1
00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:13,960
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis.

2
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:15,160
Speaker 2: New York City.

3
00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:19,640
Speaker 3: Club kids in the nineties lived shockingly decative lifestyles. Their

4
00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:22,919
Speaker 3: sense of spectacle went beyond their open drug use in

5
00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 3: flamboyant fashion. In public, they drank each other's urine, had

6
00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:33,920
Speaker 3: sex with amputated limbs, obliterated gender norms. Impact large capacity

7
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,680
Speaker 3: Manhattan dance clubs fueled by an endless stream of hard drugs.

8
00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,720
Speaker 3: In a new form of electronic music that was loud

9
00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,320
Speaker 3: and abrasive. Club kids were propelled by aggressive beats, the

10
00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:52,440
Speaker 3: perfect soundtrack for this new post punk, post disco clubland decadence.

11
00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:57,160
Speaker 3: It was great music. King of the club kids, Michael

12
00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:01,480
Speaker 3: aleg didn't make great music, and he didn't make any

13
00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:06,000
Speaker 3: music at all. He made nobody's into somebody's. He was

14
00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,399
Speaker 3: a club promoter. As much of Pied Piper as other

15
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,880
Speaker 3: rock stars you can think of. Michael Alec packed clubs,

16
00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,840
Speaker 3: put an entire scene on his back, and wound up

17
00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,920
Speaker 3: on the cover of magazines and splattered across television screens.

18
00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,600
Speaker 3: He made headlines, he made people happy, he made people dance,

19
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,320
Speaker 3: he made people famous, and he made one person turn

20
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,240
Speaker 3: up dead in a box on Staten Island, but he

21
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 3: didn't make great music. That music at the top of

22
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,840
Speaker 3: the show that wasn't great music either. That was a

23
00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,479
Speaker 3: preset loop for my mellotron called Samba Electric Organ MK one.

24
00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:45,440
Speaker 3: I played you that loop because I can't afford the

25
00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,200
Speaker 3: rights to Vision of Love.

26
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:48,000
Speaker 2: By Mariah Carey.

27
00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:50,680
Speaker 3: And why would I play you that kind of forgettable

28
00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,200
Speaker 3: Cheese by Miss Mariah? Could I afford it? Because that

29
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,960
Speaker 3: was the number one song in America on August fifteenth,

30
00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety and that was the day that Michael Alec

31
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 3: launched Disco two thousand, kicking off the club kid movement

32
00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,600
Speaker 3: and setting into motion a series of decadent events that

33
00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:12,120
Speaker 3: would bring about what would come to be known as

34
00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:18,480
Speaker 3: a disco bloodbath. On this episode, Samba Electric Organs, smoking Hot,

35
00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,840
Speaker 3: Forgettable Cheese, a disco blood bath, club kid decadence and

36
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:39,200
Speaker 3: Michael Alec, I'm Jake Brennan and Miss Disgraceland, bone colored

37
00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:45,280
Speaker 3: business cards, Oliver people's glasses, bespoke Valentino suits, a table

38
00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:50,280
Speaker 3: at Dorseia without these in eighties Manhattan, you're a nobody.

39
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,000
Speaker 3: At least you're nobody from the perspective of Brett Easton,

40
00:02:54,080 --> 00:03:01,240
Speaker 3: Ellis's brilliantly satirical Patrick Bateman from American Psycho that table

41
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,960
Speaker 3: at Dorsea. It's hard to come by, harder than the

42
00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,720
Speaker 3: money it takes to afford bespoke suits and trendy eyewear.

43
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:12,799
Speaker 3: You have to know someone, and you're from East wherever

44
00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:15,760
Speaker 3: the fuck, so you don't know anyone. So you head

45
00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,760
Speaker 3: downtown to find your place, but Lower Manhattan hotspots like

46
00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:24,280
Speaker 3: the Odeon or Cafeteria are off limits because the running

47
00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,080
Speaker 3: of the Wall Street Bowls is in full effect and

48
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,239
Speaker 3: the masters of the universe are rubbing cooke straws with

49
00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,480
Speaker 3: Jean Michelle Basquet and SNL cast members in the bathroom.

50
00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:37,800
Speaker 3: And you're either too young, too broke, too openly gay,

51
00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,680
Speaker 3: two one sexy, or too much of all of the

52
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,040
Speaker 3: above to fit in, And so you head over to

53
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:46,120
Speaker 3: the Bowery to try your luck with the punks and

54
00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,880
Speaker 3: the hardcore kids. But you'd rather eat gg Allen's shit

55
00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 3: than sit through some post punk mediocrity with the offensively

56
00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:59,320
Speaker 3: asexual crowd at CBGB's Max's. Kansas City is dead, the

57
00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,960
Speaker 3: Mud Club closed. Elaine's is where your mom would hang

58
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,480
Speaker 3: out if she could afford a bus ticket, and shoes

59
00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:07,960
Speaker 3: that didn't look like Tom McCann stolen out of the

60
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 3: discount section from Coldors. You're alone in New York City.

61
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:17,279
Speaker 3: You know nobody. You are a nobody, and what do

62
00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:21,680
Speaker 3: you do? Reinvent yourself into something outrageous and more decadent

63
00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:26,000
Speaker 3: than Patrick Bateman, Jean Michel Basquet and even crazier than

64
00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:31,680
Speaker 3: Gigi Allen. It worked for Michael Alec. In nineteen eighty four,

65
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:35,960
Speaker 3: eighteen year old Michael aleg was alone in New York City,

66
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 3: fresh off the bus from South Bend, Indiana. He quickly

67
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:52,039
Speaker 3: found his place at Dance Atyria. Dance Atyria was the

68
00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,040
Speaker 3: spot for Alec to reinvent himself. It was the epicenter

69
00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,719
Speaker 3: of New York cool. The Beastie Boys worked as bus boys.

70
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,960
Speaker 3: Ello Coolja was an elevator attendant, so is actress Debbie

71
00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:08,800
Speaker 3: Mazar Shade attended bar and had her first performance ever there.

72
00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:14,560
Speaker 3: But no performer is more associated with Danceteria than Madonna.

73
00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,320
Speaker 3: Dance Ateryria is where she honed her craft, where she

74
00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:22,360
Speaker 3: became Madonna, and it's where Michael Alec became Michael Aleck.

75
00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,480
Speaker 3: As a busboy himself, he witnessed the exact kind of

76
00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:30,359
Speaker 3: magic needed to attract young, horny, impossibly cool manhattanits to

77
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:42,000
Speaker 3: a club on a nightly basis. The only problem Alec

78
00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:46,640
Speaker 3: had no talent. He couldn't play guitar, or write or act.

79
00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:50,440
Speaker 3: It didn't matter. The creativity and free expression at dance

80
00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:52,760
Speaker 3: Ateryria taught him that you didn't need to be a.

81
00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:56,200
Speaker 2: Performer to draw people. All you needed was a hook.

82
00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:00,839
Speaker 3: What does the pre feminism Mad Men character Bobby Barrett

83
00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:04,320
Speaker 3: say to Don Draper, this is America. Pick a job

84
00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,080
Speaker 3: and then become the person who does it. And that's

85
00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,839
Speaker 3: what Michael Allc did. He picked the job of promoter

86
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,560
Speaker 3: because you didn't need to know how to sing, or

87
00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:14,200
Speaker 3: dance or any of that.

88
00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:16,520
Speaker 2: All you needed was a friend who.

89
00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,200
Speaker 3: Could DJ, a club looking to sell drinks on and

90
00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,240
Speaker 3: off night, a little creativity.

91
00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:26,039
Speaker 2: And decadence, Lots and lots of decadence.

92
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,480
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty eight, Michael Alec was hired by New

93
00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,120
Speaker 3: York City nightclub owner Peter Gaishan to work as a

94
00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 3: party promoter at his club, The Limelight. Alex's parties were

95
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:08,120
Speaker 3: the most outrageous, the most decadent, and quickly became wildly

96
00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:13,960
Speaker 3: successful in part because Alex created what became known as

97
00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:14,800
Speaker 3: the club kid.

98
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,160
Speaker 2: It's impossible to describe the look of a club kid.

