Final 24

February the 1st, 1979.

Punk hardman, Sid Vicious wakes up

in a New York jail, charged with murder.

But in spite of the charge, he'll soon be a free man.

- He was released into the custody of his mother,

who then, what, goes out and buys drugs for her son.

- He was trying on clothes, playing air guitar,

jumping around.

- Both hands were just dripping with blood.

- Both hands were just dripping with blood.

He wanted her to inject into him,

and she said no, she wouldn't do that.

- In 24 hours, Sid Vicious will be dead

from a fatal overdose of heroine.

I was part and parcel of supplying him

with something which probably was

responsible for killing him off.

February the 1st, 1979.

Sid Vicious is held at the Reikers Island

Detention Center, just across from Manhattan, New York.

This is the beginning of his last 24 hours alive.

For Sid, this is a living nightmare.

He's charged with murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen,

He's charged with murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen,

but has no recollection of the attack.

He'd been out of his mind on drugs,

but all he remembers is that when he woke up,

Nancy was dead.

Now one thought terrorizes him,

did he do it?

For 55 days, Sid, a heroine addict

has gone through the agony of withdrawal.

On top of all this, he's been

subjected to humiliating attacks.

He apparently was raped, he was abused,

he was beaten up.

Everything that is your worst nightmare

that would happen to you in prison.

I mean, how could anybody cope with that?

- At dawn, Sid is woken and taken from his cell.

He's hoping the nightmare is over,

and that he'll never have to return to prison.

His lawyers believe they can beat the murder charge

and later today they'll make their case

to get him out on bail.

Sid's hearing is scheduled for noon.

I was dealing with a 21-year-old kid,

you know, transplanted from the UK to the United States,

in a big problem.

- As Sid leaves Reikers Island behind him,

the clock is ticking on his final day.

Step back three years to London, 1976.

It's the summer that Britain found punk.

- It was a fashion thing, it was a music thing,

and I just think that everybody just locked

onto the same vibe at the same time.

I think that's what it was all about,

that's what punk was,

and I don't really think...

I mean, OK, we had a dwarf, there was hell, you know.

Yes, there was a lot of gay guys there, yes, there were a

few sort of like lesbians, yes, there were some hookers.

It was this whole mix.

But that was London at the time.

I mean, you know, this was what was going on.

I mean, you know, this was what was going on.

Everyone was young, we were all doing really strange things.

It was very outrageous for that time,

I mean we really pissed a lot of people off,

just because of the way we looked.

- Back then, Sid Vicious was a shy 19-year-old,

called John Simon Ritchie.

- He looked more like a sort of James Dean character.

He had that slicked back hair,

big, sort of studded wrist band.

Sid had this shy, little boy, lost, um...

childlike quality I think he had about him.

childlike quality I think he had about him.

Ritchie was drawn to

the emerging punk scene and started hanging

out at the Sex clothes shop on King's Road.

It was a place where something magical

might happen if you hung around long enough.

And I think that was always a kind of,

gave everybody a sense of purpose

to dwell and to make that pilgrimage

from wherever in the UK to this store.

from wherever in the UK to this store.

John Ritchie was one

of the many punks who made that pilgrimage.

I always liked him, I have to say.

There was something warm about him.

He was just very genuinely, just a nice person.

So yeah, he stuck around, I mean,

I think he was probably stealing the

clothes as much as anybody else was.

- John Ritchie was close to punk's inner circle.

One of his best mates was John Lydon,

One of his best mates was John Lydon,

the lead singer of the notorious band, the Sex Pistols.

- He pushed himself into the scene, you know,

so that when the paper started to write about

the Pistols and the whole punk thing, y'know,

he was one of the first things that were mentioned.

He went hand in hand with the sort of growth

of punk and particularly of Pistols.

- He didn't quite know what he wanted to do,

but he just knew he was waiting to fit in somewhere.

When the group did set out to play

When the group did set out to play

in a number of pubs around London,

this tall, somewhat stalwart creature did show up

and we nicknamed him.

Lydon was given the name

Johnny Rotten, after his bad teeth,

while Ritchie was given the name Sid Vicious,

not because of any violent tendencies,

but after Lydon's pet hamster, Vicious.

It was all a bit of a joke.

Yeah, he was around, you'd see him.

I just thought he was a bit of a burp, to be honest.

Sid was a complete marshmallow, really.

You know, it's like, like playing with children

and playing games and he loved all of that.

And he was a big softy.

- Now the shy and slightly goofy

John Simon Ritchie had a new name,

Sid Vicious.

He'd spend the rest of his life trying to live up to it.

Sid has 20 hours left to live.

He's escorted from Reikers Island

to the New York Criminal Court.

He's been accused of murdering

his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen,

but his lawyers are certain they can get him out on bail.

They argue that Sid is innocent

and that Nancy was probably killed

by a drug dealer who wanted to steal her money.

There were a number of other people

There were a number of other people

who lived in the area, in the hotel,

and who were supplying drugs to these people

who had opportunities and access to these people.

And it was not unlikely that someone

could have come in and attempted to assault them.

We were very optimistic that the prosecution

would not be in a position to prove beyond

a reasonable doubt that he was responsible.

Sid was gonna get off, we all hoped.

Bailey was gonna do an excellent job.

Bailey was gonna do an excellent job.

His bill was gonna be astronomic.

And Sid was gonna play Las Vegas

and pay for it, that was it.

But first, Sid's lawyers

have to get him out of jail.

They persuade the judge to release him,

but only if someone can stump up £30,000 in bail money.

I had the money, it wasn't a question,

I was not gonna use it, I used it immediately.

At 10 am, Sid is released.

At 10 am, Sid is released.

He was certainly relieved to know

he was being released.

The last thing that I said to him was,

I'll be in touch with you, just be careful.

Sid is free and his lawyers

set about preparing his defence,

but in less than 19 hours, Sid will be dead.

Two years earlier and punk was declaring anarchy in the UK.

Some saw it as a threat to the

very foundations of civilization.

The Sex Pistols were at the front line of the movement,

The Sex Pistols were at the front line of the movement,

and Sid was in the crowd at every gig,

living up to his new nickname.

Whenever we played, there would seem

to be some kind of altercation going on,

which seemed to be Sid trying to get

a bit of the limelight for himself.

- Sid was determined to make his mark

and create his own brand of anarchy.

In one incident he attacked a rock critic with a bike chain,

just because he'd given his favorite band a bad write-up.

Just be completely destructive

Just be completely destructive

and then he would get really pissed,

really out of it, start lunging around.

You know, usually, if he did start a fight,

he was the one that got off worse, anyway.

- Sid was one of these extraordinary people

who could have had the words "Willing Prey"

tattooed on his forehead, 'cause that's what he really was.

And it seemed to me, he had this

slightly masochistic quality about him

that he liked to start a fight

so maybe in the end he would get an eyed-in

so maybe in the end he would get an eyed-in

and he did get eyed-in from quite a few people

that he picked on, and he picked on the wrong blokes.