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For many years Keith was Public Enemy No.1. The world's police forces were out to nail him, and in the end they very nearly succeeded. Here now the busts, the trials and the great escapes!
1967
On February 12, 1967 police raided Keith's moated home, Redlands, in West Wittering.
As a result of the raid on the May 10, 1967 both Keith and Mick were prosecuted on drugs charges and sent for trial at West Sussex Quarter Sessions on £100 bail. Keith tells the tale ".. when we were in court waiting to hear if there was going to be bail before the real trial, they busted Brian. They had it timed down to the minute. When we were actually in the fucking courtroom, up in London, an hour and a half drive away, they were going into Brian's house to do him so that the papers would come out with 'Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Mick Jagger on trial for this, meanwhile Brian Jones has just been found with this.' So that they could lay that on - 'Well they must be guilty.' I suddenly realised, 'They really want to nail us. They seem to be trying to lock us all in jail where we can't pose a threat to them anymore.'"
The trial took place between June 27-29th 1967. Keith had been charged under Section 5(A) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1964 stating he had allowed his home to be used for smoking cannabis. The prosecution tried to prove he had known something was not right because of the presence of a nude Marianne Faithfull. Keith stood his ground and made headlines with the response "We are not old men. We are not worried about petty morals." On the 29th Keith and Mick were both found guilty. Keith was sentenced to one year in jail with £550 costs. He was sent to Wormwood Scrubs prison in London for the night. The next day, both Keith and Mick were given £7,000 bail in the High Court, pending appeal.
During the following days and weeks, the Stones got support from often unexpected quarters. On July 1, 'The Times' printed the now famous editorial by William Rees-Mogg -
Daily Mirror
Saturday, March 18, 1967
Two of the Rolling Stones pop group - Mick Jagger and Keith Richard - have been accused of offences against the drug laws.
Summonses against the two men - both aged 22 - were issued after a police raid on Richard's £20,000 farmhouse home at West Wittering, Sussex.
The summonses due to be dealt with at Chichester magistrates' court on May 10, are expected to be served early next week. Tow other men, not named so far, are also to be summoned.
On July 31, the London Appeal Court quashed Keith's conviction for permitting his house to be used for the purpose of smoking cannabis.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1973
June 26
Detective Inspector Charles O'Hanlon leads a team of Drug Squad officers in a search of Keith's house at 3 Cheyne Walk, London. Keith, Anita and Prince Stanislaus are all arrested and charged with possession of cannabis resin. Keith is also lifted for possessing a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver and a quantity of ammunition not relating to the revolver, without the proper firearms licences. Bail for Keith is set at £500 and a surety of £500.
June 27
Keith appears at Marylebone Street Court and is freed on bail of £500 with a £500 surety.
August 1
Keith, in his absence, is further remanded on bail until August 14
August 14
Keith remanded on bail until September 12
Evening Standard
London: Tuesday June 26 1973
KEITH RICHARD 29-year-old lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, was arrested by Drug Squad officers in a raid on a house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, today.
Also arrested were Richard's friend Anita Pallenberg, 30, and actor Prince Jean Stanislas Klossowski, also 30.
Later, the trio were charged at Chelsea police station with being in possession of cannabis, and Richard was additionally charged with possessing a revolver and ammunition without a certificate.
They were bailed to appear in court at Marlborough Street tomorrow.
The detectives who raided the house armed with a search warrant took possession of a firearm and ammunition they found during the search.
Richard and Miss Pallenberg have a three-year-old son, Marlon.
She gave birth to another baby - a girl - in a Geneva hursing home in April last year.
September 12, 1973
Keith is remanded on bail concerning the drug and gun charges.
October 24
At Marlborough Street Magistrates Court, London he admits having cannabis, a small amount of chinese heroin, mandrax tablets a revolver, a shotgun and 110 rounds of ammunition. He is fined £205.
Though not in court, on the 15th October, 1973 Keith, through his lawyers, pleaded guilty in Nice, France to possessing drugs at his rented house, Nellcote. He was given a suspended sentence and fined £500.
1977
New Musical Express
Thursday January 15, 1977
Keef In Court
On Monday morning a gold Rolls Royce drew up outside Aylesbury Crown Court and Keith Richard stepped out to face a two count indictment alleging possession of LSD and cocaine.
Keith was white faced and sombre as he entered the small courtroom, dressed in a plain black velvet suit, a white silk shirt and scarf, and stack-heeled boots. Charges were read out and both times Keith answered quietly, "Not Guilty".
The prosecution described how just before 4am on May 19, 1976, the police received an emergency call to investigate an accident on the south bound section of the M1 motorway near Newport Pagnell. Richard's seriously damaged Bentley had ran off the motorway and into a field, ploughing through a hedge and fence.
By the car were five people: Keith Richard, his son Marlon, aged seven, an American called Mr. Sessler and two unidentified girls.
Taken to a police interview room, Richard was searched. In an inside jacket pocket, it was alleged, was found a folded piece of paper, and inside that another piece of paper. Police believed the stain on the second piece of paper to be LSD and arrested Richard on a charge of possessing a controlled drug.
Keith was then taken to the Newport Pagnell police station, while officers searched his car and found a silver chain, on which were attached several objects, including a vinaigrette (a scent or smelling salt holder dated 1870 and worth £150), a miniature silver flick knife, a hollow silver tube, and a car key.
When Keith was shown the chain, he denied it was his, the court was told.