99
00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,720
Speaker 3: Remember that rave you went to in college, the one

100
00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:23,720
Speaker 3: where you were certain you were getting dosed by the

101
00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:27,800
Speaker 3: sketchy dude wearing lipstick, frosted tips, an astrological sign choker,

102
00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:32,360
Speaker 3: and leopard print creepers. Okay, a club kid is who

103
00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,440
Speaker 3: that guy was trying to look like. A club kid

104
00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,960
Speaker 3: is an even more outrageous version of sketchy, roofy dude

105
00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,640
Speaker 3: from college, but throwing a mix of drag queen, Japanese anime,

106
00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:48,360
Speaker 3: heroin chic B grade horror, and address stolen from your

107
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,040
Speaker 3: little sister's American girl doll collection, and you're getting closer

108
00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,800
Speaker 3: to the club kid look. Club kids took hard drugs,

109
00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:02,200
Speaker 3: designer drugs, and took on flamboyant nudicrous persona es. Michael

110
00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:06,320
Speaker 3: Alex's friend and fellow club kid James Saint. James was

111
00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,640
Speaker 3: a self proclaimed celebutant, meaning he was famous for well

112
00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:11,680
Speaker 3: being famous.

113
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,560
Speaker 2: This was the early nineties, way before Internet.

114
00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:18,600
Speaker 3: Ubiquity, social media, and just at the cusp of twenty

115
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,840
Speaker 3: four to seven news and infotainment. To be famous for

116
00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,960
Speaker 3: no good reason and in the absence of talent, you

117
00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,360
Speaker 3: needed to be over the damn top. Saint James described

118
00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:35,520
Speaker 3: the club kid vibe as part drag, part clown, part infantilism.

119
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:41,120
Speaker 3: In addition to Saint James, Alex club kids included, among others,

120
00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:46,320
Speaker 3: superstar DJ Keoki, who sometimes clad in nothing more than

121
00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,199
Speaker 3: glitter and a diaper, will provide the soundtrack for Alex parties.

122
00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:55,920
Speaker 3: The stunning Jenny Talia, who was prone to big pink dresses,

123
00:08:56,080 --> 00:09:00,160
Speaker 3: big black boots, and big blonde wigs or no for

124
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:04,400
Speaker 3: a shaved head, which when revealed made her even more attractive,

125
00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 3: and a little known at the time, drag queen who

126
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,400
Speaker 3: went by the name Upaul, whose stint as a club

127
00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:15,640
Speaker 3: kid came before his Supermodel of the World Glamoizon status.

128
00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:20,400
Speaker 3: And Amanda Lapoort, who, like other club kids, not only

129
00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:25,360
Speaker 3: bend gender lines but completely scrambled them with their undeniable

130
00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:29,600
Speaker 3: and over the top sexuality. In the late eighties and

131
00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:33,080
Speaker 3: into the early nineties, these in an army of other

132
00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:37,200
Speaker 3: club kids owned the New York City nightclub scene. It

133
00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,760
Speaker 3: was a scene defined by over the top public displays

134
00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:46,040
Speaker 3: of sex, over indulgence of hard narcotics, and designer drugs,

135
00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:49,480
Speaker 3: and an overthrow of the highly codified, stale rock and

136
00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:53,440
Speaker 3: roll by a new form of electronic music that was loud,

137
00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:58,600
Speaker 3: abrasive and propelled by relentlessly aggressive beats that kept the

138
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,880
Speaker 3: party going well into the morning. At Limelight and another

139
00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,640
Speaker 3: Peter Geisha known clubs, Michael Alec was the straw that

140
00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:11,520
Speaker 3: stirred the rufen al drink. His Wednesday night party, Disco

141
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:13,600
Speaker 3: two thousand, featured.

142
00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:17,079
Speaker 4: Over the top acts to draw further attention, with characters

143
00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:20,679
Speaker 4: like Floyd the Heman money Tree, who had stripped naked

144
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,040
Speaker 4: pin one hundred dollars bills to himself and run through

145
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,720
Speaker 4: the crowd into a grabby free for all, or Ernie

146
00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:31,360
Speaker 4: the pea drinker, who you guessed it would openly piss

147
00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:33,960
Speaker 4: in a glass in front of the crowd and gleefuly

148
00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:35,080
Speaker 4: slurp it all down.

