A stunning collection of iconic police photos featuring some of the biggest stars and most influential people in the world has been released in a never-before seen colorized format.
The collection, which includes David Bowie’s 1976 photo in jail for marijuana possession and Jane Fonda’s act of defiance towards trumped-up drug charges have been brought to life with painstaking detail.
The images captured some of the world’s most well-known people during their ‘worst moments ever’ – including actress Patty Hearst when she was caught after a year on the run with a group of leftist kidnappers, and legendary talk show host Larry King being charged for grand larceny.
Original photos were taken in black and then digitally enhanced using colour to each pixel and intensive research to match skin tones, hair, and clothes.
Jason Baker, 40, created original images of high-profile figures such as David Bowie, Al Capone, and Jane Fonda. Each took up to 10 hours to perfect.
Jason stated, “I am a huge celebrity fan and was fascinated to see these images of stars in the worst moments of their lives.”
“My goal was to make the images as clear and to add a new dimension to them.
“I believe that by adding colour to the pictures, the stories are told a bit better and people will see new things in them.
Jason’s work is widely praised on social media. Users comment that it gives new meaning to previously seen images and adds historical significance.
A photographer captured the black-and white mugshots of some the most famous people in the world, during their “worst moments ever” Pictured: Pablo Escobar in 1977
Pablo Escobar, 1977
Being behind bars for a well-known drug trafficker and crime boss responsible of hundreds of murders would not be a pleasant experience.
In this iconic mugshot, Pablo Escobar smiles for his officers at a 1977 arrest. regional Colombian National Police station in Medellín.
Although the circumstances of Escobar’s only ever mugshot are unknown, it is presumed that his happiness is due to knowing that he won’t spend too much time in prison.
It has been reported that Escobar and several of his men were arrested after police allegedly found 40lbs of cocaine concealed in a spare tyre.
It was then pushed between several judges, but none would touch it because they were afraid of reprisals. Escobar was able to walk out after the case was dismissed.
The Colombian government was unable to capture the drug lord because of the dozens of officers and guards who were paid by his cartel.
Escobar was eventually shot and killed December 1993. He was once responsible for 80 percent of the world’s cocaine supply and had ambitions to run his country.
He made a deal with Cesar Gaviria, Colombia’s former president, to stop him being extradited to America in 1991.
David Bowie’s Station To Station tour featured a memorable moment when he was photographed looking every inch the icon while being booked for marijuana possession
David Bowie, 1976
David Bowie, the late rock star, was captured looking like an icon while receiving a marijuana possession booking.
Bowie had played a Saturday night show on March 20, 1976 at the Community War Memorial Arena in Rochester, New York before returning to his hotel.
Bowie would appear later that night. and a few friends – including one James Osterberg Jr (Iggy Pop) – were arrested in his three-room suite on marijuana charges.
A police report at the time said they confiscated ‘about half a pound of marijuana’ from the group.
Rochester Police Department’s mugshot shows Ziggy Stardust’s singer in a three-piece pinstripe suit, unbuttoned white shirt, and his hair styled like Thin White Duke.
But with a show in Springfield, Massachusetts later on that day, Bowie, then 28, paid the group’s bonds to make it back on the road in time for the gig.
He returned to Rochester City Court a few days later, to plead guilty
Bowie gave a short interview afterward and complimented the police officers of the city: ‘They were very friendly and very gentle,’ Bowie stated. ‘They’ve been just super.’
After performing at Madison Square Garden, Bowie returned home to Europe at the beginning of March 1976.
After a grand jury declined indicting the legend artist, the charges were effectively dropped in May 1976. He never returned home to Rochester.
Patty Hearst’s photo was taken at the conclusion of one of the most bizarre cases in FBI history. She had been kidnapped by and later joined leftist group the Symbionese Liberation Army
Patty Hearst 1975
Author and actress Patty Hearst’s mugshot was taken at the end of the strangest cases in FBI history.
In 1974 Hearst, the granddaughter of billionaire publisher William Randolph Hearst, had been kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by two men and a woman who tied her up and threw her into the trunk of a car.
Three days later, Symbionese Liberation Army(SLA), a small leftist US organization, announced that they had taken Hearst and made him a prisoner of war’. They demanded that Hearst’s family give money to the poor.
Hearst declared that she had joined the group by her own will in 1975 after negotiations were held to free her.
Later, she took part in a San Francisco bank raid for the group and was captured on a surveillance cam yelling at customers.
Heart was captured for armed robbery after he had travelled across the country with the group for over a year.
In court, she claimed that she was brainwashed and incarcerated by the SLA. Bill Clinton eventually pardoned her.
Steve McQueen is seen making a cheeky peace sign gesture during his mugshot taken in AnchorageAlaska
Steve McQueen, 1972
Film legend Steve McQueen is seen giving a cheeky peace sign hand gesture during his Alaska mugshot.
McQueen is known for his high-speed driving performance in Bullitt or LeMans. He was also arrested in Anchorage in 1972 for drunk driving.
Witnesses said that the movie star raced through town with a rented Oldsmobile Toronado. After being pulled over by police, he failed a sobriety exam and fell down the white line. He was then ordered to walk.
Posing for his mugshot McQueen, wearing a while polka dot shirt, smiled and raised two fingers for the camera.
Anchorage Daily News said at the time of the photo that “Historical photos tell many of these stories.” They begin the moment you walk in the door. The mug shot and arrest record of actor Steve McQueen show that he was arrested for “brodies” in an Oldsmobile Toronado downtown Anchorage in 1972.
