On July 15, 1997 Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace’s life abruptly ended with a gunshot on the doorstep of his Miami beach mansion. Many of us know and love the Italian fashion line known as Versace, but most people aren’t aware of the murder of its founder, Gianni Versace. His life was taken by a 27-year-old serial killer, Andrew Cunanan. Cunanan was a desperate man craving attention in all the wrong ways and found that attention by murdering men. 1
Cunanan’s road to murdering Versace began when Cunanan was 19. His father abandoned his family and fled to the Philippines to avoid embezzlement charges. He left his wife and kids broke and alone. Cunanan followed his father to the Philippines. He later returned shocked at the poor conditions his father was living in. Cunanan started spiraling downward. He acted out in hopes of attention, and sometimes he resulted to violence. There was one incident where he shoved his mother so hard he dislocated her shoulder. Later observation of his behaviors suggested he suffered from antisocial personality disorder, which results in a lack of remorse for one’s actions. Cunanan craved any kind of attention he could get. He would do anything to get what he wanted. His spiraling life led him cross country on a murder spree killing without motivation except for the attention he would gain by doing so.2
In 1989 Cunanan dropped out of the University of California, San Diego and moved to the San Francisco area where took on many aliases such as Andrew DeSilva, Lieutenant Commander Andy Cummings, Drew Cunningham, and Curt Matthew Demaris. He made up lies about where his money came from, but, in many cases, he appeared wealthy because he befriended and lived off wealthy older men. He began playing parts in creating violent pornography.3 He was often found at parties and high class clubs, which was how he met the Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace at a San Francisco club. But this life of luxury didn’t last long.4 In 1996 Cunanan broke up with Norman Blachford, who at the time was financially supporting him and his expensive gay playboy lifestyle. Broke, Cunanan, maxed out his credit cards and sold drugs to survive. Not long after that, he got a one-way ticket to Minneapolis to visit a former lover.5
On April 27,1997 Andrew Cunanan committed his first murder, killing Jeffrey Trail, a former navy lieutenant who he had met at a bar in San Diego. His body was found two days later in David Madson’s apartment wrapped up in a rug after being beaten to death. Cunanan had been staying with Madson, one of his former lovers, at the time of Trail’s disappearance. Four days later the second murder was confirmed when David Madson’s body was discovered by fishermen near a lake north of Minneapolis on May 3,1997.6
With the car he stole from his second victim, Cunanan made his way to Chicago where he tortured 72-year-old Lee Miglin to death and left him bound in his house where Marilyn Miglin found her husband on May 4, 1997. Cunanan left Madson’s car in a garage a few blocks from Miglin’s home and murder spree, but not before he took all the money he could find in Miglin’s home and his jade green Lexus. Cunanan had no prior relations to Lee Miglin, and so he was believed to had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Cunanan found him.7 After this murder, Cunanan was placed on the FBI’s Ten most wanted list.8 Still on the run, Cunanan made his way to New Jersey where he claimed his fourth victim by the name of William Reese. Reese was a custodian and Finn’s Point National Cemetery. He was found in the basement of his office with a gunshot wound to head. Cunanan then dumped the stolen Lexus nearby and drove off with Reese’s red pickup truck.9
Now in Miami, Cunanan left his red pickup in plain sight a few blocks away from Gianni Versace’s mansion.10 After the 50-year-old fashion designer returned from his morning walk, he found Andrew Cunanan at his front steps. Cunanan then shot and killed Versace on July 15, 1997.11 To kill Versace, he used the same gun that he stole from his first victim, Jeffery Trail, and that he also used to murder David Madson and William Reese.12 Cunanan fled the scene and hid out in a nearby house boat to avoid being found. Eight days after the murder of his last victim, Gianni Versace, Andrew Cunanan was discovered by the houseboat’s owner, who then shot Cunanan.13 Andrew Cunanan looked for attention his whole life, and he found it in all the wrong ways, but just like his personality, he ended everything with a bang.
