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Sid Vicious: Love Kills... Even a Mother's Love? · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Sid Vicious from the sex Pistols are hard to believe.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: He had a loving mum who regularly injected him with drugs.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: He was the bass player and the most infamous punk
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: band in the world, yet he couldn't play bass. He
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: stabbed a woman in her belly, left her to bleed
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: out on the floor of the infamous Chelsea Hotel, to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: die in front of him, and that woman was the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: love of his life. Sid Vicious was born John Simon,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: ritchie tune, out of work, single hippie mum who used
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: her son as both a drug mule and a source
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of affection. As a result, Sid grew up into an
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in secure, attention starved, drug dependent punk, incapable of having
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: normal relationships with women, and utterly inept at dealing with
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: life's traumas. He was also a full blown drug addict.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: He would inject whatever drugs you put in front of him, heroin, speed, coke,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: crushed up tranquilizers. It didn't matter. Sid would shoot it,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: all of it. He had no governor, no sense of
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: enough being enough. But despite all of this, his band,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: The sex Pistols made great music. The music you heard
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called Jazz
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Fox Piano MK. Two. I played you that loop because
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the license for the freak by Chic.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Velvet Rope Disco Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on February first,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, And that was the day that Sid
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Vicious's mom bailed him out of Riker's Island prison, kicking
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: into motion what would become the last day of the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: young rock star's life. Did he overdose, commit suicide or
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: was this something more nefarious like a fatal hotshot delivered
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: from his mom? On this episode Jazz Fox Piano, Itty
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Bitty Drug Mules, Velvet Rope Cheese, Sid Vicious and Hotshots.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceline and says you
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: are now entering Rikers Island, New York City prison complex.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: But it might as well say you are going to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: dive from dope sickness, because that's what was going through
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Sid Vicius's mind. As he was busted into the infamous
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: prison sentenced for violating his parole. After eight foggy weeks
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of freedom, a court trial was hanging over his head,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and from all accounts, he wasn't even sure if he
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: was guilty or not the charge murdering the love of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: his life, Nancy Sponging. As a new prisoner to Rikers,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: you're stored in a cramped holding cell with the other
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: new arrivals. It makes no difference if you're black or white,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: or a gangster or a suit, whether you're a dope
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: fiend or mentally ill, you get no special treatment, not
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: even if you're a rock star. The holding cell is
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: stuffed with inmates and there is zero privacy. There are
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: two long benches, but not long enough for all of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the inmates to sit. The other option is the disgusting floor,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a sticky mix of dirt, blood, spit, piss, cigarette ash,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and feces. The smell is overwhelming. It's all of that
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: mixed with the odor of one thousand and third world
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: nation bazaars. If you're lucky, the screws sort you out
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in a couple hours and you're out of that hell
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: hole and off to fresh horrors like the open dorm
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: you'll be living in until you make bail or go
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: to trial. This is a different kind of hell, and
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: this is where Sid would work out his dope sickness
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: in open, sweating it out next to sixty four other inmates.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: No partitions, just a cot without barriers to fend off
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the hustlers and the rapists. Prison is no place for
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the pretty, and despite the thousand yard junkie stare, the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: acne in the butch haircut, Sid Vicious, with his high
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: cheek bones and lanky demeanor, was indeed pretty. Anne famous
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: a tough burden to carry in Riker's, where rape is
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: as certain as the shitty food. But being raped wasn't
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the worst of Sid's problems. No access to heroin was
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: higher on the oh shit list. Sid needed to get
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: out and fast, But that was nineteen seventy nine, before
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Sid's fall from grace. When those who knew Sid Vicious
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: speak of his downfall, they usually point to one of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: two women, his girlfriend, Nancy Spongeen or his mom Anne Beverly.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Nancy was more maternal than a girlfriend should be, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Anne was more affectionately dependent than a mother should be.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: His sex Pistols bandmate Johnny Rotten said that Sid was
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: quote fucked from the beginning. Johnny was right. Sid was
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: suspected of killing one of these women and the other
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: woman is suspected of killing him, but Sid loved them
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: both and love kills. Left to raise Sid on her
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: own after his dad split, Anne Beverly became a registered
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: heroin addict. She took up the habit in order to
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: obtain free housing for her and her son from the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: UK's welfare system. To make ends meet, she would deal
