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Andre Melendez

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Angel Melendez
Born
Andre Melendez

(1971-05-01)May 1, 1971
Colombia
DiedMarch 17, 1996(1996-03-17) (aged 24)
New York City[1]
OccupationClub Kid
Known forNew York City nightlife scene; his gruesome murder

Andre "Angel" Melendez[2] (May 1, 1971 – March 17, 1996) was a member of the Club Kids and purported drug dealer who lived and worked in New York City. He was killed by Michael Alig and Robert "Freeze" Riggs on March 17, 1996.

Biography

Melendez and his family arrived in New York from Colombia when Melendez was 8 years old. Melendez purportedly became a drug dealer during the early 1990s after he met Peter Gatien, owner of The Limelight and several other nightclubs in New York City, and became a regular dealer in Gatien's clubs. He was frequently seen at Manhattan clubs wearing his signature feathered wings.

Michael Alig, a night club party promoter, known as "King of the Club Kids",[3] became an important customer, leading Melendez into the world of the Club Kids, which group included such members as Alig's mentor/rival James St. James, boyfriend DJ Keoki, and drug dealer/roommate Robert D. "Freeze" Riggs.[4]

Death

On Sunday, March 17, 1996, Melendez was killed by Alig and Alig's roommate, Robert D. "Freeze" Riggs, after going to their Riverbank West[5] apartment and arguing with Alig, purportedly about a delinquent debt.[1][6][7][8] According to various statements made by Alig and Riggs, the confrontation became violent, and Melendez got the better of Alig, who cried out for help. Riggs then hit Melendez on the head with a hammer, three times (until Melendez "went down"), after which Alig smothered him (either with a pillow or sweatshirt, depending upon the source), next poured a "cleaner or chemical" into his mouth, and then wrapped duct tape around it.[1]

The two then stripped Melendez's body and placed it in the bathtub, where it remained for 5–7 days. According to Riggs, he then purchased "2 chef knives and 1 cleaver" at Macy's, with which he said Alig dismembered Melendez's legs, which the roommates wrapped separately in garbage bags, placed into individual duffle bags, and dumped in the Hudson River.[1]

The following day, they wrapped the upper body in a sheet and plastic garbage bag, placed it in a cardboard box from which Riggs had removed the UPC code, and together took the heavy box down the elevator and through the main lobby, and then placed it in the trunk of a Yellow Cab "that happened to be right outside the door." Riggs confessed: "We took the body to the Westside Highway around 25th Street. The taxi drove off, and we threw the box into the river." [1]

However, Alig gave some conflicting details. For example, he stated he used liquid Drano (and baking soda) to combat the smell of the malodorous decomposition after the body had sat several days in the bathtub,[6][7] and wrote in a May 12, 2014, New York Post article that the pair had successfully enjoined the cab driver to help them throw the box into the Hudson River, near Tunnel nightclub.[8] At first, Alig claimed the killing was in self-defense, but he later admitted to having committed manslaughter. (See more details and references at Michael Alig.)

In the documentary film Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig (2015),[6] the police recount the discovery by a group of children at the beach at Miller Field, Staten Island, of a box containing the remains of Andre "Angel" Melendez, in March 1996. (American Justice reports the box was found in April 1996.[9]) A tropical storm had helped propel the floating, cork-lined[10] box to Staten Island.[6][11][12][13]

Mainstream media began covering Melendez's disappearance when the victim's brother and father turned to the press for help and interest grew in rumors – first publicized to outsiders by Michael Musto as a blind item in his Village Voice column – that Alig and Riggs had murdered Melendez. The coincidental discovery, on Friday, September 8, 1996, of another dismembered body, fished out of the Harlem River at a pier near 134th Street[14] by a homeless woman, sparked police to begin investigating the case in earnest. A police officer in Staten Island, who caught the Melendez media coverage, initiated an investigation of the John Doe found at Miller Field.[9] The Staten Island Police Department used dental records to identify Melendez (whose body the coroner had mis-identified as that of an Asian male); on November 2, 1996, the mutilated corpse was positively identified as Melendez, and details of the rumors about how Melendez was killed were confirmed.[15]

In the face of increasing police scrutiny, Alig fled to Toms River, New Jersey, where he moved into a motel room with his boyfriend, a drug dealer named Brian. On December 5, 1996, the police arrested Alig at the motel and hours later, Riggs in Manhattan. Alig insisted to the police he and Riggs had killed Melendez in self-defense, and disposed of the body in a panic.[16] (This story contrasts sharply with the account Alig had given the victim's brother, John ("Johnny") Melendez, in an August 1996 conversation secretly taped by the District Attorney's office, implicating "Melendez and club czar Peter Gatien in a drug-dealing venture at Gatien's nightspots", and charging "that Riggs killed Melendez for Gatien because 'Peter is in trouble right now for drugs' and 'Angel knew everything and he was threatening to go to ... his friend at the Village Voice and tell him all this stuff".[17]) Prosecutors were hesitant to charge Alig with first-degree murder, as they still hoped he would testify against his former boss, Peter Gatien, who had been arrested for allowing drugs to be sold in his nightclubs. They eventually offered both Alig and Riggs a plea deal: a sentence of 10 to 20 years if they accepted the lesser charge of manslaughter.[16] On October 1, 1997, both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 10 to 20 years.[18] (American Justice reports they pleaded guilty and were sentenced on September 10, 1997.[9]) Because of their convictions, Alig and Riggs were not used as prosecution witnesses in Gatien's trial.[9]

Convictions, prison, and aftermath

On October 1, 1997, Alig and Riggs were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for Melendez's killing, after each pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter. Riggs was released on parole in 2010, Alig on May 5, 2014.[19] Michael Alig died of an apparent drug overdose on December 25, 2020.[20]

