Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Party Fouls: The Club Kid Killers

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

In the 1990s, the Club Kids ruled the New York City party scene. They represented fun, freedom, and self-expression — until a grisly murder rocked their tight-knit community. Learn more about your a...d choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of drug use, violence, murder, and mutilation that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Party. The word conjures images of birthdays, weddings, and happy celebrations. It inspires memories of blowing out candles and popping open champagne. All in all, a party is.
Starting point is 00:00:35 a great place to be. Except when it isn't. Parties can be uncomfortable. Just the word small talk are enough to send a shiver down most people's spines. We want to avoid this awkwardness at all costs. And perhaps this is why people turn the music up and dim the lights. This atmosphere relaxes you and takes you to another world. But sometimes a dark room isn't enough. People drink alcohol and use or misuse drugs. They lose their inhibitions. Over the course of the night, their grip on reality weakens.
Starting point is 00:01:14 They forget who they were before they entered into this bizarre, base-filled dream. The worst parts of their psyche take over, and they become someone else entirely. Sometimes parties turn deadly. Welcome to Solved Murder's True Crime Mysteries, a Spotify original from Parlor.
Starting point is 00:01:44 I'm your host Carter Roy. And I'm your host, Wendy McKenzie. Every Wednesday we step into the world of true crime's most fascinating murder cases and tell the tale of how real-life detectives closed the case. You can find episodes of Solve Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free exclusively on Spotify. This is the first episode of our four-part special, Party Fowls. Over the next four weeks, we'll peer inside parties
Starting point is 00:02:14 that went terribly wrong. We'll follow police as they investigate some of history's most frightening party murders and try to figure out what turns a celebration into a violent altercation. This week, we're covering the club kid killers. In April of 1996, police found a cardboard box washed up on Staten Island shore. This package kicked started an investigation that lasted nearly eight months, and ultimately reveal the dark underbelly of New York City's party scene. We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us.
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Starting point is 00:03:30 In April of 1996, a warm breeze blew through Staten Island. After a long New York winter, spring had finally arrived. Families flocked to the beach for some long overdue sunshine. On April 12th, a group of children played near the water. One gathered shells, another weighted a few feet into the ocean, and some poked at the sand, digging for snails. Then one of the kids noticed something strange a few yards away. A cardboard box had washed up on the sand. Curious, the kids prodded the package.
Starting point is 00:04:07 It seemed to be secured shut. Even so, a putrid scent leaked from the box making the children's stomach's turn. Whatever was inside the package, it was gross. The kids ran up the beach to tell some adults about what they'd found. Likely out of an abundance of caution, the local authorities were contacted. NYPD Detective Ralph Jingo responded to the call. He trudged through the sand and towards the dampened box. The smell almost knocked Detective Jengo off his feet.
Starting point is 00:04:42 For a seasoned law enforcement officer, the scent was unmistakable. It was the smell of death. Detective Jingo held his breath, opened the box, and untied the garbage sack inside. As he moved the black plastic out of the way, he revealed a decomposed face. Prying further, he found a man's legless body.
Starting point is 00:05:07 The detective's heart sank. Spring had just arrived on Staten Island, and a group of children had uncovered a grisly murder. Detective Jango called for backup. The NYPD sent the mutilated body to a medical examiner and an autopsy revealed a few key pieces of information. The corpse belonged to a young adult man. His head had been struck three times with some kind of object.
Starting point is 00:05:35 But strangely enough, blunt force trauma wasn't his cause of death. He died of asphyxia or lack of oxygen. Substantial decomposition suggested the murder-horses. had occurred about a week prior. These details were helpful, but a major roadblock stood in the NYPD's way. The victim's face was completely unrecognizable. The torso revealed no identifying marks. Worse yet, the box could have floated to Staten Island from almost anywhere.