- Gary Indiana, Three Month Fever: The Andrew Cunanan Story (New York: Cliff Street Books, 1999). ↵
- Evan Thomas, and Richard Alleman, “Facing death,” Newsweek (28 July 1997): 20. ↵
- Wikipedia, 2018, s.v. “Andrew Cunanan.” ↵
- Evan Thomas, and Richard Alleman, “Facing death,” Newsweek, (28 July 1997): 20. ↵
- Wikipedia, 2018, s.v. “Andrew Cunanan.” ↵
- John MCormick and Evan Thomas, “A lethal road trip: a gay socialite is suspected of taking off on a killing spree from Minnesota to Chicago to the Northeast,” Newsweek (19 May 1997): 52. ↵
- John MCormick and Evan Thomas, “A lethal road trip: a gay socialite is suspected of taking off on a killing spree from Minnesota to Chicago to the Northeast,” Newsweek, (19 May 1997): 52. ↵
- Andrew Phillips, “The Cunanan enigma: Versace’s killer takes his own life and leaves a mystery,” Maclean’s, (4 Aug. 1997): 32. ↵
- John MCormick and Evan Thomas, “A lethal road trip: a gay socialite is suspected of taking off on a killing spree from Minnesota to Chicago to the Northeast,” Newsweek, (19 May 1997): 52. ↵
- Evan Thomas, “End of the road,” Newsweek, (4 Aug. 1997): 22. ↵
- Evan Thomas, and Richard Alleman, “Facing death,” Newsweek, (28 July 1997): 20. ↵
- John MCormick and Evan Thomas, “A lethal road trip: a gay socialite is suspected of taking off on a killing spree from Minnesota to Chicago to the Northeast,” Newsweek, (19 May 1997): 52. ↵
- Evan Thomas, “End of the road,” Newsweek, (4 Aug. 1997): 22. ↵
110 comments
Bruno Montes de Oca
I had always heard about the murder of Gianni Versace but never knew the specifics. Now in the era of TV show documentaries, there is a show dedicated to this murder. After reading this article and watching that TV show, it is crazy how the minds of murderers work. Cunanan was a psychopath and people with these kinda of disorders need help so that things like this don’t happen again. Especially for all the people that were killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time it is just unfortunate.
Donte Joseph
I love the brand Versace because I feel that they make nice clothing, but I did not know anything else about who started the brand and what had happened to them. It is one thing for someone to be murdered, but a designer icon to be murdered by a serial killer is a whole different kind of crazy. I feel if Cunanan had gotten help, this tragedy might have been avoided.
Dylan Sanchez
What a fantastic read. I had no idea that Versace was even deceased. The killer truly is a sick individual who was looking for all the attention he can get. I just want to know why he did it, of course there was the reason of fame but he didn’t ever plan on leaving a mystery or eeriness behind the whole thing. He just found his way to each victim and killed them, went to the next city and repeated. Odd.
Devin Ramos
I first heard about Andrew Cunanan through a TV show but after I saw the show I was interested more in the whole story. One of the things I found most odd is that Andrew had no real plan on why to kill Gianni Versace he knew he wouldn’t get any of his money from him or the Versace company. Andrew did crave attention and the fact that he would use guys to receive this attention is odd.
Roman Olivera
I actually remember this murder happening an the man hunt that went on for Cunanan. To find out that Versace wasn’t his first victim was kind of crazy. This guy just showed the patterns of someone with a serious mental illness and nobody seemed to notice. This was big time news during the actual manhunt. To think that they made a show on this murder case. They make shows about all kinds of craziness nowadays. This was a very good short article on the murderer though, good job.
Maggie Amador
This article was very well written and engaging. It’s always interesting to read about the backgrounds of serial killers because it explains a lot of the reasoning behind their actions. Not to say that any of Cunanan’s actions can be justified by his troubled childhood, but this constant need for attention triggering the need to murder is something I would like to learn more about.
Daniela Cardona
I knew Versace was murdered, but I never knew how or by who. It seems that something just snapped in Cunanan and he could no longer control himself. For each kill he displayed a pattern: kill, steal car, move to next kill, abandon car and repeat. It’s pretty eerie when you think about it. This is also why I find it weird he decided to hide after Versace’s murder, I wonder if it was because he did not find access to the cars. Nevertheless, Cunanan was granted the easy way out by the boat owner and never had to accept the punishment of his crimes.
Diego Aguilera
Cunanan was only looking for attention and for someone to give it to him but unfortunately looked in all the wrong directions. Its crazy that I love the brand and actually own a couple of things from Versace but never really looked into his murder. Its always sad when someone commits such a horrific crime and makes you appreciate these designers a lot more.
Alexis Martinez
Just like many people, I had heard of Versace but I never knew he had been murdered nor did I know anything of his murderer. I found this article really interesting and very well written. I think the author did a great job of going into detail of Cunanan’s life as well Versace’s. Just like most mental health cases, if Cunanan had gotten the proper treatment this would have been prevented. Just like many, he had a troubled past and chose to take extreme action.
Clarissa Gonzalez
To be quite honest, I had no idea that the original founder of Versace had been murdered. It was just a brand that I was aware of, but not familiar with. Learning more about the murderer himself, and not the murder is something I found interesting. The article didn’t focus on just Gianni Versace, but everything Cunanan had been doing with his life. It was a deeper look then what could’ve been done and I appreciate that.