Clock Busted in Peoria

[ekforum]

In April 1968 while the Alarm Clock was on tour, we had a night off in Peoria, Illinois. Our show there was scheduled for the following night...so some of the guys drove over to the local University area for some entertainment. Lee Freeman and myself stayed behind to work on some music we'd been writing. We had brought with us a small amount of the finest cystal-meth ever...they don't make this stuff anymore. It was pure, powerful and sparkled like powdered diamonds.

After sniffing a bit of it, Lee wrapped the rest in small piece of Holiday Inn stationary (that's where we were staying) and then covered that with some cellophane to keep it dry.

I'm guessing it was around midnight when there came a knock on the door of our room. When I opened the door I was greeted by several police, two news teams complete with lights and cameras, and some undercover cops.

They tore all our of our rooms apart. They made us strip and searched us EVERYWHERE. No wonder Michael Jackson was embarrassed. I understand.

Lee kept moving around the small cellophane-covered square until it finally wound up between the frame and the cushion of a chair next to the door of our room. One of the plain-clothes guys saw it when he removed the cushion. Looked it all over but didn't take it apart...just put it on the dresser. After searching us they hauled us all off to jail.

I'd never been to jail before. Actually, I haven't been there SINCE. It was a wet & dark place with some kind of slime dripping down the black cement walls. All night long one of the deputies sat there telling us how we'd ruined our lives by using marijuana. I mean, the ALL NIGHT LECTURE. Real boring stuff. Lee and I were released around 6 AM.

When Lee and I got back to the hotel to collect our luggage and guitars, we found that cellophane-square right were the cop had left it! The Holiday Inn told us to 'git'....we'd been kicked out.

In Mark Weitz' room (Mark's the keyboard player who wrote most of the music for "Incense & Peppermints") the cops found a bag of weed taped to a chair. Seems that one of the people the guys brought back to the hotel was an informant who'd planted the stuff.

Mark and our road manager, Bob Hathcock, were detained and booked on possession...a VERY SERIOUS charge in 1968! There was also a charge of "Bible burning" - though I think that charge was dismissed. Some guys in the band had been playing with smoke bombs that day, lit one and threw it into a room. It landed on a Bible.

The Peoria gig was cancelled. We may have played one other show - I don't think the promoters were interested in us any longer. How times have changed, eh?

When we all got back to L.A., our manager thought it'd be a good publicity opportunity - so he hired San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli. In case you don't know who Belli is, he was arguably the most famous attorney in America at the time. His retainer was the 2005 equivalent of $100,000...that was just to get started.

Belli's arrival for the trial in Peoria (or maybe it was a small town adjacent to Peoria) was the biggest event there since Harry Truman had passed through in the 1950's.

[ekforum]

I wasn't at the trial and can't accurately tell you what happened. I emailed Mark Weitz and asked him to supply those details. So...here he is:

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Remember: Just after a guy with last name Blount (last name) left the holiday in ( the guy we met him at a "head shop" in town and he invited himself later to the hotel room that evening) He planted the pot and said he'd be right back--that guy-- We figured later he was the informant!.

After the infamous knock on the door with light/cameras City officials/ cops/ strip search/ mystery bag'o'pot on the floor by the hotel desk chair..they found vitamins in my flight bag with the label peeled off (from boredom)--made it look illegal and confiscated by pigs along with banana/strawberry flavored rolling papers (remember those!).

Oh and the matches burnt in a wagon wheel pattern in the ashtray (also from boredom) on the Gideon's Bible ..well...You know the rest.. The drive to the "TANK". On the way, the pig driving said that they were going to through the key away and make us an example...I could go on....

AHHH Yes! The trial:
It lasted two days. Hathcock and me going to jail for the rest of our lives. We were sitting there drawing pictures on a legal pad throughout the whole trial (?). I didn't know what to think was going to happen to me-us?.Needless to say I was worried.

After listening to what the other side was trying to convince the Judge what happened... I kept saying to Belli's sidekick attorney: Why aren't they calling this guy BLOUNT to testify? He wasn't even in the court room. They (the city officials) were obviously up to no good! Remember: One of the older guys in a suite that showed up at the Holiday Inn "bust" was re-running for city councilman or some office, and they were using this politically to help secure his position in the upcoming city election --You know, on how he was going to rid their city of narcotics by busting druggie bands that were somehow corrupting their city and youth! You get the picture. I digress...back to the trial............

One of the things that heavily weighed in at the trial: Where was the anonymous informant named Blount? He was NOT at the trial. He was never mentioned or not in the courtroom. I was insisting to Belli that there was something wrong here. The guy had just left the Holiday Inn a moment before they barged in on us with that weak knock on the door! He had to be in cahoots with the city! They would have seen him leaving. The Judge questioned the prosecutor about this and he was not willing to acknowledge Blount. He refused to discuss this Blount guy and acted evasive.

OH! and the question about burn marks on the hotel Bible from the matches and how we were blasphemous and anti religion! We responded with the truth. I told them: Is it against the law to play with matches when you are bored? The hotels supplied you with an ashtray and matches! Right!--every day you got a clean ashtray and new matches! If people used them for SMOKING, why couldn't I use them just for fun. Did you ever try to stick two matches together at the same time to see if you can get the heads to light at the same time? It was a game! Done out of boredom! No crime committed here! Sorry guys! We did not intentionally burn the cover of the Bible. There was no proof. It was only a very slight burn mark, there was no witness that WE did that.

The outcome:
The city prosecutor said they were acting on an anonymous tip. Right! That ONE thing probably saved our asses! The Judge actually weighed the evidence pretty well. I guess when there is an anonymous informant...things get fuzzy. Belli's reputation was obviously very high profile--That I think helped tremendously also. The Judge probably figured it was a weak case--maybe he was just doing his job--OR Maybe it WAS Belli that scared him. Who knows! Belli was not someone that you hired unless you needed the absolutely very best! And this was NOT a HIGH PROFILE case!!!

He had a hard time convicting us when there were a few unanswered questions. Like, why was the City councilman there at the bust? The pills in question turned out to be vitamins! There is no law against concealing rolling papers! We denied that the Pot was ours...And why would we have put that small amount in a baggy under a chair right where Blount was sitting! There were questions in the Judges mind that were not answered...After hearing all the testimony and going over the evidence-- plus the convincing argument by Belli's protege (can't remember his name...he did all the work--not Belli!), the judge dismissed the case due to: Bizarre ( I think that was the word he used) circumstances leading up to the arrest. Right after the Judge responded with that and they adjourned the court, Belli commented for all of us to get the hell out of East Peoria before the Judge changed his mind! And he ushered us quickly out of the courtroom. It was on the local news here in LA on several stations that night. I remember, because my parents called me and said what's up with that! MARIJUANA! YOU SMOKE MARIJUANA! What's wrong with you! Don't you know better!