Starting point is 00:06:06 Police had no idea who the body belonged to. And perhaps because they didn't want to frighten locals, officers seemed to keep news of the box stuck body fairly quiet. They allowed the legless torso to sit unidentified while they focused on an entirely different crime. In the spring of 1996, New York police were investigating a man named Peter Gation. Peter owned multiple nightclubs, including the limelight and club USA. These bars were home to New York City's club kids. The club kids first rose to fame in the late 1980s. They were a group of fabulous theatrical personalities who prided themselves on aesthetic innovation.
Starting point is 00:06:53 They wore bizarre, homemade costumes, dressing up as aliens, robots, angels, demons, and everything in between. They topped off their looks with extravagant makeup and wigs. Then they gathered in Peter Gation's clubs. Their nights were filled with bright lights, loud music, and wild dancing. But the club kids scene wasn't just about partying.
Starting point is 00:07:16 it was about misfits creating a space where creativity and self-expression were valued above all else. This movement offered opportunities to avant-garde creatives. The most famous club kid was probably Roo Paul, who went on to become a well-known drag queen, television personality, and author. But there were other stars, too. In the mid-90s, one young man named Michael Allig ruled the club kids. Michael had moved from small town Indiana to Manhattan in the early 1980s. Since then, he'd built a reputation for planning and promoting huge parties at Peter Gation's clubs. For Michael, nothing was off the table.
Starting point is 00:07:59 He personified hedonism and excess, and people loved him for it. But the NYPD had a sneaking suspicion that the club kids did more than dress up and dance. Police believed they dealt and used drugs. like cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin, and that Peter Gation was the ringleader of their trafficking scheme. New York authorities were working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, to bring federal charges against Gation. They wanted to prove he assisted in the sale and use
Starting point is 00:08:32 of illicit substances within his clubs, but so far, evidence was thin. Regardless, the DEA and the NYPD threw all their energy into investigating GAYOR. even as the legless body waited to be identified. And as it turned out, New York police weren't the only ones who thought the club kids had a dark side. A man named Johnny Melendez had been digging into the party scene for the past few weeks. His brother, a 25-year-old club kid who went by the name Angel, had gone missing in mid-March of 1996.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Johnny didn't have all the details, but he knew his brother was involved with some damage. dangerous stuff. Before he disappeared, Angel had told Johnny about the parties he attended, nights filled with blinding lights and blaring music. Angel had also complained about the rent in Manhattan. He'd struggled to pay his bills, so to make ends meet, it seems he started selling drugs. The money had been good, but now that Angel had gone missing, Johnny worried his brother had gotten in over his head. So Johnny filed a missing person report. He told the NYPD that his brother had disappeared, but apparently the police were too focused on Peter Gation to take Johnny's report seriously. Not one to be deterred, Johnny started an investigation
Starting point is 00:09:58 of his own. In April of 1996, he printed hundreds of flyers with photos of his brother and posted them all over Manhattan. He even offered a $4,000 reward for information leading to Angel's return. Johnny looked for club kids on the streets. Some were easy to recognize. Colorful hair, theatrical makeup, and eccentric clothing were often dead giveaways. He stopped these dressed up locals and asked if they knew his brother.
Starting point is 00:10:29 Most of them said yes. Angel was iconic. He always showed up to parties wearing huge feathered wings. But nobody knew where Angel had gone or who'd seen him last. In fact, some club kids treated his disappearance as a joke, like it was nothing more than a party trick. Honestly, knowing Angel, this whole thing's probably a ploy to make people worry about him. He's dying to get attention just like every other club kid.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Listen, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but he always had ecstasy. Maybe he, you know, started dealing with some bad people. Oh my God, Michael's been telling people that he killed him! Could you even imagine? I bet they're in on this together. It's probably a setup for a huge party. Next thing you know, Michael will be advertising some reincarnation-themed blowout
Starting point is 00:11:17 called Angel Melendez back from the dead. Of all the possible explanations, the last one shocked Johnny the most. Michael Allig was, at times, one of Angel's roommates. But beyond that, he was Club Kid royalty. It was possible that Michael and Angel were planning a next-level party.
