ILLUSTRATES Aluisio Cervelle
1. More than 35 years after the crime, on October 12, 1978, there is still no certainty about who killed groupie Nancy Spungen. For the NYPD, it was her boyfriend, former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. But the case is shrouded in mystery.
two. Since the Sex Pistols disbanded in January 1978, Sid Vicious had been living in New York with his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen – the two had been together for a year. They lived in room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel, a cheap dive that housed drug addicts, bohemians, thugs and other lesser figures.
3. Sid and Nancy were addicted to drugs, especially heroin. At the time of the crime, they were also consuming a lot of Tuinal, an antidepressant drug. The couple’s room was frequented by friends of the two, who were also part of the punk scene. The pair had plenty of money at the time – the result of Sid’s gigs at Max’s Kansas City club
4. On the morning of death, there was a party for about ten people. Witnesses claim that Sid was stretched out on the bed, doped with Tuinal, while Nancy made room for the guests (the hospital report confirms that Sid had a high dose of the drug in his blood). The last guest in the apartment, according to a witness, would have been the drug dealer who sold Tuinal to the couple
5. No one knows exactly what happened when the two were alone in the hotel. The police report shows that Sid, still at the scene of the crime, gave contradictory statements. First he said he didn’t know what happened and that he didn’t kill Nancy, because he spent the night sleeping. He then confessed to the murder saying that the two got into a fight and that he stabbed her. Lastly, he said it was an accident. In jail, he confessed again
6. In one of his testimonies, the musician said he had woken up, gone to the bathroom and found Nancy still alive and breathing. After cleaning her blood, he had gone to a pharmacy to buy methadone, another drug he was addicted to. When he returned, Sid realized that Nancy was dead and called the police.
7. At 10:45 am, the police and an ambulance arrived at the hotel. They discovered Nancy’s dead body in the bathroom, crouched by the sink. There was a knife next to the body – but it was not the one used in the crime, a Jaguar K-II, which was cleaned and left on top of a suitcase in the apartment. The cause of death was internal and external bleeding, caused by a stab wound to the abdomen. Sid was charged with second-degree murder
8. Sid died of an overdose a few months later on February 2, 1979. With his death, the police closed Nancy’s case, considering him the killer. But his “guilt” is questioned. Suspicious facts: 1) He was too drugged to kill, 2) key witnesses were not heard from, 3) six fingerprints were found in the apartment, and 4) the lack of fingerprints on the murder weapon was not investigated (why would Sid clean the gun if you didn’t bother to hide the body?)
- After Sid’s death, his mother found a note that said, «We [eu e Nancy] we had a death pact
9. the documentary Who Killed Nancy, from 2009, suggests that a man known as Michael, who was always at the hotel and dealt drugs for the couple, would have been the killer. By frequenting the room, he knew the pair had a lot of money. After the crime, however, there was no money in the room. What’s more, Michael reportedly broke the news of Sid’s arrest to friends with a smile. He was never found again
- The documentary theory: Michael tried to rob the apartment, was confronted by Nancy, killed her, then disappeared with the money
SOURCES Documentary Who Killed Nancy, by Alan G. Parker; book please kill meby Less McNeil and Gillian McCain; Soho Weekly News, Daily Mail It is The Guardian