this day in crime history: october 12, 1978

On this date in 1978, 20 year old Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found dead in the bathroom of her room at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. Spungen had been stabbed in the lower abdomen.  The murder weapon was a knife that belonged to Vicious (real name John Simon Ritchie).

Police arrested Vicious, who gave conflicting accounts of what happened.  Some versions pointed to his innocence, others implicated him in the murder.  There were numerous theories as to who else may have killed Nancy, with most theories involving a drug deal gone bad.

The case never went to trial.  On February 2, 1979, while out on bail, Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose.  He was 21 years old at the time.

Further reading:

Find A Grave – Nancy Spungen

Wikipedia – Nancy Spungen

Daily Mail – Did Sid really kill Nancy? Explosive new evidence suggests the punk rocker may have been innocent