from The Mercury News, Webb expanded the "Dark Alliance" series into a book that responded to the criticism of the series and described his experiences writing the story and dealing with the controversy. "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. 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. [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." 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. A perceptive, engaging woman of 48, she has turned an adjoining study into a small shrine to her late husband, who would have celebrated his 50th birthday five weeks ago. He had sold his house the week before his death because he was unable to afford the mortgage.[71]. Working in San Jose would have meant daily contact with what Bell describes as "people he did not want to be with". ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." [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. Gary Douglas Webb of Radnor, PA, passed away on October 19, 2021 Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie. 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. . He really did believe that," she says. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. [67], Webb later moved to the State Assembly's Office of Majority Services. The first effect of the onslaught was to ease the pressure on the CIA. Should these editors subsequently deem the story to have been fatally flawed, they take the consequences. 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. 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. Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. 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. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. 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. By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 15, 2004. . The first article in "Dark Alliance" that discussed the failure of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Blandn and Meneses had mentioned several cases. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 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. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. Who Is Gary Webb's Wife? Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. 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 . 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. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. 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. 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. Do not quote me on anything.". The article resulted in a lawsuit against Webb's paper which the plaintiffs won. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. Webb had become, as somebody put it, "radioactive". Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. [41], When the Los Angeles Times series appeared, Ceppos again wrote to defend the original series. margin: 0 45px; Dec. 13, 2004. [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. And it ruined that reporter's career. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. If he could have chosen his own epitaph, it might have been a line from the letter he posted to Bell, immediately before he killed himself: "I do not regret," Webb told her, "anything that I have written." In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. 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." Film of this encounter survives. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. Meneses, an established smuggler and a Contra supporter as well, taught Blandn how to smuggle and provided him with cocaine. ", 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. Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. In city after city, local dealers either bought from Ross or got left behind."[24]. After introducing the three, the first article discussed primarily Blandn and Meneses, and their relationship with the Contras and the CIA. It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, right? [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. It was truthful. "Do you think that a part of him did this out of revenge?" 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. [55] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. 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. 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. "He was crying. If you work through friendly reporters on major newspapers, it comes off as The New York Times saying it and not a mouthpiece of the CIA. [39] The Post refused to print his letter. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. In August of 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his life. 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. He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. She was a homemaker and a member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church. 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. Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. 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.