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: on the side and wasn't averse to getting her young
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: son in on the action, sticking a brick of hash
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: down Sid's pants to sneak through customs after a trip
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: to Abiza, and on Sid's sweet sixteen she gave him
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a little bag of smack and a couple of needles.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Johnny Rotten was right. Sid never had a chance, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: if Anne Beverly's horrible maternal influence on young Sid Vicious
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough by his twentieth birthday, Nancy Spongeon would be
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: bulleting down the double barrel of didn't see an affection
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: straight towards Sid, who was dead set in her crosshairs.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Nancy Spongeen was the alpha dog of seventies groupies. She
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: was an American heat seeking missile of a woman who
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: kept time with members of Arrowsmith and the Ramones. Her
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: only ambition to live fast and fuck rock stars Sid
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was planned C. Plan B was Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: who wasn't interested, and Plan A was Jerry Nolan from
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the New York Dolls. So on early March of nineteen
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: seventy seven, a few days after her nineteenth birthday, Nancy
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: arrived in London hot on the heels of Jerry Nolan,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: but Nolan smartly gave her the slip. Nancy wasn't one
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to waste an opportunity. England's newest hit makers, the sex Pistols,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: were making waves in the clubs and on the charts. Nancy,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: rejected by Nolan and Johnny Rotten, quickly moved onto the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: pistols newly minted bassist Sid Vicious, a decision she based
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: on his looks, his attitude, and his punk rock cred,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: not his talent. Sid was hired into the sex Pistols
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: for the exact same reasons, for everything but his bass chops.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: By any measure of musicianship. He could barely play his instrument.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Nancy didn't care. He was tabloid famous and punk rock skinny.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Sid and Nancy hit it off immediately. They had a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: lot in common. She was needy, He was vulnerable his
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: rock star status aside. Sid was fragile, damaged, no doubt
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: by being brought up by a needy junkie mum who
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: introduced him to drug culture at a super young age.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: That fragility remained into Sid's young adulthood when he met Nancy.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Despite the caricature as they would become, it's important to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: remember that the couple really loved one another. Sure, Sid
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: was punk as fuck on and off stage, but given
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: a choice, he'd rather sit around at his underwear with Nancy,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: eat cheerios, get high, and watch cartoons. And Nancy, for
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: her part, train wreck that she was, really did care
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: for Sid. She looked after him, making sure he didn't
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: shoot too much dope. She minded his career the best
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: she could, and in general couldn't stand being away from him.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But both craved attention, and both had a taste for violence,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: violence aimed at both themselves and others, cutting themselves out
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of boredom and quick to enter into public spats physically,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: usually for show rather than for any real slight and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the drugs made it all the more intense. Sid and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Nancy are often cast as a punk rock version of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Romeo and Juliet star across lovers living fast in leather,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: dying young, and leaving behind good looking corpses. But we're
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: only one of Shakespeare's archetypal lovers wilfully ingested poison. That
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: one time. Sid and Nancy spent years pumping themselves full
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of chemicals that should have killed them time and time again.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Nancy began shooting up while still in high school, and
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: though Sid had flirted with the stuff before we met her,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: thanks to dear old Mom, from the moment they began
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: their relationship to the bloodied end nineteen months later smacks
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the glue them together, though many forces would try to
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: pull them apart. But through it all, Nancy loved Sid
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and Sid loved Nancy, and love love kills Sid's friend
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Motorhead frontman let Me Killmeisters set of Sid's relationship with Nancy.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: After Nancy got ahold of him, he was over. Others
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: thought the same. Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren felt so
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: strongly about it that he tried, unsuccessfully to have Nancy
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: run over with a car. He also tried to kidnap
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: her and put her on a plane back to New York.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: One of the chief reasons he sent the Pistols on
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: tour to America in nineteen seventy eight was to get
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Sid away from Nancy and away from Heroin. While on
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: tour and without a regular dope supply from his junkie girlfriend, Sid,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: during a moment of desperation, carved gimme a fix on
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: his chest with a knife. Beyond the self inflicted cutting,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the tour was a mess. The sex Pistols, a band
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: with day glow hair and funny accents who spit on
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: their audience and played a loud, fast and obnoxious new
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: form of rock and roll called punk, went over like
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: a bomb of clubs across the American South. Chaos ensued,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and they made headlines everywhere. The pressure of it all
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: was too much, so the Sex Pistols quickly disbanded and
