Sid Vicious - Nancy Spungen's Death

Nancy Spungen's Death

On the morning of 12 October 1978, Vicious claimed to have awoken from a drugged stupor to find Nancy Spungen dead on the bathroom floor of their room in the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, New York. She had suffered a single stab wound to her abdomen and appeared to have bled to death. The knife used had been bought by Vicious on 42nd Street and was identical to a collector's knife given to punk rock vocalist Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys by Dee Dee Ramone. According to Dee Dee's wife at the time, Vera King Ramone, Vicious had bought the knife after seeing Stiv's. Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. He said they had fought that night but gave conflicting versions of what happened next, saying, "I never stabbed her. I loved her, but she treated me like shit", then saying that he did not remember and at one point during the argument Spungen had fallen onto the knife.

On the night of Spungen's death, there was a party going on in their hotel room. She was rumoured to have been showing a lot of money. When they found her dead the next day, the money had gone, as had Vicious's knife. None of the party guests have given evidence about what had happened.

On October 22, ten days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slitting his wrist with a smashed light bulb and was subsequently hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital. He was charged with assault after an altercation with Todd Smith (singer Patti Smith's brother) at a Skafish concert. Vicious was arrested December 9, 1978 and sent to Rikers Island metro jail for 55 days. He was released on bail on February 1, 1979.

Bail was originally set at $50,000. However, after court hearings and work from his lawyer, it was lowered. Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager, worked to raise money, and the bond was eventually covered by Virgin Records.