Michael Alig, the notorious 'Club Kid Killer' and the flamboyant party promoter, who ended up serving 17 years in jail for the sordid murder and dismemberment of his drug dealer, looked disturbed and anxious in the last months of his life. I used to hear a lot of drama from his place a lot of people screaming, next-door neighbor Elvis Miller, 27, told The Post on Friday. People stopped going out, and then when Warhol died, people stopped going out completely. On June 25, 2015, Alig had his first and only art show event held in three separate art galleries in New York City in the LES area. Ultimately, Michael's total and absolute fall from grace is cemented when he becomes involved in the brutal murder of his acquaintance, Andre "Angel" Melendez (Wilson Cruz). In an interview with his former fellow prisoner, Daniel Genis, Alig said that his time spent reading while in solitary inspired him to write his memoirs, which he titled Aligula, and he particularly identified with the character Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Crime Figure. '"[33], While incarcerated in the New York State prison system, Alig was transferred from prison to prison; he also spent time in the psychiatric ward at Rikers Island. Macaulay Culkin played Alig in the 2003 biopic Party Monster, which portrayed the Club Kid scene that he helmed, which culminated in the brutal death of Angel Melendez. Alig learned from mentors, including St. James, while rising in popularity and prominence in the national underground club scene. Fabulously freaky, their nights were ruled by a hedonistic gumbo of sex and drugs. Michael Alig died of an overdose on Christmas Day, 2020. Here are the 10 times he raised my shackles with the most demented glee. He was a convicted killer who spent 17 years in prison for manslaughter after killing and dismembering his drug dealer. In 2003, the movieParty Monster took a no-holds-barred look at New York City's club culture and its seedy, drug-fueled underbelly. I know that Im not a bad person becausebecause I care too much, he explained. In March 1996, Alig and his roommate, Robert D. "Freeze" Riggs, killed fellow Club Kid . I wasnt particularly surprised when, about a month after its publication, Alig was arrested for smoking meth in public (outside the Bronx Supreme Court building, no less). Alig, nonetheless, repeatedly assured me he was a good person. I perched on a couch and Alig told me about his life in sentence fragments and tangentsuntil he asked if we could go to Starbucks because his boyfriend, whom he had met on Scruff a few months prior, was in the bedroom naked. During the late 1980s and early '90s, he was a club promoter and a member of The Club Kids, a decadent party crew characterized by wild costumes and rampant drug use. Andre "Angel" Melendez was a regular on the New York City club scene and worked at The Limelight, among other clubs (some not owned by Gatien, e.g., Webster Hall[18]), where he sold drugs on the premises. Michael told me he probably wasnt going to make it through the year. Alig soon established himself as a massive personality in the Manhattan club scene, and he eventually became the main promoter for prominent club owner Peter Gatien. There was something about it with all those dark clouds, it felt like it was taking him away and setting him free, Cain told Page Six. The wilder, the better. Guys waiting eight hours outside his door, asking for him, asking for, Michael.. Everything has to be completely over the top and exaggerated. After a few days, the body began to decompose and became malodorous. The last time I saw him, a guy was knocking and asking for him. Per Vanity Fair, Michael Alig saw freedom in 2014, after 17 years behind bars. Striking a man with a hammer, suffocating him, and dumping the body in a bathtub with Drano before dismembering and dumping it is an extreme crime at the best of times but in a 2014 interview withThe Guardian, Michael Alig insisted that the way he and Robert Riggs killed Angel Melendez was actually rather more muted than its pop culture depiction. [9] They were also known for their frequent use of ketamine (known as Special K), Ecstasy, Rohypnol, heroin, and cocaine. And even with the particulars, even keeping the despicable act that defined his legacy in mind, thats a shame because all waste is a shame. ", Culkin prepared for the role with a four-hour meeting with Alig in prison, listening to the man and studying his movements and mindset. [2] Per the conditions of his parole, Alig returned to New York City. ", "My interview with Keoki and Michael Alig for, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Alig&oldid=1139419541, American people convicted of manslaughter, People with histrionic personality disorder, Prisoners and detainees of New York (state), Deaths by heroin overdose in New York (state), Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The events of Alig's years as a club promoter up to his arrest are covered in, The events of Alig's years as a club promoter up to his arrest were portrayed in the documentary, produced and directed by, A prison interview with Alig is featured in the documentary, Alig is cast as "Michael" in Spanish NY based independent director Manuel Toledano's first and only movie (finished in 1998 with the participation of producer. Alig himself has noted that because the name of the game was disaffection, the verbal abuse could be rather extreme. Afterwards, he and Riggs threw the box into the Hudson River. [28] James St. James recounted how Melendez's brother was baffled by what he regarded as callous indifference by the police and by the scenesters Melendez had considered friends.