4. Vicious’ Own Mother May Have Killed Him
Anne Beverly, Sid Vicious’ mother, was no stranger to enabling her son. She provided Vicious with heroin as a teenager, even giving him a baggie with the drug and syringes in front of friend John Lydon, better known later as Johnny Rotten – lead singer of the Sex Pistols. This habit became part of a lifelong pattern, with Beverly smuggling drugs to her son whenever she could.
While Vicious was incarcerated at Riker Island in New York, Beverly smuggled drugs into the prison in her vagina so her son could have his fix. After he was bailed out of the penitentiary, she threw a freedom party for her son. A friend, Peter Gravelle, showed up to the party with heroin he purchased with Beverly’s money. The heroin was reportedly 98% pure, an incredibly lethal purity for anyone.
Gravelle warned Vicious not to take much of the heroin due to its purity, but Vicious still overdosed. As the party cleared out, Gravelle left the heroin and Vicious in Beverly’s care. The next morning, Vicious was dead of a heroin overdose. The manager of the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren, claims that Beverly gave Vicious the heroin to save him from doing time in prison because she knew he’d hate it.