Starting point is 00:11:40 Still, Angel's lack of communication with Johnny was very strange. If it was all a big joke, he probably would have let his brother in on it. Plus, it didn't make sense for Michael to claim responsibility for a murder. Club kids were known to be extreme, but a fake slaying seemed too wild even for them. Johnny hoped that the club kid had been mistaken. Maybe the man had overheard a rumor that got twisted on the way through the grapevine. Either way, Johnny knew what he had to do next. Track down Michael Allig himself.
Starting point is 00:12:15 It wasn't a difficult task. Michael could almost always be found at the Limelight Ore Club USA, sipping a drink. Johnny found him relatively quickly. 29-year-old Michael Allig's hair was bleached platinum blonde. He wore cropped t-shirts, precarious platform shoes, and deep red lipstick. He appeared to have unbridled confidence. except when he spoke to Johnny Melendez. Oh, Angel?
Starting point is 00:12:45 Um, no, no, I haven't seen him. He's just, like, left one day. I haven't talked to him since. He definitely hasn't been to any of my parties. If I were you, I might check outside of the city. Perhaps Johnny thought talking to Michael would put his mind at ease, but it did the exact opposite. Michael swore he hadn't seen Angel.
Starting point is 00:13:09 However, when he spoke, he wouldn't meet Johnny's eyes. Michael's gaze flickered up and down, left and right, never once landing on Johnny's face. He was clearly anxious about something. Johnny Melendez drove home that day. Uneasy. Michael Allig was hiding something. Up next, Johnny Melendez finds a terrifying piece of evidence. Imagine living with a secret so big that if anyone ever found out, it would change everything.
Starting point is 00:13:44 Imagine carrying that secret with you every day, desperate to one day get it off your chest. Do you think you could take a secret like that to the grave? I'm a Stefania Hakeman, host of the new podcast series, Deathbed Confessions, the show where we dive deep into the most explosive things people have admitted to while drawing their last breath, from murder, fake identities, heists, illicit affairs, and even top government secrets.
Starting point is 00:14:12 This season on Deathbed Confessions, we investigate cases like Frank Thurrogood, the construction worker who claimed that the drowning of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones was no accident. Margaret Gibson, a silent film actress who, while dying of a heart attack, confessed to one of the most famous unsolved crimes in Hollywood history. And ex-CIA officer Howard Hunt, who on his deathbed, confessed to playing a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Starting point is 00:14:40 Deathbed Confessions is a Spotify original from Parcast. airing episodes weekly starting July 21st. Follow and listen to Deathbett Confessions for free on Spotify. Now back to the story. In April of 1996, the NYPD found a mutilated body on Staten Island's shore. Instead of working to identify the corpse, officers appeared to spend much of their time focusing on Peter Gation, a club owner who they believed was at the center of a drug trafficking scheme. As April dragged on, Johnny Melendez became increasingly concerned about his brother, 25-year-old Angel.
Starting point is 00:15:29 Angel had disappeared in mid-March, but the NYPD didn't pay attention to Johnny's missing person report. Johnny was forced to investigate on his own, and he was highly suspicious of 29-year-old Michael Allig, the self-proclaimed king of the club kids. Michael seemed shifty, unwilling to meet Johnny's gaze. To get more information about the club kids' apparent ringleader, Johnny kept interviewing members of the movement. Over the next couple of months, he got a clearer image of what went on at their parties
Starting point is 00:16:02 and what role Michael Allig played in their strange underground world. He's asking about Michael Allig. Huh? Michael! Oh! He's a disaster. Never met a messier person in my life. He peed on me once, like literally peed on me.
Starting point is 00:16:22 me. What? Yeah, I guess he thought it was funny. I had to go home and change. First time I met Michael, he didn't even say hi. He just told me to open in my mouth and he gave me a hit of ecstasy. 29-year-old Michael Alec took it upon himself to make club kid parties as wild as possible. It wasn't out of the ordinary for him to urinate on strangers or give drugs to unsuspecting people.
