His life was chronicled in two Lech Kowalski documentaries, Story of a Junkie and Born To Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie.
His mother, Delphine Carmen Luke Olgin put him up for adoption along with his two sisters, Joni and Sharon.
He first lived in Alphabet City, near the East Village where, he used to sell heroin to (and among many many others) actor John Belushi.
Alphabet City during this time was largely populated by Hispanic immigrants and African-Americans, which made Spacely stand out in the street.
He then returned to his life of hustling, focusing on the St. Mark's area of the East Village, where he became a popular street personality.
[3] Spacely began befriending many of the musicians and artists that lived in the East Village during that time, including Keith Richards, Willy Deville, Joey Ramone, Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags, Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys, Jerry Only of the Misfits and members of the New York Dolls, especially Johnny Thunders, who was his close friend (despite the two getting in an on-stage physical altercation in 1982, as seen in the documentary Born To Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie).
Story of a Junkie depicts the widespread drug problem in New York City during that time, featuring graphic scenes of Spacely shooting up heroin.
The film played in several festivals, and to promote the film the director Lech Kowalski hired local artist Art Guerra to paint a mural of Spacely on the side of a building on St. Mark's Place in the East Village, where he was the self described "mayor of the street".
As he was dying from AIDS, he was filmed for the documentary Born To Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie.