Latest / DISGRACELAND / Michael Alig (Rewind): If a Club Kid Kills, Stuffs the Body in a Box and Tells The World About It Will Anyone Listen?

Transcript

Michael Alig (Rewind): If a Club Kid Kills, Stuffs the Body in a Box and Tells The World About It Will Anyone Listen? · DISGRACELAND

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Rewind episode of Disgraceland.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This one goes back to season one, our story on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the 90s club kid scene, in particular on Michael Allig.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael has since passed away. He made it out of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: prison for the antics and the crimes that you're going
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to hear in this episode. And when he did make
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: it out, he called me, got in touch with me.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: We had a nice conversation. I have a recording of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: it somewhere. Maybe someday we'll get around to rerunning it here.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: But anyways, this is one of the most incredible... I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: don't even know the words to describe this. Just debaucherous.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Debauchery doesn't do this. That's not the right word. Depraved,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I think. Psychotic. Crazy story. Crazy, crazy, crazy story on
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Michael Alec. Michael's a very tragic character and he created
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of pain. But I feel like Michael's one
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of those guys where the drugs just ate him up.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: They completely ate him up, scrambled his brains, and the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: results were, like I said, absolutely tragic. Here is the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Michael Alex story in Disgraceland. Disgraceland is a production of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Double Elvis. New York City club kids in the 90s
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: lived shockingly decadent lifestyles. Their sense of spectacle went beyond
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: their open drug use and flamboyant fashion. In public, they
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: drank each other's urine, had sex with amputated limbs, obliterated
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: gender norms, and packed large-capacity Manhattan dance clubs. Fueled by
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: an endless stream of hard drugs and a new form
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of electronic music that was loud and abrasive, Club Kids
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: were propelled by aggressive beats, the perfect soundtrack for this
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: new post-punk, post-disco, clubland decadence. It was great music. King
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of the Club Kids, Michael Alec, didn't make great music.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: In fact, he didn't make any music at all. He
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: made nobodies into somebodies. He was a club promoter, as
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: much a Pied Piper as other rock stars you can
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: think of. Michael Alec packed clubs, put an entire scene
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: on his back, and wound up on the cover of
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: magazines and splattered across television screens. He made headlines. He
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: made people happy. He made people dance. He made people famous.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And he made one person turn up dead in a
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: box on Staten Island. But he didn't make great music.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: That music at the top of the show? That wasn't
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: great music either. That was a preset loop from my
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Mellotron called Samba Electric Organ MK1. I played you that
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: loop because I can't afford the rights to Vision of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Love by Mariah Carey. And why would I play you
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that kind of forgettable cheese by Miss Mariah, could I
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: afford it? Because that was the number one song in
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: America on August 15th, 1990. And that was the day
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: that Michael Alec launched Disco 2000, kicking off the Club
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Kid movement and setting into motion a series of decadent
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: events that would bring about what would come to be
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: known as a disco bloodbath. On this episode, Samba Electric Organs,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Smoking Hot Forgettable Cheese, a disco bloodbath, Club Kid Decadence,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and Michael Alec. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Bone-colored business cards, Oliver People's glasses, bespoke Valentino suits, a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: table at Dorsey. Without these in 80s Manhattan, you're a nobody.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: At least you're a nobody from the perspective of Bret
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Easton Ellis' brilliantly satirical Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. That
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: table at Dorsey, it's hard to come by. Harder than
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the money it takes to afford bespoke suits and and
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: trendy eyewear. You have to know someone. And you're from
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: east wherever the fuck, so you don't know anyone. So
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: you head downtown to find your place, but lower Manhattan hotspots,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: like the Odeon or Cafeteria, are off-limits. Because the running
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of the Wall Street Bulls is in full effect. And
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the masters of the universe are rubbing coke straws with
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Jean-Michel Basquiat and SNL cast members in the bathrooms. And
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you're either too young, too broke, too openly gay, too unsexy,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: or too much of all of the above to fit in.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And so you head over to the Bowery to try
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: your luck with the punks and the hardcore kids. But
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you'd rather eat Gigi Allen's shit than sit through some
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: post-punk mediocrity with the offensively asexual crowd at CBGB's. Max's
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Kansas City is dead. The Mud Club is closed. Elaine's
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: is where your mom would hang out if she could
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: afford a bus ticket and shoes that didn't look like
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Tom McCann's stolen out of the discount section from Caldor's.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You're alone in New York City. You know nobody. You
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: are a nobody. And what do you do? Reinvent yourself
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: into something outrageous and more decadent than Patrick Bateman, Jean-Michel Basquiat,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and even crazier than Gigi Allen. It worked for Michael Alec.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: In 1984, 18-year-old Michael Allig was alone in New York City,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: fresh off the bus from South Bend, Indiana. He quickly
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: found his place at Danceteria. Danceteria was the spot for
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Allig to reinvent himself. It was the epicenter of New
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: York cool. The Beastie Boys worked as busboys. LL Cool
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: J was an elevator attendant. So was actress Debbie Mazur.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Sade attended bar and had her first performance ever there.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: But no performer is more associated with Danceteria than Madonna.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Danceteria is where she honed her craft, where she became Madonna.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And it's where Michael Alec became Michael Alec. As a
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: busboy himself, he witnessed the exact kind of magic needed
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: to attract young, horny dancers. impossibly cool Manhattanites to a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: club on a nightly basis. The only problem? Alec had
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: no talent. He couldn't play guitar, or write, or act.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It didn't matter. The creativity and free expression at Danceteria
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: taught him that you didn't need to be a performer
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: to draw people. All you needed was a hook. What
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: does the pre-feminism Mad Men character Bobby Barrett say to
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Don Draper? This is America. Pick a job and then
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: become the person who does it. And that's what Michael
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Allen did. He picked the job of promoter because you
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: didn't need to know how to sing or dance or
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: any of that. All you needed was a friend who
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: could DJ, a club looking to sell drinks on an
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: off night, a little creativity and decadence. Lots of and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: lots of decadence. In 1988, Michael Allig was hired by
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: New York City nightclub owner Peter Gation to work as
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a party promoter at his club, The Limelight. Allig's parties
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: were the most outrageous, the most decadent, and quickly became
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: wildly successful. In part, because Allig created what became known
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: as the club kid. It's impossible to describe the look
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: of a club kid. Remember that rave you went to
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: in college? The one where you were certain you were
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: getting dosed by the sketchy dude wearing lipstick, frosted tips,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: an astrological sign choker, and leopard print creepers? Okay, a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: club kid is who that guy was trying to look like.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: A club kid is an even more outrageous version of
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: sketchy roofie dude from college. But throw in a mix
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: of drag queen, Japanese anime, heroin chic, B-grade horror... an
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: address stolen from your little sister's American Girl doll collection,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and you're getting closer to the club kid look. Club
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: kids took hard drugs, designer drugs, and took on flamboyant,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: ludicrous personas. Michael Alec's friend and fellow club kid, James St. James,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: was a self-proclaimed celebitan, meaning he was famous for, well,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: being famous. This was the early 90s, way before internet ubiquity,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: social media, and just at the cusp of 24-7 news
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and infotainment. To be famous for no good reason, and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: in the absence of talent, you needed to be over
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the damn top. St. James described the club kid vibe
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: as part drag, part clown, part infantilism. In addition to St. James,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Alex Club Kids included, among others, superstar DJ Kiyoki, who sometimes,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: clad in nothing more than glitter and a diaper, would
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: provide the soundtrack for Alec's parties. The stunning Jenny Talia,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: who was prone to big pink dresses, big black boots,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and big blonde wigs worn over a shaved head, which,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: when revealed, made her even more attractive. And a little-known-at-the-time
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: drag queen who went by the name RuPaul, whose stint
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: as a club kid came before his supermodel-of-the-world glamazon status.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: And Amanda Lepore, who like other club kids, not only
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: bended gender lines, but completely scrambled them with her undeniable
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and over-the-top sexuality. In the late 80s and into the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: early 90s, these and an army of other club kids
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: owned the New York City nightclub scene. It was a
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: scene defined by over-the-top public displays of sex, overindulgence of
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: hard narcotics and designer drugs, and an overthrow of the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: highly codified stale rock and roll by a new form
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: of electronic music that was loud, abrasive, and propelled by
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: relentlessly aggressive beats that kept the party going well into
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the morning. At Limelight, and at other Peter Gation-owned clubs,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Michael Alec was the straw that stirred the Rufinol drink.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: His Wednesday night party, Disco 2000, featured over-the-top acts to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: draw further attention, with characters like Floyd the Human Money Tree,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: who would strip naked, pin $ 100 bills to himself, and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: run through the crowd into a grabby free-for-all. Or Ernie