Starting point is 00:16:50 But that wasn't the worst of it. As he dug for answers, Johnny Melendez found something even more chilling. An old advertisement for a May 1995 party at Peter Gation's Limelight Club. The poster featured a picture of Michael Allig himself. He laid sideways, his eyes open, but glazed over, his head busted open. A hammer covered in fake blood sat a few inches away. Another person reclined beside Michael, holding a fork tantalizingly close to her own red-painted mouth.
Starting point is 00:17:28 The utensil held a chunk of something covered in blood. It looked like she was eating Michael's brain. At the top of the poster was the party's title, Blood Feast in Dripping Red Letters. Further down in the lower right-hand corner, it said, all from Michael Alegg's birthday. The rest of the poster was speckled with short phrases like gruesome and buckets of blood. And one line in particular stood.
Starting point is 00:17:55 out. On the left-hand side of the page in smaller maroon letters, the poster said, legs cut off. The poster made Johnny sick to his stomach. The club kids treated violence like a game. They used images of murder, mutilation, and cannibalism for shock value, or maybe even for their own pleasure. Suddenly, Johnny Melendez was certain that his brother hadn't simply disappeared. His mind flooded with images of grisly parties, dripping blood, and ritual sacrifice. The more he learned about Michael Allig, the more he believed that the king of the club kids
Starting point is 00:18:35 killed his brother. And Johnny wasn't the only person who suspected Michael might be guilty. In June of 1996, journalist Frank Owen published an article in the New York paper The Village Voice. The piece was titled, Did King of Club Kids Michael Allig
Starting point is 00:18:54 really kill Angel Melendez? Or is it all a hoax? These were the questions on every club kid's mind. Just like one partyer had told Johnny, Michael really was darting around New York telling people he killed Angel. However, Michael was known to make outrageous and completely unfounded claims. He was perpetually intoxicated and willing to do practically anything to get attention. For all of his confessions, people truly, didn't know if his words held any weight.
Starting point is 00:19:27 Nevertheless, Frank Owen documented the growing evidence against Michael. According to the article, one club kid said that two days before Angel disappeared, Michael told a group of friends that he wanted to kill the 25-year-old. But many club kids thought Michael's comment was a joke. He'd been high on cocaine at the time, and he wasn't thinking clearly. Still, other, more ghastly rumors swirled. Owen detailed an account from an anonymous source who claimed Michael killed Angel, then left the body in his apartment's bathtub for an entire week.
Starting point is 00:20:04 According to the source, Michael only got rid of the corpse when the smell became too overwhelming. At that point, he cut off Angel's legs and put them in a garbage bag, then bagged and boxed the rest of the body separately. He allegedly carried the packages out of his apartment complex and dumped them into the Hudson River. The account was enough to give readers goosebumps. For the next three months, Michael Alleg and Angel Melendez were all the club kids talked about. And then Michael made his most brazen confession yet. In September of 1996, Michael appeared in a video interview.
Starting point is 00:20:44 It seemed like he wanted to look put together because he combed his hair to the side and wore silver glitter beneath his eyes. But when he spoke, his voice betrayed panic. He said, Angel was a copycat. He was one of those copycats that we hate, and so we killed him. As if that wasn't enough,
Starting point is 00:21:06 Michael turned to face the camera, staring straight at the audience, he continued. I killed Angel, and that was a joke. That's the kind of thing that gets me in trouble. But it certainly didn't sound like Michael was kidding. It sounded like he was terrible.
Starting point is 00:21:27 terrified and desperately trying to hide the truth. At this point, the NYPD considered Michael the top and only suspect in Angel's disappearance, but they needed hard evidence to make an arrest. Finally, after Michael's video confession, authorities revisited the body found on Staten Island. Using forensic dentistry, officers compared the corpse's teeth with New York's dental records. In October of 1996, they got a match. To no club kid's surprise, the body belonged to 25-year-old Angel Melendez. With the body and the many confessions, the NYPD soon had enough evidence to get a warrant for 30-year-old Michael Alegg's arrest.
Starting point is 00:22:14 But there was one more twist. Michael had another roommate, a man named Robert Riggs. 28-year-old Robert went by the name Freeze, and he too was a club kid. There had been rumors that Freeze helped Michael kill and dismember Angel. Plus, if Angel's body really had been in the bathtub for a week, like the anonymous source said, Freeze must have noticed it. If Michael was guilty, then Freeze was almost certainly complicit. So the NYPD set out to arrest both men.
Starting point is 00:22:49 But Michael Allig was no long. in New York. Apparently, he realized the police were onto him, and he'd taken off. Weeks passed before authorities tracked him down at a motel in New Jersey, where he was living and using heroin with his newest boyfriend, Brian. Police pounded on the couple's door at 3 o'clock in the morning. Michael's boyfriend bolted upright. The NYPD demanded to be led inside. Shaking, Brian flushed their remaining heroin while Michael opened the door. Officers pushed their way past Michael and searched the room. They didn't find anything significant, but they didn't have to.
Starting point is 00:23:29 They'd already heard Michael own up to the crime, so they pulled him into the hallway for questioning. What do you know about the murder of Angel Melendez? Angel was murdered? Are you really gonna play dumb? I don't know what you're talking about. Angel just left our apartment one day and didn't come back. Is that why you've been telling people you killed him?
Starting point is 00:23:50 I, that was a joke. It was just a joke. Suddenly, Michael's tone shifted. He no longer openly claimed responsibility for Angel's death. But he didn't have to. As soon as the NYPD had Michael and Freeze both in custody, Freeze started talking. He told the police everything.
Starting point is 00:24:16 According to Freeze, things had been tense between Michael and Angel for some time. Angel was desperate to get his bearings in New York City by saving as much money as possible. But Michael had a habit of stealing his roommate's drugs and cash. At some point prior to the Grizzly killing, Michael supposedly acquired a significant amount of Angel's drug supply without paying him. Angel was already strapped for cash, and Michael's behavior only made his financial situation worse. Plus, Michael was too selfish to care. Apparently, he never apologized or paid Angel back. He acted like he owned the whole world.
Starting point is 00:24:57 So tensions reached a fever pitch. On a Sunday in March 1996, Angel confronted Michael, and the conversation would end with his death. Up next, we dive into the night of Angel's murder and discover Michael's fate. And now, back to our story. On a Sunday in March 1996, 25-year-old Angel Melendez confronted his sometime roommate, 29-year-old Michael Allig. Michael was known throughout New York City as the king of the club kids, but Angel had grown sick of his selfish antics. His drug use had reportedly placed him in considerable debt to Angel, and the 25-year-old wanted his money.
Starting point is 00:25:50 The men's other roommate, 28-year-old Robert Freeze Riggs, listened to him. from another room in the apartment. You owe me, Michael, almost 10 grand. Oh, my God. Angel, you're so annoying. This is why nobody invites you to parties. Can't you just have fun for once? I need that money. We all need money.
Starting point is 00:26:13 I mean, look at my hair. I haven't gotten my roots touched up in two months. I could certainly use a couple hundred dollars for... Michael, I'm not kidding. Neither am I. You either pay me back, or you're going to be sorry. Freeze tiptoed towards the sound of the argument. Michael and Angel's voices grew louder.
Starting point is 00:26:34 Angel yelled about money, and Michael hurled insults in return. But then the fight turned physical. It's impossible to know who lunged first, but by the time Freeze entered the room, Angel and Michael were in an all-out wrestling match. However, Michael had been using several different illegal drugs for the last few days. This wasn't out of the ordinary, but it certainly made it harder for him to fight back. His reaction time was slowed, his movements unnaturally lazy.
Starting point is 00:27:06 And apparently, Angel got dangerously close to overpowering his roommate because Freeze felt the need to intervene. He grabbed a hammer, pushed his way into the scuffle, and brought the weapon down on Angel's head three times. Angel fell to the ground, bloodied and disoriented. A scene frighteningly similar to the one on Michael's Blood Feast Party poster. And somehow, even after sustaining such extreme injuries, Angel was alive. But Michael was still furious.
Starting point is 00:27:39 He wanted to continue the fight. In all likelihood, Michael's resentment had been building for months. Other club kids had heard him talking trash about Angel and even fantasizing about killing him days in advance. As much as Freeze tried to make the murder, heard or sound like self-defense, the evidence suggests Michael might have been considering violence all along. So when he saw his chance, he jumped on it.
Starting point is 00:28:07 According to Freeze's statement to the authorities, as Angel lay clutching his bloodied head, Michael grabbed a pillow and pressed it over his face. Angel flailed and fought, but the pain and disorientation left him weak. Michael pushed the pillow down harder, and eventually Angel stopped moving. This wasn't enough for Michael Allig. He grabbed a bottle of what was possibly a chemical cleaning solution and poured it into Angel's mouth. He pressed a piece of duct tape over the 25-year-old's lips, locking the poisonous liquid inside. Then Michael rolled over exhausted.
Starting point is 00:28:49 According to him, he didn't quite understand what he'd done. until the drugs were off. Once Michael was sober, the reality of the situation sunk in. Ian Fries had killed somebody. Angel's body was in their living room, and they had no idea what to do with it. As it turned out, the anonymous source who spoke to Frank Owen had the story right.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Unsure what else to do, Michael and Fries put Angel's body in the bathtub. They poured ice, draino, and baking soda on the corpse, in the hopes of staving off decomposition. Even so, the smell of death filled the apartment within a week. They had to get rid of the body, but it was too large to carry out of the complex in one piece. Michael had an idea,
Starting point is 00:29:38 perhaps one inspired by the Blood Feast poster from the year before. Several days after the murder, he loaded up on enough heroin to numb his senses, and then he cut off Angel's legs. Michael stuffed his roommate's lower limbs and torso into separate garbage bags. For whatever reason, he placed the sack containing Angel's torso into a cardboard box. Michael and Freeze carried the packages through the lobby of their apartment complex. Incredibly, nobody noticed anything strange.
Starting point is 00:30:12 Once outside, the men hailed a cab. Hey, can you open up the trunk? Thanks. Right, we're headed to the Hudson River. It's not great weather for a day by the water. It's supposed to warm up later, I think. Oh, well, all right. You guys got a picnic in that box, or what?
Starting point is 00:30:42 Yeah, totally. The taxi driver took off towards the Hudson River. He might have noticed a terrible smell in his trunk later that night, but if he did, he never reported anything to the police. He simply dropped the men off near the body of water and moved on. Michael and Freeze lugged the bag and boxed to the edge of the river. Without a second thought, they tossed the packages into the water. The men turned away from what they'd done.
Starting point is 00:31:15 Michael and Freeze were ready to move on, to return to their lives of drugs and partying. According to accounts Michael allegedly shared with friends, the bag containing Angel's legs sank to the bottom of the river just like they wanted. But the box they'd put his torso in was lined with styrofoam. It floated all the way to Staten Island shore. After the crime, Freeze kept his mouth shut. But Michael couldn't do the same.
Starting point is 00:31:45 Whether due to his own internalized guilt or some twisted need for attention, he told numerous people that he was guilty. Although it took police far longer than it should have, they eventually heard Michael's confessions and arrested both men. But the NYPD didn't charge Michael or Freeze with first-degree murder. They were apparently still fixated on Peter Gation,
Starting point is 00:32:10 the club owner who they believed was helping traffic and distribute drugs. They offered Michael and Freeze a plea deal. Perhaps it went something like this. If the men testified against Gation, police would charge them with manslaughter instead of something more severe. Michael and Freeze both took the deal. In 1997, they each pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received sentences of 10 to 20 years behind bars. However, if their plea deal did involve providing testimony against Gation, they never fulfilled that part of the bargain.
