- He was an investigative reporter best known for his articles about the CIA's role in cocaine trafficking in the aftermath of U.S. involvement with Contra rebels in Nicaragua in the 1980s. The articles came under intense criticism, and the newspaper later backed away from its claims. Webb resigned from the paper in 1997.
- He was part of a Mercury News reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for their coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
- He could dig up any public document, a talent that helped him win more than 30 journalism awards and earned him a national reputation as a dogged investigative reporter.
- Esquire magazine ran a tribute article him about.
- Working as an investigative reporter at small and medium-sized papers, Webb could be the star -- and the editor's nightmare.
- Beforecommiting suicide, he put the keys to his cars and motorcycles in an envelope addressed to his oldest son.
- In 1996, Webb produced a series of stories for the San Jose Mercury News that suggested the CIA was involved in the nation's crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s as a means of helping Nicaraguan drug dealers funnel money to the Contras. His premise that the government knew about and even encouraged the drug sales -- with South Los Angeles as ground zero -- sparked outrage, especially among members of the African American community. Government agencies and the media, most notably the Los Angeles Times, launched their own investigations into Webb's report. Resoundingly -- and some believed venomously -- they dismissed Webb's thesis. Later, his bosses at the Mercury News all but disavowed the piece, with a front-page editor's note stating that the series had largely overstated its provocative findings. Eventually, Webb was forced to resign.
- When Webb's greatest story-a 12,000-word landmark series for the San Jose Mercury News called "Dark Alliance," about the CIA's complicity in the early years of the crack-cocaine trade-was destroyed by other journalists at powerful newspapers who were acting as handmaidens of the CIA and his own editors genuflected before official power, he was ruined. No longer able to do that which gave his life purpose, his marriage on the rocks, his house lost, he conceded to his despair at this bitter abandonment by journalism itself and shot himself in the head.
- He typed out four lengthy suicide notes and put them in the mail to family members, and placed his prearranged cremation certificate and Social Security card on the kitchen counter of his suburban Sacramento home.
- Webb was found dead in his Carmichael home on December 10, 2004, with two gunshot wounds to the head. His death was ruled a suicide by the Sacramento County coroner's office. 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. The first shot went through his face, and exited at his left cheek. The coroner's staff concluded that the second shot hit an artery.
- For more than a decade, the journalist struggled with clinical depression, sometimes so profound that he sought solace in reckless and dangerous behavior. He crashed cars and motorcycles, he had illicit affairs and he took journalistic risks -- beyond what his research could support -- in his stories. (He was sued for libel four times, two of the suits resulting in settlements.).
- Coming of age during Vietnam, he believed reporters were duty-bound to act as watchdogs.
- All his belongings -- among them numerous awards from his years as an investigative reporter -- were packed and neatly stacked in boxes in a corner of his living room. He left a note on the door. "Please do not enter. Call 911 for assistance. Thank you." Then, sometime during the evening of Dec. 9, Webb, age 49, went into his bedroom. He put his driver's license on the bed next to him and placed an old .38-caliber revolver near his right ear.
- After Webb's death, a collection of his stories from before and after the "Dark Alliance" series was published. The collection, The Killing Game: Selected Stories from the Author of Dark Alliance, was edited by Webb's son, Eric.
- After finishing high school, he went to Indiana University on a journalism scholarship. He was there about a year before he transferred to Northern Kentucky University, joining the staff of the college paper.
- Webb's suicide has left friends and loved ones trying to sort through tangled feelings about a man who was known not so much for the triumphs of a high-impact journalism career as for what he is accused of getting wrong.
- For weeks after, Internet bloggers buzzed with the news of Webb's death. Perhaps Webb -- a controversial figure in American journalism -- was murdered. Some saw reason to suspect a plot by the U.S. government; the former San Jose Mercury News reporter gained folk hero status among left-wing conspiracy theorists for writing scathingly about the CIA nine years ago. Suddenly, the journalist known for unearthing incredible stories had become one.
- Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on Webb's book Dark Alliance and Nick Schou's biography of Webb. Actor Jeremy Renner portrays Webb.
- Webb looked like the ultimate 1970s dude, his sandy blond hair cut and feathered into a shag, a style he wore long after it was outdated. He loved horror movies, motorcycles, hockey -- anything for a thrill.
- Two Hollywood agents called Webb's family to ask about the movie rights, and a television station in France sent a crew to file a report.
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