MUG SHOTS

When I´m crusing around the internet in the seach for pictures I want to hang on my livingroom wall I always come back to the same place for inspiration: The mug shot archive on The Smoking Gun. They have gathered a bunch of mug shots in catagories like “hollywood stars” , “B-lists” and “Topless Guys” and there is even a section with “Hawaiin shirt mug shots” .

If you don´t want to wallow in other peoples dispair I´ve done you the favour and collected the best ones here. These mug shots are as dignified as a mug shots can be. (You´re welcome!)  Too bad they are so small they would look great in a big print above my couch.

“Frank Sinatra was arrested by the Bergen County, New Jersey sheriff in 1938 and charged with carrying on with a married woman (yes, you could get popped for that back then). The charge was later changed to adultery, and eventually dismissed”

“Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was photographed by Alabama cops following her February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery bus boycotts. The booking photo, taken when Parks was 43, was discovered in July 2004 by a deputy cleaning out a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department storage room.”

“Forty years before he posed for this famous mug shot, Nick Nolte was photographed by the Omaha Police Department following his arrest for selling phony draft cards. The Nebraska native, 20 at the time of his February 1961 bust, subsequently was convicted and received a five-year suspended sentence.”

“Jane Fonda was arrested in November 1970 in Cleveland after she allegedly kicked a local cop. The actress/activist, then 32, scuffled with the policeman after being stopped at the airport by U.S. Customs agents for having a large quantity of pills in her possession. Fonda posed for the above mug shot as she was being processed for assaulting the officer (that charge was later dismissed).She was booked a day earlier on federal drug smuggling charges, which were also later thrown out.”

“Actor Tim Allen was arrested in October 1978 while attempting to sell a large amount of cocaine to a Michigan undercover officer. Allen, 25 at the time, served about two years in federal prison following the bust.”

“Music legend David Bowie was arrested in upstate New York in March 1976 on a felony pot possession charge. The Thin White Duke, 29 at the time, was nabbed along with Iggy Pop and two other codefendants at a Rochester hotel following a concert. Bowie was held in the Monroe County jail for a few hours before being released. The above Rochester Police Department mug shot was taken three days after Bowie’s arrest, when the performer appeared at City Court for arraignment.”