Starting point is 00:32:46 Peter Gation was tried for racketeering and drug conspiracy in February of 1998, and Michael was not called to the stand as a witness. Peter was subsequently acquitted of the racketeering and conspiracy charges. The NYPD seemed to bungle both investigations. It's possible that Peter was guilty, but in chasing him down, police may have lost the ability to charge Michael and Freeze with murder. From an observer's point of view, it appears that they placed a higher importance on party drugs
Starting point is 00:33:20 than on Angel Melendez's life, and ultimately failed to give Angel and his family the justice they deserved. Robert Freeze Riggs remained in prison until 2010. Since then, he's kept a fairly low profile. According to James St. James, a fellow club kid, Fries got out of prison, went to college, and no longer sees anyone from his partying past. But Michael Allig was never able to return to a regular life.
Starting point is 00:33:52 Even behind bars, his substance abuse disorders haunted him. More than once, he tested positive for heroin use. Someone must have been giving him the drug, so prison authorities were forced to isolate him from visitors and other inmates. By the time he was released in 2014, Michael still struggled with addiction. He made numerous attempts to get clean, but tragically he continually relapsed. In 2017, he was arrested on drug possession charges, though those were eventually dropped. 51-year-old Michael always seemed to be trying to turn his life around. The same year police caught him with drugs, he did an interview with Inside Edition about
Starting point is 00:34:37 Angel's murder. Michael told the reporter, Friese and I were hoping that we would go to bed and wake up the next day and that it had been a dream. We were that scared. It's hard to put yourself in this situation where you've done something like this that's so horrific that really the whole universe has changed. We didn't know what we were doing. We were just making snap decisions, none of them right. And that's what happens when you're on drugs.
Starting point is 00:35:05 We weren't in our right minds, obviously. Michael ended the interview by saying he wanted to change for the better because he felt overwhelmingly guilty about his past. But as badly as he wanted to get clean, this guilt seemingly drove him to continue using drugs, if only to escape the recurring thoughts of what he'd done. On Christmas Eve of 2020, 54-year-old Michael Allig died of an accidental heroin overdose
Starting point is 00:35:34 at his apartment in Washington Heights. The king of the club kids was gone, and the underground partying movement died with him. Since the late 1990s, numerous former club kids have spoken about their own struggles with drug use, the ease with which partygoers could obtain illicitly. substances became incredibly problematic and led people to do things they would have never done before. In fact, many of Michael's old friends have said that if it weren't for the drugs,
Starting point is 00:36:07 he wouldn't have become as violent and unhinged as he ultimately did. An angel Melendez would still be alive today. James St. James, once a prominent partygoer, became particularly critical of the club kid lifestyle. In 1999, he published. published a book about Michael Allig called Party Monster. In it, he wrote about how the world of the Club Kids was once vibrant, creative, and welcoming, but widespread drug use caused it to devolve into a terrifying place. James St. James captured the truth of the Club Kid movement
Starting point is 00:36:44 better than anybody else. In an interview with The Guardian, he said, For all my saying, how fabulous it is, this was a very dark world in the end. true evil isn't a man in a big black cape. It is very charming, very urbane. For us club kids, it was the little evils we did every day. Step by step, we lost our souls.
Starting point is 00:37:22 Thanks again for tuning into solved murders. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of our party foul special. For more information on the Club Kid killers, amongst the many sources we used, we found Hardy Monster, The Shocumentary by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbado, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Yeah, if we live till next time.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Solve Murder's True Crime Mysteries is a Spotify original from Parcast. It is executive produced by Max Cutler. Sound design by Michael Langsner with production assistants. by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Freddie Beckley. This episode of Solve Murders was written by Karris Allen with writing assistance by Giles Hofseth, fact-checking by Bennett Logan, and research by Mickey Taylor. The amazing cast of voice actors includes Tiana Camacho, Kai Jordan, Joe Hernandez, Albert Park, and Laura Faye Smith.
Starting point is 00:38:26 Solve Murder stars Wendy McKenzie and Carter Roy.

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