Obituaries

GARY WEBB, 49; WROTE SERIES LINKING CIA, DRUGS

Gary Webb, an investigative reporter who wrote a widely criticized
series linking the CIA to the explosion of crack cocaine in Los
Angeles, was found dead in his Sacramento-area home Friday. He
apparently killed himself, authorities said.

Webb had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, according to the
Sacramento County coroner's office. He was 49.

His 1996 San Jose Mercury News series contended that Nicaraguan drug
traffickers had sold tons of crack cocaine from Colombian cartels in
Los Angeles' black neighborhoods and then funneled millions in profits
back to the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras.

Three months after the series was published, the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department said it conducted an exhaustive investigation but
found no evidence of a connection between the CIA and Southern
California drug traffickers.

Major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and
Washington Post, wrote reports discrediting elements of Webb's
reporting. The Los Angeles Times report looked into Webb's charges
"that a CIA-related drug ring sent 'millions' of dollars to the
Contras; that it launched an epidemic of cocaine use in South-Central
Los Angeles and America's other inner cities; and that the agency
either approved the scheme or deliberately turned a blind eye."

"But the available evidence, based on an extensive review of court
documents and more than 100 interviews in San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Washington and Managua, fails to support any of those allegations,"
The Times reported.

Months later, the Mercury News also backed away from the series,
publishing an open letter to its readers, admitting to flaws.

"We oversimplified the complex issue of how the crack epidemic in
America grew," wrote the paper's executive editor, Jerry Ceppos,
adding, "I believe that we fell short at every step of our process --
in the writing, editing and production of our work."

The paper reassigned Webb to a suburban bureau. In December 1997, he
quit.

"All he ever wanted to do was write," said Webb's ex-wife, Susan Bell,
who met him when they were both high school students in Indiana. "He
never really recovered from it."

Webb was born in Corona to a military family and moved around the
country throughout his youth. He dropped out of journalism school just
shy of graduating to accept his first newspaper job at the Kentucky
Post, then went to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Mercury News.

Within two years of arriving at the paper, Webb was part of a team
that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for coverage of the Loma Prieta
earthquake.

Webb continued to defend his reporting, most notably in a 548-page book,
"Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion,"
which was published in 1999.

After leaving the Mercury News, Webb worked in state government,
including the Joint Legislative Audit Committee's investigation into
then-Gov. Gray Davis' controversial award of a $95-million, no-bid
contract to Oracle in 2001.

"The guy had a fierce commitment to justice and truth. He cared deeply
about the people who are forgotten, that we try to shove into the dark
recesses of our minds and world," said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for
the California attorney general's office who worked with Webb on the
Oracle investigation.

But Webb's career remained troubled. While working for another
legislative committee in Sacramento, Webb wrote a report accusing the
California Highway Patrol of unofficially condoning and even
encouraging racial profiling in its drug interdiction program.

Legislative officials released the report in 1999 but cautioned that
it was based mainly on assumptions and anecdotes. Earlier this year,
Webb was one of a group of employees fired from the Assembly speaker's
Office of Member Services for failing to show up for work.

Webb, who lived in Carmichael, continued to write occasionally for a
variety of publications. Last summer, the weekly Sacramento News &
Review hired Webb to cover government and politics. He had recently
written two cover stories, including one on how much money Sacramento
County was making off the use of red-light cameras.

"He's obviously a skilled reporter and writer and he was doing good
work for us and the evidence was on the page," said News & Review
Editor Tom Walsh.

Webb is survived by two sons, Ian and Eric; and a daughter,
Christine.