gary webb wife

Their explosive report, which appeared in 1989, was either ignored, or marginalised, by the American press. Webb chose the second option. When he was engaged, he worked hard. When Webb wrote another story on the raid evidence in early October, it received wide attention in Los Angeles. Gary Webb was born on March 21, 1959 to Wayne and Peggy Davie Webb in Lamesa, Texas. "You sound very scared," Moreira remarks. [59], The first volume of the report found no evidence that "any past or present employee of CIA, or anyone acting on behalf of CIA, had any direct or indirect dealing" with Ross, Blandn, or Meneses or that any of the other figures mentioned in "Dark Alliance" were ever employed by or associated with or contacted by the agency. The article suggested this was in retribution for Ross' testimony in the corruption case. And it ruined that reporter's career. On December 10th, 2004 Gary Webb was found dead of two (allegedly self-inflicted) gunshots to the head. The story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors. 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." "They tried to make us look like crazies," says Blum. He later picked the surname 'Numan' from an . [69], Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. 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. In a long review of the series' claims in The Baltimore Sun, Weinberg said "I think the critics have been far too harsh. [48] Despite the controversy that soon overtook the series, and the request of one board member to reconsider, the branch's board went ahead with the award in November. "[82], Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. As The Independent reported, in an interview with Gary's ex-wife Susan Webb: Born in Corona, California, son of a conservatively minded Marine, he met Bell, whose father was a university lecturer, at high school in Indianapolis. There is a CIA connection and I can demonstrate it.'". 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. He died on December 10, 2004 in Carmichael, California, USA. He also stated "the series presented dangerous ideas" by suggesting "crimes of state had been committed" (i.e. 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. That was just the way he was.". "The way he was acting it would be hard for me to believe it was anything but suicide," she said. Ceppos initially defended Webb, and reportedly showed up at an in-house party wearing a military helmet. [49], The paper also gave Webb permission to visit Central America again to get more evidence supporting the story. [14] In 1984, Webb wrote a story titled Driving Off With Profits which claimed that the promoters of a race in Cleveland paid themselves nearly a million dollars from funds that should have gone to the city of Cleveland. . I felt weak and distressed; the whole thing was so fresh. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. [6], Webb first began writing for the student newspaper at his college in Indianapolis. Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. Suzette is preceded in death by: Mother: Geneice Taylor Thomas. Nick Schou, a journalist who wrote a 2006 biography of Webb, has claimed that this was the most important error in the series. ", "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. In . 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. He was a writer, known for Kill the Messenger (2014), Filming in Georgia (2015) and Crack in America (2015). 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. "[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." She and Gary were married from 1979 to 2000 and had three children. Webb strongly disagreed with Ceppos's column and, in interviews, was harshly critical of the paper's handling of the story. He was so depressed. It was accurate. 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. Webb joined the Mercury News in 1988, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The series ran from October 2022, 1996, and was researched by a team of 17 reporters. Gary was born Sept. 4, 1947, to Percy and Pauline (Haas) Webb. I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". Both sides were left angry and disappointed. Like the CIA and Justice Department reports, it also found that neither Blandn, Meneses, nor Ross were associated with the CIA. ", The report called several of its findings "troubling." "He told the guys with him he was fine," she recalls, "got back on the bike, then passed out, half an hour later. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. Last December Webb committed suicide. In the final few months of his life, Bell says, Webb became increasingly withdrawn. [citation needed], Views on Webb's journalism have been polarized. "The government side of the story is coming through the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post", he stated. 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. Thank you." It also sparked an . The other article, citing interviews with current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, questioned the importance of the drug dealers discussed in the series, both in the crack cocaine trade and in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras' fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. He is from United States. 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. Unto his romantic life, Gary married Gemma O'Neil in 1997. Irene's character a reminder of an old controversy about Gary Webb. 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. [15], In 1988, Webb was recruited by the San Jose Mercury News, which was looking for an investigative reporter. "And to an extent, they succeeded.". The whole business, I suggested to Blum, has echoes of a classic Alfred Hitchcock plot. Did Gary Webb really stray from his wife? "Exactly," replied Kornbluh, who - referring specifically to the LA Times, said he is "baffled as to how they could be so gullible. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". reports. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. Gary Webb's Ex-Wife Set to Attend New York Premiere By Richard Horgan October 8, 2014 Cleveland Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor had a solid feature the other day about Kill the. [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. Before his death, John Singleton maintained that Snowfall is its own account of how the crack epidemic began on the West Coast . [55] Webb eventually chose Cupertino, but was unhappy with the routine stories he was reporting there and the long commute. The reports rejected the series's main claims but were critical of some CIA and law enforcement actions. Gary Webb, Into the Buzzsaw, CH 13, Prometheus Books. Sacramento Bee The Sacramento County Coroner's Office issued a statement Tuesday after receiving calls about investigative journalist Gary Webb's death being caused by more than one wound . The three articles in the series were written by four reporters: Jesse Katz, Doyle McManus, John Mitchell and Sam Fulwood. Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. 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. Call 911 for assistance. 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. A revised version was published in 1999 that incorporated Webb's response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. [44], Ceppos' column drew editorial responses from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. [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. One article, dealing mostly with the response of the Los Angeles Black community to the stories, described the series's evidence as "thin". [65], After leaving The Mercury News, Webb worked as an investigator for the California State Legislature. [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. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. A man who was wrongfully arrested and sent to prison on remand has been awarded 100,000 in compensation from Police Scotland. [39] The Post refused to print his letter. Webb worked for several newspapers including The Kentucky Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. Gary's documentation is awesome and his work ethic is unbelievable. 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 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. His father was a Marine sergeant, and the family moved frequently, as his career took him to new assignments. [51] After discussions with Webb, the column was published on May 11, 1997.[53]. 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. ", In contrast, the series received support from Steve Weinberg, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. As it turned out," she adds, "that was not their intent.". He said: 'No. [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." 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. [73], On the other hand, many of the writers and editors who worked with him have had high praise for him. He was one of six reporters at the San Jose Mercury News to win a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for a series of stories on the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct during northern California's 1989 earthquake. [68], In August 2004, Webb joined the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly newspaper, where he continued doing investigative writing. 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. 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. His wife, Gemma, was a member of the Sidcup fan club. By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. 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". [8] In 1979, Webb married Susan Bell; the couple eventually had three children. "Gary didn't take her seriously," says Susan Bell, "because he was always getting calls alleging weird stuff about the CIA. In 1996, the award-winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered CIA links to Los Angeles drug dealers. After divorcing his wife, being unable to obtain work from newspapers and facing increasing debts, Gary was forced to sell his home. Webb, unlike Blum or Kerry, had to face his difficulties alone. When he told me, I said it sounded crazy. [21] This artwork proved controversial, and The Mercury News later removed it. 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. Gary Webb was an investigative reporter, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. Mrs. Suzette Thomas Webb. Gary Webb, a hero of authentic journalism, an inspiration to truth-seekers around the world, a friend to all of us at Narco News, but now an unemployable outcast in the world of commercial newspapers, took his own life on December 10, 2004. Gary divorced from his wife in 2000, though the two remained close during his final years. Gary Webb sums up the story in his last major interview just days before his death. "It sounds crazy," says Bell, "but having his motorbike stolen was the last straw. 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." "He had six in a short period of time." [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. Burial will follow at Flint Memorial Park. In August 1996, Gary Webb published in the San Jose Mercury News a 20,000 word, three-part series entitled "Dark Alliance".The articles detailed the nexus between a California coke kingpin, CIA officials and assets and the Nicaraguan Contra army, whose . "They had him writing obituaries," she said. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". [20] The website artwork showed the silhouette of a man smoking a crack pipe superimposed over the CIA seal. George Webb and Paul Cottrell have begun a weekly series on CoronaVirus now, Mondays at 5PM, EST on paul Cottrell's Rumble Channel. 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." He stayed home, playing computer games, and began smoking cannabis heavily. 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