Pleasure Junkie: Michael Alig

Michael Alig was born in 1966 in Indiana and moved to New York City as a teenager; he didn’t take long to immerse himself in the city's club scene. He worked at Danceteria while studying the nightclub business, eventually becoming a party promoter.  Alig adored the fact that the underground nightlife could quite easily go hand in hand with performance art; the outrageous costumes and strange venues became a glorious theatrical rebellion against expectations.

Alig

Alig and a group of other club goers became known as the Club kids, with  James St. James later describing them as ‘part drag, part clown, part infantilism’.

By the late 80s, Alig and The Club Kids became celebrities in their own right, appearing in various magazines and guesting on TV shows such as The Joan Rivers Show.

In 1988, he was hired to organise parties at The Limelight for the owner Peter Gatien; he went on to throw parties at Gatien’s other clubs, including the Palladium and Tunnel. Alig threw parties known as ‘Outlaw Parties’ in places such as an abandoned house and a subway, and they were a huge triumph.

With fame and success came excess.

Alig’s lifestyle was fuelled by drugs, particularly favouring ketamine and heroin. As his addiction worsened, so did his behaviour; he could no longer differentiate between reality and performance. Alig would urinate on clubgoers and in their drinks and would knock others to the ground. He was increasingly violent and erratic.

Alig with friend

During this time, he was arrested and attended rehab numerous times, but nothing seemed to affect him. Alig went on to say he had been diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder, saying ‘The doctor said I was the most extreme case he'd ever seen. Everything has to be completely over-the-top and exaggerated. It worked well for my job – I was a promoter.’

Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez was born on 1^st May 1971. He moved to New York from Colombia with his family when he was 8 years old. As an adult, he was part of The Club Kids, working at various clubs and dealing drugs. The Limelight was closed after police discovered Gatien was allowing the sale of drugs, and Angel lost his job.

Angel (in red) with unknown person

On the 17^th March 1996, Angel confronted Alig and his roommate, Robert ‘Freeze’ Riggs, about money owed for drugs. An argument erupted, and Angel was brutally beaten before being strangled to death by Alig and Riggs (Alig later said that he was so high that he couldn’t remember exactly what happened). Unsure of what to do, they placed Angel’s body in a bathtub filled with ice until a few days later, when the body had started to decompose. Alig then dismembered Angel, wrapping the parts separately and disposing of them in the Hudson River. Angel had been just 24 years old.

By September 1996, Alig hadn’t been questioned about the murder, and the police seemed to be focusing their attention on Gatien, despite the many whispers of Alig being involved. Then, a group of children playing pulled a box containing a torso from the waters of Oakwood Beach, Staten Island.

In November 1996, the coroner reported that the body had been identified as Angel. Alig fled New York but was quickly found in New Jersey.  He was arrested along with Riggs. It didn’t take long for Riggs to confess, saying:

‘On a Sunday in March of 1996, I was at home ... and Michael Alig and Angel Melendez were loudly arguing ... and getting louder. I opened the room and started towards the other bedroom ... at which point Michael Alig was yelling, "Help me!" "Get him off of me", [Angel] started shaking him violently and banging him against the wall. He was yelling ‘You better get my money or I'll break your neck"... I grabbed the hammer ... and hit Angel over the head ...’

Riggs claimed he hit Angel 3 times on the head with a hammer and that Alig tried to smother the victim with a pillow. Riggs said that Alig then poured ‘some cleaner or chemical’ into Angel’s mouth, and Riggs helped him duct tape the mouth shut. Alig disputed this and said he acted in self-defence and panicked when Angel ended up dead.

The police offered both Riggs and Alig a sentence of 10-20 years for manslaughter if they pleaded guilty; both agreed, and they were sentenced on 1^st October 1997.

While in prison, Alig said, ‘I know why I blabbed. I must have wanted to stop me. I was spinning out of control. It's like the old saying, 'What do you have to do to get attention around here – kill somebody?'

While in prison, Alig spoke freely about the murder of Angel, expressing remorse. He admitted to having a deep self-destructive streak, although he continued to take drugs in prison and spent time in a psychiatric unit and solitary confinement. He became eligible for parole in 2006 but was apparently turned down after parole officers watched Party Monster (2003), a fictional film based on Alig. He was eventually released on 5^th May 2014 and claimed he had been sober since 2009.

Alig continued to work after his release, showing his art at galleries, giving interviews and even starring in four Eric Spade Rivas films. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alig would hold parties online via Zoom and would continue doing so until his death.

On December 24, 2020, shortly before midnight, Alig was found unconscious by his ex-boyfriend at their home in Manhattan. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 54 years old. The medical examiner confirmed Alig died from acute intoxication from the drugs fentanyl, acetylfentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine.

Michael Alig’s life looked exciting, fun, hedonistic – on the surface. Behind this exterior was a life dictated by drugs, alcohol and the constant search for the next high. And, eventually, it all became too much, leading to the death of Angel and himself. Thanks for reading, please take care of yourselves, and I will see you next time.

Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website, and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!

Angel