Sid Vicious Iconic Punk Rocker Drug Addict And Murderer

Sid Vicious was the infamously troubled bassist for the Sex Pistols. But was he really a killer?

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1 of 44Sid Vicious, bassist and vocalist with punk rock band the Sex Pistols, injects himself with heroin. Circa 1978. Sunday People/Mirrorpix/Getty Images 2 of 44Sid Vicious in a hotel room. January 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 3 of 44Sid Vicious and girlfriend Nancy Spungen backstage at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, U.K. August 1978. Aubrey Hart/Evening Standard/Getty Images 4 of 44Spungen, Vicious, and Lemmy from Motörhead. Kerstin Rodgers/Redferns 5 of 44The Sex Pistols from left: vocalist Johnny Rotten, drummer Paul Cook, bass guitarist Sid Vicious, and guitarist Steve Jones.John Mead/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images 6 of 44The bassist poses on the street in 1977. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images 7 of 44The Sex Pistols performing live onstage at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub in San Antonio in 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 8 of 44Vicious and Spungen circa 1978 in New York City. Allan Tannenbaum/IMAGES/Getty Images 9 of 44Sid Vicious performing live onstage at Baton Rouge’s Kingfisher Club, Louisiana. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 10 of 44The band posing for a group shot. Virginia Turbett/Redferns 11 of 44Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen backstage at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, U.K. 1978.Aubrey Hart/Evening Standard/Getty Images 12 of 44The Sex Pistols in Holland.Mirrorpix via Getty Images 13 of 44Vicious with his mother, Anne Beverley, in 1978. Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 14 of 44Sid Vicious poses with two fans. Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images 15 of 44Vicious posed on bed in a hotel room. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 16 of 44Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen outside Marylebone Magistrates Court in London. 1978. Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 17 of 44Sid drinks at a hotel. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 18 of 44Sid celebrating a new recording deal with A&M Records outside Buckingham Palace. March 1977. Bill Rowntree/Mirrorpix/Getty Images 19 of 44Sid with Sex Pistol’s manager Malcolm McLaren outside Buckingham Palace, London. March 1977. Graham Wood/Evening Standard/Getty Images 20 of 44Vicious performing live at Baton Rouge’s Kingfisher Club in Louisiana on his final tour. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 21 of 44Performing live onstage at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub, San Antonio, on final tour. (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns) 22 of 44Performing live onstage at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub, San Antonio, on final tour. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 23 of 44Vicious during a Sex Pistols concert in Dallas, Texas where his nose is bloodied after being punched by a fan. Philip Gould/Corbis via Getty Images 24 of 44Vicious and Steve Jones in a hotel room, 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 25 of 44Vicious and the Sex Pistols at the Longhorn Ballroom, 1978.Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 26 of 44The band during one of their many hotel debaucheries. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 27 of 44Sid Vicious and Paul Cook goof off. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 28 of 44Sid Vicious with trousers down on his final tour. Roberta Bayley/Redferns 29 of 44Sid Vicious shops for clothes while on tour in Eindhoven, Holland. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images 30 of 44Vicious and crew perform their last concert in Winterland on Jan. 14, 1978 in San Francisco, California. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 31 of 44Sid Vicious performing circa 1978 in New York City. Allan Tannenbaum/IMAGES/Getty Images 32 of 44Vicious having a drink on the set of the Pretty Vacant video shoot. Virginia Turbett/Redferns 33 of 44The Sex Pistols play at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub, in San Antonio, 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 34 of 44Vicious signs an autograph. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns 35 of 44Sid’s handwritten list of things he loves about Nancy Spungen. Hard Rock/Lists of Note 36 of 44Vicious being escorted out of the Chelsea Hotel by cops after Nancy Spungen was found dead in their hotel room. Mary McLoughlin/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images 37 of 44Vicious under arrest in New York City, circa 1978. Allan Tannenbaum/IMAGES/Getty Images 38 of 44Sid Vicious poses for a mugshot after being arrested by New York City police for allegedly murdering Nancy Spungen. Dec. 8, 1978 in New York City, New York. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 39 of 44Vicious sits despondently on a bed. 1978.Sunday People/Mirrorpix/Getty Images 40 of 44Vicious arrives with his mother at Manhattan Criminal Court for the trial of the murder of Nancy Spungen, Oct. 18, 1978. Michael Brennan/Getty Images 41 of 44Vicious, pictured here with his mother, pleaded innocent to an indictment charging him with murder and “depraved indifference to human life” in the stabbing death of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. He was released on $50,000 bail. Willie Anderson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images 42 of 44A fan’s jacket shown after the death of Sid Vicious. 1980.Francois Lehr/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images 43 of 44A painting at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in memorial of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen’s infamous stay at the hotel’s room 100. 2011.Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images 44 of 44Like this gallery?Share it:

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Meet Sid Vicious, Punk Rock’s Ultimate Bad Boy, Addict, And Possible Murderer View Gallery

The virtual embodiment of 70s hardcore punk was a skinny English kid named John Ritchie, better known to the general public as Sid Vicious. Almost completely comprised of attitude, alcohol, and a trademark sneer, Vicious did his best to live up to his moniker. In a more perfect world, his claim to fame would be as the former bassist and sometime vocalist for the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.

