Killer Clubbie Claims Remorse
By Richard Johnson
(The New York Post; 6 June 2002)– Club kid king-turned-killer Micahel Alig claims he was so tormented by memories of how he murdered drug dealer Angel melendez that he wanted to kill himself in prison.

Alig – who will be played by Macaulay Culkin in the upcoming movie Party Monster – poured out his heart to PAGE SIX in a handwritten letter mailed from his jail cell at Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, N.Y. Renouncing his earlier glib comments about the grisly muderer of Melendez – who was bludgeoned with a hammer and injected with Drano in 1996 – Alig now says that memories of the killing have made his life a living hell.

"The truth of the matter is, the guit and the anguish that followed what had happened nearly drove me to suicide," Alig writes. "I mean, anyone who knows me – mean really knows me, not just the club kid persona, knows how this whole thing has affected me, how horrendous a nightmare it all was.

"There was certainly nothing 'fun' about it. If I've done or said anything to make you think otherwise, trust me, I was high or trying to joke my way out of an unbearable situation. Anyone who knows me knows that's how I handle painful or stressful situations."

Of course, Alig may be spilling crocodile tears in preparation for the day he faces a parole board. In past prison interviews with Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, Alig has been considerably more lighthearted – joking about prisoners faluting press clippings to prove who's more famous and bragging that he was going to teach Culkin how to kiss. He's gonna have to kissa lot of boys in the picture, so I'll have to show him my moves," Alig giggled to Musto in 1998.

Alig shot to fame as a garishly costumed club kid in the early '90s when he orchestrated some of the most decadent and drug-fueled baccanals in nightclub history as Peter Gatien's Limelight and Tunnel clubs. The media-savvy promoter even appeared on "Geraldo" with his mother, who spoke adoringly of the drug ectsasy.

Culkin has been visiting Alig regularly while researching his role in Party Monster, which also stars Dylan McDermott, as Gatien, Marilyn Manson, Chloe Sevigny, Seth Green and Natasha Lyonne.

Alig insists he is truly remorseful and is not merely trying to rehabilitate his image. "I'm not looking to gain anything or win any favor," Alig writes. "I just want to set the record straight."