Investigative Reporter Gary Webb Who Linked CIA to Crack Sales Found Dead of Apparent Suicide

Democracy Now

Gary Webb, Investigative Reporter

Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, is dead at age 49. We hear an 1998 interview with Gary Webb on Democracy Now! and we speak with his colleague, veteran investigative journalist Robert Parry. [includes rush transcript]

Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, is dead at age 49.

Webb was found Friday morning at his home in Sacramento County, dead of an apparent suicide. Moving-company workers called authorities after discovering a note posted on his front door that read, "Please do not enter. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance." Webb died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Sacramento County coroner’s office. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Gary Webb’s 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News titled "Dark Alliance" revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

It provoked a fierce reaction from the media establishment, which denounced the series. Following the controversy, San Jose Mercury News executive editor demoted Webb within the paper. He resigned and pushed his investigation even further in his book "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion."

Arkansas Police Release ‘Suicide’ Reenactment Video Of Handcuffed Man Who Shot Himself In The Head

Police chief: “It’s very possible and it’s quite easy.”

Steve Watson

Police in Jonesboro investigating the death of a man they detained in the back of a squad car have released a video that they say explains how he could have shot himself in the head while his hands were handcuffed behind his back.

The story hit the headlines earlier this month as officers claimed that 21 year old Chavis Carter killed himself after being searched on suspicion of possessing marijuana. Officers double-locked the handcuffs, making it harder for the lock to be picked, but claimed that Carter was able to pull out a hidden gun, raise it to his head and pull the trigger while they were temporarily away from the car.

The officers say they found a small, .380 caliber handgun and a spent cartridge in the backseat next to Carter’s slumped lifeless body. They claim that the weapon must have been overlooked when they searched Carter, twice.

As part of the investigation into the death, and perhaps also in response to claims of foul play, police released a video, depicting several officers of different heights and builds being cuffed, but still being able to raise a concealed replica gun to their heads.

In a message at the beginning, the video is described as “non-evidentiary reproduction of facts and circumstances associated with the pending investigation of the Chavis Carter in-custody death.”

The message states that the scenes depicted were intended to investigate “the possibility that an individual, hand-cuffed behind his back, may or may not have the ability to use a concealed firearm in a manner that would give rise to his or her death.”