Chelsea Hotel and the Nancy Spungen case

The Hotel Chelsea at 222 West 23rd Street has long housed artists, writers, and musicians and accumulated many macabre and unusual stories over decades of occupancy. On October 12, 1978, Nancy Spungen was found dead of a single stab wound in room 100 of the Chelsea; her boyfriend, musician Sid Vicious, was arrested and charged in connection with her death but died before any trial. The hotel's history of violent and tragic incidents has contributed to its reputation for strange and dark stories in popular accounts. Such reputational stories are part of the building's cultural history but vary in detail across sources.