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Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. [66] Ross, currently serving life, was already infamous; he had been profiled in the LA Times in December 1994, by writer Jesse Katz, at a time when Ross was at liberty and in penitent mood. 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. "It says the CIA helped introduce poison into our children. At the end of March, Ceppos told Webb that he was going to present the internal review findings in a column. Talking about his wife, Mariah Webb is a nurse who also educates about essential products . "Although Ross had become a millionaire by 1984," Katz now wrote, "the market was so huge by then that even a dealer of his stature could seem dwarfed How the crack epidemic reached that extreme, on some level," he continues, "had nothing to do with Ross". The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. He was so depressed. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. The passing of Gary ends more than 50 years with his best friend and loving wife, Marilyn J. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; [69], Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. 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. When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. 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. 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. . For two years, Blum and Kerry supervised the interrogation of dozens of witnesses who described CIA-related drug deals in central America. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. Gary Hays (304) 778-7090: While working at the legislature, Webb continued to do freelance investigative reporting, sometimes based on his investigative work. 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. Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). Webb's continuing reporting also triggered a fourth investigation. 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.. Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. reports. The reports of the three federal investigations into the claims of "Dark Alliance" were not released until over a year after the series's publication. } [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. [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. As a result, some major US newspapers ignored its findings completely, while others relegated a brief summary to their inside pages. It was published in 1998 as Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. 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. 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. I ask Bell. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department began its own investigation into the "Dark Alliance" claims.[30]. He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009. "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. Gary Webb, friends say, was a far more combative character than either the Mercury News's executive editor Ceppos or page editor Garcia. There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. One of his last articles examined America's Army, a video game designed by the U.S. He was born June 18, 1943, in Appleton, son of the late Wilford and Helen (Hauskey) Webb. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. So, how much is Gary Webb worth at the age of 49 years old? Webb became a staff reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1988. .article-native-ad p { "And to an extent, they succeeded.". 4) The series "created impressions that were open to misinterpretation" through "imprecise language and graphics. Vivian Corrie, a part of his liver in a life-threatening operation. Sue remarried two years ago. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. Eli Tomac on track during Media Day at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, March 3, 2023. "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 . My wife has kept me grounded for . [51], The editors met with Webb several times in February to discuss the results of the paper's internal review and eventually decided to print neither Carey's draft article nor the articles Webb had filed. 71K views 8 years ago Gary Webb's son Ian talks about the film in which Jeremy Renner plays his late journalist father. When he was engaged, he worked hard. 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. [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. 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. Webb may indeed be physically dead, but his research is more alive today than ever before, and continues to haunt the shadow government and snowball into a monster that will undoubtedly have its eventual revenge. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. To show this, the series focused on three men: Ricky Ross, Oscar Danilo Blandn, and Norwin Meneses. 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. 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. By the autumn of 1997, on medication for clinical depression, he was given leave of absence from the paper. 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.". "Like enjoy it.". He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative writing. 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." Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. 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. 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 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. The story had little immediate impact. 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. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' When they married, she was aged just 21. [65], Within "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On" essay Webb stated he believed there was an active "collusion between the press and the powerful" to report freely on inconsequential matters, "but when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff We begin to see the limits of our freedoms". Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. Attend in Miami or virtually, Sept. 1114. Gary Webb passed away on March 2, 2019. [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. [57], The report covered actions by Department of Justice employees in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U.S. For instance, he published an article on racial profiling in traffic stops in Esquire magazine, in April 1999. Gary's family found that old, storied, ("priceless to us," as his ex-wife, Susan Bell, described it to me) CDROM among his possessions. Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". It found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts." In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. Taken during the London Open House 2014 event. We had been here before." 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. GARY WEBB was an investigative reporter who focused on government and private sector corruption and who won more than thirty journalism awards. Occupation: Machine Operators, Assemblers, and Inspectors Occupations. Within weeks, the site was attracting up to 1.3m hits per day. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. Begun 1996, the divorce and battle over cash of Grammy winner Jimmy Webb age 75, father of six, wed 22 years to Patsy, 64, daughter of late actor Barry Sullivan is getting longer. By William Kennedy / Jan. 22, 2023 12:00 pm EST. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. 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". [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 03:36, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking, "To readers of our 'Dark Alliance' series", "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war", "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans", "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Inquiry Findings", "The CIA and Crack: Evidence Is Lacking Of Alleged Plot", "Though Evidence Is Thin, Tale of C.I.A. 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. When she got indignant," she adds, "he went to meet her.". They were outraged by the series's charges.[27]. Writing on the Los Angeles Times opinion page, Schou said, "Webb asserted, improbably, that the Blandn-Meneses-Ross drug ring opened 'the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles,' helping to 'spark a crack explosion in urban America.' "If I had one dream for you," he wrote, "it was that you would go into journalism and carry on the kind of work I did - fighting, with all your might, the oppression and bigotry and stupidity and greed that surrounds us. }. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. He really did believe that," she says. I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. Carey ultimately decided that there were problems with several parts of the story and wrote a draft article incorporating his findings. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". padding-left: 10px!important; "He definitely was depressed. When his body was found, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was on the DVD machine, and his favourite CD, Ian Hunter's live album Welcome to the Club, was in the CD player. "Report on Alleged Involvement: Findings" 43. [17] The Mercury News's coverage of the earthquake won its staff the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting in 1990. Hired by the San Jose Mercury News, Webb contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb. font-size: 34px;