With their eccentric costumes and decadent behaviour, they dominated New York’s nightlife until a brutal murder tore them apart
Asthe 1980s drew to a close, a quirky group of youthful outsiders began to dominate the New York club scene. These were strange creatures to mainstream observers, a misfit band of queer outcasts who found fame due to their outré styles and shocking subversive humour. Throughout the 1990s, these so-called ‘Club Kids’ ruled the city’s nightlife, their influence spreading far beyond their inner circle and growing to include future celebrities, such as drag superstar RuPaul, among their ranks. For young, queer partygoers the Club Kids were transgressive, exciting and new. “It felt like Babylon,” former member Walt Cassidy reminisced during an interview with Another Man. But, on 17 March 1996 the new Babylon fell, when one of the movement’s creators, Michael Alig, brutally murdered and dismembered fellow Club Kid Angel Melendez. But who was Alig? Why did he kill Melendez? And just how did this transgressive movement end so violently?
INTRODUCING MICHAEL ALIG
Born in Indiana in 1966, Michael Alig could never have been accused of fitting in. His sexuality saw him constantly beaten up and hounded in a community that was far from accepting. A particularly traumatic moment occurred when Alig was given the cold shoulder by close friend Jeff. The pair had developed feelings for each other, but when Jeff’s father caught them kissing, stern words were had with his son. From then on the boy ignored Alig, breaking the 16-year-old’s heart. Compared to his hometown, New York was a Warholian dreamland and it was here that the young Alig escaped.
Initially moving to the Big Apple to continue his studies, when Alig discovered the city’s thriving nightlife, any academic aspirations were forgotten. He met and befriended a fellow student called Ludovic, who was dating artist Keith Haring. On one occasion, Alig recalled arriving at a party in a limousine and Ludovic exiting on a lead wearing only underwear and white body paint. Michael Alig was entranced.
Beginning work as a busboy, Alig was determined to become a promoter and organise his own wild parties. He masterminded The Filthy Mouth Contest in which guests were invited onto the stage to utter the most revolting and shocking phrases they could imagine. Despite Alig reminiscing in the New York Post that it was “one of my biggest successes,” nightlife impresario Rudolf Piper recollected to reporter Frank Owen that “it wasn’t the rousing success Michael thought it was, but it wasn’t a complete fiasco either.”
But Alig was undaunted. He began to gather around himself an eclectic group of outsiders who brought a new, manic energy to the dying club scene.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
In 1987, The Village Voice repo
