The Complicated Life & Death of Nancy Spungen - Part 1

2025-05-12

There was nothing simple about Nancy Spungen, punk rock fanatic and girlfriend of "The Sex Pistols" bassist Sid Vicious. Her life was a revolving door of psychiatric clinics, prescription-happy physicians and an undiagnosed mental illness stemming from a traumatic birth. The details of her death have remained a topic of discussion for decades. Police say it was a murder and Sid is the one to blame, but did he do it? Episode Sources: “And I Don’t Want to Live This Life: A Mother’s Story of Her Daughter’s Murder” by Deborah Sp...

Episode Sources:

“And I Don’t Want to Live This Life: A Mother’s Story of Her Daughter’s Murder” by Deborah Spungen, 1983

“ABO Incompatibility in a Newborn: Why Blood Type Matters in Pregnancy” by Alicia Stevens, MD and Karla Robinson, MD, GoodRx, Apr 3, 2023

“My New York: Sid & Nancy” by Reed Tucker, New York Post, Jul 25, 2010

“Flashback: Nancy Spungen Found Dead at Chelsea Hotel” by Jessica Wakeman, Rolling Stone, Oct 12, 2017

“The Not So Lonesome Death of Nancy Spungen” by Ann Bardach, SoHo Weekly News, Oct 26, 1978

“‘He Said He Was Going To Kill’” by David Hershkovits & Lesley Vinson, SoHo Weekly News, Oct 19-25, 1978

“Nancy and Sid: A punk mystery story” by Deborah Orr, The Independent, Oct 11, 2003

“Sid’s Way: The Life and Death of Sid Vicious” by Keith Bateson & Alan Parker, 1991

“Freedom, festivity and dead by sunrise: Inside Sid Vicious’s drug-fuelled last party” The Independent, May 28, 2024

“The Day Punk Died” by Karen Schoemer, New York Magazine, October 17, 2008

“1978: Sex Pistol Vicious on murder charge” BBC, Oct 12, 1978