I AM THE WALRUS
Born in Kent, his father – also called Norman – was a carpenter who had served in North Africa during the Second World War.
To differentiate from his father, everybody called the son ‘Nobby’.
His mother, Violet, worked in a munitions factory.
After the war, Violet kept a boarding house in Margate and this is where Nobby Pilcher grew up.
Aged just fourteen, Pilcher met a girl called Shirley at a party. She would eventually become his wife and life partner. They had two children, Gregg and Joanna.
When he left school, Pilcher joined the army, where he became a military policeman.
Aged just twenty, he left the military and became a regular policeman, serving with the Metropolitan Police (the ‘Met’).
Pilcher was initially based at Bow Street in London, before being transferred to Sidcup. During this time he was promoted, eventually reaching the rank of Detective Sergeant.
In 1966, Pilcher was recruited to the Drug Squad by Wally Vigo – who was later exposed as one of the most corrupt officers in the ‘Met’.
Pilcher soon had his own team of officers, known by everyone else as ‘The Whispering Squad’. They were called this because everything was discussed in quiet corners so that other policemen couldn’t hear them.
It was the Swinging Sixties and London was at the centre of the world’s attention. Pilcher hated the lifestyle of many young people. He described it as “Moral decadence”, and cited the causes of the problem as, “Sex and drugs and rock and roll.”
He hated celebrities with a passion – so he decided he was going to ‘get them’, being helped by the passing of the ‘Dangerous Drugs Act 1965.’
On 10th June 1966, Pilcher made his first arrest of somebody well-known. It was the 20-year-old folk singer Donovan, whom he charged with possession of cannabis, after raiding his house with nine officers.
It wasn’t exactly great detective work that led to the singer’s arrest. A television documentary the year before , ‘A Boy Called Donovan’, had shown him openly smoking cannabis, and an embittered ex-girlfriend told the police where and when to catch him in the act.
When Donovan was released from the police station, Pilcher asked for an autograph for his daughter.
The Beatles paid for Donovan’s defence lawyer.
Donovan was found guilty and fined £250. It had major implications for his career though. Officially classed as a criminal, it meant he was unable to enter the USA. He had been booked as a headlining act at the Monterrey music festival and so he had to withdraw. To this day, Donovan has been unable to go to the States.
The following year, the newspaper The News of the World paper printed a thorough expose on Donovan. A lot of the material they used had been leaked to them from the Drug Squad. The singer’s career never really recovered.
The day after the court case, George Harrison of The Beatles, phoned Donovan. He said, “It’ll never blow over, Don. We’ll be next.”
Harrison was right. Pilcher told his squad that Donovan was not a big enough name for them. He wanted all The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Picher created ‘Operation Rolling Stone’. He raided Keith Richards’ house, ‘Redlands’ in Sussex, during a party. Richards and Mick Jagger were arrested. Before they were taken from the building in custody, Pilcher asked for their autographs.
However, Pilcher missed catching George Harrison, as he had just left the party.
The arrests, and subsequent trial of the musicians, caused a national outcry. The Times headline was ‘Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?’
In court, Pilcher talked about finding a naked young woman under a carpet. He refused to name her, calling her ‘Miss X’. It was later revealed she was Jagger’s girlfriend, Marianne Faithful.
Both Stones were found guilty. Jagger was sentenced to three months in prison whilst Richards got a year (plus £500 court costs).
However, they both served just one day in prison, being released pending appeal.
The appeal was upheld, although Mick Jagger received a suspended sentence.
The day they were set free, Pilcher arrested Brian Jones, another member of The Rolling Stones. It appeared he was victimising them. Questions were asked in the House of Commons.
Jones was sentenced to nine months in prison. This was reduced on appeal to a fine of £1,000 – and three-years’ probation.
Shortly afterwards, Brian Jones was found drowned in his swimming pool. Pilcher always believed that the guitarist had been murdered.
Next, Pilcher tried to catch John Lennon, raiding his Sunningdale house with forty officers. However, the Daily Mirror had tipped the singer off and nothing was found. As he was about to leave the house, Pilcher shouted, “Next time we will get you Lennon, mark my words.” He then asked the Beatle for his autograph.
Soon afterwards, Pilcher was indeed more successful. Pilcher raided the London home of John Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono. The press turned up at their flat before the police did.
When the officers burst into the house, they found Lennon and Ono stark naked. They discovered cannabis in a leather binocular case. Lennon told the officers, “I’m not stupid. I went through the whole house.” He claimed the drugs had been planted.