149
00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:38,400
Speaker 2: Alec himself would frequently piss.

150
00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:40,640
Speaker 3: On his crowd from the balcony at Limelight and pass

151
00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:44,320
Speaker 3: out cups of his own urine to unsuspecting clubgoers.

152
00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:47,280
Speaker 2: No behavior was too shocking.

153
00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:50,959
Speaker 3: It was all done in the name of hedonism and decadence,

154
00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:54,920
Speaker 3: and it worked. The word was out on the club

155
00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:58,680
Speaker 3: kids Michael Musto from the Village Voice noted that alex

156
00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:02,040
Speaker 3: hedonistic minions had filled a void in New York City

157
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:03,920
Speaker 3: nightlife left behind.

158
00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:04,959
Speaker 2: By Andy Warhol's death.

159
00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:09,880
Speaker 3: New York Magazine put Aleg on its cover, Heraldo and

160
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:14,000
Speaker 3: Joan Rivers had them on their television shows. The Limelight

161
00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:18,960
Speaker 3: Engaisen's Bigger club Tunnel remained packed. As the notoriety of

162
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,880
Speaker 3: the club kids grew, so did Alex's appetite for the outrageous.

163
00:11:23,559 --> 00:11:29,000
Speaker 3: He staged elaborate outlaw parties in public places Manhattan burger

164
00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:33,839
Speaker 3: kings and subway cars, or suddenly out of nowhere, overrun

165
00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:38,200
Speaker 3: by club kids and drag queens for instantaneous dance parties,

166
00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:43,440
Speaker 3: and Aleg began producing other events beyond disco. Two thousand,

167
00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,640
Speaker 3: there was Unnatural Acts where one night, Woody the dancing

168
00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:52,079
Speaker 3: amputee lost his prosthetic while performing a dance, only to

169
00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:55,320
Speaker 3: be joined on stage by a female clubgoer who had

170
00:11:55,400 --> 00:12:00,840
Speaker 3: sex with both his prosthetic and his stump. Privity and

171
00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:08,920
Speaker 3: decadence was way out in the open. Anything went overt sexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality,

172
00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:13,679
Speaker 3: pan sexuality, any sexuality in the drug.

173
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:17,319
Speaker 2: Use kicked up a notch special k was everywhere.

174
00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:20,760
Speaker 3: Club Kids boasted of snorting six inch lines off of

175
00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:21,800
Speaker 3: eight inch dicks.

176
00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:24,000
Speaker 2: Punch bowls were laced with acid.

177
00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,920
Speaker 3: Balloons filled with ecstasy descended from the ceilings and onto

178
00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:33,319
Speaker 3: the dance floor, and Alig promoted another night called Blood Feast,

179
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,079
Speaker 3: with a flyer depicting him dead on the floor, dismembered

180
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,840
Speaker 3: and covered in blood. Club kids would show up dressed

181
00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:44,080
Speaker 3: in homage to their favorite serial killers, and in the

182
00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:48,520
Speaker 3: sign of the horrific reality to come, Alig would arrive

183
00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:51,800
Speaker 3: in a wheelchair covered in someone else's blood.

184
00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:58,760
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word.

185
00:12:58,559 --> 00:12:59,679
Speaker 1: Were were.

186
00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:05,760
Speaker 3: Because of Michael Alig, the limelight was making Studio fifty

187
00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:09,520
Speaker 3: four seem like a cute suburban key party your parents

188
00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:13,840
Speaker 3: might have attended back in the seventies. This during a

189
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:18,160
Speaker 3: time when Rudy Giuliani, us attorney for the Southern District

190
00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,120
Speaker 3: of New York and then Mayor of New York City,

191
00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,800
Speaker 3: was doing everything in his considerable power to restore social

192
00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:31,000
Speaker 3: norms in law and order back to Gotham City. And

193
00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:34,760
Speaker 3: in Gotham City, Michael Alig, king of the club kids,

194
00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:39,440
Speaker 3: the pajama Boy compied Piper, could give two focks about

195
00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,200
Speaker 3: Rudy Giuliani. In Aleg's myopic, drug addled view of the world,

196
00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:48,000
Speaker 3: he was a prince. He had the power, after all.