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Meet Bobby Beausoleil: The Haight-Ashbury Hippie Who Became A Manson Family Murderer

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1 of 44Sid Vicious, bassist and vocalist with punk rock band the Sex Pistols, injects himself with heroin. Circa 1978. Sunday People/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

2 of 44Sid Vicious in a hotel room. January 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

3 of 44Sid Vicious and girlfriend Nancy Spungen backstage at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, U.K. August 1978. Aubrey Hart/Evening Standard/Getty Images

4 of 44Spungen, Vicious, and Lemmy from Motörhead. Kerstin Rodgers/Redferns

5 of 44The Sex Pistols from left: vocalist Johnny Rotten, drummer Paul Cook, bass guitarist Sid Vicious, and guitarist Steve Jones.John Mead/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

6 of 44The bassist poses on the street in 1977. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

7 of 44The Sex Pistols performing live onstage at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub in San Antonio in 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

8 of 44Vicious and Spungen circa 1978 in New York City. Allan Tannenbaum/IMAGES/Getty Images

9 of 44Sid Vicious performing live onstage at Baton Rouge’s Kingfisher Club, Louisiana. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

10 of 44The band posing for a group shot. Virginia Turbett/Redferns

11 of 44Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen backstage at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, U.K. 1978.Aubrey Hart/Evening Standard/Getty Images

12 of 44The Sex Pistols in Holland.Mirrorpix via Getty Images

13 of 44Vicious with his mother, Anne Beverley, in 1978. Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

14 of 44Sid Vicious poses with two fans. Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

15 of 44Vicious posed on bed in a hotel room. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

16 of 44Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen outside Marylebone Magistrates Court in London. 1978. Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

17 of 44Sid drinks at a hotel. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

18 of 44Sid celebrating a new recording deal with A&M Records outside Buckingham Palace. March 1977. Bill Rowntree/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

19 of 44Sid with Sex Pistol’s manager Malcolm McLaren outside Buckingham Palace, London. March 1977. Graham Wood/Evening Standard/Getty Images

20 of 44Vicious performing live at Baton Rouge’s Kingfisher Club in Louisiana on his final tour. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

21 of 44Performing live onstage at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub, San Antonio, on final tour. (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

22 of 44Performing live onstage at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub, San Antonio, on final tour. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

23 of 44Vicious during a Sex Pistols concert in Dallas, Texas where his nose is bloodied after being punched by a fan. Philip Gould/Corbis via Getty Images

24 of 44Vicious and Steve Jones in a hotel room, 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

25 of 44Vicious and the Sex Pistols at the Longhorn Ballroom, 1978.Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

26 of 44The band during one of their many hotel debaucheries. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

27 of 44Sid Vicious and Paul Cook goof off. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

28 of 44Sid Vicious with trousers down on his final tour. Roberta Bayley/Redferns

29 of 44Sid Vicious shops for clothes while on tour in Eindhoven, Holland. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

30 of 44Vicious and crew perform their last concert in Winterland on Jan. 14, 1978 in San Francisco, California. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

31 of 44Sid Vicious performing circa 1978 in New York City. Allan Tannenbaum/IMAGES/Getty Images

32 of 44Vicious having a drink on the set of the Pretty Vacant video shoot. Virginia Turbett/Redferns

33 of 44The Sex Pistols play at Randy’s Rodeo Nightclub, in San Antonio, 1978. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

34 of 44Vicious signs an autograph. Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

35 of 44Sid’s handwritten list of things he loves about Nancy Spungen. Hard Rock/Lists of Note

36 of 44Vicious being escorted out of the Chelsea Hotel by cops after Nancy Spungen was found dead in their hotel room. Mary McLoughlin/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images

37 of 44Vicious under arrest in New York City, circa 1978. Allan Tannenbaum/IMAGES/Getty Images

38 of 44Sid Vicious poses for a mugshot after being arrested by New York City police for allegedly murdering Nancy Spungen. Dec. 8, 1978 in New York City, New York. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

39 of 44Vicious sits despondently on a bed. 1978.Sunday People/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

40 of 44Vicious arrives with his mother at Manhattan Criminal Court for the trial of the murder of Nancy Spungen, Oct. 18, 1978. Michael Brennan/Getty Images

41 of 44Vicious, pictured here with his mother, pleaded innocent to an indictment charging him with murder and “depraved indifference to human life” in the stabbing death of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. He was released on $50,000 bail. Willie Anderson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

42 of 44A fan’s jacket shown after the death of Sid Vicious. 1980.Francois Lehr/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

43 of 44A painting at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in memorial of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen’s infamous stay at the hotel’s room 100. 2011.Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

44 of 44Like this gallery?Share it:

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Meet Sid Vicious, Punk Rock’s Ultimate Bad Boy, Addict, And Possible Murderer View Gallery

Meet Sid Vicious, Punk Rock’s Ultimate Bad Boy, Addict, And Possible Murderer

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But in reality, Sid Vicious is known for being a troubled heroin addict and possible murderer of his girlfriend and career partner, Nancy Spungen.

Sid Vicious’ Early Years In London

John Simon Ritchie was born in Lewisham, England in 1957. His mother Anne joined the Royal Air Force after dropping out of high school while his father John was a guardsman at Buckingham Palace by day and a jazz musician by night.

The couple did not stay together and Anne later married Christopher Beverley in Spain in 1965. Ritchie took his father’s first name and stepfather’s surname and was henceforth known as John Beverley. That is until he was assigned the name of Sid Vicious.

When his stepfather died six months later, Anne allegedly used a toddler Ritchie as a drug mule to stash blocks of hash in his pants to sell on trips back and forth to England. Drugs would hold a recurring role in Sid Vicious’ life.

He later attended Hackney Technical College and met future bandmate John Lydon there. Lydon described Ritchie as a David Bowie fan and “clothes hound.” The famous moniker came after Lydon’s pet hamster, Sid, bit Ritchie eliciting a response from Ritchie that “Sid is really vicious!”

Hence, John Ritchie’s punk alter-ego was cemented from an aggressive hamster.

The pair began to perform music in the streets, albeit so poorly that people gave them money to quit playing and “go somewhere else.”

In another, pre-Sex Pistols notable occurrence, Vicious almost married a young Chrissie Hynde. The Pre-Pretenders Hynde needed an English work permit and the pair knew each other from hanging out at Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s clothing store. However, it never came to be. Vicious was in court himself for an assault charge on the day the marriage was scheduled.

Vicious also played drums for Siouxsie and the Banshees at their first gig at London’s 100 Club Punk Festival in 1976. But his true claim to fame was still in the making.

Sid Vicious And The Sex Pistols

While Sid was banging around London in and out of bands and in and out of therapy for suicidal thoughts, clothier and band manager Malcolm McLaren founded the Sex Pistols. Lydon, who was known also as Johnny Rotten, was the frontman alongside guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and bassist Glen Matlock. Vicious allegedly attended every one of his friend’s gigs and so when Matlock was out, Vicious was simply put in. The rest is punk history.

There was one hitch, however. Vicious could not play the bass to save his life. Or could he?

“Could Sid play bass? I don’t know,” mused The Clash founder Keith Levene.

Whatever his musical ability, his bandmates allegedly unplugged his amp on occasion. Other times, he performed live shows with a broken instrument. He doesn’t even play on the Pistol’s landmark album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. Guitarist Steve Jones played bass in the studio, as Vicious was hospitalized for hepatitis at the time.

While Sid Vicious had a reputation for doing very ill-advised activities like shooting up speed mixed with vomit and toilet water, close friends knew a different person.

“He had a brilliant sense of humor, goofy, sweet,” recalled musician Steve Severin. Others have similar tales of the “style-conscious Bowie-Boy.”

Vicious’s tenure with the group was relatively short-lived. Things fell apart during the band’s first and only U.S. tour in 1978 as his heroin habit only grew. He also engaged in some violent antics with fans, like hitting one over the head with his bass. He decided instead to embark on a solo career with a new manager; an important figure who was already in his life.

Enter Nancy Spungen

In 1975, a 17-year-old college dropout from Philadelphia named Nancy Spungen migrated to New York City.

She was accompanied by her own troubled past and was a different kind of groupie and according to photographer Eileen Polk:

However, Spungen’s crass and combative behavior didn’t win her many true friends. Over the course of a couple of years, the only people who still fraternized with her were the musicians who scored drugs from her. There was also, of course, Sid Vicious.

