Nancy Spungen

Nancy Spungen
Born	(1958-02-27)February 27, 1958 Lower Moreland Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 12, 1978(1978-10-12) (aged 20) New York City, New York, U.S.

Nancy Laura Spungen (February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978) was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.

Early life

Spungen was born in Lower Moreland Township, Pennsylvania to Frank and Deborah Spungen. The Spungens were a middle class Jewish family in the Huntingdon Valley area, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her father was a businessman and her mother owned a local health food store called The Earth Shop in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. She was born a month premature, and suffered from severe cyanosis.

As a child, she was extremely intelligent and was allowed to skip the third grade. However, she was hyperactive and reportedly exhibited violent behavior towards her younger sister Susan and brother David. She was also alleged to have threatened to kill a babysitter with scissors, and to have attacked her mother with a hammer during an argument. By age 11, she had been expelled from public schooling and was receiving psychotherapy. She reportedly attempted suicide numerous times before the age of fourteen, and suffered from bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Her family sent her to various residential facilities for disturbed children, including the Devereux Glenholme School and Devereux Manor High School. After graduating from Devereux Manor High School in April 1974, at age 16, she enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was expelled five months later.

Relationship with Sid Vicious

Spungen left home at age 17 and moved to New York City. She followed bands such as Aerosmith, The New York Dolls and The Ramones. She was also reportedly a friend of Debbie Harry, although Harry did not attend her funeral. In 1977, at the age of 19, she moved to London, allegedly to win over Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers, but met The Sex Pistols instead. When lead singer Johnny Rotten rejected her, she pursued bassist Sid Vicious and they soon moved in together.

During a tumultuous 23-month relationship, Spungen and Vicious became addicted to heroin and other drugs. Vicious was already an abuser of multiple drugs before he met Spungen, but many sources claim she introduced him to heroin; other sources claim that he had begun to use speed with his mother at an early age and then got into heroin when Spungen came around.

The tabloids dubbed Spungen "Nauseating Nancy" for reported frequent and public displays of verbal abuse and violence. After the Sex Pistols broke up in 1978, Spungen and Vicious moved to the famous Hotel Chelsea in New York City. There, Vicious tried, with limited success, to continue his musical career.

Death

Over the next few months, Vicious and Spungen spiraled into deeper drug abuse, punctuated by reports of domestic violence. The end of their relationship came on October 12, 1978, when Spungen was found sprawled on the bathroom floor of their hotel room clad in black lingerie. She had bled to death from a single stab wound to the abdomen, later traced to a knife owned by Vicious. This was reportedly a "007" hunting knife he had obtained after seeing Dee Dee Ramone give one to The Dead Boys' Stiv Bators. Vicious was immediately arrested for murder. There are several theories that Spungen was murdered by someone else, usually said to be one of the two drug dealers who visited the apartment that night, and involving a possible robbery as certain items (including a substantial bankroll) were claimed to be missing from the room. In his book, Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk, Phil Strongman accuses actor and stand-up comic Rockets Redglare of killing Spungen. Redglare had delivered 40 capsules of hydromorphone to the couple's room at the Chelsea Hotel the night of Spungen's death.

Redglare steadfastly denied any involvement in the murder of Nancy Spungen throughout his life. He stated that the other dealer known to have been there that evening had left before him to obtain more heroin, and was due back after he had left the building. He said he believed that the other dealer returned, found Vicious out cold, and attempted to steal the remaining drugs, leading to a confrontation with Spungen.

Also unusual was that Neon Leon had Vicious' leather jacket and two gold records in his room. He said he had been given them by Vicious for "safe keeping" the night of October 11–12, 1978.

Another theory is that Spungen's murder was a drug deal gone wrong.

Literary work about Nancy Spungen

• And I Don't Want to Live This Life (Deborah Spungen, Nancy's mother, 1983).

The title of this memoir is taken from a poem written by Vicious after Spungen's death.

• Rats by Veronica Schanoes, in the Interfictions anthology, 2007

This story is a punk rock fairy tale inspired by Spungen's life. The author says:

I wrote "Rats" because I was angry with the way the recent coffee-table histories of punk seem to have no problem demonizing a dead, mentally ill, teenage girl.

Sources

• And I Don't Want to Live This Life by Deborah Spungen

External links

• Nancy Spungen website, with pictures and biography
• Photos of Nancy's gravestone in King David Cemetery, Bensalem, Pennsylvania

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