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Sid high tailed it back to London to be with Nancy,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: where they were able to devote all of their energy
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and all of the money Sid made on the road
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: definding and doing heroin. Sid's solo career was now a priority,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: second to shooting dope, but still a priority. So when
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a drug induced flash of inspiration, it was decided Nancy
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: would be Sid's manager. There's a lot of footage of
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the couple during this time, sitting around in their underwear,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: nodding off, making out. As artist manager relationships go, it's
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: highly unusual, but for a couple of full blown junkies
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: it's standard fair. But Sid didn't lack for female attention.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: His mum was always around. She'd come by their flat
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: delivering care packages of jujubes and syringes. As mother son
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: relationships go, this too was highly unusual, but again for
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: full blown junkies, standard fair. However, London was becoming a drag.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was the lack of excitement now that the
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Pistols were broken up, Maybe it was the junkie who
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: turned up dead on their apartment floor, or maybe from
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Nancy's perspective, it was the smothering presence of Sid's overly
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: affectionate and increasingly dependent mum. Whatever the reason, Sid's solo
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: career needed tending to, and the States seemed like the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: place to be. Sid and Nancy took off from Manhattan
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the West Side to be precise the Chelsea Hotel in
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight. The Chelsea Hotel was already legend. It's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: where Andy Warhol shot Chelsea Girls. Bob Dylan wrote much
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: of Blonde on Blonde. Then Leonard Cohen wrote Chelsea Hotel
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Number Two about the time he ran Janice Joplin in
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the elevator and woke up in bed with her. It's
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: where Sam Shepard convinced Patti Smith he was single and
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a drummer in a punk band, so that she would
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: sleep with him. Chelsea Guitars was down the block, Mothers
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: was across the street, Lou Reed lived around the corner,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and Max's Kansas City was just a short cab ride away. Yeah.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: For Sid and Nancy in nineteen seventy eight, the Chelsea
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Hotel was the place to be. Plus, the Chelsea's first
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: floor was the Junkies floor, and that's where Sid and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Nancy lived in Room one hundred, and that's where Nancy
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Sponging would die. Heroin could be procured easily. Getting ahead
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: in the music industry is tough stuff, and getting ahead
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: in the music industry without two gramma day habit in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a motel tan is a bit brutal, so having a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: dependable supply nearby was clutch. Nancy quickly began to make
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: strides managing sin. By September of seventy eight, she had
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a string of high paying East Coast gigs lined up
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: at three to four grand a pop. His solo band
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: was Hot Shit, Mick Jones from The Clash was on guitar,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and the New York Dolls rhythm section was enlisted, which
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: meant Nancy's former obsession, Jerry Nolan, would be along for
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the ride. Sid didn't mind, though he and Nancy had
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: a different kind of love by now. It was post sexual,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: more maternal than on Fuego. Jealousy didn't enter into the equation.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Sex was boring, Heroin was god. Music was a means
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to an end, cash for much needed dope. Jerry Nolan
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: could come along, What did sidcare. At the end of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the night, he'd be the one not out at Nancy's
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: side no matter what the gigs paid off. Nancy was flush,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: but scoring heroin was getting harder. Finding good dope in
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: New York wasn't always easy. Sometimes you had ahead uptown
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: in a more dangerous, less known territory and deal with
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: really sketchy attics along the way. I mean, what could
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you do. You couldn't complain to your regular dealer that
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: his shit was well shit, You were likely to get cut.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: It was better to bite your tongue and take your
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: business elsewhere. Nancy Loved said the last thing she wanted
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: was for him to get stabbed scoring dope, So on
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: October tenth, nineteen seventy eight, she bought him a Jaguar
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: K eleven knife for protection. It had a five inch
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: blade that would end up in her stomach within a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: number of hours. We'll be right back after this word
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: word word. There was no dramatic precursor to Nancy's murder,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: relatively speaking, anyways. There was no fight, no breakdown, nothing
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: hinting at premeditation. Sid and Nancy were in love, their
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: own version of love, for sure, but love nonetheless, and
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: they needed each other like a needle needs a spoon.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: With Nancy minding Sid's career, there was at least some
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: sort of professional horizon to look out onto after waking
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: up from dope binges, and despite the current state of
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: available heroine mister and missus two Stone to Fuck were
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: at the time settled into their own routine, their own
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: version of domestic bliss, so like any other normal couple
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: in the throws of love, they decided to throw a
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: party in the room at the Chelsea. Except Sid and
