Michael Alig, The “Club Kid Killer,” Died Of A Suspected Heroin Overdose On Christmas Day

Michael Alig, one of the leaders and faces of NYC’s Club Kids era of the 80s and 90s who went to prison for 17 years for viciously murdering Andre “Angel” Melendez, was found dead in his NYC apartment on Christmas morning. The New York Daily News says that he was found by his ex-boyfriend, who reportedly told police that he had been doing drugs. The police apparently also found heroin in his apartment. Michael Alig was 54.

TMZ adds that Michael was found dead in his Washington Heights apartment just after midnight on Christmas Day. There were empty vials and containers around him, so police believe he died of a heroin overdose.

The name Michael Alig is probably best known because of the 2003 movie Party Monster, which was based on fellow club kid James St. James’ memoir Disco Bloodbath. In Party Monster, Macaulay Culkin played Michael Alig and Seth Green played James St. James. There’s also several documentaries about the murder of Angel Melendez, including Party Monster: The Shockumentary and Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig.

Michael Alig was born in Indiana and after graduating high school, he went to NYC to study architecture at NYU and later FIT. He eventually dropped out to work in the club scene and became a party promoter and that led to the start of the Club Kids. Michael threw over-the-top parties all over the place, and eventually the media started covering the Club Kids. Geraldo and The Joan Rivers Show both did episodes on the “outrageousness” of the Club Kids.

Michael also quickly got a reputation for being an all-caps MESS. He started using drugs more and more and would piss in the drinks of clubgoers at parties. And on March 17, 1996, the beginning of the end of the Club Kids era started when Michael and his roommate and another club kid Robert D. “Freeze” Riggs brutally murdered their drug dealer Angel Melendez after a fight about many things including money that each believed the other owed. Michael and Freeze dismembered Angel’s body and dumped parts of his body into the Hudson River on two separate times.

Michael had the complete opposite of remorse over murdering Angel, and bragged to everyone about killing him and even sent out a party invite where he joked about the murder. Writer Michael Musto wrote a blind item in the Village Voice about the murder and continued to write about it. And after parts of Angel’s body were found, Michael and Freeze were arrested in November 1996. They each took a plea deal and agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter. They each got 10 to 20 years in prison. Freeze got out on parole in 2010. And after Michael’s parole request was denied a couple of times, it was approved in 2014 and he was let out. Michael completed his parole in 2017.

When Michael Alig got out of the clink, he went back to NYC, and it seemed like he thought the club scene would welcome him back with a glitter-filled parade, but that didn’t happen. The club scene had obviously changed and he tried to throw some parties, but that didn’t go anywhere. He also tried to sell his memoirs and wanted to star in a reality show about his life. Michael did end up doing a YouTube show, but he continued to struggle. In 2017, he was arrested for smoking meth in a park in the Bronx, and talked about being homeless on his YouTube show.

James St. James responded to Michael Alig’s death yesterday by simply saying he needs to step away from Twitter for a bit:

Logging off. I think I’ll just be alone with my thoughts for the next couple of days.

— James St. James (@JSJdarling) December 25, 2020

Pic: Instagram