Nancy Spungen
February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978
Nancy Spungen was just 17 when she left her Southeast Pennsylvania home for New York City to follow her true passion, punk rock. She quickly became immersed in the city’s growing underground scene, gravitating toward bands like the New York Dolls, the Heartbreakers, and the Ramones. Two years later, she moved to London where she met the Sex Pistols. After reportedly being rejected by the band’s singer, Johhny Rotten, Spungen set her sites on bassist,Sid Vicious. Over the course of the next two years, there relationship and lives spriraled out of control due to increasing dependence on heroin and other drugs. Accounts differ as to which initially dragged the other along for the ride. The last couple of months of their lives together were apparently marred by incidents of domestic violence. On October 12, 1978, 20-year-old Nancy Spungen died from a single stab wound to her abdomen in the Chelsea Hotel room she shared with Vicious. Vicious was immediately arrested for the murder. While some of his own comments seemed to implicate him, there are other valid theories as to what happened, including her being killed in a botched robbery while Vicious was in a drug stupor. Adding to the mystery, Vicious died of what is believed to have been an intentional overdose just prior to when he was to stand trial for the murder. His suicide note indicated that they had made a death pact but did not implicate him in her killing.
Sable Starr (Born Sable Shields)
1958(?) – April 17, 2009
Following in the tradition of Miss Pamela, Sweet Sweet Connie and Cynthia Plaster Caster, Sable Starr loved rock music and at times the rock musicians that moved her. She ruled ’70s Los Angeles and no doubt left many a-broken heart in her wake. Some may refer to her as a “groupie” but Starr transcended that by being part of a select club who have been memorialized in song. Iggy Pop’s “Look Away,” written about Johnny Thunders’ releationship with Starr includes the lines, “I slept wlth Sable when she was 13 / Her parents were too rich to do anything / She rocked her way around L.A. / ‘Til a New York doll carried her away / Look away Look away.” By the time Sable was in her early teens, she was holding court in Hollywood’s hippest spots, from Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco to the Whiskey a Go-Go; from the Rainbow to the Sunset Hyatt. She befriended the likes of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, David Bowie and Johnny Thunders with whom she moved to New York around 1973. What she thought was to be a long life with Thunders quickly fell apart mostly due to his escalating drug use. Their relationship ended with her slitting her wrist and being brought to Bellevue. She was soon living back with her parents in Los Angeles. She eventually dropped out of the scene, went back to school and lived a mostly “normal” life. In later years, Starr moved to Las Vegas and worked as a dealer at a casino. She died of cancer on April 17, 2009 at the age of 51.
Nancy Spungen was just 17 when she left her Southeast Pennsylvania home for New York City to follow her true passion, punk rock. She quickly became immersed in the city’s growing underground scene, gravitating toward bands like the New York Dolls, the Heartbreakers, and the Ramones. Two years later, she moved to London where she met the Sex Pistols. After reportedly being rejected by the band’s singer, Johhny Rotten, Spungen set her sites on bassist, Sid Vicious. Over the course of the next two years, there relationship and lives spriraled out of control due to increasing dependence on heroin and other drugs. Accounts differ as to which initially dragged the other along for the ride. The last couple of months of their lives together were apparently marred by incidents of domestic violence. On October 12, 1978, 20-year-old Nancy Spungen died from a single stab wound to her abdomen in the Chelsea Hotel room she shared with Vicious. Vicious was immediately arrested for the murder. While some of his own comments seemed to implicate him, there are other valid theories as to what happened, including her being killed in a botched robbery while Vicious was in a drug stupor. Adding to the mystery, Vicious died of what is believed to have been an intentional overdose just prior to when he was to stand trial for the murder. His suicide note indicated that they had made a death pact but did not implicate him in her killing.