Keith, it was said, informed police that many members of the Stones and their entourage used the car, that the silver chain could belong to anyone. Of the jacket in which the stained paper was discovered he said, "We all wear each other's stage clothes. I don't know what it is."
The court heard that forensic tests showed the silver tube on the chain to contain traces (130 milligrams) of an off white powder, including 39 milligrams of pure cocaine.
The jury were shown two photographs from the Stones Leicester concert of May 15, 1976, in which, it was alleged, the chain that Keith was wearing was the same as the one found in his car.
For the defence, Sir Peter Rawlinson, questioned the right of the police to search a man involved in a car accident for drugs, when he was, in the opinion of the police themselves, under the influence of neither drink nor drugs.
In evidence, Pc Sibbet said his suspicions were first aroused
when he found some pills in Keith's bag. "However," Sibbet said, "the pills were later found to be salt tablets, but on the strength of that we searched him."
Det. Sgt. Bull of Thames Valley Drug Squad described how hollow tubes like the one on the chain are "used to sniff cocaine and amphetamines." He also said LSD on paper could be swallowed or sucked.
A forensic scientist told the court that there was enough LSD on the paper for one dose, while the antiques officer of the Thames Valley police was said to have measured the distances between the objects on the chain in the car and the objects on the chain in the Leicester concert photographs.
After a recess, the defence told the jury that they should have no preconceived ideas of what a rock star is like and should also bear in mind that fans shower bands with gifts before, during and after a gig.
Mick Jagger was sat in the public gallery as Keith took the witness stand and, when asked by the defence about playing lead guitar, replied, "It means I make a lot of noise."
Richard then described how fans always throw gifts at the band - "autograph books, jewellery and food." He maintained the chain in the photos was different from the one in the car. "I'd never seen it before the police showed it to me . . ." He said the same thing of the stained paper.
The prosecution voiced its doubts concerning Richard's assertion that the Stones have a number of jackets the same size "made up for all the group before a tour."
And that was the conclusion of both Keith's stay in the witness box and day one of the trial. As NME went to press, the case was continuing.
Tony Parsons
New Musical Express
Thursday January 22, 1977
Getting Off In Aylesbury ...
... depends on what you're trying to get off on. KEITH RICHARD got off on the acid, but failed to get off on the cocaine.
For all of day two, just like the other two days, Keef sat with his right hand clamped down on top of his left as Stones transport manager Alan Dunn described the "organised chaos" of a tour and how there was always a "fair selection of chains, pendants and costume jewelry around for the band to wear" in reply to Bruce Laughland's (prosecuting) assertion that the silver cocaine chain found in Keith's wasted Bentley was the same as the one in a photograph of Keef taken four days before at another Stones gig in Leicester.
A big turning point in the case was when Dunn admitted that the debris building up on the floor of the car must have at least some superficial cleaning otherwise it would be like cruising around in a luxurious pig-sty. Keef had said that the chain could easily have been lying around amongst everything else as the car was never cleaned whilst on tour. The plot thickens!
The prosecution summed up as the word spread like a dose of the clap that Mick Jagger was sitting in the public gallery and kids started bunking off school and ruffling up their hair just like Keef instead of doing their homework.
"It would be idle for me to pretend that this case is not one that arouses a great deal of public interest," the prosecution said, "But we are all equal before the law." He then gave EIGHT reasons why he thought he had proven that Keef was the owner of the coke chain. It was all a bit like a new Waddington's board game.
Then the crowd went crazy as Sir Peter Rawlinson hit the stage for the defence.
"We are not dealing with Lord Olivier or Rex Harrison here," he pointed out (perhaps with reference to the fact that Keef had not been wearing underpants on the Night of The Bust) "who comes off stage and puts on a Saville Row suit," with reference to the Stones wearing each other's stage clothes.
Next up was the judge, Lawrence Verney, directing the jury in all the subtle little details of the law. However, even though it was only three-fifteen in the afternoon the judge told us we could all sling our collective hooks for the day. Rumour had it that he likes to get home early for his tea ....
The next day, The Final Day, can only be likened to Cup Final Fever. Oop fer der bust, and so on.
By this time the big forbidding looking front gates of Aylesbury Crown Court were locked up to keep the maddening crowd at bay and if it hadn't been for my Jimmy Olsen Press Card, then even I would have been left on the cold concrete amongst the uneaten popcorn and ragged rosettes ....
The judge summed up, wondering aloud if "normal police procedures had been followed" when Keef had been strip-searched after salt-tablets had been found in his bag. Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel and blame it on the Stones .... the gentlemen of the papers that your parents read sniggered when reference was made to Keef's musical burden in the Rolling Stones.
When the jury had departed to make their decision everyone milled around around aimlessly, not wanting to hang around because they could be out for hours but at the same time not wanting to miss The End.
.... gotta run - word's just come through that the jury have reached their decision and it's gonna be announced in a few minutes time.
Keith Richard looks like the definition of rock 'n' roll even when he stands facing the judge with a cop by his side looking scared shitless.
The kids in the gallery gasp, that's just what it was - a communal release of relief - and then there's DEAD SILENCE as he's found guilty of possessing coke.
Keef nods and nods in terrified gratitude mixed with abject horror as Judge Verney tells him that if it happens again there will be more than a thousand pounds fine - next time it will be the nick.
Then Keef, after saying "Thank you" to the jury of nine men and three women, walks from the court with a broad grin on that death-white visage ... a free man.
And I am left thinking that three-day trials could well replace festivals in the rock-masochism league.
