Andre "Angel" Melendez (May 1, 1971 – March 17, 1996) was a member of the Club Kids who lived and worked in New York City. He was killed by Michael Alig and Robert "Freeze" Riggs on March 17, 1996. His life and death have inspired several pieces of media, including books, films, music, and television. for money Melendez was purportedly owed. According to various statements, 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), poured a "cleaner or chemical" into his mouth, then covered Melendez's mouth with duct tape.) A tropical storm had helped propel the floating, cork-lined box to Staten Island.

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 – perpetuated by Alig himself and 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 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.

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. (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 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.") Prosecutors were hesitant to charge Alig with first-degree murder, as they still hoped he would testify against his former boss, 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. (American Justice reports they pleaded guilty and were sentenced on September 10, 1997.

Book

  • James St. James's book, Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland (1999), is about Melendez's murder. It was reprinted with the title Party Monster after the release of the eponymous 2003 film.

Films

  • There are two films based on Melendez's murder and the events which followed:
  • The documentary film Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998), based on the events leading up to and surrounding the Melendez's murder.
  • A 12 track concept album "a terrible beauty featuring Michael Alig" - www.satorigroup.uk - was produced in 2000 by UK-based the satori group. Track five is titled "BROTHER." The track features, set to music, audio from the documentary "Party Monster," with Johnny, Andre's brother, and his fruitless search, making flyers, and talking to the police, as well as Michael Alig.

Television

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

  • American Justice: "Dancing, Drugs, and Murder" (2000) on A&E
  • Notorious
  • New York Homicide S3E3 in February 2025 "Killer Club Kids" on Oxygen network
  • The 1990s: The Deadliest Decade: “Death of an Angel” (Season 1, Episode 3) (Aired: November 19, 2018) on Investigation Discovery

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.

References