(Newser)
– He lived a life so wild that it was the subject of not only a Hollywood feature film, but also a documentary. But that life ended on Christmas Eve in a way that might not be surprising to those who know Michael Alig, 54: an apparent heroin overdose in New York City, reports the Daily News. Alig gained fame and infamy in the 1980s and 90s as the leader of Club Kids, referring to a group that lived practically in Manhattan clubs at the time. Alig’s nickname was “the king of drug addicted boys,” according to TMZ. But his life fell apart in 1996 when he and a friend were convicted of murdering a small drug dealer, then breaking up the body in a bathtub and throwing it into the Hudson River. Alig turned 17 years before his release in 2014.
Macaulay Culkin portrayed him in the 2003 film Party Monster, and Alig was also the subject of a documentary called Glory Daze: the life and times of Michael Alig. He has remained relatively discreet since being released from prison, although he was arrested for smoking meth in a park in 2017. Tina Moore and Kate Sheehy, from New York Post Sum it up: “Alig’s death was the final chapter of a sordid, sensational – and decidedly preventive tale – about the effort to become famous in the Big Apple and ultimately succumb to its excesses.” (Read more overdose stories.)