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Nancy weren't a normal couple, and this was the Chelsea Hotel.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Friends shuffled in and out. The main point of their
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: presence was so Nancy could score drugs. She and Sid
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: were hurting and on the verge of dope'sickness. Nancy had
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: called everyone looking for smack, no dice. The best she
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: could do was convince her friend Rocket's Red Glare to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: come by with some synthetic morphine. The scene was dark.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Unable to score dope, Sid had down thirty two dollars
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and couldn't move. Nancy kept the guests coming in, friends
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: with drugs, despair, and a few dealers, but nobody had
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: any smack. The party broke up, Sid roamed the halls
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: looking for a fix. Nothing. Back to the room, he
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and Nancy were alone. The pain was all consuming. The
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: pills and booze outed a haze but did little to
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: numb the hurt. Sid felt it the worst. They tried
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: soothing each other on their bed. They were a tangled,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: chunky mess in each other's arms, taking turns moaning and agony,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and in between barely audible mumbles, Sid faded in and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: out of consciousness. Their death packed was on their minds,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the one where they promised to kill themselves if the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: other had died, so they could be buried next to
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: each other in their leather jackets, jeans and motorcycle boots.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: The pact would always come up in moments like these,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: when the pain got to be too much, Sid sweated out,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: mumbling incoherently. Nancy jabbered on and on. They should have
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: gone uptown earlier to score when they had the chance.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And where the fuck was Rocket's red glare with those pills.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Jerry Nolan always had dope. This was somehow all that
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: cunt Malcolm McLaren's fault. She wouldn't shut up. Words, words,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: more words. Sid came too. They lie face to face,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: still twisted up in pain. Sid was shirtless, Give me
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a fix, scarred across his chest, black jeans, half inch
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: bike chain, locker room's neck. There was the pain again,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and there was his knife. He'd had it in his
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: pocket or in his hand ever since Nancy he had
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: given the tune the day before. She was jones and hard,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: now sweating and gestured, black panties and broth, near naked,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: talking NonStop. She would not shut up. Kill me now,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: give me a fix, Sleep forever, No more pain. Sid
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: couldn't think straight. Words, just words, more words. Sid did
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: his best, but he understood little beyond the pain, deep
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: agonizing pain. Nancy was pissed. More words. Sid didn't understand.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: The tangle turned to a tussle. There was the knife, pain,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: sharp pain, no more words, silence. When Sid Vicious awoke,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: he found the love of his life, Nancy Sponging, dead
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: on their bathroom floor, her body crammed between the toilet
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and the sink in an upright position. Blood covered her
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: knees and legs. Her knees were perpetually scarred, though we're
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: not the source of the blood. It was the single
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: stab wound in her abdomen, just below her belly button,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: from the five inch blade of Sid's knight. I stabbed her,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: but I didn't mean to kill her, he told police.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: At one point, I loved her, but she treated me
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: like shit. That sounds like a lot of smack. The
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: truth is that love kills You are now exiting Riker's
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Island prison complex is what the sign says. But what
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: you see is a sign that says you are now
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: about to get high as fuck because you just made bail.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Your mom and your friend Peter Kotik are waiting for you.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: They've arranged it. So the first order of business is
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: getting you stoned. Then there will be a party for you.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: And tomorrow you've got to get around to seeing that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: famous lawyer f Lee Bailey that Mick Jagger has been
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: secretly and generously paying for Mick Jagger shit. That's what
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Sid Vicious was likely thinking on the first day of
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: February nineteen seventy nine when he left Riker's Island prison,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the first day of the rest of his life that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: would only last roughly another eighteen hours. In prison for
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: seven weeks, Sid straightened out sobriety cleans the mind. It
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: with clarity. The ghost of Nancy came a knocking. Sid
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: was still reeling from the uncertainty of whether or not
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: he did or didn't kill the love of his life.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Imagine that you wake up dazed from horse tranquilizers and
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: your girlfriend, your solemnly, your best friend, your business manager. Hell,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: let's be real, the only woman who truly mothered you
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: is lying dead on the floor, and you don't think
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you killed her. I mean, why would you depended on her?
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: He needed her, he loved her. When you were upset,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: you'd nurse at her breast. She'd call you baby boy,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and you'd call her mama. Her death and your confusion
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: haunted you. Did you do it? Did you kill her?
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: How could you do it? How could you kill her?