John Lennon was charged with possession. There was also evidence of drugs in the carpets. Lennon told the police that Jimi Hendrix had owned the house until recently, “So God knows what’s in those carpets.”
Both John and Yoko were also charged with obstruction and threatening the police with a vacuum cleaner!
Pilcher claimed Lennon told him the drugs were for his personal use only and not for anybody else. The policeman supposedly retorted, “It’s a fair point.” Nevertheless, Lennon was still prosecuted.
Shortly afterwards, whilst on tour in Japan, John Lennon sent Pilcher a postcard. He wrote on it, ‘You can’t get me now.’
In later years, Pilcher claimed John Lennon had sent him brandy and records, right up until his death – although the policeman was unable to produce any evidence for this, stating he had lost the records in a house move.
Pilcher then went after George Harrison again, raiding the musician’s house in Esher, Surrey. They found drugs in one of George’s shoes. The singer’s wife, Pattie Boyd, said, “If we had a lump of hash like that, we certainly wouldn’t keep it in George’s shoes”.
Pilcher never managed to arrest the other two Beatles, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.
Eric Clapton was the next target. He knocked at the guitarist’s front door of his house, ‘The Pheasantry’, on the King’s Road.
Pilcher shouted, “Postman – Special Delivery.” Clapton escaped out of the back door.
He raided the homes of Lionel Bart and Dusty Springfield. He claimed the latter used, “Foul language and insults.” Dusty was fined.
Pilcher also arrested Levi Stubbs at the Mayfair Hotel. The Four Tops singer was acquitted but received a small fine because he had been carrying ammunition for a gun.
Nearly all the celebrities claimed Pilcher had planted the evidence. He denied this – and it has never been conclusively proved that he did.
By now, the press was calling him a ‘Police Groupie’. He claimed celebrities enjoyed being, ‘busted by the drugs squad’, as it gave them publicity.
Pilcher had given himself a new nickname – ‘The Walrus’. He claimed The Beatles had written the song ‘I am the Walrus’ about him. This is not technically true, as the song was written before any of his celebrity arrests.
Pilcher was also lampooned in the TV show ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’.
In the early 1970s, things began to go wrong for Pilcher. Firstly, he arrested saxophone player and heroin addict, Tubby Hayes. The musician died shortly afterwards.
The press questioned the manner in which the musician had been treated in custody.
Then, drug smuggler, Basil Sands, was caught red-handed, in possession of banned substances. In his trial, Sands said he had been working with the knowledge of the Drug Squad. He named Pilcher as his contact.
Pilcher said that the accused had been lying to the court. The smuggler was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
In 1972, Robert Mark was appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, with a brief to clean it up of corruption.
It was immediately discovered that Pilcher had been fabricating entries in the police diaries. He was charged with perverting the course of justice.
Pilcher immediately resigned – and fled with his family to Australia.
A warrant was put out for his arrest, and he was detained the moment he arrived at Freemantle Harbour. Pilcher was immediately taken back to England for trial.
The trial lasted 38 days and was presided over by Mr. Justice Stevenson.
In court, Pilcher said he had only ever written what his superiors told him to write in the diaries.
He claimed he was a victim of his own success. “I am not a bent copper. I am the Walrus!”
Pilcher also said, “The squeaky-clean officer was never able to remain dirt-free if he wanted to investigate crime…London and the Met were rotten and if you needed to walk through muck, you’d need to be prepared to get your clothes dirty.”
Pilcher was found guilty. In the summing up, the judge said, “You poisoned the wells of criminal justice and set about it deliberately.”
He was sent to prison for four years.
Pilcher went to Ford Open Prison in West Sussex. Years later, he claimed he quite enjoyed it. “It was common practice for us to pop out in the evening for a drink”.
He was released after just two years and then went to work for the London Electricity Board. Pilcher served more time in prison than all his victims put together.
After that, Pilcher ran a driving school.
In 2020, Pilcher published his autobiography entitled, ‘Bent Copper’. In it, ironically, he became an advocate for the legalising of drugs.
He tried to justify his actions. “Out in the world, I was detested by youth. Inside the Met, I was fighting to maintain the integrity amid a toxic and corrupted police force.”
He added, “During the period of Beatlemania, music fans needed someone to hate – and I was that person. I became a folklore bogeyman.”
Pilcher was diagnosed with cancer and died in a Kent nursing home in 2021, although news of his death was not released to the public for several years.
RIP – Rollingstones In Prison
