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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)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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