197
00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,400
Speaker 3: He determined who got past the velvet rope, who sat

198
00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:54,079
Speaker 3: next to him on heraaldo, who gout mentioned to the

199
00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:58,800
Speaker 3: village voice, and who he graced with his presence. The

200
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:03,640
Speaker 3: decadence all the drugs created an alternative reality for Alec,

201
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,760
Speaker 3: one where he was immune to any surrounding pressure or

202
00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 3: a sense of right and wrong. He didn't know from

203
00:14:11,679 --> 00:14:14,800
Speaker 3: Rudy Giuliani. Alex had no sense of right or wrong

204
00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:18,320
Speaker 3: or decency. It was all about the party and the

205
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:23,120
Speaker 3: shock and the headlines. He didn't understand or care about

206
00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:26,840
Speaker 3: the pressure his boss and benefactor, Peter Geishen, faced to

207
00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:30,800
Speaker 3: clean up his act at Limelight or else be closed.

208
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,840
Speaker 3: All Alec understood at this point was getting high. When

209
00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,960
Speaker 3: pressed by Geishen to get clean or else be fired,

210
00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,800
Speaker 3: Alec tried striking a compromise where he promised to only

211
00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:47,520
Speaker 3: smoke crack while taking heroin. Or was it he'd only

212
00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:51,960
Speaker 3: take heroin while smoking crack. It didn't matter. It all

213
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,920
Speaker 3: came crashing down. Giuliani turned the screw and Geish was

214
00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,520
Speaker 3: forced to close Limelight. Alec flamed out of rehab and

215
00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:02,440
Speaker 3: descend into a drug stupor that would have made Courtney

216
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:08,880
Speaker 3: Love jealous. Cocaine, special k, heroin, and crystal meth were

217
00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,880
Speaker 3: all swimming through Alex's system while he holed up in

218
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:16,200
Speaker 3: his luxury West Side apartment paid for by Peter gaishin

219
00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:20,320
Speaker 3: with fellow club kid Robert Freeze Riggs, and the two

220
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:25,480
Speaker 3: were nearly out of drugs. This was a problem. So

221
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:28,400
Speaker 3: was the fact that Alec owed his drug dealer Angel

222
00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:32,600
Speaker 3: Melendez money. Maybe this was why friends of Theirs recounted

223
00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:36,320
Speaker 3: that Alec was running around town casually mentioning that he

224
00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:42,040
Speaker 3: wanted to kill Angel. Angel Melendez wore wings literally that

225
00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:45,560
Speaker 3: was his club kid stick. He also dealt heroin. He

226
00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:48,760
Speaker 3: hung out with the punks at CBGB's before finding his

227
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,280
Speaker 3: way to the rough trade over at the Piers on

228
00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:55,280
Speaker 3: the West Side. A peer queen in street smart Angel

229
00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:58,480
Speaker 3: was by all accounts a sweet kid who was saving

230
00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,680
Speaker 3: his drug profits to break into the movie business and

231
00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:02,800
Speaker 3: break away.

232
00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:04,120
Speaker 2: From the madness of clubland.

233
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:08,600
Speaker 3: The problem was collecting drug debts was a real headache,

234
00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:10,560
Speaker 3: and Michael Alex's debt was.

235
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:12,360
Speaker 2: Becoming a real problem.

236
00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,360
Speaker 3: It wasn't just that he owed Angel thousands of dollars,

237
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:17,640
Speaker 3: it was that he was being a real prick about it,

238
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,320
Speaker 3: disparaging him in public, not letting him.

239
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:21,760
Speaker 2: Into the parties he was hosting.

