Hash cookies in the courtroom: the story of Cass Elliot’s London arrest
Although The Mamas and The Papas might have been one of the most accessible groups in the countercultural period, they were no strangers to hard-partying like their other hippie peers. Typifying this was their vocal powerhouse, Cass Elliott, a musical legend of the era who had her fair share of outlandish capers.
Despite the slightly innocuous nature of her band’s definitive hit, “California Dreamin,” and its significance in heralding the heady California sound, Elliot endured a number of fraught real-life experiences, including being arrested as soon as the band touched down in the United Kingdom.
In late 1967, The Mamas and The Papas, who were already on the rocks during this period, were booked to play at London’s Royal Albert Hall and then Paris Olympia before moving onto Majorca to try and stoke their creative spirits once again. However, when they arrived at Southampton on October 5th, Elliot was arrested for stealing two blankets and a hotel key worth $28 when in the country months earlier.
Reportedly, the group had heard about the feds waiting for them at the docks before disembarking and frantically attempted to get rid of their big stash of weed before they got to the dock to meet their boss, Lou Adler and his friend, Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. However, the pair were nowhere to be seen, and six of London’s Metropolitan Police were on hand to arrest Elliot, stick her in their car, and drive her to Scotland Yard to be booked.
Shockingly, and showing just how backward the era was, Elliot was strip-searched, questioned, denied bail, and held there overnight. She was informed that the charges were related to her stay the previous year, where she had vacated the hotel with an unpaid bill and towels. Outside the station, the remaining three members of The Mamas and The Papas and fellow musician Scott McKenzie held up ‘Free Mama Cass’ placards and awaited her release. Making Elliot’s rough treatment even more frustrating, her arrest meant the Albert Hall show was cancelled.
What’s more, Elliot wasn’t wholly to blame, despite later admitting to an audience at the London Palladium that she liked the sheets, so she took them. She told the police that she had entrusted the money to her sometimes romantic partner, Harry Pickens ‘Pic’ Dawson, who failed to settle the account. It transpired that the police weren’t even interested in the blankets or bill but wanted to ask Elliot about Dawson, whom they suspected of international drug trafficking.
Despite being strip-searched, Elliot told the press she had been treated well, and her only gripe wasn’t being given enough blankets. She explained: “One blanket doesn’t go far round this chick.”
The following day after being arrested, Elliot had a trial at West London Magistrates Court, where no evidence was offered for the prosecution, perhaps because most of the police’s efforts hinged on Dawson. The vocalist was released without charge and, ironically, left the courtroom eating a rogue hash cookie she found in her handbag. Photographs from the moment show her with a big smile on her face.
Later, at a party to celebrate the ruling, an argument between Elliot and her bandmate John Phillips erupted, leading her to storm out of the room, and the four members go their separate ways. The end was nigh for the band.
