The way we were...The Great Normandy Isle Pot and Porn Bust of 1964

Miami News, Oct. 2, 1964.
(Click here to enlarge.)

Back on the evening of Oct. 1, 1964, 30-year-old John C. Bland IV was relaxing in his Normandy Isle bachelor pad with a "29-year-old blonde," when officers from Metro and Miami Beach police departments staged a raid.

A Miami News account of the raid doesn't say what led cops to barge in on Bland, unannounced. However the story does go into great detail about everything else...including the fact that Bland...

Was "a practicing nudist."

Owned the apartment building, a boat in the canal behind his building and a 1964 Cadillac convertible parked out front.

Was found to be in possession of "a pouch of marijuana, seven scrapbooks of nudes and pornography and 13 rolls of lewd film."

The story also noted that Bland had six pistols and a rifle in his apartment.

And cops told Miami News reporter Bob Wyrick that Bland's den "was furnished with a nude painting on the ceiling, stereo equipment, a plaited leather whip and a set of bongo drums."

"Can't a man live the way he wants in his own home?" Bland asked the cops.

Wyrick ended his story by reporting that a few years before, Bland had sued Arthur Murray Studios, because after paying for more than 200 lessons, he still hadn't learned to dance.

Apparently the guy just couldn't catch a break.

The scene of the "crime" today. 
(Click to enlarge.)