After 30 years, a new take on Sid, Nancy and a punk rock mystery
Just over 30 years ago New York detectives investigating the death of a woman in Room 100 of the Chelsea hotel were convinced they had her killer in the form of John Beverley. But was he the murderer? Did the man better known as Sid Vicious kill Nancy Spungen?
As the 30th anniversary of Vicious's drug overdose death approaches, there are plenty who believe that the belligerent punk rocker from the Sex Pistols was responsible for the stab wound that led to Spungen bleeding to death on the bathroom floor on 12 October 1978.
But writer Alan Parker is not one of them. He was friends with Vicious's mother, Anne Beverley, who, before she committed suicide in 1996, asked him to try to prove her son's innocence. The result is Who Killed Nancy?, a documentary to be released in cinemas based on 182 interviews and a re-examination of the original New York police case files.
"I just wanted to clear his name," said Parker. "Of course I wasn't there, I can't swear on the bible he didn't do it, but people involved have always told me to keep digging, keep digging and when you do dig it just does not add up."
Parker has uncovered evidence in Vicious's favour. The film shows how:
• At the time of Spungen's killing Vicious had to be out cold, having taken some 30 Tuinal - a powerful sedative.
• Police found fingerprints in the hotel room of six people who were known to them, but none were interviewed.
• The couple's money was missing, and they had a lot at the time with earnings from Vicious's version of the Frank Sinatra tune My Way and recent gigs.
• According to witnesses a drug addict called Michael, who lived on the sixth floor of the hotel, visited the couple and was later seen with a wad of cash tied with Spungen's purple hair tie.
The theory that the previously unknown Michael killed Spungen is the most intriguing. In Parker's film Vicious's friend Steve Dior produces a drawing from memory. "This is the guy I think did it. Michael," he says.
The film also explores Vicious's death, at the age of 21, on 2 February 1979. He had just been released on bail and wanted drugs. So his mother got drugs.
According to friend Peter "Kodick" Gravelle, "the drugs were rubbish" so he asked for better heroin using her money.
Parker said: "The thing is, what did come back with Peter was beyond good. It's been said it was 98% which is too pure for the human body in any state."
At "a party" in an apartment that night, Vicious was in good spirits as they listened to New York Dolls records. Gravelle said they were even having a laugh at the songs Vicious's manager, Malcolm McLaren, wanted him to do for an album - including I Fought the Law and the Law Won, and, improbably, YMCA.
Parker said: "The only people who can tell you the God's honest truth about what went on in Bank Street that night: one is Sid and he's dead; one is Anne, and she's dead; and one is Michelle [Robson - Vicious's new girlfriend] and she doesn't even answer to that name any more." By the next morning Vicious was dead.
The film-makers acknowledge that the title of the documentary might be misleading because, bar a confession, no one can ever know with absolute certainty how Spungen died.
Some witnesses in the film believe she killed herself. One friend, Howie Pyro, says: "To me, she just did it herself because that's what people like that do, like teenagers who cut themselves."
And others are convinced that Vicious, even if he did not know what he was doing, killed Spungen.
Their deaths mean that most people are now familiar with the words Sid and Nancy. If the last year of their life had not been so squalid it could be Romeo and Juliet with syringes.
Many in the film have fond memories of Vicious. Viviane Albertine, who shared a flat with him before his Sex Pistols days, says: "Sid was really clever, he had a great brain. The way he wore Nazi insignia and swastikas was to completely dilute the meaning of them, but people never got that about him. He was clever. He understood concepts."
She did admit that when they went out they often got into trouble. "It got to the point where he'd take his belt off, wrap it round his hand and just whack people with the buckle. I don't know where that came from because he wasn't actually a physically aggressive guy."
Others also tell stories of his moments of madness - glassing the brother of the singer Patti Smith, unsuccessfully picking a fight with Paul Weller of The Jam.
Parker admitted that Vicious has been something of an obsession. Anne Beverley first approached him to write a book on her son in 1984. "I've now probably written more words about that guy than any other writer on the planet. That is definitely it. No more," said Parker.
