Angel Melendez

**Andre "Angel" Melendez** (May 1, 1971 - March 17, 1996) was a member of "The Club Kids" and purported drug dealer who lived and worked in New York City. He was killed by Michael Alig and Robert "Freeze" Riggs on March 17, 1996.

## Events

### Backstory

Andre Melendez was born on May 1, 1971 in the country of Colombia. He moved with his family from Colombia to New York City when he was just 8 years old. Andre, who started going by Angel due to his costume of feathered angel wings, met a club owner named Peter Gatien. He owned The Limelight and several other clubs in New York. Angel would frequently go to Peter’s club and sell drugs.

Angel also met a man named Michael Alig, who is known to have created the Club Kids. Michael would recruit drug dealers to work in Peter’s club and they would be added to his payroll. New club goers would become addicted to drugs.

### Murder

On March 17, 1996, Angel went with Michael Alig to his apartment called the Riverbank West apartments. Michael lived with his roommate, Robert "Freeze" Riggs.

Michael and Angel reportedly got in a brutal fight over debt. After Angel started to overpower Michael, Robert joined in to help Michael, and hit Angel in the head with a hammer three times, causing Angel to go down. Michael finished the job by smothering Angel with a pillow. He also poured a cleaning chemical in his mouth, and wrapped duct tape around it.

Then, they stripped Angel and placed him in their bathtub. He was in the apartment for 5-7 days. Robert went to Macy’s, and purchased 2 knives that were described as chef knives, and a cleaver. Robert claimed he didn’t have the stomach to dismember Angel, so he offered Michael 10 bags of heroin to do it.

Michael went into the bathroom alone to dismember Angel’s legs, wrapped them in separate garbage bags and duffel bags. The two murderers then disposed of Angel’s legs into the Hudson River. They wrapped Angel’s upper body in a bed sheet and a garbage bag, and then put it in a cardboard box. Alig and Riggs carried the box through their apartment lobby, and took a cab. They also threw this box in the river.

### Discovery & Investigation

Around March or April of 1996, one of the boxes was found on a beach in Staten Island, a tropical storm had carried it there.

On September 8, 1996, the other box was found by a homeless woman. She had fished it out by a pier in the Harlem River.

A police officer in Staten Island initiated an investigation of the John Doe found. The Staten Island Police Department used dental records to identify Melendez (whose body the coroner had mis-identified as that of an Asian male); on November 2, 1996, the mutilated corpse was positively identified as Melendez, and details of the rumors about how Melendez was killed were confirmed.

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. However, Alig confessed to Angel’s brother, Johnny that he killed Angel because Peter Gatien was going to be in trouble over drugs, and Angel had known everything, and was going to turn Peter in.

### Aftermath

Michael and Riggs were both given plea deals of 10-20 years, if they pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

On October 1, 1997, they both pleaded guilty, and sentenced to 10-20 years in prison.

Riggs was released on parole in 2010, Alig on May 5, 2014.

## News

*For news articles on Angel Melendez, see here.*

## External links

* Andre Melendez • Find a Grave
* Andre Melendez • Wikipedia

## In popular media

### Film

* Party Monster: The Shockumentary (12 February 1999)
* Party Monster (17 October 2003)

### Literature

* *Party Monster* – James St James (2 September 2003)

### Podcast

* Stardust Sisters - *The Death of Andre "Angel" Melendez & The Club Kids from Party Monster: Where are they now?* (7 September 2020)

### Television

* American Justice – *Dancing, Drugs and Murder* (13 April 2000)
* Deadly Devotion – *Becoming Angel* (16 July 2013)
* 1990s: The Deadliest Decade – *Death of an Angel* (19 November 2018)