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the Pea Drinker, who, you guessed it, would openly piss
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: in a glass in front of the crowd and gleefully
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: slurp it all down. Alec himself would frequently piss on
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: his crowd from the balcony at Limelight and pass out
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: cups of his own urine to unsuspecting clubgoers. No behavior
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was too shocking. It was all done in the name
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of hedonism and decadence. And it worked. The word was
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: out on the club kids. Michael Musto from The Village
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Voice noted that Alec's hedonistic minions had filled a void
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: in New York City nightlife left behind by Andy Warhol's death.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: New York Magazine put Alec on its cover. Geraldo and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Joan Rivers had them on their television shows. The limelight
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and Gation's bigger club tunnel remained packed. As the notoriety
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: of the club kids grew, so did Alec's appetite for
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the outrageous. He staged elaborate outlaw parties in public places.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Manhattan Burger Kings and subway cars were suddenly, out of nowhere,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: overrun by club kids and drag queens for instantaneous dance parties.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and Alec began producing other events beyond Disco 2000. There
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: was Unnatural Acts, where one night, Woody, the dancing amputee,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: lost his prosthetic while performing a dance, only to be
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: joined on stage by a female clubgoer who had sex
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: with both his prosthetic and his stump. The depravity and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: decadence was way out in the open. Anything went. Overt sexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, pansexuality,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: any sexuality. And the drug use kicked up a notch.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Special K was everywhere. Club kids boasted of snorting six-inch
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: lines off of eight-inch dicks. Punch bowls were laced with acid.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Balloons filled with ecstasy descended from the ceilings and onto
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the dance floor. And Alec promoted another night called Blood Feast.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: With a flyer depicting him dead on the floor, dismembered
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and covered in blood, club kids would show up dressed
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: in homage to their favorite serial killers. And in the
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: sign of the horrific reality to come, Alec would arrive
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: in a wheelchair covered in someone else's blood. We'll be
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: right back after this word, word, word. Because of Michael Allig,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the limelight was making Studio 54 seem like a cute
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: suburban key party your parents might have attended back in
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the 70s. This, during a time when Rudy Giuliani, U.S.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Attorney for the Southern District of New York and then
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Mayor of New York City, was doing everything in his
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: considerable power to restore social norms and law and order
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: back to Gotham City. And in Gotham City, Michael Allig,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: king of the club kids, the pajama boy cum pied piper,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: could give two fucks about Rudy Giuliani. In Allig's myopic,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: drug-addled view of the world, he was a prince. He
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: had the power. After all, he determined who got past
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the velvet rope, who sat next to him on Geraldo,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: who got mentioned to the village voice, and who he
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: graced with his presence. The decadence... And all the drugs
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: created an alternative reality for Alec, one where he was
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: immune to any surrounding pressure or sense of right and wrong.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: He didn't know from Rudy Giuliani. Alec had no sense
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: of right or wrong or decency. It was all about
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the party and the shock and the headlines. He didn't
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: understand or care about the pressure his boss and benefactor,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Peter Gation, faced to clean up his act at Limelight
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: or else. be closed. All Alec understood at this point
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: was getting high. When pressed by Gation to get clean
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: or else be fired, Alec tried striking a compromise where
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: he promised to only smoke crack while taking heroin. Or
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was it he'd only take heroin while smoking crack? It
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: didn't matter. It all came crashing down. Giuliani turned the
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: screw and Gation was forced to close limelight. Alec flamed
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: out of rehab, and descended into a drug stupor that
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: would have made Courtney Love jealous. Cocaine, Special K, heroin,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and crystal meth were all swimming through Alec's system while
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: he holed up in his luxury Westside apartment, paid for
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: by Peter Gation, with fellow club kid Robert Freeze Riggs,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and the two were nearly out of drugs. This was
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a problem. So was the fact that Alec owed his
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: drug dealer, Angel Melendez, money. Maybe this is why friends
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: of theirs recounted that Alec was running around town, casually
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: mentioning that he wanted to kill Angel. Angel Melendez wore wings, literally.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: That was his club kid shtick. He also dealt heroin.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: He'd hung out with the punks at CBGB's before finding
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: his way to the rough trade over at the piers
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: on the west side. A peer queen and street smart,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Angel was by all accounts a sweet kid, who was
