The People v. Sid Vicious

In 1978, punk rock vocalist Sid Vicious stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen to death. A copy of Vicious’ confession to New York police, titled; Voluntary Disclosure Sheet Supplement: People v. Ritchie aka Vicious, describes in detail the events as Vicious recalled them. Almost every line in this poem was taken directly from Vicious’ confession, with very little deviation. The poem, like the confession, is a lie, that is also the truth.

He wished they would shoot him or kill him.

I don’t know what happened…


To the first police officer he said,

– I discovered her at 10:30am.

I don’t know what happened…


To the second police officer he said,

– I am Sid.

I don’t know what happened…


To the detective he pointed and said,

– That is Nancy.

I don’t know what happened…


Nancy was in the bed when he fell into a barbiturate sleep at 1am.


To Sid, the detective said,

– Can you put your hands out.

I don’t know what happened…


Nancy was not in the bed when he woke up at 10:30am.

I don’t know what happened…


Nancy was in the bathroom when the first police officer came to the room.

I don’t know what happened…


Nancy was still in the bathroom when the second police officer came to the room.

I don’t know what happened…


Nancy was still in the bathroom when the detective came to the room.  

I don’t know what happened…


The bed was wet with blood.


To the first police officer he said,

– Nancy was sitting on the edge of the bed, flicking a switchblade.

I don’t know what happened…


To the second police officer he said,

– I thought I’d pee’d the bed.

I don’t know what happened…


To the detective he said,

– Nancy must have gone to the bathroom after I fell asleep.

I don’t know what happened…


Nancy was covered in blood.


To the first police officer he said,

– My baby is dead.

I don’t know what happened…


To the second police officer he said,

– My baby is dead.

I don’t know what happened…


To the detective he said,

– My baby is dead.

I don’t know what happened…

.

.

.

He had washed off the switchblade.

He had tried to wash off the blood from Nancy.

He had slept like a baby, the entire night.


To the first police officer he said,

– My baby is dead, my baby is dead, my baby is dead.

I don’t know what happened…


To the second police officer he said,

– I tried to buy her some methadone, from Lafayette Street.

I don’t know what happened…


To the detective he said,

– She was still breathing when I left.

I don’t know what happened…


He and Nancy had argued.

He could not remember what the argument was about.

He could not remember hitting her on the head.


To the first police officer he said,

– She must have dragged herself to the bathroom.

I don’t know what happened…


To the second police officer he said,

– She treated me like shit.

I don’t know what happened…


To the detective he said,

– I stabbed her but I didn’t mean to kill her.

I don’t know what happened…


To Sid, the detective said,

– You’ll have to come with us.

I don’t know what happened…


To Nancy’s dead body he said,

– I am a dog, I am a dog, I am a dog, and I don’t know what happened.

Lee Wright is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, whose short stories, articles and poetry has been published widely. He is also in the final year of an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.

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