"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.". The story was picked up by black talk-radio stations. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. [60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. He concluded, "How did these shortcomings occur? Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.". When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. that the "federal government bore some responsibility, however indirect, for the flood of crack that coursed through black neighborhoods in the 1980s"). Osborn, Barbara Bliss (MarchApril 1998). 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. One time he called me and he said: 'I have this plan that will benefit us both.' 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 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. 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. Webb's condition exacerbated his natural recklessness. Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigative reporting at The Washington Post, wrote in a 2014 opinion page article that "the report found no CIA relationship with the drug ring Webb had written about." Webb's then-wife Sue remembers coming home from the shops and finding her. "[64] Webb's longest response to the controversy was in "The Mighty Wurlitzer Plays On," a chapter he contributed to an anthology of press criticism: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. Every year since investigative journalist Gary Webb took his own life in 2004, I have marked the anniversary of that sad event by recalling the debt that American history owes to Webb for his. ", "After Gary died," she says, "a reporter from the LA Times came here. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. They failed because the climate was more sceptical then. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). 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. 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. .article-native-ad { Webb undeniably made mistakes of detail and emphasis in the newspaper version of "Dark Alliance". To Read the Full Story Become an Adweek+ Subscriber. And "we really didn't do anything to advance his work or illuminate much to the story, and it was a really kind of tawdry exercise. Thank you." He really did believe that," she says. "I had to warn Gary that what he was looking at was probably true, but that he would run very big risks," Parry recalls. Because Blandn cooperated with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he spent only 28 months in prison, became a paid government informant, and received permanent resident status. 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. So, this is not something you really make a career out of, nor would you want to. He was preceded in death by his wife, Melody Webb; parents and three brothers, Albert, Duane and Ronald. 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. Born January 3rd, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec, he was the son of the late John Douglas Webb and the late Jeannie (Penny) Hardie Penman. He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. Join iconic brands and world-class marketing leaders at Brandweek to unlock powerful insights and impact-driven strategies. Maxine Waters found a govt employee ran the South Central LA drug ring & The DOJ removed that section of the report : r/conspiracy 3 yr. ago Posted by shylock92008 He made that very clear. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. The "Dark Alliance" series remains controversial. "The cause of death was determined to be self . 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. I remain astounded by the editorial decisions they made.". "But Gary thought that if something was true, it should be told. She kept crying about how terrible it all was - by which I mean that she was, physically, crying. The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. Age 43 years. 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. "Back then. 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. A flood of inquiries about Gary Webb's shooting death prompts statement. "[77], Webb's reporting in "Dark Alliance" remains controversial. border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; But as his ex-wife told the . Webb's research took a year, in the course of which he received death threats. *, 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion' is published in the UK by Seven Stories Press, priced 11.99, Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than. Gary Hays Webb, 78, passed away on Monday May 9, 2022, at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center, Neenah. Webb - whose article had never alleged that the CIA deliberately targeted any ethnic group - became a national celebrity. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. 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. [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. And this is not a happy story - or," she adds, "a little one.". 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. Gary Webb was a journalist of outsized talent. In 1996, investigative journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of stories exposing the connection between the CIA and the crack cocaine that was being sold in So. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. He leaves behind the love of his life and adoring wife of 41 years, Anne Michelle Phillips. His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. 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. Gary Webb, 64, Oroville, Wash., died Oct. 30, 2021. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. "The second bullet," adds Bell, who has worked for more than 20 years in the area of respiratory therapy, "struck his carotid artery. The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. Unfortunately, the railroading of Gary Webb had begun and he was run over. 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. I felt she really trashed me. Webb's corpse was found in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the head. [52] Webb was allowed to keep working on the story and made one more trip to Nicaragua in March. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. It also stated that the Contras may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. "He thought I was being cowardly. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. Connie Webb (304) 778-2546: Status: Homeowner. 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. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.[83]. Gary Webb became, quite unfairly, the victim of one of the most extraordinary examples of piling on by the mainstream press, ever.". But the biggest loss he had was the writing. The third article discussed the social effects of the crack trade, noting that it had a disparate effect on African-Americans. "[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." When Ross discovered the market for crack in Los Angeles, he began buying cocaine from Blandn. [45], The Post's response came from the paper's ombudsman, Geneva Overholser. 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. This did not happen in Webb's case. The couple got married recently in November of 2020 after dating for some time. "That's right," says Blum. [5], After high school, Webb attended an Indianapolis community college on a scholarship until his family moved to Cincinnati.