David Bowie’s Modern Mug Shot From His 1976 Marijuana Bust

David Bowie all the time man­aged to look cool, even when he was being booked for a felony.

In ear­ly 1976, Bowie was on his “Iso­lar” tour, per­type­ing because the Skinny White Duke, a per­sona he would describe as “a really Aryan fas­cist sort — a would-be roman­tic with no emo­tions in any respect.” Bowie invit­ed his pal and a few­time cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tor Iggy Pop to trav­el with him.

Within the ear­ly morn­ing hours of March 21, after a con­cert on the Com­mu­ni­ty Warfare Memo­r­i­al are­na in Rochester, New York, 4 native vice squad detec­tives and a state police inves­ti­ga­tor searched Bowie’s three-room suite on the Amer­i­cana Rochester Lodge. Accord­ing to experiences within the Rochester Demo­c­rat and Chron­i­cle, the cops discovered 182 grams (a lit­tle over 6.4 ounces) of mar­i­jua­na there. Bowie and three oth­ers — Pop, a physique­guard named Dwain Voughns, and a younger Rochester lady named Chi­wah Soo — have been charged with fifth-degree crim­i­nal pos­ses­sion of mar­i­jua­na, a category C felony, pun­ish­in a position by as much as 15 years in jail.

Bowie and Pop have been booked below their actual names, David Jones and James Oster­berg Jr. The group spent the remainder of the night time within the Mon­roe Coun­ty Jail and have been launched at about 7 a.m. on $2,000 bond every. They have been sup­posed to be arraigned the following day, however Bowie left city to go to his subsequent con­cert in Spring­discipline, Mass­a­chu­setts. His lawyer appeared and requested for the courtroom’s indul­gence, clarify­ing the heavy penal­ties for break­ing con­cert interact­ments. He promised the decide that Bowie would seem the fol­low­ing morn­ing, March 23.

Bowie confirmed up for his arraign­ment look­ing dap­per in his Skinny White Duke fabric­ing. It was then that his mug shot was tak­en — so we’ll nev­er actu­al­ly know what Bowie seemed like when he was unex­pect­ed­ly dragged into jail at 3 a.m. The police escort­ed the rock star out and in of the courtroom­room most­ly by way of again cor­ri­dors, protect­ing him from a crowd of followers who confirmed up on the cour­t­home. Reporter John Stew­artwork describes the scene within the subsequent day’s Demo­c­rat and Chron­i­cle:

Bowie and his group ignored reporters’ shout­ed ques­tions and followers’ yells as he walked in — apart from one teenag­er who acquired his auto­graph as he stepped off the esca­la­tor.

His largest greet­ing was the screams of a few half-dozen sus­pect­ed professionals­ti­tutes await­ing arraign­ment within the rear of the cor­ri­dor out­aspect the courtroom­room.

Requested for a plea by Metropolis Courtroom Decide Alphonse Cas­set­ti to the cost of fifth-degree crim­i­nal pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance, Bowie mentioned, “not responsible, sir.” The courtroom used his actual identify — David Jones.

He stood demure­ly in entrance of the bench along with his attor­neys. He wore a grey three-piece leisure go well with and a pale brown shirt. He was maintain­ing a match­ing hat. His two com­pan­ions have been arraigned on the identical cost.

The protection lawyer advised the decide that Bowie and the oth­ers had nev­er been arrest­ed earlier than. The decide allowed them to stay free on bond till a grand jury con­vened. Bowie and his entourage went on with their tour, and the grand jury even­tu­al­ly decid­ed to not indict any­one. The inci­dent was giant­ly for­acquired­ten till an auc­tion home make use of­ee named Gary Hess stum­bled on Bowie’s mug shot whereas type­ing by way of the property of a retired Rochester police offi­cer. Hess res­cued the pho­to from the trash bin, accord­ing to an arti­cle in Rochester Sub­means, and in late 2007 his broth­er bought it on eBay for $2,700.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Skinny White Duke: A Shut Examine of David Bowie’s Darkish­est Char­ac­ter

John Coltrane’s Naval Reserve Enlist­ment Mugshot (1945)

David Bowie Pre­dicts the Good & Unhealthy of the Inter­web in 1999: “We’re on the Cusp of Some­factor Exhil­a­rat­ing and Ter­ri­fy­ing”

Watch David Bowie Per­type “Star­man” on Prime of the Pops: Vot­ed the Nice­est Music Per­for­mance Ever on the BBC (1972)