Nancy Spungen (2/27/58--10/12/78) Girlfriend of Sex Pistol's bassist Sid Vicious and mentally ill drug addict.
Sid Vicious (nee John Simon Ritchie, 5/10/57--2/02/79) Sex Pistol's bassist, drug addict, and punk rock icon.

This isn't really a question.

Everybody knows the tired old story of how Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend by stabbing while they were on a heroin bender in the Chelsea Hotel, and then Sid killed himself by heroin OD while out on bond awaiting trial. 

I'm not a fan of Sid Vicious, but I don't think it's right to assume Sid murdered Nancy.  He will always be the main suspect; however, I would not call it "murder" if he did kill her due to diminished capacity brought on by chronic opiate intoxication. 

Suspects other than Sid--

Unknown drug dealer(s):  Low life scum arrived frequently at Sid and Nancy's room at the Chelsea to feed the couple's habit for cash.  It is possible Nancy, an antisocial paranoid schizophrenic, started a fight over price or quantity, or attacked a dealer/bagman for no reason and was consequently dispatched.  It is also possible one of these scumbags tried to physically/sexually assault Nancy who tried to defend herself, but was consequently dispatched.  Sid might have been too wasted to do anything about it or even be cognizant of what was occurring.

Known drug dealer:  For the first time in since 1978 there is a named suspect other than Sid.  Philip Strongman fingers Rockets Redglare as the killer in his book "Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk."  Michael Morra (aka Rockets Redglare) led about as sordid a life as one individual possibly could.  See below.*  He once worked for the Sex Pistols as a roadie and bodyguard.  He seemed to have had a muddled sense of right and wrong.  Rockets was running dope to Sid and Nancy and the night Nancy died she threw a fit at Rockets because he failed to obtain the Dilaudid she craved.  She gave him more money and sent him back out.   That was HIS story.  Perhaps Nancy got in an altercation with Rockets, which turned violent and Rockets, being on dope and crazy himself, consequently dispatched Nancy.  Rockets Redglare died of hepatitis-C, morbid obesity, and other complications in 2001.  I have not read Strongman's book, but it seems unlikely he has much of a case against Rockets.  If Strongman, or whoever told Strongman the story, had compelling evidence against Rockets, wouldn't they go to the police and potentially be the heroes to vindicate Sid and bring Nancy's killer to justice?  Yet Strongman didn't point the finger until his accused was dead.

Suicide: Nancy might have been effed-up enough to end it all with a stab to the abdomen, but a stab to the abdomen is hardly a reliable method, and why inflict a painful stab when she had hundreds of dollars worth of opiates flowing into her hands every week which would have delivered a painless OD? 

Accident/manslaughter:  This is still my theory.  You've got two crazy kids locked in a hotel room for weeks and pumping as much dope into their bodies as possible.  Throw a big-ass knife into the mix and something terrible is bound to happen.  No one will ever really know.  My guess is if Sid had gone through trial he would have been found either not guilty due to lack of conclusive evidence or guilty of manslaughter mitigated by diminished capacity due to opiate intoxication.  In the latter case, he would have been out of prison within 3 to 5 years. 

http://www.philjens.plus.com/sid/sid_nancy_cuffs.jpg
Drugs are bad.  Just say no, mmmkay!

(This happened in the '70s, but is really part of pop culture spanning the next three decades)

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockets_Redglare

hmmm..
I was just thinking about this a few days ago.
I came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter.
and that Spungeon was a weird name.


Also funny that you bring up Rockets Redglare, who was mentioned in something I was reading recently.  I can see how this is a viable suspect.

I am guessing the suicide line is more feasable.

hmmm..
I was just thinking about this a few days ago.
I came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter.
and that Spungeon was a weird name.


Also funny that you bring up Rockets Redglare, who was mentioned in something I was reading recently.  I can see how this is a viable suspect.

I am guessing the suicide line is more feasable.

Yeah, punks liked to make up gross names for themselves, but Nancy didn't.  Spungen was good because she was always spongin' off of other people. 

I always remember Rockets Redglare as the cab driver in "Desperately Seeking Susan." 
"I took some of that sushi stuff home and cooked it, tasted like fish!"
:D

Sid and Nancy were on a course one might call "suicidal," but I doubt Nancy's death was a premeditated act of suicide.  I still say they were both acting in a zombified haze brought on by drugs, illness, and malnutrition.  I mean, those kids were sick! 

Suburban punks romanticized Sid and Nancy when I was a kid.  Alex Cox's movie "Sid and Nancy," starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb* also romanticized the couple.  Cox depicted the crime, the grime, and the squalor, but it was couched in a tragic manner, which tended to make impressionable viewers see Sid and Nancy too sympathetically.  I admit I was one of them.

Twenty years ago I would not have guessed the legend would have survived until 2008.  There's a second-hand boutique in Northampton, Mass., called "Sid Vintage."  I give pause and say, wait a minute, this kid was no Jim Morrison or Ian Curtis.  He didn't actually create anything.  In fact, Sid was noting more than a creation of media swindle artist Malcolm McLaren.  Sid couldn't play his instrument.  He couldn't sing.  He couldn't write a song to save his life...literally.  He was just an emblem of nihilism.  Does this merit 30 years of legend when  today's punk kids don't even know who Johnny Thunders or Nina Hagen was?  Absolutely not.

I sympathize with Sid and Nancy as human beings who suffered great pain in their lives and didn't stand a chance with the psychiatric problems and drug abuse...but this is not romantic, it's just sad.  They were petty criminals with anti-social personalities.  They were not creative, conscientious, or kind people in the least. 

Philip Strongman naming Rockets Redglare as Nancy's killer is what inspired me to post this, but I think it's worth discussion even without the new intrigue.

Suburban punks romanticized Sid and Nancy when I was a kid.



true; I know we did. it was 77, 78 when it all happened for us as far as the movement goes.  any trip to the city inevitably ended with someone saying "let's go to the chelsea" ..jsut so us kids could go stand in front and look at it and thinka bout the the artists and idols inside.

even today; about a year ago i was going to the bar downstairs from the hotel...i still think about those days.

true; I know we did. it was 77, 78 when it all happened for us as far as the movement goes.  any trip to the city inevitably ended with someone saying "let's go to the chelsea" ..jsut so us kids could go stand in front and look at it and thinka bout the the artists and idols inside.

even today; about a year ago i was going to the bar downstairs from the hotel...i still think about those days.

I never thoght the Sex Pistols were any good in and of themselves.  Johnny Lydon did turn out to be very talented and creative in later work with P.I.L., but the rest of them were just two-bit street urchins.  However, the Sex Pistols were the catalyst responsible for great bands ranging from The Clash to New Order.  What happened to Sid & Nancy was tragic--just not romantic.  Visiting the Chelsea is cool, IMO.  It was the lame-ass suburban punks who used to say "Sid died for our sins!" and all that inane crap that bugged me. 

yeah, at that time, people certainly could spot crap, but sometimes did not care.  there was a fine line between pop crap for $ and art. 

yeah, at that time, people certainly could spot crap, but sometimes did not care.  there was a fine line between pop crap for $ and art. 


"A little art with a little sh*t in it, a little sh*t with a little art in it..."
--Lenny Bruce