240
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,120
Speaker 3: And then the little bastard found out where Angel was

241
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,120
Speaker 3: stashing his drug cash and managed to steal eighteen grand,

242
00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,680
Speaker 3: only to go and blow it all on furniture. Furniture

243
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:37,720
Speaker 3: Alec and Freeze were renovating their apartment. Angel was pissed,

244
00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:42,640
Speaker 3: and rightly so. Angel Melendez showed up at the Riverbank

245
00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:46,640
Speaker 3: West luxury apartment complex where Michael Alec was holed up

246
00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:51,600
Speaker 3: with Robert Freeze Riggs on March seventeenth, nineteen ninety six,

247
00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:56,000
Speaker 3: demanding his money back. Michael mocked him and insisted on

248
00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:59,600
Speaker 3: more heroin. Freeze told Angel that he and Alec only

249
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:01,200
Speaker 3: let him hang around because.

250
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:05,400
Speaker 2: He had drugs. This enraged Angel. A struggle ensued.

251
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:08,480
Speaker 3: Angel bit Michael and threw him into a china cabinet.

252
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,840
Speaker 3: A huge shard of glass from the cabinet pierced his back,

253
00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:16,679
Speaker 3: blood spewed everywhere. Freeze then grabbed a nearby hammer and

254
00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:20,000
Speaker 3: swung hard at Angel, coming down on his head three

255
00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:21,639
Speaker 3: times more blood.

256
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:26,040
Speaker 2: Angel fell to the ground. Michael pounced.

257
00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:28,800
Speaker 3: He wrapped his hand in the sweatshirt and began pummeling

258
00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:33,280
Speaker 3: Angel in the face. Then he strangled him. At that point,

259
00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:36,280
Speaker 3: one of them grabbed the draino. They held Angel down

260
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,320
Speaker 3: and poured it into his throat. To be sure that

261
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,679
Speaker 3: he swallowed it, they duct taped.

262
00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:42,120
Speaker 2: His mouth shut.

263
00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:51,720
Speaker 3: Exhausted, Michael and Freeze flopped on the couch while Angel

264
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:55,080
Speaker 3: lied on the floor choking to death. The official cause

265
00:17:55,119 --> 00:18:00,680
Speaker 3: of death was asphyxiation. After a brief rest, Michael and

266
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,520
Speaker 3: Freeze dragged Angel's body to the bathroom tub. In an

267
00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,760
Speaker 3: effort to mask the coming smell of Angel's dead body,

268
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,360
Speaker 3: they covered him in ice, baking soda, and more dreno.

269
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,159
Speaker 3: Then they get down to the business of getting high

270
00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,920
Speaker 3: as fuck. Turns out, when you kill your drug dealing friend,

271
00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,239
Speaker 3: you inherit a stash. And what a stash it was.

272
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,879
Speaker 3: For eight days, Michael and Freeze sat around the apartment

273
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,399
Speaker 3: doing nothing but heroin while Angel's body sat in the

274
00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:35,880
Speaker 3: tub rotting. The stench became unbearable. Something had to be done,

275
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 3: so it was decided that Freeze would head down to

276
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:42,439
Speaker 3: Macy's to buy some Butcher's knives. When he returned, he

277
00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:45,159
Speaker 3: and Michael did more heroin to blunt the reality of

278
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:49,399
Speaker 3: what they were about to do next. Stumbling into the

279
00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:53,240
Speaker 3: bathroom through the haze of rotting flesh and swarming flies,

280
00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:57,280
Speaker 3: Michael Alec, king of the club Kids, got down on

281
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 3: his knees and, wielding his Macy's butcher knife, began sawing

282
00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:06,359
Speaker 3: the limbs off of his friend Angel Melendez. He started

283
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 3: with the legs, removing them from the tub and placing

284
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 3: them into a duffel bag. They placed them, along with

285
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:17,480
Speaker 3: a torso, into an empty television box and secured it

286
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:21,680
Speaker 3: shut with their trusty duct tape. The box was then

287
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,359
Speaker 3: placed in the living room, where briefly doubled as a

288
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:28,640
Speaker 3: coffee table. To mask the smell man that smell, they

289
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:34,639
Speaker 3: sprayed Calvin Klein eternity everywhere, the irony eternity to mask

290
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:39,320
Speaker 3: the stench of death. Needless to say, the flies remained,

291
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 3: but the flies couldn't stop the drug binge. There was

292
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,840
Speaker 3: too much heroin to do. Friends came by and remarked

293
00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:51,320
Speaker 3: on the smell. Alec landed on faulty sewage in the

294
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:56,240
Speaker 3: building and when friends inquired to Angel's whereabouts, Alec would

295
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,240
Speaker 3: casually mention that he killed them, chopped him up and

296
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:02,720
Speaker 3: stuffed him in a look that box right over there.

