Johnny Cash Mugshot Caricature

Johnny Cash Mugshot Caricature 1965. Shown here at the El Paso Jail on October 4, 1965.

This was his most famous arrest, when Cash had crossed over the border into Juarez, Mexico to buy cheap amphetamines, which he had become addicted to in the early 60s. Crossing back into the U.S, he was picked up by a narcotics squad who suspected he was smuggling heroin from Mexico.
News reports said that he was found with 668 Dexadrine capsules and 475 Equanil tablets hidden in his guitar case. He received a suspended sentence and paid a $1,000 fine, but the image of Cash being led away in handcuffs was not a hit with Cash’s conservative audience, as edgy as it may seem to contemporary eyes.

Between the years 1959 to 1968, Cash was arrested 7 times for public drunkenness, reckless driving, drug possession, and memorably, picking flowers. In the small town of Starkville, Mississippi, Cash was drunkenly exploring the town at 2 a.m. when he decided to pick some flowers in someone’s yard. Arrested by local police, he was not a penitent guest at the Starkville jail; he screamed and kicked at the cell door so hard that he broke his toe. He later wrote a song about his experience that became a highlight of his At San Quentin album.

One experience he didn’t write about in song but recounted in his first autobiography was a night in jail in Carson City, Nevada. Sharing a cell with a threatening lumberjack who refused to believe he was Johnny Cash, he spent most of the night singing his big hits and gospel songs to pacify his intimidating cellmate.

The man never did believe he was Johnny Cash, but he fell asleep and Cash survived the night intact.