Just over 30 years ago New York detectives investigating the death of a woman in Room 100 of the Chelsea hotel were convinced they had her killer in the form of John Beverley. But was he the murderer? Did the man better known as Sid Vicious kill Nancy Spungen?
As the 30th anniversary of Vicious's drug overdose death approaches, there are plenty who believe that the belligerent punk rocker from the Sex Pistols was responsible for the stab wound that led to Spungen bleeding to death on the bathroom floor on 12 October 1978.
But writer Alan Parker is not one of them. He was friends with Vicious's mother, Anne Beverley, who, before she committed suicide in 1996, asked him to try to prove her son's innocence. The result is Who Killed Nancy?, a documentary to be released in cinemas based on 182 interviews and a re-examination of the original New York police case files.
"I just wanted to clear his name," said Parker. "Of course I wasn't there, I can't swear on the bible he didn't do it, but people involved have always told me to keep digging, keep digging and when you do dig it just does not add up."
Parker has uncovered evidence in Vicious's favour. The film shows how:
• At the time of Spungen's killing Vicious had to be out cold, having taken some 30 Tuinal - a powerful sedative.
• Police found fingerprints in the hotel room of six people who were known to them, but none were interviewed.
• The couple's money was missing, and they had a lot at the time with earnings from Vicious's version of the Frank Sinatra tune My Way and recent gigs.
• According to witnesses a drug addict called Michael, who lived on the sixth floor of the hotel, visited the couple and was later seen with a wad of cash tied with Spungen's purple hair tie.
The theory that the previously unknown Michael killed Spungen is the most intriguing. In Parker's film Vicious's friend Steve Dior produces a drawing from memory. "This is the guy I think did it. Michael," he says.
The film also explores Vicious's death, at the age of 21, on 2 February 1979. He had just been released on bail and wanted drugs. So his mother got drugs.
According to friend Peter "Kodick" Gravelle, "the drugs were rubbish" so he asked for better heroin using her money.
Parker said: "The thing is, what did come back with Peter was beyond good. It's been said it was 98% which is too pure for the human body in any state."
At "a party" in an apartment that night, Vicious was in good spirits as they listened to New York Dolls records. Gravelle said they were even having a laugh at the songs Vicious's manager, Malcolm McLaren, wanted him to do for an album - including I Fought the Law and the Law Won, and, improbably, YMCA.
Parker said: "The only people who can tell you the God's honest truth about what went on in Bank Street that night: one is Sid and he's dead; one is Anne, and she's dead; and one is Michelle [Robson - Vicious's new girlfriend] and she doesn't even answer to that name any more." By the next morning Vicious was dead.
The film-makers acknowledge that the title of the documentary might be misleading because, bar a confession, no one can ever know with absolute certainty how Spungen died.
Some witnesses in the film believe she killed herself. One friend, Howie Pyro, says: "To me, she just did it herself because that's what people like that do, like teenagers who cut themselves."
And others are convinced that Vicious, even if he did not know what he was doing, killed Spungen.
Their deaths mean that most people are now familiar with the words Sid and Nancy. If the last year of their life had not been so squalid it could be Romeo and Juliet with syringes.
Many in the film have fond memories of Vicious. Viviane Albertine, who shared a flat with him before his Sex Pistols days, says: "Sid was really clever, he had a great brain. The way he wore Nazi insignia and swastikas was to completely dilute the meaning of them, but people never got that about him. He was clever. He understood concepts."
She did admit that when they went out they often got into trouble. "It got to the point where he'd take his belt off, wrap it round his hand and just whack people with the buckle. I don't know where that came from because he wasn't actually a physically aggressive guy."
Others also tell stories of his moments of madness - glassing the brother of the singer Patti Smith, unsuccessfully picking a fight with Paul Weller of The Jam.
Parker admitted that Vicious has been something of an obsession. Anne Beverley first approached him to write a book on her son in 1984. "I've now probably written more words about that guy than any other writer on the planet. That is definitely it. No more," said Parker.
