Some musicians become famous; some people become infamous. Some musicians have talent; some musicians have not so much. Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious probably is categorized in the latter of those but is recognised as one of the architects of the punk scene. That is until his girlfriend and manager Nancy Spungen is found murdered in their hotel room and the only potential suspect has a foggy memory of what happened, then the Punk goes from famous to infamous. This week the Beat Marches On to 12th October 1978 when Sid Vicious gets arrested for the murder of Nancy Spungen.
Sid Vicious never really had a chance in life. Born as John Richie to a single heroin-addicted mother, the bad cards were dealt from the start. He attained the Sid Vicious name from his future bandmate and one of his closest friends, Johnny Rotten, when the singer’s hamster, called Sidney, bit his finger, and complained about how vicious it was. Hence Sid Vicious was born.
Vicious was one of the first members of the UK punk scenes and before joining the Sex Pistols, he was the drummer in an early version of Susie Sioux and the Banshees but was told to leave early as he couldn’t hold a beat. Also, he should have auditioned as the singer for The Damned but didn’t show up to the audition. He held a grudge against the singer who got the role, Dave Vanian for the rest of his life. With all his musical failings the future Sex Pistol is credited with creating the genre’s signature dance move; the Pogo.
On the other hand, Nancy Spungen compared to Sid, had a better upbringing. Raised in a middle-class family in Philadelphia, by loving parents. However, growing up was a challenge for her parents as she lashed out if she wasn’t the centre of attention. Doctors assumed it was just kids being kids but not until the age of 15 Spungen was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
Mental issues aside Nancy was incredibly smart. A rumoured IQ in the 170s (although never proven) She was enrolled in Boulder University in Colorado, but with persistent drug use and selling drugs she was expelled from the college and was rumoured to have been banned from the whole state of Colorado.
When the punk scene came along in New York in the mid-1970s Spungen, like a magnet, was attracted to join in the fun. Nancy was a hanger-on with The New York Dolls, especially drummer Jerry Nolan. She was so obsessed with Nolan that she followed him to London with his new band The Heartbreakers on tour. They also brought with them something that would destroy the punk scene: Heroin.
Nancy was already addicted to heroin by the time she was in London. However, it wasn’t just her as most of the American contingent was hooked too. At that time in the UK, the drug of choice was speed, there were a few that dabbled in heroin including Sid but there wasn’t anyone who was a full-blown addict yet.
When Spungen saw the Sex Pistols she knew they were the next big thing. Initially, she tried to get the attention of singer Johnny Rotten, but he rejected her. She set her eyes on the new bass player Sid Vicious. He had only played a few gigs with the band at this point, replacing Glen Matlock due to him allegedly liking The Beatles. Ironically the manager of the Pistols, Malcolm McLaren picked Vicious because he looked more like a punk much like Ringo Starr becoming the drummer of the Beatles as being more like a Beatle than Pete Best. The difference was Starr could play drums whereas Vicious couldn’t play bass.
When Nancy made her intention known to Sid, he fell head over hills in love. He was never the ladies’ man in the group, so when someone showed him any affection you could see the hearts in his eyes a la Pepe Le Pew. Unfortunately, the relationship was going to lead to a disaster for the band.
As soon as the couple got together it drove a wedge between the band and Sid Vicious. They hated Nancy’s motor mouth and how she was controlling Sid. Malcolm McLaren even tried to get her deported back to America, but she kept finding her way back to the bass player. Now, she introduced him to heroin full-time and they were both full-blown addicts.
When the Pistols toured America in January 1978, they mandated that Spungen stay in the UK so Sid could get clean and help get the band back on track. It didn’t work that way as by the time the tour ended in San Francisco the band broke up. Now with no band in the way, Sid could be with Nancy and do his other great love, lady heroin.
When the money went dry Nancy announced that Sid was to start a solo band with her as manager. They didn’t have much of an influence on the scene barring a cover of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. Most of the time they were so high they couldn’t do anything. Thinking it had to do with the London scene dying out, they decided to travel to New York in August 1978 to make an impact on the scene there. Again, all they really did to make an impact on the scene was inject heroin.
The couple stayed at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. This wasn’t the Manhattan that we know today, with the glitz and glamour of Times Square and Wall Street. It was sleazy, the borough was broke and you were more likely to get mugged by a drug addict. The room was on the floor of the hotel which was where the drug addicts stayed. The hotel had a reputation for less-than-perfect clientele.
On the night of October 11th, the couple hosted a party with about 30 residents from the hotel in attendance. Everything seemed fine throughout the night other than the fact that New York’s heroin supply was running dry. The druggies in attendance were worried they were going to get dope sick. They were looking for ways to get high. Sid decided to take around 30 tablets of the barbiturate Tuinal, which is enough to take down a Horse, but he was comatose for the rest of the night.
When the party was near enough over, around 0230 am, Nancy asked Sid’s bodyguard and drug dealer, Rockets Redglare, to get her some opioid painkillers. This is the last known interaction with anyone that Spungen had.
Around 730 am female moans were heard by other patrons in the hotel. This wasn’t uncommon to be coming from the room as the couple quite often had heated arguments. By 10 am Vicious was now back in the land of the living and awoke to find the love of his life dead in the bathroom with a stab wound in her chest. He called down to reception to get medical attention, but it was too late. Nancy Spungen had died aged only 20 years old.
As well as the paramedics, the police were called too. They only had a one-track mind for the case, a domestic argument got out of hand and Sid lashed out and reached for the knife and stabbed her. They had seen it many times before, especially from a couple of junkies.
When the news broke in the UK the scenesters were shocked at what happened. Many of them couldn’t believe that Vicious was up to this. They thought the nickname was ironic a la Little John from Robin Hood. He was the type of person who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Not intentionally anyway. Even the hangers-on in New York were surprised by the news and thought there was more than meets the eye.
At the time of Sid’s arrest, the police didn’t take any witness statements from any residents. Many of them claimed that Rockets did come back with the requested drugs for Nancy and there was some money lying on a counter which had disappeared. A theory could be that the bodyguard came back, saw Vicious laying there unconscious and thought he could help himself to the money, only to be caught in the act when Spungen came out of the bathroom and confronted him. To shut her up he stabbed her. There is also a theory that an unnamed dealer was there too, the dealer that supplied the barbiturates to the bass player and never left.
Other theories include the two had a suicide pact and seeing Vicious in his comatose state she thought he was dead and she stabbed herself. Others claim she did stab herself for attention or it was an accident when the two got into a fight.
The truth of the matter is that we would never know. Everyone had left by this time and by all descriptions, Vicious was so stoned that he barely could hold the knife, let alone stab someone. New York was such a volatile place to live in the 1970s and the carelessness of the couple that it could have been anyone. We would never know Sid’s story in court as he would overdose and die on 2nd February 1979 aged only 21.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Nancy Spungen Found Dead, Sid Vicious Charged with Murder – Rolling Stone
Countless videos on YouTube were a help to research including the Dreading (crime and psychology) channel and Black Owl Crime channel.
The podcasts Hollywood Crime Scene and No Dogs in Space were also used in research.
If you want to request a story for The Beat Marches On blog, you can contact jwhiteheadjournalism@gmail.com. We cannot guarantee that the story will be published but will be considered
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