Book
  • The events of Michael Alig's years as a club promoter up to his arrest for Melendez's murder are covered in James St. James's memoir, Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland (1999),[21] reprinted with the title Party Monster after the release of the eponymous 2003 film.[22][23]
Films
  • St. James' memoir is the basis for two films:
  • A prison interview with Alig is featured in the documentary Limelight (2011), directed by Billy Corben and co-produced by Peter Gatien's daughter, Jen Gatien.[24]
  • The documentary film Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig (2015)[6] reviews the creation, rise, and dispersion of the Club Kids phenomenon after Melendez's murder by Alig and Riggs.[6][11][12][25]
Music
  • Alig and Melendez's friend Screamin' Rachael wrote the song "Give Me My Freedom/Murder in Clubland" after Alig and Gitsie took a road trip to visit her in Denver, Colorado, arriving five weeks after Melendez's "disappearance". The lyrics to a backward loop in the song include such lines as "Michael, where's Angel?", and "Did someone just cry wolf, or is he dead?"[26][27]
Television

Melendez's murder case has also been featured in multiple TV series, such as:

Theatre
  • Clubland: The Monster Pop Party (2013), a musical adaptation of St. James' book Party Monster and its 2003 eponymous film adaptation, debuted April 11, 2013 at the American Repertory Theater's Club Oberon, with book, music, and lyrics by Andrew Barret Cox [31]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Riggs, Robert D. (December 1996). "Club Kids Kill An Angel written confession". The Smoking Gun. Retrieved May 10, 2014. Riggs' written confession to the NYPD.
  2. ^ Sullivan, John (September 11, 1997). "2 Men Plead Guilty in Killing of Club Denizen". The New York Times. Retrieved March 23, 2008. Mr. Alig, who pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to one count of first degree manslaughter, admitted that he and a friend smothered Andre Melendez, known as Angel, chopped up his body and threw it into the Hudson River.
  3. ^ Meers, Erik (4 February 1997). "Code Of Silence: For Months Gay "Club Kids" in New York City Kept Quiet About a Grisly Murder". The Advocate. No. 726. p. 49. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  4. ^ Sharkey, Alix (April 19, 1997). "Death by Decadence". The Weekend Guardian.
  5. ^ "Riverbank West". luxuryrentalsmanhattan.com.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Fernández, Ramón (Writer and Director). Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig (Crime documentary). Electric Theater Pictures.
  7. ^ a b Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998)
  8. ^ a b Alig, Michael (May 12, 2014). "Club Kid killer relives bloody crime". New York Post.
  9. ^ a b c d e Kurtis, Bill (Host) (2000). "Dancing, Drugs, and Murder". American Justice. Episode 126. New York: A&E.
  10. ^ Doonan, Simon (August 9, 1999). "Club Kids on the Skids: The Horrid, Lovely Alig Epic". The Observer.
  11. ^ a b Murthi, Vikram (July 26, 2018). "'Glory Daze' Exclusive Trailer & Poster: Explore the Rise and Fall of Michael Alig, One of NYC's 'Club Kids', The film will be released on VOD on August 16". IndieWire.
  12. ^ a b Bar, Daryl (23 August 2016). "Review – Glory Daze: The Life And Times Of Michael Alig". Battle Royale With Cheese.
  13. ^ "REVIEW: Glory Daze – The Life and Times of Michael Alig (2015)". World of Film Geek. December 8, 2016.
  14. ^ SharKey, Alix (April 19, 1997). "Death by Decadence". The Weekend Guardian.
  15. ^ SharKey, Alix (April 19, 1997). "Death by Decadence". The Weekend Guardian.
  16. ^ a b Romano, Tricia. "Michael Alig: The Life and Death of the Party: Confessions of a Body Hacker". crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  17. ^ "Grisly Disco-Drug Slay Tale Papers: Body Kept in Tub, Cut Up". New York Daily News. January 23, 1997. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Romano, Tricia. "Michael Alig: The Life and Death of the Party: Sentencing". crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  19. ^ Turner, Megan (January 23, 2003). "THE DAY THE DANCING DIED – CATCHING UP WITH THE CLUB KIDS IN TRUE-CRIME INDIE". New York Post.
  20. ^ Infamous ‘Club Kid Killer,’ Dead at 54. Yahoo News, December 26, 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-26. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/michael-alig-infamous-club-kid-163022123.html. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. ^ St. James, James (1999). Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland (August 11, 1999 ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 2222. ISBN 0-684-85764-2.
  22. ^ Romano, Tricia (May 9, 2014). "Michael Alig's Next Move? 'Club Kid Killer' Seeks Post-Prison Job". Billboard. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  23. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (August 16, 1999). "Clubland Horrorcoaster". metroactive.com.
  24. ^ Andersen, John (September 23, 2011). "Review: 'Limelight'". Variety. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  25. ^ "REVIEW: Glory Daze – The Life and Times of Michael Alig (2015)". World of Film Geek. December 8, 2016.
  26. ^ Haden-Guest, Anthony (2015). The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night. ISBN 9781497695559.
  27. ^ Alig and Rachael discuss the song and its inspiration in Party Monster: The Shockumentary, starting at 41:40
  28. ^ "Becoming Angel". Investigation Discovery.
  29. ^ Stasi, Linda (July 15, 2013). "Revisiting two 'Deadly' stories that rocked NYC". New York Post.
  30. ^ "Death of an Angel". Investigation Discovery.
  31. ^ Blank, Matthew (April 10, 2013). "PHOTO CALL: Meet the Club Kids of the New Immersive Musical Adaptation of "Party Monster" at A.R.T." Playbill.
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