NANCY
SPUNGEN By Deborah Spungen. Adapted
for the News Of The World (Dec 4th & 11th 1983), from And I Dont
Want To Live This Life (published by Corgi). A
childhood of tantrums NANCYS problems-and oursbegan the
minute she was born on February 27, 1958. She was jaundiced and needed an immediate
blood transfusion. From the beginning it seemed to us that she screamed and
cried too much. And then there were the tantrumsher little body tensing,
stiffening like a boardand all the while screaming her heart out. She
was just three months old when she was given her first sedative. The
doctor probably thought I was a selfish annoying mother and the drugs would stop
my complaining, Unfortunately It only covered up the real problem. As
a toddler, Nancy was deeply disturbed. She turned her home into a battleground
with her terrifying tantrums. She was four when she saw her first psychiatrist. Raged When
she was 11 she attacked me with a hammer because I wouldnt take her to a
museum. "Take me or Ill kill you. she raged. In
her fury Nancy would smash rooms to pieces. At other times shed just sit
and wail: I want to die. Her
childhood was spent in and out of schools for disturbed children. She
was 13 and at one such school when she first tried drugs. BY
the time she was 15, the daughter I loved was a heroin addict. Drugs gave her
the oblivion she craved. Doctor
after doctor stuck his head in the sand. Each one rejected Nancy after a few months
and told us: Take her somewhere else. It
wasnt until she was 15 that she was diagnosed as schizophrenic. Two
Years later we decided we could cope no longer and she would have to leave
home. Tragic end
to a long ordeal SlD
VICIOUS appeared in court charged with murder in November, 1978. He pleaded not
guiltybut he too was to die before the court would have the chance to decide. It
was just a preliminary hearing and I was dreading the full trial. I knew
what would be said about Nancy. They
called her Nauseating Nancy. The stories of her murder made it sound like she
only got what she deserved like a rape victim wearing a provocative
dress asks far it. In
life she was regarded as a distasteful celebrity, in death, a freak. No
one wanted to know about Nancys pain, her sadness, her sensitivity. I
wanted to run to the highest roof into scream Nancy was my baby! No matter
what she became, she didnt deserve to be treated this way Bullied But
I couldnt fight any more. I ached too much from our tortured life with Nancy. Frank
and I were summoned to the District Attorneys office to meet Allen
Sullivan, who would be prosecuting. He treated us like criminals. For
two hours he threw questions at us about Nancy, her life-style and our relationship
with her. If we didnt know the answers, he pressed us, bullied us, belittled
us. He
even asked us If wed ever been arrested. When we said we hadnt he
made it clear he didnt believe us. Meanwhile
Sid stayed in the news. In the second week of December he was jailed again for
allegedly slashing a mans face with a broken beer bottle. His
former manager Malcolm McLaren, the man who launched the Sex Pistols in Britain,
was quoted as saying: Sid is hell-bent on living up to his image. The
following February Sid was again out on bail. He celebrated with a party in Greenwich
Village on February 1st. About
midnight he decided to shoot up some heroin. It was too much and he died in his
sleep (Feb. 2nd). He was 21 years old. His
death was ruled an accidental overdose. Immediately
she heard the news, Sids mother rang me. She wanted to know if she could
bury Sid next to Nancy. I was too shocked to say anything other than No. But
with Sids death I realised the nightmare was over. Thered be no trial
and wed be left alone. We
moved house. I wanted rooms Nancy had never lived in, chairs shed never
sat in. And when
wed done that I could finally cryuncontrollable torrents of grief
for my baby. Since
then Frank and I have set up a fund to raise cash for other children addicted
to drugs. Its
too late for my Nancy, but for the others - and for the parents who blame themselvesthere
is hope. With my book I wanted to tell them that. Researched
and compiled by Phil Singleton.
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