Cops tag muralist over Ocean Beach tribute to rock great Lemmy

A mural of the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister along the seawall at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. A mural of the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister along the seawall at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Cops tag muralist over Ocean Beach tribute to rock great Lemmy 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

When Wes Winship got busted at Ocean Beach in December as he touched up a 60-foot-wide, spray-painted tribute to the renowned Motörhead frontman known as Lemmy, he says a group of National Park Service cops offered him a very un-metal choice.

Call his 71-year-old mom in the middle of the night, or go to jail.

Winship, a 40-year-old professional artist from Minneapolis who had been visiting his mother in San Francisco, tried to bargain his way out of the pinch, but ended up with a lose-lose outcome, he says. Hours later, he was behind bars in San Francisco County Jail calling his mom anyway, asking her to bail him out.

“I was really pissed at the absurdity of it,” Winship said of his arrest. “It was graffiti on top of graffiti, and there were definitely a lot of fans of (the mural). This is a tribute to a dead man.”

One of San Francisco’s more unusual property-crime capers — in which grief over the 2015 passing of the hard-living, bass-ripping Lemmy Kilmister collided with police frustration over graffiti — came to an end Thursday when a Superior Court judge dismissed the case in a settlement.

City prosecutors had originally charged Winship and his friend, Cory Weisskirk, who had also been visiting from Minneapolis, with felony vandalism and misdemeanor possession of graffiti equipment. Now the men, both 40, must pay $2,560 in restitution on top of the bail fees, plane ticket costs and other expenses they’ve racked up in the past two months.

U.S. Park Police officials, whose jurisdiction includes Ocean Beach, defended the case, saying the agency takes vandalism seriously. They said they had no information about whether officers had proposed to let Winship go if he called his mother.

“Some of these folks are very talented, but they cause a lot of damage,” said Capt. Jerry Marshall. “We take any case where park property is being defaced or damaged seriously.”

The affair began a little more than two years ago. Winship, a professional muralist, screen printer and graphic designer, was in San Francisco for the holidays visiting his mother in the Richmond District.

When Lemmy died of cancer and congestive heart failure on Dec. 28, 2015, at age 70, Winship was among millions of anguished fans around the globe.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle An artist trying to touch up his 2015 tribute to the late Lemmy...

Born in England, where his career began in the 1960s, Lemmy formed Motörhead in 1975. His signature mustache and mutton chops, gravelly voice and fast-picking assault on his Rickenbacker bass made the band a pillar in metal and punk, influencing a wave of musicians.

Lemmy’s renegade look and attitude, as much as his rock ’n’ roll, transcended music and came to symbolize a broader rebelliousness that his legions of fans continue to emulate.

Winship, among those legions, said he felt a need to do something to honor the man while in San Francisco in late 2015 in the wake of his death. Then the idea came.

“My friend was like, ‘Let’s go do this tribute,’” he recalled.

They picked the Ocean Beach seawall, he said, not only because there was plenty of room but because it was already covered end to end in spray paint.

They grabbed orange, yellow, silver, black and white paint as well as ladders, respirator masks, gloves and other equipment and went to work under the cover of darkness. By morning, the wall was emblazoned with the words “HEAVY METAL” and a familiar image of Lemmy flipping the bird.

The project became a hit on social media sites such as Instagram, where scores of people have posted photos of themselves — sometimes with their pets — in front of the mural. But after two years, the paint had faded.

“Lemmy’s face was looking worse for the wear,” Winship said.

So when he was back in San Francisco last year for Christmas, he said he asked Weisskirk to tag along and hold his ladder while he fixed up the painting. Winship even told his mom about the plan.

“She was very antsy about me doing it,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Mom, no one cares. They haven’t painted over it in two years.’”

But just as the men were finishing up in the early hours of Dec. 27, Weisskirk spotted a bright light on a stairwell. Moments later, cops with flashlights were on them.

Winship said he figured they’d be ordered to leave, but “then they do the whole, ‘Get on your knees, hands behind your back’ thing. Then another cop shows up, and eventually they’re waiting on their commanding officer.”

As more officers arrived, he said, the cops discussed the situation among themselves before offering the deal.

“They said, ‘Here’s what you’re going to do: You are either going to call your mom or go to jail,’” Winship said. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to wake up my 71-year-old mom with a cop on the phone. It would be an instant heart attack. I was like, ‘Really? Is there a third option, sir?’”

Soon, Winship was in handcuffs for the first time in his life. Later, his mother experienced her own first — paying a bail bonds outfit $5,000 for the men’s freedom.

Winship and Weisskirk had to fly back for their arraignment. Deputy Public Defender Alex Lilien, who helped broker last week’s deal to close the case, said the men were treated too harshly.

“These guys loved Motörhead and really wanted to leave the city and its Lemmy mural a little better than they found them,” he said.

The city district attorney’s office declined to comment on its prosecution of the case.

Winship, relieved to put the trouble behind him, said he’s been organizing a benefit in Minnesota to pay his and his friend’s legal costs. Local musicians who heard about his plight agreed to perform while he does a live painting of Lemmy that will be raffled off.

As of last week, his mural at Ocean Beach was still on display. It’s just to the south of stairwell 18.