[25]. Fabulous was the word of the day. ", "Party Monster: Painting in prison kept me from killing myself", "My Life as a Cult Film Star: Michael Musto Details His Delicious Role in "Vamp Bikers", "Interview: Film director Eric Rivas discusses 'Vamp Bikers' (Includes interview)", "Michael Alig Will Battle it Out as 'Club Kid Zombie' in Coney Island Horror Flick", "Writer/Director Eric Rivas' Brings Us "Vamp Bikers Tres"-"This Is The Unveiling of our Oz", "Club Kid killer Michael Alig charged with smoking crystal meth while trespassing near Bronx Supreme Court", "Master Of Ceremonies With Screamin' Rachael & Jason Chaos", "Where Are The People Hiding In Jason Chaos's Apartment? The 54-year-old former scene fixture-turned-slay convict was discovered by an ex-boyfriend just before midnight in his Washington Heights pad, authorities said. He was 54 years old. Michigan Student Killed by 14-Year-Old and 13-Year-Old Boys in Attempted Carjacking After Offering Them Ride to Home, Kansas teacher farts during online class; bursts into laughter along with students, International Business Times, Singapore Edition. became a successful party and Alig was working in nightlife promotions again. Privacy Notice The blood- and glitter-filled story of Michael Alig and his cohorts seems like a movie already, so it's no surprise that it was made into one. Have you ever done Special K? Sitemap, Your California Privacy Rights Thats why people come to New Yorkthey dont fit in anywhere. The $500 Prada glasses that his friends, two former club kids named Jenny and Karliin, bought for him last year are precariously perched on his nose, held together with fishing line, one lens . These days, it may be difficult to understand just how big a deal Michael Alig was back in his heyday. [19][20] On the night of March 17, 1996, Alig and his roommate, Robert D. "Freeze" Riggs, killed Melendez after an argument in Alig's apartment over many things, including a long-standing drug debt. According to The Advocate, this wasn't the case with Angel Melendez. 2019 in New York City Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images. It was liberating, he wrote of the wild scene, which included androgyny icon Grace Jones partying among about 300 other people. According to Deadline, both Alig and Riggs pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1996. Alig and Robert Freeze Riggs served time in prison for killing Club Kid member Andre Angel Melendez, dismembering his body and tossing it in the Hudson River in 1996. Michael Alig enlisted his mentor and executive manager from Hollywood, Ingrid LaLa, to create a master contact list, do PR and send mailchimp emails for the Outrage! [14] He was required to abide by an 8 p.m. curfew and undergo drug and anger management counseling, and job readiness training. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); May 3, 2021 | The blog contained transcripts of phone conversations between Alig and St. James about Alig's experiences in prison. ", "Club kid killer Michael Alig dies of heroin overdose inside his Manhattan home Christmas morning", "Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig", "Revisiting two 'Deadly' stories that rocked NYC", "The 1990s: The Deadliest Decade TV Episode Calendar", "Death By Disco: The E! New details have emerged about convicted killer Michael Alig's death.. E! Outrage! [25], Through September 1996, the police still had not questioned Alig about the murder; they were focused on his former boss and onetime business partner, Peter Gatien, wanting Alig to testify against him. Alig also was homeless off and on admitting in 2018 that he turned to the gay-hook-up site Grindr at one point when he ran out of money just to have some place to sleep and at least once found himself camping out under a bridge. He told me hed been on Xanax and drank during the Outrage party I attended. We wanted a concentrated version of that because enough is never enough for us. The third gallery was at Hotel Chantel in which a DJ set by DJ Keoki was performed. After working the Outrage! Shortly after his arrest, Riggs confessed to police: On a Sunday in March of 1996 I was at home and Michael Alig and Angel Melendez were loudly arguing and getting louder. According to a report in New York Post, his neighbors would often hear him screaming from inside his pad. Alig in the visitor's room at the Emira Correctional Facility. 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