“McQueen is looking mighty ragged after a night on the town here. His seismographic signature only adds to his raggedness.”
McQueen was released on bail and fled the city, but not before signing autographs in handcuffs.
He was later found guilty in absentia of reckless driving.
Larry King was hauled in front of the camera at a Dade County, Florida police station after being charged with grand larceny over $5,000 which he allegedly stole
Larry King, 1971
Larry King was already hosting the legendary CNN show but was being taken in front of the camera for an even more embarrassing purpose – his mugshot as grand larceny.
King, then 38 years old, was charged because he couldn’t pay back money a financier Louis E. Wolfson had given him $5,000 to make it to Jim Garrison (the New Orleans District Attorney investigating the assassination John F. Kennedy).
Wolfson was in a dramatic downfall from grace after he was convicted in 1967 of 19 counts of conspiracy to sell illegal stock.
King, then a Miami radio station host, filed a complaint against him, accusing him, among other things, of stealing $5,000 from a $25,000 check.
Although it is claimed that the late TV personality used the money for his back taxes, the grand larceny accusation was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.
He did not contest the charge of passing bad checks, and the scandal that followed cost him some radio and newspaper jobs in Miami.
He spent the next few year reviving himself and by the late 1970s, he was a popular host for the Mutual Broadcasting System.
King then moved to CNN where he hosted a nightly program for more than two decades.
Jane Fonda, an actress, poses in rebellion after being arrested in Cleveland, Ohio, for trumped-up drug offenses.
Jane Fonda, 1970
Striking a pose of rebellion, actress Jane Fonda is pictured in custody after being arrested for trumped-up drug charges in Cleveland, Ohio.
It was reported that the then 32-year-old had just finished working on Klute – hence her distinctive haircut – when she was arrested at an airport in Cleveland on November 3, 1970.
Fonda was wrongly accused by customs officers of drug smuggling, after she found vitamins labelled b and l in her bag (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
Her anti-Vietnam conflict activism is well-known. Her arrest over something so simple as vitamins was a sign the paranoia of the era.
The actress was on her return from speaking at an anti Vietnam war fundraiser in Canada.
Later, an officer informed her she had been ordered to be arrested by the Nixon White House. Angered at her anti-Vietnam War activism and unable to stand it, the FBI & CIA had been watching her for several months.
She posted about her false arrest on her blog this year. She said: “They confiscated my vitamins as well as mine address book (which had been photocopied)” and then arrested me for drug smuggling.
“I told them what their names were, but they claimed they were getting orders form the White House – that would have been the Nixon White House.
‘I think they hoped this “scandal” would cause the college speeches to be cancelled and ruin my respectability. I was handcuffed, and taken to Cleveland Jail. That’s when the mugshot was taken.
‘I was released on bail and months later, every pill had been tested (with taxpayers money!) The charges were dropped and there were a few paragraphs in the back of the papers that indicated that they were vitamins and not drugs.
Elvis Presley, rock ‘n’ rolling icon, was in Denver, Colorado to accept an honorary badge as a police officer in 1970. He was also offered the chance to have a mugshot
Elvis Presley, 1970
This mugshot may look like Elvis Presley’s fall from grace, but it’s not.
Elvis is still wearing his iconic sunglasses, big pompadour hairdo and large pompadour haircut.
The rock ‘n’ roll icon was in the Denver, Colorado police station to accept an honorary police badge in 1970 when he was offered the chance to have his own mugshot.
Elvis was a natural entertainer and was delighted to be able to agree. He also took another photograph with the Denver Police Chief’s daughter.
He had flown in from his Graceland home in Memphis, Tennessee specifically for the honour, and had had an incredible interaction with fellow passengers on the plane ride over.
One passenger, writing in the Little Rock Ski Club newsletter at the time said: Perhaps the most exciting early trip was to Vail in 70. We flew direct Braniff from Little Rock to Denver.
‘The flight originated in Memphis and on board waiting for us was none other than the King himself – Elvis! He sang Love Me Tender to his passengers and got on the intercom.
“Then he took a short stop and made a tour through the cabin, talking to everyone, many of whom were ski club members. It was truly memorable. I have always admired his down to earth approach to treating us that day.
Jimi Hendrix can be seen here in glorious technicolour, following his arrest at Toronto International Airport on suspicion of drug offences. He was later acquitted after a three day trial.
Jimi Hendrix, 1969
Jimi Hendrix can be seen here in glorious technicolour after his arrest at Toronto International Airport. He was accused of drug offenses. He was later acquitted in a three day trial.
The guitarist was scheduled to perform at Maple Leaf Gardens on Saturday May 3, 1969, near the end of his US-Canada tour. The band members flew into Toronto the next morning.
Hendrix got off the plane and found in his bag a bottle containing three packets, three of heroin, and a tube containing hashish.
Hendrix was detained by police for four hours. A police lab confirmed that the suspicious substances were illegal drugs, and he was eventually charged.
His photograph shows Hendrix, a lonely man, staring down at the camera while wearing his classic unbuttoned purple shirt with a gold necklace.
Hendrix was taken into custody, photographed, and released on $10,000 bail. Hendrix was then escorted by police to Maple Leaf Gardens where 10,000 people waited for the concert to start at 8pm.
Hendrix was able declare Canada as his best Christmas present when a Toronto jury cleared him of drug possession charges.
Hendrix fans in the area were sad to hear that this would be his final visit to the country and, indeed, his last Christmas. The Purple Haze songwriter, died in London 10 months later.