6 Musicians Who Were Arrested by the Notorious Sergeant Norman Pilcher
In the 1960s, a number of celebrated musicians were arrested by Detective Sergeant Norman Pilcher. He became so notorious in the music world that The Beatles included a jab at him in one of his songs. Here are six musicians who Pilcher arrested.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
In 1967, Pilcher led a team of police officers in a raid on Keith Richards’ home. A party was taking place, and Richards, Mick Jagger, and Marianne Faithfull were all on acid when the police arrived.
“There’s a knock at the door, I look through the window and there’s this whole lot of dwarves outside, but they’re all wearing the same clothes! They were policemen, but I didn’t know it,” Richards wrote in his memoir, Life. “They just looked like very small people wearing dark blue with shiny bits and helmets. ‘Wonderful attire! Am I expecting you? Anyway, come on in, it’s a bit chilly out.’ They were trying to read a warrant to me.”
While no one was initially arrested, Jagger, Richards, and art dealer Robert Fraser eventually faced drug charges. While Jagger was sentenced to three months in prison and Richards sentenced to a year, they successfully appealed, noting that these were harsher charges than a non-celebrity would receive.
Brian Jones
Not long afterward, The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones was also arrested for possession of marijuana. He also faced charges for allowing people to use the drug in his home. He received a warning that he could face jail time if he were to get caught again.
John Lennon
In 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were staying in Ringo Starr’s apartment when Pilcher raided it. He explained that the Home Office wanted to discourage people from using drugs by making high-profile arrests, and there was no one more famous than a Beatle.
Lennon and Ono were in bed together and tried to prevent police officers from entering the apartment. Still, they had received a tip-off and felt confident that there were no longer drugs in the apartment. Ultimately, though, officers found drugs when they searched the home.
“Cannabis resin was found secreted in a leather binocular case and a suitcase,” Pilcher wrote, per The Sydney Morning Herald. “Both of these quantities were found by the dogs.”
George Harrison
One year later, Lennon’s Beatles bandmate George Harrison found himself in a similar position. On the day of Paul McCartney’s wedding, Pilcher raided Harrison’s home. They found drugs, and Harrison and his wife Pattie Boyd were arrested, but they claimed police planted them.
“I’m a tidy man,” Harrison said in 1969, per Cosmic Magazine. “I keep my socks in the sock drawer and stash in the stash box. It’s not mine.”
Dusty Springfield
While Pilcher targeted several members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, he also arrested other musicians. One was British singer Dusty Springfield, who was not happy about the police searching her home.
Per The Guardian, Springfield tossed “foul language and insults” at Pilcher as he arrested her, but she eventually pleaded guilty and received a fine.