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Though you often said you'd happily die with her, that
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: stuff about the death pact with the two of you
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: had was mostly nonsense, right, something you talked about when
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the dope sickness got to be too painful, wasn't it?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Was it? With Nancy on his mind, Sid was eager
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: to reunite with the other love of his life. His
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: main squeeze heroin the party was small but spirited. His
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: new girlfriend, Miss Mille Robinson, was hosting some friends at
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: her apartment in the village. Peter Kotik, Jerry Only from
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the Misfits, some others, and Sid's mom, who is busy
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: fixing one off for Sid. His first shot of heroin
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: after seven weeks of detox and rikers. Hold up, Let's
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: take a minute to understand what's going on here. Your mother,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: your son was just let out of prison. He's about
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to go on trial for murdering his girlfriend. He's a
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: heroin addict. The only good thing going for him right
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: now is the fact that, in being jailed for the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: last seven weeks, he has kicked his heroin habit. It's
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: out of his system. But you, being mom of the Year,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I think for some reason that it's a good idea
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: to immediately give him heroin. The fuck was Anne Beverly,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Sid's mom thinking Sid didn't care. This wasn't unusual for
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the relationship. She'd been the worst of influences since he
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: was in short pants. But now her shitty parenting wasn't
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the problem. Her shitty dope was. It was bunk. Sid
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: injected it, but nothing. He was furious. Peter Kodok was
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: dispatched to hit the streets to find real dope. Mom fell,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Kodek scored and his dope did the trick. Sid nearly odeed.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: It was strong stuff. His friends revived him, but the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: party died out. Dope addicts know that the first hit
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: after detox can be fatal. The trick is injecting the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: perfect amount, balancing enough to get high, but not enough
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to shock your system to death. That's what happened when
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Sid booted up that first time out of prison. Too
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: much dope, too much good dope to be exact. He
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: wanted more, but was too high to shoot himself up.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: He asked his girlfriend to do it, but uh, She'd
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: seen enough of this junkie Harry Carrie. So Sid's mom,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Anne Beverly, entered the apartment bedroom where her son was
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: brawled out in need of a fix sometime in the
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: early morning hours of February second, nineteen seventy nine. For Sid,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the heroine numbed the pain, the pain of missing Nancy,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the pain of not knowing whether or not he killed her.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: The pain was all consuming. Kill me now he needed more.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: He was too fucked up to inject himself. And that's
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: why Mum was there so much pain, lying alone in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a strange bed thinking of Nancy? Was she there? Was
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: she dead? Was this all a dream? Were they back
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: at the Chelsea? What was happening? Was he gone already?
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Where was he going? In and out of consciousness there
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: then gone, then back with the pain, give me a fix.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: He felt warm hands on his arms, affectionately tying him
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: off and rooting around for a vein. Were they his
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: mother's hands or nan Either way, it was a touch
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: he'd grown to depend on. Then a pinprick. Maybe this
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: dope would do the trick. Maybe it would do with
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the slitting at the wrists. An attempt to jump out
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the window couldn't do end the pain he was drifting.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: This dope was so heavy. Nancy was definitely there with
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: him now, or was it Mom? It had to be Nancy.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: She was always there when the pain gets to be
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: too much. She was holding Sid's head to her bosom,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: rocking him back and forth, gently speaking to him softly, words,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: baby boy, Mama, just words, pain, drifting pain, and then sleep.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Forever Sid was dead. The official cause of death heroin overdose.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: The unofficial cause of death, suicide by heroin the rumored
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: cause of death. Sid's mom gave him a hot shot
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: why it was a maternal act of mercy. In nineteen
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: ninety six, before her own deadly overdose, Anne Beverly supposedly
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: confessed to journalist Alan Parker that she had indeed given
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: her son his final dose of heroin, and accounts from
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: that night aligned with that confession. Anne Beverly was a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: lifelong experienced heroin atict who knew exactly how much dope
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: it would take to kill a person who'd been clean
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: for seven weeks. There is no way she couldn't have known.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: But why exactly? Sid beating the rap for murdering Nancy
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was a long shot. Rikers with its rapists in real
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: punks terrified Sid, so did Nancy's ghost doing twenty plus
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: years was unimaginable. For the fragile rock star. He was suicidal,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: so his mom finally did what am mom is supposed
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: to do. She may not have been able to sufficiently
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: take care of her son while he was alive, but
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: in one final act, she took care of her child
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the only way she knew how, because she loved sick
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: and love love kills. I'm Jake Brennan and miss this Disgraceland.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Thanks for checking out this episode. Hope you guys dug
• 29:36
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• 29:39
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• 29:42
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• 29:46
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• 29:49
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• 30:11
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• 30:19
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