Nancy Spungen

Nancy Spungen
Photograph by Mary Ellen Mark, 1976
Born	Nancy Laura Spungen (1958-02-27)February 27, 1958 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died	October 12, 1978(1978-10-12) (aged 20) New York City, US
Partner(s)	Sid Vicious
Parent(s)	Deborah Spungen Frank Spungen

Nancy Laura Spungen (February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978) was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and a figure of the 1970s punk rock scene. Spungen's life and death have been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.

Raised in Philadelphia, Spungen was an emotionally disturbed child who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 15. After being expelled from college, she went to London at the height of the punk rock craze and became involved with Sid Vicious. Their relationship was punctuated by bouts of domestic violence and drug abuse. The press soon labelled Spungen "Nauseating Nancy" for her shocking behavior. After the Sex Pistols disbanded, the couple moved to New York City and checked into the Hotel Chelsea where they spent their time consuming drugs.

In October 1978, Spungen was found dead in the bathroom of the couple's room, of a single stab wound to the abdomen. Sid Vicious was charged with her murder but died of a heroin overdose while on bail in February 1979, before the case went to trial. Various authors and filmmakers have speculated about Vicious's role in Spungen's death and the possibility that Spungen was killed by a drug dealer who frequently visited their room.

Nancy Laura Spungen was born on Thursday, February 27, 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital to Franklin "Frank" and Deborah Spungen. She was born with severe cyanosis and nearly died of oxygen deprivation after being choked by her umbilical cord during delivery. She appeared to have suffered no brain damage and was released from the hospital eight days after birth. The Spungens were a middle-class Jewish family that resided in Lower Moreland Township, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her father was a traveling salesman and her mother later owned an organic food store called The Earth Shop in nearby Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.