Son of famed American artist charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

For years, Vincent Gillespie waged a legal battle to try to gain control of hundreds of paintings by his father — renowned postwar American artist Gregory Gillespie.

On Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say, Gillespie engaged in a very different kind of battle, joining rioters as they tried to wrest control of the U.S. Capitol from the federal government in one of the most violent confrontations of the riot.

Gillespie, who investigators say was identified by half a dozen sources from images taken that day, was among a mob trying to force its way through a tunnel at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol — an assault that almost succeeded by his own description.

“We were almost overpowering them,” Gillespie, blood visible on his scalp from the clash, told an Associated Press journalist at the scene that day. “If you had like another 15, 20 guys behind us pushing I think we could have won it.”