297
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:06,399
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, no one believed him, so

298
00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:08,200
Speaker 3: Michael Alec did what he did best.

299
00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:10,080
Speaker 2: He kept the party going.

300
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:30,160
Speaker 3: According to multiple sources, in the days and weeks following

301
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 3: Angel Melendez's death, Michael Aleg was telling anyone who had

302
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,600
Speaker 3: listened that he had killed him, but nobody thought it

303
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:41,160
Speaker 3: was true. This was, after all, the guy who promoted

304
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:44,840
Speaker 3: a club night called Blood Feast where people were literally

305
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:48,479
Speaker 3: drinking their own urine on stage, showing up dressed as

306
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:54,119
Speaker 3: serial killers or in costumes with bloody, dismembered limbs. So

307
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,840
Speaker 3: when Michael started telling fellow club kids the grizzly details

308
00:20:57,840 --> 00:20:59,760
Speaker 3: of the crime he just committed to one of their

309
00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,439
Speaker 3: friend friends, people thought it was all a put on,

310
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:08,479
Speaker 3: But village voiced nightlife calmness. Michael Musto thought otherwise. He

311
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:12,240
Speaker 3: knew where Michael Aleg lived, on the corner of narcissism

312
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:16,199
Speaker 3: and drugged out madness, right between unhinged reality and the

313
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:20,679
Speaker 3: gaping hole of insecurity, and so Musto published a blind

314
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,200
Speaker 3: item in the Village Voice on April twenty third, nineteen

315
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:29,200
Speaker 3: ninety six, called Nightclubbing. In it, he addressed the swirl

316
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:34,840
Speaker 3: of scandal surrounding Aleg and Freeze's rumored crime against Angel Melendez.

317
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 3: Page six then picked it up. The Voice followed up

318
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:42,320
Speaker 3: a couple months later with their own cover story. At

319
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:45,600
Speaker 3: this point, Alex started to realize the gravity of the

320
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 3: situation and began denying his earlier claims, telling people that

321
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:54,240
Speaker 3: it was all a ruse, a prank. But the heat intensified,

322
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,919
Speaker 3: so Alg took the money he'd made from selling the

323
00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 3: furniture he'd bought with the money he'd see stolen from

324
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:05,120
Speaker 3: Angel and hit the road. NYPD detectives were on theman

325
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,720
Speaker 3: no time. They found him holed up in a sleazy

326
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:12,159
Speaker 3: New Jersey hotel, and so Michael Aleg and Robert Freeze

327
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,880
Speaker 3: Riggs played nice with authorities and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

328
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,720
Speaker 3: They were sentenced to ten to twenty years. Alex served

329
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:24,159
Speaker 3: sixteen of them. Released in twenty fourteen. Michael Aleg is

330
00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 3: well Michael Aleg. He's up on YouTube with a show

331
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,960
Speaker 3: called pu where he and fellow club kid Ernie glam

332
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:37,040
Speaker 3: Super served nostalgic Clubland fans with decadent tales from the nineties,

333
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:41,080
Speaker 3: and where they promote Alex's recent ventures like his new

334
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 3: club night at Manhattan's mega club Space Abiza, and where

335
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 3: they dispute rumors about Alec, like his supposed purposeful spreading

336
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 3: of HIV as claimed by Lucian Wintrich, and where they

337
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,119
Speaker 3: set the record straight about Alec's recent drug bust, the

338
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 3: one where he was busted in a Bronx park at

339
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,919
Speaker 3: two in the morning with Special K, valiantly on his

340
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 3: way to return the drugs to a drug dealer from

341
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 3: a friend, supposedly trying to get clean.

