New York's 'Club Kid Killer' Michael Alig released from prison

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[May 07, 2014]  By Mark John

NEW YORK (Reuters) An infamous former Manhattan party promoter, dubbed the 'Club Kid Killer' by tabloid newspapers for the 1996 death of a downtown partygoer, has been released from prison after serving 17 years, corrections officials said.

Michael Alig, 48, was a popular fixture in the '90s club scene in New York and gained notoriety for the killing of Andre "Angel" Melendez, whose body was chopped up and tossed into the Hudson River.

Alig and his friend Robert Riggs pleaded guilty to manslaughter in State Supreme Court in Manhattan in 1997. Alig was sentenced to ten to 20 years in prison.

Riggs told police that he knocked Melendez unconscious with a hammer and gave Alig 10 bags of heroin to chop up the body. He told police Alig and Melendez were fighting over a drug debt.

Melendez, known for wearing a costume of feathered wings, was a well-known figure in the downtown party scene.

Alig's infamy was revived in 2003 when he was portrayed by actor Macaulay Culkin in the biographical crime drama "Party Monster."

Following his release from the medium security Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York, on Monday, Alig tweeted a photo of himself with the caption, "Happy to be free and so grateful for this second chance."

"W/ all these cams following now I know what @KimKardashian feels like!" he tweeted.

Alig will remain on parole until November 2016, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said.

Riggs was released from prison in 2010.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Alden Bentley)

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