Sociopath - Michael Alig RELEASED

Update: I'm updating this to confirm that Alig was released on May 5th of this year - 2014. It appears that he was almost rearrested because of a film crew that was present but he did manage to walk out. I have decided not to post the links but a simple search via the internet will provide you with photos and Alig's first night was him surrounded by friends dining at a restaurant. James St. James can be found among the friends who accompanied Alig.

After reading some articles that have been written by people who know Alig and continue to be friends with him, I am under the impression that nobody wants to "judge" him. They all want to give him a chance and he has so much to offer. Alig will be publishing his book and doing artwork and there is a rumor that he will be on his own reality show. Of course he will be doing interviews and maybe even documentaries; this is to be expected.

Personally, I would like to read his book out of curiosity, on the other hand I'm not sure I want to support him in any way. Yes, he paid his debt to society, I understand this. However, forgiving and forgetting are two very different things. It's amazing to me that he continues to have so much support but I wonder how much of that support he will humbly accept and be grateful for? I wonder if he will take that support for granted. How many criminals finally get released and are immediately offered multiple opportunities? Almost none.

I will be writing a bit more about this topic but right now I'm focused on the Arias trial and preparing for her penalty phase.

In the meantime you can read this older article:
Please note that some of the embedded links my no longer work. I will attempt to fix this in the near future. 

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If you haven't heard of Michael Alig, don't worry. (I usually don't use wikipedia as a source but, they have his info updated).  It's probably best that you haven't heard of him. His story just happens to be one that has intrigued me for several years. I don't know why I'm drawn to some crimes; it's just something that happens every once in awhile.

Alig became known as a club promoter/club kid in NYC in the late 80's, after Andy Warhol died. He is said to be the ring leader of the wild club movement, that occurred for a little over 10 year. His parties were called, Disco 2000. Many were in clubs and, some were illegal parties held in random locations like Burger King or, in a Subway station. He started out strong, promoting in several different clubs,  mostly the infamous Limelight. He and his friends were actually paid to go to the club, dress in exotic costumes, and exhibit shocking behavior.

All of this fun turned into drug use, followed by drug addiction, and promotion of parties that became more and more obnoxious. Eventually, Michael got so lost in his drugs that his world began to crumble around him. It was 1996 now. He had lost his job as a promoter and was trying to make a comeback on the NY club scene. It was about this time that Alig found himself in a fight with his drug dealer, Angel Melendez. The fight turned physical and, was interrupted by a blow to Angel's head with a hammer from a friend that was there, Robert Riggs, who was known as Freeze.

After Freeze had hit him 3 times with the hammer, Alig smothered him with a pillow and Melendez died. They put the body on ice in their bathroom tub and left it there for several days. Now, of course, they both claim the details are sketchy at best, due to the fact that both of these men were on an assortment of heavy drugs. These drugs included ecstasy, Rohypnol, Ketemine or, Special K, cocaine, and heroin. 

 According to some stories, Alig either injected drano or, poured drano down Melendez's throat or, did both and taped his mouth shut. Some stories I've heard about have gone so far as to say they did sexual things with the dead body. After the body had been there for several days, the stench was so bad that they decided to get rid of the body by having Michael dismember the legs off of Melendez. He put the legs in a bag and the rest of the body in a box. It is also rumored that the two threw a party with this box in the middle of the room to act as a drink table. 


The box and bag filled with the body were taken out of the apartment the two were living in, and right out the front entrance into a cab. The cab took the pair to the Hudson river where they threw the body in. 


So, here's where the story gets even MORE disturbing, if you can imagine. We find out that the police basically find this body right away but, it's left unidentified. Michael continues to party and go around telling people of his crime. Evidently, he also had a drug overdose during this time. He told just about anyone all of the gruesome details of this murder. Amazingly, no one said anything. Some just chalked it up to Michael being a prankster but, as time passed, no one saw Angel again. 


You can actually watch the "Shockumentary Party Monster" on YouTube. I'm not sure why they don't have part 2 uploaded but, the end of the first section has Micheal being filmed for this just before his arrest. Watch him as he confesses to the murder and then, play like he's joking. There's all sorts of stuff on YouTube from his interviews, to the movie that was made called, "Party Monster" featuring Macaulay Culkin, playing Alig. 


Finally, the police get wind of these stories and rumors, partially because of Michael Musto, who did a story on the club scene and, talked about a murder that was being discussed in the inner circle. The details of this crime, more specifically - the dismemberment of the legs - prompted the police to look once again at the body they had found 9 months prior but, never officially identified.  Musto appears in these video's as well.


Through dental records, they are able to say that the body they found was, indeed Melendez. Freeze and Alig were arrested. Alig was sentenced to 10-20 years for his crime. He was up for parole a few times and because of the movie that was made, as well as a dirty urine test, showing he had used drugs, he was denied parole. His release date was supposed to be this month, 2010. He will not be released. 

I am quite happy that he will not be released. I cannot believe he will not be serving a life sentence for this crime. It's amazing the fans he still has. They are everywhere. I have read a lot about Michael and, on most of these stories that are reported on the internet, you can see people have the option of leaving their comments. I have read many of these comments and am shocked by the amount of people who absolutely love Alig. 

Sure, he was a great promoter and yes, he did have quite an effect on the NYC party scene. You could also say that Melendez was a drug dealer that probably should have been killed anyway but, that is no excuse for what Michael did. I watch these interviews and watch him and, read his words and, I do not hear an ounce of remorse. It's as if he's talking about something from another world, as if he wasn't actually a part of what happened. 


His good friend James St. James, another main character in Alig's life, who eventually wrote a book about this murderer, claims that Alig is a sociopath and, that prison will not help him. St. James has gone so far as to describe Alig as a mirror, someone that looks at you and figures out what you want and, proceeds to fulfill that want. 


Someone recently posted the story that was done by American Justice. I enjoyed this one the best. They covered the more important parts of the story and didn't seem to glorify Alig, the way the movie seems to. The Shockumentary is okay; it covers the story just fine. I think the interview with Alig that they have, just before he was arrested, is the most disurbing. 


Many of his fans just blame the drugs and, some just dismiss Melendez as a drug dealer that got what he deserved. Others believe his story entirely, that it was self defense. Okay, fine. Him and Freeze were defending themselves. What part of, "call the police and tell them what happened" did they miss here? Who in the world gets done defending themselves and pours drano down their victims throat? Or, injects them with drano? Or, puts their body on ice in a tub for several days? Or, later goes and cuts off that person's legs? Doing that stuff comes from a very sick, disturbing place. 


Drugs did play a role. They enhanced something that was already inside of Michael Alig. This was a man that had already shown signs of bizarre ideas and, disgusting behaviors long before the murder occurred. 


When you watch him on his interviews, he is flippant, almost removed from the occurrence. He doesn't care that he killed anyone. He's just upset that he got caught, that he wasn't clever enough to do something that would have allowed him to get away with the murder. 


There's something still intriguing about him. I watch these videos and don't want him to be evil. I don't want to see this nice looking, witty man as someone who is evil but, he is. I am not sure what will become of Alig in the years to come. He is 43 years old now. He will get out eventually. I'm thinking it will be a drug overdose that will eventually kill him. The whole story is sad and scary but, I am grateful that he is still behind bars, at least for now.