Sid and Nancy were inseparable from the time they met in 1977. The rest of the Sex Pistols disliked her immensely and effectively banned her from their final tour. But after the fateful disbanding, Sid and Nancy holed up in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City where they prepared for Sid’s solo career with Nancy acting as his manager.

Though Nancy’s reputation preceded her, she likely also suffered from schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. She was troubled from birth, having even once attacked her mother with a hammer.

“Our morality meant zero to her. She would simply step over the line, draw a new one, and then step over that,” her mother wrote. Spungen consequently bounced from mental hospitals to boarding schools before landing in the Big Apple in search of whatever it was that she was looking for.

Inside Room 100 Of The Chelsea Hotel

On October 12, 1978, Nancy Spungen was found dead on the bathroom floor of room 100 she shared with Sid Vicious in the Chelsea Hotel.

The cause: internal bleeding due to a knife wound in her lower abdomen. Vicious allegedly found her and called down to the front desk for help. “Vicious, who was found wandering the hallways in an agitated state, was arrested and charged with her murder,” The Independent reported. “Though he initially confessed to the crime, he later denied it, claiming he had been asleep when she died.”

“I did it,” he told the police, “because I’m a dirty dog.” This tongue-in-cheek confession remained the nail in the coffin for those who believe he actually had murdered Nancy. However, Sid Vicious gave many conflicting statements on what happened that night.

Theories continued to swirl about a possible botched double-suicide, the kind of thing that sounds like a good idea while high on Dilaudid and barbituates. Witnesses claimed that Vicious ingested almost 30 tablets of Tuinal the evening prior — enough to keep someone unconscious for hours.

How could Sid murder anyone in this state? Is it possible one of the many people coming in and out of Room 100 that night was actually guilty of the stabbing?

This is the basis of the theory that Rockets Redglare, the drug dealer who supplied Nancy with opiates that night, stabbed Spungen when she caught him stealing cash and is what Phil Strongman, author of Pretty Vacant: A History of U.K. Punk, believes.

“Rockets Redglare casually admitted to several fellow drinkers that it was actually he who’d robbed and stabbed Nancy Spungen – and produced a handful of her blood-stained dollars to prove it,” he writes.

There are others still that believe Nancy stabbed herself.

Sid Vicious Spirals In The Aftermath Of Tragedy

Sid Vicious was released on $25,000 bail after it was paid for by Virgin Records. He attempted suicide ten days after Nancy’s death by cutting his wrists with shards of a broken light bulb. At Bellevue Hospital in New York City, he tried to jump out of a window shouting, “I want to be with my Nancy”, but the hospital staff managed to stop him.

After his release from Bellevue, Vicious found himself with another assault charge and his bail revoked. He spent 55 days in prison undergoing enforced detoxification until Feb. 1, 1979, when he made bail again with funds raised by Malcolm McLaren.

To celebrate this release, Vicious’s friends and mother gathered for a party at the Greenwich Village apartment of his new girlfriend, Michelle Robinson. According to reports, the small party made spaghetti and Vicious had a few beers.

But this is also where things get a bit fuzzy. Vicious managed to score heroin that was deemed 80 percent pure. He subsequently overdosed, either on accident or on purpose, and it was either on this batch of heroin or on another dose allegedly administered by his own mother.

Sometime in the early morning of February 2, 1979, Sid Vicious died. He never stood trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen.

What If?

Anne Beverley maintained her son’s innocence. Reports say she’d found a note in Sid’s pocket after Nancy’s murder that hinted at the suicide pact theory.

“The word was that he and Nancy had made a pact, but who knows?” said friend Eileen Polk. “Nancy’s murder was never thoroughly investigated. There were a lot of dangerous people hanging around them both back then. If he hadn’t died and the case went to trial he may well have been acquitted”.

After learning about the tragic life of Sid Vicious, check out these photos from punk’s heyday in New York City at CBGB. Then, read up on the poop-eating rocker GG Allin.

Sid Vicious was the infamously troubled bassist for the Sex Pistols. But was he really a killer?#

Sid Vicious’ Early Years In London#

Sid Vicious And The Sex Pistols#

Enter Nancy Spungen#

Inside Room 100 Of The Chelsea Hotel#

Sid Vicious Spirals In The Aftermath Of Tragedy#

What If?#

Sid Vicious was the infamously troubled bassist for the Sex Pistols. But was he really a killer?

Sid Vicious’ Early Years In London

Sid Vicious And The Sex Pistols

Enter Nancy Spungen

Inside Room 100 Of The Chelsea Hotel

Sid Vicious Spirals In The Aftermath Of Tragedy

What If?