342
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 5: What a guy rehabilitated worthy of parole after mercilessly dismembering

343
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,520
Speaker 5: the body of his friend, You be the judge.

344
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:22,680
Speaker 2: One thing I know to be.

345
00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,000
Speaker 3: True is that Michael Alec is definitely still Michael Alec,

346
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:30,560
Speaker 3: even post prison. Watching the YouTube videos, it's easy to

347
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 3: catch a glimpse of the twenty somethingter provocateur in Alex's

348
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,000
Speaker 3: more world weary eyes as he attempts to make use

349
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 3: of modern technology to shock and engage an audience, and

350
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 3: most of all, remain relevant. The smart ass is still there.

351
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 3: Sure it's without the assless chaps. But if Alec feels

352
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 3: any real remorse, the YouTube videos make it hard to

353
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 3: build a case the prison had any real rehabilitative effect

354
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 3: on his character. I wonder how members of Angel Melendez

355
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 3: his family feel about all of this when that late night,

356
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,359
Speaker 3: unprocessed grief knocks and they head to social media to

357
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:11,640
Speaker 3: catch a glimpse.

358
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 2: Of their loved one.

359
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:16,879
Speaker 3: Maybe they punch Angel Melendez club Kid into the YouTube

360
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 3: search box and head down the rabbit hole. There's Angel

361
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 3: on Heraldo, big red Angel wings, big eyes, big boots,

362
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:31,080
Speaker 3: Brando biker hat. And there's Angel with Rue Paul at

363
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,560
Speaker 3: a burger king outlaw party. You click on the Joan

364
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:39,399
Speaker 3: Rivers link, but no Angel, because search algorithms are insensitive beasts.

365
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 3: They know so much about us, but how can they

366
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 3: possibly know about our grief? They can't, which is why

367
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 3: below the Joan Rivers clip there's a clip from mccullay

368
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 3: Culkin's feature film on Angel's death, Party Monster, and below

369
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,880
Speaker 3: that are a couple of shockingly graphic documentaries that you'd

370
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 3: rather not watch again and find at the bottom of

371
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:05,000
Speaker 3: the search. More general club Kid videos start to pop up,

372
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,439
Speaker 3: and there's twenty seventeen Michael Alec, three years out of

373
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:14,199
Speaker 3: jail and looking barely worse for wear. He's got a

374
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 3: fresh new haircut, a trendy T shirt that is a

375
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 3: size too small, and is drinking what must be an

376
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 3: eight dollars coffee from some hot shit, gentrifying barista. He's

377
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 3: regaling us with fabulous details from his latest trip to

378
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 3: a West wherever the fuck, and imploring us to come

379
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 3: party with him at his new dance night in Manhattan,

380
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,200
Speaker 3: where you and thousands of his closest friends can live

381
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,680
Speaker 3: out impossible to imagine decade in fantasies. In real life,

382
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 3: you can do that, you can't. Michael Alec gets to

383
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 3: do that. Angel Melendez does not get to do that.

384
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 3: He's dead. He's no longer stuffed in duct taped TV books.

385
00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:00,440
Speaker 3: His remains have been interred somewhere more respectable, close by though,

386
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 3: right over there as a matter of fact, and Michael Alec,

387
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 3: He's still doing what he does best, keeping the party going.

388
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 3: I'm Jake Brennan, miss is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by

389
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,399
Speaker 3: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership.

390
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 2: With Double Elvis.

391
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:33,400
Speaker 3: Credits for this episode can be found on the show

392
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,199
Speaker 3: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as

393
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 3: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.

394
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 2: We really appreciate it.

395
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:44,360
Speaker 3: And if not, you can become a member right now

396
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,919
Speaker 3: by going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership. Members can

397
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 3: listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free, Plus you'll

398
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 3: get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted

399
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 3: bonus episode, special audio collections in early as, access to

400
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 3: merchandise and events. Visit disgrayslampod dot com slash membership for details,

401
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 3: rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok,

402
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 3: Twitter and Facebook at disgrace slampod and on YouTube at

403
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 3: YouTube dot com slash at Disgraceslampod, Rock and roll Up.

404
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 2: He's the bed Don Man.