[SIZE=6]The assassination of Gianni Versace captivated the nation, but there was much more to serial killer Andrew Cunanan than the public knew.[/SIZE]
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Getty ImagesGianni Versace, who would later be killed by Andrew Cunanan on July 15, 1997.
“I don’t know that we are ever going to know the answers.” 20 years later, Miami Police Chief Richard Borerro is still right — we don’t have all the answers about the murder of fashion mogul Gianni Versace. But we do know that a serial killer was responsible. His name was Andrew Cunanan.
[SIZE=6]Gianni Versace’s Death[/SIZE]
The morning of July 15, 1997, dawned clear and bright in Miami Beach. Gianni Versace meandered through the streets in the general direction of a local cafe.
Versace had called South Beach home for five years, and he almost invariably sent his assistant out for his coffee. Police never discovered why he went himself that morning — but the decision meant it would be his last coffee run.
The hostess of the cafe reported that Versace seemed wary. He had walked past the entrance to the shop and circled back around before entering — almost, she thought, as if he knew someone was following him.
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Carlo Raso/FlickrA portrait of Gianni Versace, displayed at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples in 2017. His iconic medusa logo appears behind him.
After getting the local paper, he left quickly and made his way back to his mansion on Ocean Drive, a 15-block stretch of road known for Art Deco hotels and architecturally unusual homes. As he arrived back at his mansion, Casa Casuarina, disaster struck.
The nature of the attack is still debated by witnesses — but the results were incontrovertible: Gianni Versace didn’t survive.
Some witnesses claim that as Versace was opening the front gate of his home, he was approached by a young man in his mid to late twenties. The man ambushed him from behind and put two bullets in his head.
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Phillip Pessar/FlickrThe steps of the Versace mansion, Casa Casuarina, where fashion mogul Gianni Versace was murdered.
Another witness said there was more of a struggle. The man and Versace seemed to know each other and were fighting over a bag when a gun went off.
Both stories end the same way: Giovanni Maria Versace, the creative architect behind one of history’s greatest international fashion houses, lay dead on the steps of his ornate, multimillion-dollar Mediterranean villa.
[SIZE=6]Andrew Cunanan, Serial Killer[/SIZE]
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Getty ImagesThe steps of Versace’s mansion after his death.
Versace’s murderer didn’t get far, and when police caught up with him, they were stunned to discover that he was already known to them: Andrew Cunanan. Gianni Versace had been shot by a serial killer.
Andrew Cunanan was a 27-year-old fugitive from California. In the three months prior to Versace’s murder, he had killed four other men in a cross-country killing spree.
One month before the crime, he had been placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Four days before shooting Versace, he had almost been apprehended in a Miami subway shop.
But to this day, nobody knows why Gianni Versace was his final victim.
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Daniel Di Palma/Wikimedia CommonsDetails from the beautiful mansion Gianni Versace inhabited in South Beach, Miami.
Police combed through Cunanan’s past in a futile attempt to make sense of the killing. After dropping out of school, Andrew Cunanan began making money by befriending wealthy older men who would shower him with expensive clothing, trips to Europe, limitless credit cards, and even sports cars.
In San Francisco, he became well known in the gay community as a flashy gold digger who would use his wealthy older friends’ money to show off to younger, more attractive men in clubs.
Andrew Cunanan’s friends and family describe his childhood.
His own mother described him as a “high-class male prostitute,” though none of his friends believe he charged for his services. He was simply a charming man, highly skilled at manipulation.
He was also unhinged, though few suspected it at the time. Many of the men he seduced into a cash flow described him as busy and having a certain “air” about him that suggested he always had better places to be.
Men his own age tended to dislike him, suspicious that he must be doing something illegal to sustain his lavish lifestyle. When he was dumped by his final lover, friends say it devastated him beyond repair.
[SIZE=6]The Start Of Andrew Cunanan’s Killing Spree[/SIZE]