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: saving his drug profits to break into the movie business
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and break away from the madness of Clubland. Problem was,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: collecting drug debts was a real headache, and Michael Alec's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: debt was becoming a real problem. It wasn't just that
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: he owed Angel thousands of dollars. It was that he
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: was being a real prick about it, disparaging him in public,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: not letting him into the parties he was hosting. And
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: then the little bastard found out where Angel was stashing
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: his drug cash, and managed to steal 18 grand, only
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: to go and blow it all on furniture. Furniture. Alec
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and Freeze were renovating their apartment. Angel was pissed, and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: rightly so. Angel Melendez showed up at the Riverbank West
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Luxury Apartment Complex, where Michael Alec was holed up with
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Robert Freeze Riggs, on March 17, 1996, demanding his money back.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Michael mocked him and insisted on more heroin, Freeze told
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Angel that he and Alec only let him hang around
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: because he had drugs. This enraged Angel. A struggle ensued.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Angel bit Michael and threw him into a china cabinet.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: A huge shard of glass from the cabinet pierced his back.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Blood spewed everywhere. Freeze then grabbed a nearby hammer and
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: swung hard at Angel, coming down on his head three times.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: More blood. Angel fell to the ground. Michael pounced. He
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: wrapped his hand in the sweatshirt and began pummeling Angel
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: in the face. Then he strangled him. At that point,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: one of them grabbed the Drano. They held Angel down
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and poured it into his throat. To be sure that
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: he swallowed it, they duct-taped his mouth shut. Exhausted, Michael
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and Freeze flopped on the couch while Angel lay on
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the floor choking to death. The official cause of death
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: was asphyxiation. After a brief rest, Michael and Freeze dragged
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Angel's body to the bathroom tub. In an effort to
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: mask the coming smell of Angel's dead body, they covered
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: him in ice, baking soda, and more Drano. Then, they
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: get down to the business of getting high as fuck.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Turns out, when you kill your drug-dealing friend, you inherit
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a stash. And what a stash it was. For eight days,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Michael and Freeze sat around the apartment doing nothing but
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: heroin while Angel's body sat in the tub, rotting. The
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: stench became unbearable. Something had to be done, so it
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: was decided that Freeze would head down to Macy's to
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: buy some butcher's knives. When he returned, he and Michael
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: did more heroin to blunt the reality of what they
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: were about to do next. Stumbling into the bathroom, through
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the haze of rotting flesh and swarming flies, Michael Allig,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: king of the club kids, got down on his knees
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and and wielding his Macy's butcher knife, began sawing the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: limbs off of his friend, Angel Melendez. He started with
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the legs, removing them from the tub and placing them
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: into a duffel bag. They placed them, along with the torso,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: into an empty television box and secured it shut with
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: their trusty duct tape. The box was then placed in
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the living room, where it briefly doubled as a coffee table.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: To mask the smell, man, that smell They sprayed Calvin
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Klein Eternity everywhere. The irony, eternity, to mask the stench
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: of death. Needless to say, the flies remained. But the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: flies couldn't stop the drug binge. There was too much
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: heroin to do. Friends came by and remarked on the smell.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Alec blamed it on faulty sewage in the building. And
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: when friends inquired to Angel's whereabouts, Alec would casually mention
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: that he killed them. Chopped him up and stuffed him
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: in a box. Look, that box right over there is
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact. No one believed him. So Michael
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Alec did what he did best. He kept the party going.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: According to multiple sources... In the days and weeks following
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Angel Melendez's death, Michael Alec was telling anyone who would
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: listen that he had killed him. But nobody thought it
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: was true. This was, after all, the guy who promoted
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a club night called Blood Feast, where people were literally
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: drinking their own urine on stage, showing up dressed as
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: serial killers or in costumes with bloody, dismembered limbs. So
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: when Michael started telling fellow club kids the grisly details
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: of the crime he'd just committed to one of their friends,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: people thought it was all a put-on. But Village Voice
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: nightlife columnist Michael Musto thought otherwise. He knew where Michael
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Alec lived, on the corner of narcissism and drugged-out madness,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: right between unhinged reality and the gaping hole of insecurity.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: And so Musto published a blind item in the Village Voice,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: on April 23rd, 1996, called Night Clubbing. In it, he
