gary webb wife

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. 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. "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. [62], Examining the support that Meneses and Blandn gave to the local Contra organization in San Francisco, the report concluded that it was "not sufficient to finance the organization" and did not consist of "millions," contrary to the claims of the "Dark Alliance" series. He wrote well. We're well aware that they/it (the cia) did do it. Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. It was truthful. 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. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. "But that," pointed out Blum, who is now a Washington attorney, "in no way - in no way - diminishes the wrongness of what these bastards did. 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". Video courtesy of documentary FREEWAY: CRACK IN THE SYSTEM premiering on Al Jazeera America in early 2015. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. [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. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. Am J Mens Health, 2018 Mar 1:1557988318758788. doi: 10.1177/1557988318758788. Dec. 13, 2004. 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. 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 . Gary Webb, MD, FRCPC, FACC - The Donohue Funeral Homes Inc. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. [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." But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. "As a PhD student, McCoy went to Vietnam and built an absolutely damning case about the CIA's involvement with trafficking heroin. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. So he blew her off. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Few reporters I've known could match his nose for an investigative story. "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post", he stated. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. This did not happen in Webb's case. [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. On the last day Webb was alive, his motorbike broke down while he was moving to his mother's house. The CIA admits used the media to ruin his career. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". The CIA/MSM Contra-Cocaine Cover-up - Consortium News How Gary Webb Linked The CIA To The Crack Epidemic - All That's Interesting Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. Gary Webb - Spartacus Educational "I am scared," the voice replies. Walter Bogdanich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who worked with Webb on The Plain Dealer, told American Journalism Review editor Susan Paterno "He was brilliant; he knew more about public records than anybody I've ever known. Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President of Knight Ridder, the Mercury News's parent company; he retired from this position last month. [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. 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. 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. Gary Webb's income source is mostly from being a successful . Gary Webb | Obituary | The Daily Item In February last year he was laid off by the State Legislature. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. 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. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. Cuts and amendments were made at the request of Ceppos, executive editor of the Mercury News, and Webb's immediate editor Dawn Garcia, among others. How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career She was a native of Minden, LA, but a resident of Crossett for 65 years. "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.". [29] Waters urged the CIA, the Department of Justice, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. . Kill the Messenger review - what really happened to Gary Webb When facts didn't fit his theory, he tended to shove them to the sidelines. When removal men arrived, on the morning of 10 December 2004, they found a sign on his front door, which read: ''Please do not enter. Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. 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. padding-bottom: 20px; He told me: 'If I can't do what I want to do, what's the point?' Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. [33] Golden also referred to the controversy over Webb's contacts with Ross's lawyer. "Look at what happened to Gary Webb. It was accurate. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. Bell and her children helped Webb prepare 50 packages containing cuttings and his CV which they sent out to newspapers all over the US. [32], The New York Times published two articles on the series in mid-October, both written by reporter Tim Golden. Dr. Gary A. Webb is a geriatrician in Marco Island, Florida. Gary Webb - Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers He was so depressed. Army. "I told Gary not to go near this story," his source replies, in an emotional voice. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "He was sleeping more, he hated to get up in the morning, he started having a lot of motorcycle. "[80], Not all writers agree that the Inspector-General's report supported the series's claims. Do something else with your life," the voice urges. WRITTEN IN PAIN - Los Angeles Times Age 43 years. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" Returns to the Internet - Narco News ", "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. He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. 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. "The first story he had to file was about a police horse which had died of constipation.". Gary Webb Obituary (1954 - 2021) - Dorr, MI - Grand Rapids Press "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. "He had six in a short period of time." } The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considered the book's claims as well as the series' claims. 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." Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. We were dismissed as a bunch of nuts." The claim that the drug ring of Meneses-Blandn-Ross sparked the "crack explosion" has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". . 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. Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . ", As Webb would tell a friend, after he had been ostracised: "You have to look out, when the big dog gets off the porch.". n 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles under the title "Dark Alliance" for the suggesting a CIA connection between anti-government contras in Nicaragua and monies raised from. Gary Webb (Investigative Journalist) Wiki, Biography, Age, Wife, Family He accepted Christ at an early age. "[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." And it ruined that reporter's career. Gary was preceded in death by his mother and father, Donna and James Webb of Carpentersville. The consensus, insofar as one exists, is that he probably overstated both the amount of drug money made by Ross and Blandn, and the percentage of those profits diverted to the Contras. 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. 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. "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.". GARY WEBB OBITUARY Gary Frank Webb Sept. 27, 1944 - Oct. 23, 2022 Gary passed away peacefully of complications following cardiovascular surgery. 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. He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. 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. "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 . OR was he like Epstein? [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. By the late spring of 1996, Webb was ready to publish. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. 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. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. We had been here before." When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". . He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. He really did believe that," she says. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. line-height:1.5; "He thought I was being cowardly. He said: 'No. "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 : Murdered For Exposing The Truth - Educate Inspire Change They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. Work with a bunch of drug dealers to run guns? It would have been our 25th wedding anniversary," Bell recalls. [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. Can these things possibly be? His victory in the event last year gave him . 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. 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. But you say - dear God. After the announcement of federal investigations into the claims made in the series, other newspapers began investigating, and several papers published articles suggesting the series' claims were overstated. I'm glad that I didn't dissuade him, because it was important to get the truth out but for Gary Webb, there was a very high price to pay." The CIA Inspector General's report, commissioned in response to the allegations in "Dark Alliance", was published in the autumn of 1998. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. He is from United States. 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 Death of Gary Webb - Beyond Chron A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. It was written by Jesse Katz, the same reporter who, less than two years earlier, had described Ross's conglomerate as "the Wal-Mart of crack dealing". 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. reports. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. [43] He did this in a column that appeared on November 3, defending the series, but also committing the paper to a review of major criticisms. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. Dispelling the Rumors: Gary Webb's Death Confirmed As Suicide Webb resigned from The Mercury News in December 1997. By the time Webb began researching Dark Alliance, Bell was 38 and they had three children. Webb's series was published on the Mercury News's fledgling website, but it wasn't exactly an instant sensation. 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. [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. Return of the messenger: How Jeremy Renner's new film Kill The 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. When they married, she was aged just 21. I ask Bell. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. [50] By January, Webb filed drafts of four more articles based on his trip, but his editors concluded that the new articles would not help shore up the original series's claims. Sheriff: Fatal Blue Grass house fire rule 'undetermined, but accidental' Steven Webb . What he found, he wrote later, "nearly knocked me off my chair". Some might consider it an inappropriate assignment for a man with responsibilities. Gary Webb | Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune Webb was born in Corona, California. "I believe that Americans, as a nation, are mainly concerned with living their happy little lives. 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. margin-bottom: 20px; He was assigned to its Sacramento bureau, where he was allowed to choose most of his own stories. 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. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. The drugs went to South Central LA. "Ross," his report went on, dealt "on a scale never before conceived," with "a staggering turnover" of "50 to 100 kilos of cocaine a day". 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 film broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of . Tiffany L Gary-Webb | School of Public Health Part of what makes OConnors article so compelling are the candid thoughts of Webbs former wife Sue Stokes. . 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. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 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. While police were preparing the case against her boyfriend, Baca alleged, officers had disclosed documents which revealed that one of her lover's associates had been working for the Contras. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. "He rang me up that day. He was laid off in February 2004 when Assembly Member Fabian Nez was elected Speaker. Gary Webb's "Approach Split" in the atrium of 20 Triton Street London. Emma Lee Webb. California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also took note and wrote to CIA director John Deutch and Attorney General Janet Reno, asking for investigations into the articles' allegations. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. But the biggest loss he had was the writing. 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. The series provoked outrage, particularly in the Los Angeles African-American community, and led to four major investigations of its charges. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. 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. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: Tomac is used to good feelings when it comes to Daytona. A jury awarded the plaintiffs over 13 million dollars and the case was later settled. [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. "Gary was 18 and I was 16 when we first met and started dating in Indianapolis," said Sue Stokes. The story had little immediate impact. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". Despite some hyped phrasing, "Dark Alliance" appears to be praiseworthy investigative reporting."[47]. With Baca's encouragement, he started to investigate a large-scale Nicaraguan cocaine dealer named Oscar Danilo Blandn. 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 Tragic 2004 Death Of Investigative Journalist, Gary Webb "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. Gary Webb Was Right | HuffPost Latest News GARY WEBB: His wife's office was burglarized. He was a former member of Bethlehem . .article-native-ad strong { "He told me, not long before he died, that he didn't want to get up in the mornings," she says. Gary-Webb TL, Walker EA, Realmuto L, Kamler A, Lukin J, Tyson W, Carrasquillo O, Weiss L. Translation of the National Diabetes Prevention Program to Engage Men in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in New York City: A Description of Power Up for Health. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. 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. [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. He was the much-loved father of Lindsay (Stephen . There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. color:rgb(46,179,178); Gary Webb Obituary (2011) - Saginaw, MI - Saginaw News on MLive.com 2) The series's estimate of the money involved was presented as fact instead of as an estimate. It was just more than he could take.". The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. According to Corn, Webb "was wrong on some important details, but he was, in a way, closer to the truth than many of his establishment media critics who neglected the story of the real CIA-contra-cocaine connection." Webb took a modestly paid, low-profile job as an investigator with the California State Legislature. A series of expose articles in the San Jose Mercury-News by reporter Gary Webb told tales of a drug triangle during the 1980s that linked CIA officials in Central America, a San Francisco drug . 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. [3], Webb was born in Corona, California. Gary Webb was born in Corona, California, in 1955.

The Murders At Shrive Hill House, Articles G