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Michael Alig
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Michael Alig (born South Bend, Indiana, April 29 1966) was the founding member of the notorious Club Kids, a group of young clubgoers led by Alig in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1996 Alig was convicted of the murder of Andre "Angel" Melendez in a confrontation over a drug debt.
Underground club scene
Alig moved to New York to attend college at Fordham University from which he later dropped out. A natural at throwing parties with little or no resources he soon began to rise in New York's party scene.
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Encyclopedia
Michael Alig (born South Bend, Indiana, April 29 1966) was the founding member of the notorious Club Kids, a group of young clubgoers led by Alig in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1996 Alig was convicted of the murder of Andre "Angel" Melendez in a confrontation over a drug debt.
Underground club scene
Alig moved to New York to attend college at Fordham University from which he later dropped out. A natural at throwing parties with little or no resources he soon began to rise in New York's party scene. Alig was mentored by socialite James St. James and club owner Peter Gatien while rising in popularity and prominence in the national underground club scene. Alig was also influential in the early promotion of his then boyfriend DJ Keoki who studied under DJ Brian Telfair, top DJ at the time in Alig's and Gatien's clubs, most notably the New York club The Limelight, owned by Gatien and designed by Ari Bahat. In Sept 1995 the Limelight was closed by the police on suspicion of drug trafficking, but subsequently reopened several times during the 1990s. In September 2003, it reopened under the name "Avalon."
Alig's Party Kids
Alig's other protegés included Gitsie, Jennytalia, Robert "Freeze" Riggs, Richie Rich, RuPaul, Amanda Lepore, and many other Club Kid personalities. The Club Kids' outrageousness resulted in their appearing on the news and the television talk show circuit--they appeared on the Geraldo Rivera show five times.
Murder of Angel Melendez
"Angel" Melendez worked at the Limelight, and after the bar's closure by federal agents, Angel was fired. With no job he moved into Alig's apartment. Increasingly affected by substance abuse, Alig and his friend Robert "Freeze" Riggs murdered Angel after an argument over many things including a long-standing drug debt. Alig has stated many times that he was so high on drugs that the events are quite cloudy. On December 9, 1996, Robert "Freeze" Riggs confessed to police that on March 17, 1996:
Then according to Freeze he hit Melendez a total of three times on the head. Then Alig grabbed a pillow and tried to smother him. When Melendez was unconscious Freeze went to the other room and when he came back he noticed a broken syringe on the floor and Alig pouring something chemical down Melendez's throat. After a few days, the body began to smell. Alig injected himself with heroin, cut the legs off the corpse, and stuffed him in a box and afterward threw the corpse into the Hudson River.
Investigation of the disappearance
Michael Alig went around telling people he was in fact the killer, but there was so much drug use being done that no one believed it; even if they did, nobody wanted to be the one to turn him in. Soon the claims, along with the "disappearance" of Meléndez just became rumors. While Alig was in rehab, those rumors were reported on in the Village Voice by Michael Musto. Although no names were used, it stated the details of the murder. Over the coming weeks, the Village Voice continued to report and make accusations about the murder of "Angel" Melendez; however the police department was not that concerned about the disappearance of a Colombian drug dealer.
Through September the police had still not questioned Alig about the murder; they were focused on his business partner Peter Gatien, wanting Alig to testify against him. Since several months had passed many people believed Alig would get away with it, until a dismembered torso was pulled from the Hudson River at Staten Island. James St. James recounts how Angel's brother was baffled by the callousness and indifference both of the police and of the scenesters Angel had considered friends.
In the fall of 1996, to escape the scrutiny of the media, Michael fled New York. He and some of his close friends took a road trip to Denver, Colorado, stopping in Chicago and his hometown, South Bend. While in South Bend he saw his mother for the first time in three years. Once in Denver he missed New York too much and moved back into the city, trying to make a comeback with his new club night, Honey Trap.
In November 1996, the coroner reported the body had been identified as that of known drug dealer "Angel" Meléndez. Every rumor was confirmed by the appearance of Angel's body, and the police could not ignore it. Alig fled NY, staying in a hotel in New Jersey with his new boyfriend, Brian McCauly, before the police surrounded the location. Alig went quietly and gave a full confession, but pleaded not guilty to the charge of first degree murder because he felt he was attacked and only fought back in self-defense. However, his lawyers felt because of his strong drug use and the dismemberment of the body he would be found guilty. In December 1997, Alig and his accomplice Robert Riggs pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for Meléndez's death.
While in prison, Michael Alig told Michael Musto, who had first reported that Alig had committed the 1996 murder of drug dealer Angel Meléndez:
Prison
While incarcerated, Alig is prisoner #97A-6595 . While in the New York prison system, Alig has been moved around from prison to prison, including time in the mental ward at Rikers Island. He is (as of February 27, 2009) at Washington Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York.
Parole
Alig became eligible for parole in 2006. His first parole request, in October 2006, was denied allegedly after parole officers watched the movie Party Monster, starring Macaulay Culkin. He was again denied parole in July 2008, and will not be eligible again until his conditional release date in March 2010. He is currently at work on an autobiography entitled Alig-ula.
Michael Alig in popular media
The events of Michael Alig's years as a club promoter up to his arrest were portrayed in:
- Disco BloodBath was re-released with the Title "Party Monster", after the release of the Movie
Prison CD
In June 2001, David M. Lambert of the British artists collective, the satori group, visited Alig at Clinton Correctional Facility in New York. He made recordings that were used in the creation of a terrible beauty featuring Michael Alig, a nine-track music CD using samples from the documentary Party Monster, original lyrics and Alig's vocals, among other content.
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