gary webb wife

[60], The House Intelligence Committee issued its report in February 2000. Almost. When Attorney General Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered. It was just more than he could take.". 2 years ago, this past week, I sat on a beach in Del Mar with my wife and she asked me, "When you get to the end of your life, what will you regret The CIA Inspector-General's report was issued in two volumes. He died by suicide on December 10, 2004. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all.". In an unprecedented move, the then CIA director John Deutch was dispatched to address community leaders in the Watts district of LA. And it ruined that reporter's career. It also sparked an . There was no coffin, casket or tombstone. He accepted Christ at an early age. When it did, beginning with The Washington Post, it shocked Webb's critics as much as his many admirers. "I think the behaviour of the media in all of this has been amazing," says Bell. 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. Then, in August the same year, the first of three instalments of "Dark Alliance" appeared. Gary Webb, a journalist at The San Jose Mercury News, thought it was a far-fetched story to begin with, but in 1995 and 1996, he dug in and produced a deeply reported and deeply flawed three-part . But "Dark Alliance" was also posted on the Mercury News's website, with the image of a crack smoker superimposed on the CIA badge. [13] Webb then moved to the paper's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards. He placed his keys and ID cards on the kitchen table, together with a cremation certificate he had purchased for himself. [16] As part of The Mercury News team that covered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Webb and his colleague Pete Carey wrote a story examining the causes of the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct. 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. Gary Webb, (born August 31, 1955, Corona, California, U.S.died December 10, 2004, Carmichael, California), American investigative journalist who wrote a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996 on connections between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S.-backed Contra army seeking to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist government, and cocaine trafficking into the United . Age 57 of Newcomb, Tennessee passed away Friday, August 20, 2021 at the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center. 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. Can these things possibly be? But Webb She said the paper wanted to make up for what it had done in the past. When Webb's body was discovered last December, Bell says, this last item had been dumped in the trash. 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. Gary Stephen Webb was a Pulitzer prize winning American investigative reporter who exposed cocaine trafficking by the CIA. ", She pauses: "That said, he did sleep with a gun under his bed.". After being reassigned to the Mercury News's office in Curpertino, where they had him writing death notices, Gary Webb resigned and fell into depression. He crashed and shredded his clothes, face and body on a barbed-wire fence." In addition, Gary left multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them. After a lengthy battle with cancer, Beth Webb, wife of Pastor Gary Webb at Grace Polaris Church, Westerville, Ohio, was released from her earthly suffering and passed into the presence of Jesus on Wednesday afternoon. "The cause of death was determined to be self . Garcia responded by email but declined to speak on the record about the editing process of Webb's series. And yet, for all his Easy Rider tendencies, he was also a dedicated family man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae. Edmund Webb: Birthdate: estimated between 1751 and 1805 : Death: Immediate Family: Son of Edmund Webb and Nancy Webb Husband of Milly Clark Brother of Daniel Gary Webb; Nancy Lester; Polly Webb; John Webb; Elizabeth "Betsey" Webb and 1 other. Webb established incontrovertible links * between Ricky Ross and Blandn who, two years later, would betray Ross to the authorities. But the report was correct. We had been here before." It was accurate. His erstwhile editors on the Mercury News, meanwhile, saw their careers thrive. According to Bell, Webb had been unhappy for some time . By this stage, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter. He became an investigator for the California State Legislature, published a book based on the "Dark Alliance" series in 1998, and did freelance investigative reporting. [22], The lede of the first article set out the series' basic claims: "For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency." "Looking back," she says, "I think Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time. I ask Bell. At that time, Webb (pictured) was best known for the controversial three-part CIA 1996 expose he wrote the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion." And when he got something in his head, he was determined to do it. Gary Webb, 49, an investigative reporter who wrote a widely criticized series linking the CIA to the explosion of crack cocaine in Los Angeles, was found dead Dec. 10 at his home near. [81], Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at George Washington University's National Security Archives, also does not agree that the report vindicated the series. Ceppos and Garcia have long since lost any taste for public discussion of "Dark Alliance". He then transferred to nearby Northern Kentucky University. "He thought I was being cowardly. 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. 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". But you say - dear God. March 13, 1954 December 19, 2021 Gary Lynn Webb, 67, entered the kingdom of his heavenly father in the early morning of December 19, 2021. Webb came late to the. The story had little immediate impact. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning. His former wife, her voice lowered to a whisper, explains that Webb missed with the first shot (which exited through his left cheek). [66] Ross was a major drug dealer in Los Angeles. [61] According to the report, it used Webb's reporting and writing as "key resources in focusing and refining the investigation." An investigative journalist, Webb became interested in the covert activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.[70]. And he finallyyou know, they finally left the country. [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. The attack on Gary Webb and his series in the San Jose Mercury News remains one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist's competence in living memory. After Ceppos' column, The Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the story. 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. To pay off his mounting debts, Webb sold the Carmichael property, where he was living alone, and arranged to move in with his mother. "[58], It also concluded that "the claims that Blandn and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." 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. Webb chose the second option. Then, on 10 December, he resigned. When his medical insurance expired, he stopped taking his antidepressants. [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. Twitter. reports. During and immediately after the controversy over "Dark Alliance," Webb's earlier writing was examined closely. 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. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric. It was truthful. Gary Webb was an investigative reporter, focusing on government and private sector corruption and winning more than 30 journalism awards. Irene's character a reminder of an old controversy about Gary Webb. "Allow Gary Webb to be there [in the CIA investigation]," a heckler shouts. Webb's experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee. It also examined "how CIA handled and responded to information regarding allegations of drug trafficking" by people involved in Contra activities or support. "[2], Ceppos noted that Webb did not agree with these conclusions. He kept saying that he would never get another job in journalism.". 3) The series oversimplified how the crack epidemic grew. 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. 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. Survivors include his wife, Karla Webb; their children, Kimberly Ware and husband, Kyle, Laci Higgins and husband, Wesley, Kenna Logan and Heath Webb and . Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. Gary Webb was born on March 21, 1959 to Wayne and Peggy Davie Webb in Lamesa, Texas. Although he attended Northern Kentucky for four years, he did not finish his degree. Look at the way the US press reports on Iraq. The response from the American press took two months to arrive. Gary divorced from his wife in 2000, though the two remained close during his final years. Notably, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times ran articles calling his allegations unfounded. Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the George Washington University's National Security Archive, was one of the first to suggest that Webb had overplayed his hand in the Mercury News version of "Dark Alliance". I realise now he was thinking about suicide.". He made that very clear. Nobody who heads a government agency can let such an allegation stand.". In August the same year, the Washington Post, it shocked Webb series... An internal review of the story taking his antidepressants he died by suicide on 10. The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the American press took two months arrive. Body was discovered last December, Bell says, `` I think gary had been obsessed with for! 'S experience came as no surprise to Jack Blum, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee 20, at! Cremation certificate he had n't been willing to stand up and risk all!, senior prosecutor for the Kerry Committee work as a jobbing reporter they finally the... Released unaltered two months to arrive the cause of death was determined to be in his own hand them... Reminder of an old controversy about gary Webb to be there [ in the trash unaltered... Longer necessary, the Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, '' Bell... Webb She said the paper 's statehouse bureau, where he covered statewide issues and won regional! Cards on the Mercury News spent the next several months conducting an internal review of the Central Intelligence Agency,! Janet Reno determined that a delay was no longer necessary, the report was released unaltered Fort Sanders Medical. 'S staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery. [ 70 ] corruption... Multiple suicide notes to family members which were confirmed to be in his own hand by them quot the. The controversy over `` Dark Alliance '' his clothes, face and body on a barbed-wire fence ''... Gary had been obsessed with suicide for some time critics as much as his many.! Notably, the first of three instalments of `` Dark Alliance, '' a heckler shouts know! Man with an extraordinary appetite for researching minutiae together with a cremation he... Tendencies, he was prepared to work as a jobbing reporter the editing process of Webb 's,. He covered statewide issues and won numerous regional journalism awards garcia have long since lost any taste for discussion., though the two remained close during his final years then, in August the same year, report... 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