On October 12, 1978, someone made a call from the Chelsea Hotel to the emergency number. A woman had possibly been attacked by her boyfriend in a room, causing noise that disturbed the other residents (although the hotel’s status had fallen over the years). The woman had met her boyfriend John Ritchie two years prior to her death somewhere in the English punk scene. When the young woman met John, everyone tried to keep her away from him, saying he was a drunk, a drug addict and that simply his name meant “trouble“. John was a very touchy young man and she slowly fell into his game.
Ritchie’s best friend (who was also named John) regretted letting the two form a relationship, as it would mean the end of their friendship in some way. Both young drug addicts began a relationship and because everyone was against them being together, they came to the conclusion that it was an intense love, because no one else could understand it.
But everyone knew the problem with linking a heroin-addicted woman with an overly impressionable boy: one of the two would eventually die.
Their love for each other worked in a sick way. They beat, insulted and screamed at each other when they didn’t have heroin, and when they managed to get it, they sat still for hours while watching TV. When the John gang disintegrated, all he had left was her: the dirty, ugly, scruffy, hideous Nancy Spungen. No one really knows what happened that October night, some think Nancy buried a knife in herself, but the real owner of the knife was John.
Ritchie was charged with second-degree murder and released on bail. Months later, John (or Sid, as everyone called him) died of a heroin overdose. We are not certain that Sid and Nancy’s love was weaker or of lesser importance than any other. They were both people who, finding themselves alone in the world, leaned on each other to carry on.
The tragedy arrived when we remember that it was a dangerous mix of people. Throughout history, there has been this type of tragic love stories, which usually tend to have terrible endings or that by their power marked a moment in popular culture. This concept not only exists in the modern world.
Cleopatra and Marco Antonio
During the disturbances in the Roman Republic, the Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra met General Mark Antony, who was already married, and seduced him to achieve a strong alliance between their territories. It is said that they had an extremely intense love, so much so that Octavian, the future emperor of Rome, accused Mark Antony of being power hungry, and also of being bewitched by Cleopatra, this unleashed a war in which both committed suicide, as they considered it unthinkable to be captured and tortured. A story so tragic that Shakespeare wrote a play around it.
Eloisa and Abelard
The story tells that Abelardo, 20 years older than Eloísa, was madly in love with his pupil, and the love was reciprocated. But when Eloísa’s uncle found out about the affair, he had Abelardo castrated. Both had to enter a monastery, but during their stay they wrote to each other the love letters that are now famous and show how strong their love affair was. Although they never saw each other again, they did not stop writing to each other until they died.
Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal
What if your fiancé built a place the size of the Taj Mahal just for you? Well, Shah Jahan built the iconic palace as the final resting place of his beloved, whom he called “the jewel of the palace”. Although she was his third wife, she undoubtedly had the greatest impact on his life. Sadly, Mumtaz died in childbirth. The construction took 23 years, and by the time it was completed, Jahan joined his beloved in her tomb.
Inés de Castro and King Pedro
An affair that started a civil war. Inés was an attendant of Princess Constancia of Portugal in 1340. Pedro was the heir to the throne, but he fell in love with Inés, and when Constancia died, he wanted Inés to be his wife, as he already had three children with her, but his father refused. The king banished Inés and had her killed in a place where Pedro could not intervene. When he won the civil war, Pedro exhumed the body of his beloved, made a royal tomb for her and made all Portugal swear loyalty to his queen: Inés.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
It is said that the queen loved Prince Albert vehemently, so much that since the man died, 40 years before her, she wore only black and spent much of her reign hidden in her chambers. When she died in 1901 and was given her place in the royal mausoleum, her door carried the legend: “Farewell best beloved, here I will finally rest with you, with you in Christ I will rise again”.
Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson
Donelson had been married to a man named Lewis Robards before marrying President Andrew Jackson in 1791. However, it later came to light that Robards had not filed divorce papers, which created a scandal during the election, a time when she was called a woman of poor morals. The stress this caused Rachel worsened a heart problem the young woman had had for some years before. She died of cardiac arrest and was never able to watch her husband become president. It is said that Jackson was so affected that he would not let go of Rachel’s body in the illusion that she would revive.
There are loves that give us more life than we think we can have, but there are also loves that kill. Whether it’s separation, drugs, dependencies or any reason, love can take a part of us away. It is dangerous to love carelessly, but there is no manual to guide us. The best we have left is to go on and hope that tragedy is saved for history.
This story was originally published in Spanish by Cultura Colectiva.