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: addressed the swirl of scandal surrounding Alec and Freeze's rumored
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: crime against Angel Melendez. Page Six then picked it up.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: The Voice followed up a couple months later with their
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: own cover story. At this point, Alec started to realize
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the gravity of the situation and began denying his earlier claims,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: telling people that it was all a ruse, a prank.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: but the heat intensified. So Allig took the money he'd
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: made from selling the furniture he'd bought with the money
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: he'd stolen from Angel and hit the road. NYPD detectives
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: were on him in no time. They found him holed
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: up in a sleazy New Jersey hotel. And so Michael
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Allig and Robert Freeze Riggs played nice with authorities and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to manslaughter. They were sentenced to 10 to
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: 20 years. Allig served 16 of them, Released in 2014,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Michael Allig is, well, Michael Allig. He's up on YouTube
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: with a show called PU, where he and fellow club
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: kid Ernie Glam super-serve nostalgic clubland fans with decadent tales
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: from the 90s. And where they promote Allig's recent ventures,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: like his new club night at Manhattan's mega-club Space Ibiza.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And where they dispute rumors about Allig, like his supposed
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: purposeful spreading of HIV as claimed by Lucian Wintrich. And
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: where they set the record straight about Alec's recent drug bust,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the one where he was busted in a Bronx park
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: at two in the morning with Special K, valiantly on
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: his way to return the drugs to a drug dealer
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: from a friend supposedly trying to get clean. What a guy. Rehabilitated,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: worthy of parole, After mercilessly dismembering the body of his friend,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: you be the judge. One thing I know to be
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: true is that Michael Alec is definitely still Michael Alec,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: even post-prison. Watching the YouTube videos, it's easy to catch
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a glimpse of the 20-something provocateur in Alec's more world-weary
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: eyes as he attempts to make use of modern technology
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: to shock and engage an audience, and most of all,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: remain relevant. The smartass is still there. Sure, it's without
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the assless chaps, but if Alec feels any real remorse,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the YouTube videos make it hard to build a case
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: that prison had any real rehabilitative effect on his character.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I wonder how members of Angel Melendez's family feel about
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: all of this. When that late-night, unprocessed grief knocks, and
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: they head to social media to catch a glimpse of
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: their loved one. Maybe they punch... Angel Melendez Club Kid
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: into the YouTube search box and head down the rabbit hole.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: There's Angel on Geraldo. Big red angel wings. Big eyes.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Big boots. Brando biker hat. And there's Angel with RuPaul
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: at a Burger King outlaw party. You click on the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Joan Rivers link, but no Angel, because search algorithms are
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: insensitive beasts. They know so much about us, but how
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: can they possibly know about our grief? They can't. Which
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: is why, below the Joan Rivers clip, there's a clip
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: from Macaulay Culkin's feature film on Angel's death, Party Monster.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: And below that are a couple of shockingly graphic documentaries
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that you'd rather not watch again. And finally, at the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: bottom of the search, more General Club Kid videos start
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to pop up. And there's 2017 Michael Alec. Three years
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: out of jail and looking barely worse for wear. He's
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: got a fresh new haircut, a trendy t-shirt that is
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a size too small, and is drinking what must be
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: an $ 8 coffee from some hot shit gentrifying barista. He's
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: regaling us with fabulous details from his latest trip to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: a west wherever the fuck, and imploring us to come
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: party with him at his new dance night in Manhattan,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: where you and thousands of his closest friends can live
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: out impossible-to-imagine decadent fantasies in real life. You can do that.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: You can't. Michael Allig gets to do that. Angel Melendez
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: does not get to do that. He's dead. He's no
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: longer stuffed in a duct-taped TV box. His remains have
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: been interred somewhere more respectable. Close by, though. Right over there,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact. And Michael Allig? He's still
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: doing what he does best. Keeping the party going. I'm
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com slash membership.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad-free.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Plus, you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: to merchandise and events. Visit DisgracelandPod.com slash membership for details.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: and Facebook at DisgracelandPod. And on YouTube at YouTube.com slash
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: at DisgracelandPod.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Rock and roll up. He's a bad, bad man. All right.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Thanks for checking out this episode, the special rewind episode
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of Disgraceland on Michael Alec. Stay tuned. More Disgraceland coming
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: up right now.