Born on August 31, 1969, in California, Andrew Cunanan was born into a family whose mother was Filipino and father was Italian. He was the youngest of four children, and his father served in the Navy in the Vietnam war. Unlike other criminals I have talked about, Cunanan was intelligent; his IQ was at 142. He would make up stories in school about his life and was good at changing his appearance in an instant. In his high school, he was voted “most likely to be forgotten.” In 1988, Cunanan came out as gay and was found having liaisons with older, wealthy men. He went to gay clubs often, and when his very religious mother found out about this, she beat him. She threw him against the wall, and she ended it by dislocating his shoulder.
Cunanan met Gianni Versace, the famous fashion designer. And sometime later, he met Cunanan entered into a relationship with an older wealthy man, Norman Blachford. Blachford paid for Cunanan’s house until they broke up in 1996. To pay for this house, Cunanan went back to his old lifestyle of selling drugs, as he was a frequent user.
In April of 1997, Cunanan told his friends he was going to Minneapolis to visit his ex-lover, David Madson, and a mutual acquaintance, Jeff Trail. Both of these men had distanced themselves from Cunanan.
On April 27, 1997, the first murder occurred. An argument broke out between Cunanan and Trail. Trail was beaten up to 30 times with a claw hammer. It is believed that Cunanan held Madson at gunpoint and forced him to roll up the body in a rug. For the next two days, they left.
Madson was the next victim. He was shot once in the back, cheek, and the fatal shot was delivered through his eye through the back of his head. There was no sign of a struggle, and his body was discovered at the shore of Rush Lake.
Cunanan went to Chicago on May 4 and tied up the hands and feet of Lee Miglin, a 72 real estate developer. At some point during the attack, he wrapped the man’s head in tape but left holes to let him breathe. Cunanan stabbed him more than 20 times with a screwdriver and shears. He next used a hacksaw to cut his throat. His body was found under his car in his garage.
Cunanan stole Miglin’a car and five days later in Pennsville, New Jersey. He took 45-year old William Reese to Finn’s Point National Cemetery. He forced Reese down on his hands and knees and shot him in the back of the head.
The subsequent murder is the one that grasped international media attention. Remember Gianni Versace? Yeah, well, on July 15, Versace was trying to open his front gates when Cunanan approached him. He shot Versace twice in the head and then ran. Versace was pronounced dead later at a nearby hospital. While police responded to the shooting, they located Cunanan’s car he stole, and inside were papers of his murders and his clothes and passport.
Cunanan was holed up in a houseboat at Miami Beach and knew the police were close to finding him. So, he killed himself on July 23 with the gun he had used to kill the others.
The outcome of this case was very unsatisfying. Cunanan got away with murder by taking his life. He was cremated and put in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetary in San Diego.
All of the information found here was from “The Big Book of Serial Killers” by Jake Rosewood.
His childhood story really upsets me. I hate seeing children who are severely punished simply for their sexuality. I am not excusing his later behavior, but we so often see abused children that felt they had to repress their sexuality turning to violent or disturbing behaviors later on in life.
I also find it very unsatisfying when murderers get away with their crimes by taking their lives. It prevents any sort of closure.
It’s crazy how far Cunanan traveled during his spree, I’m guessing his smarts helped him evade police for that long a time. I wonder if there’s a reason why went to the places he went and if he was looking for certain people to kill, like why did he kill Versace? I also always wonder why these serial killers never go after past partners, it seems like they would be the people the killers have the most hate for.
I totally agree with you, the outcome of this case was extremely unsatisfying, it’s not fair that he never went to trial and that none of his victim’s families got closure. The same thing happened recently, with the body of Brian Laundrie being found (because his parents protected him then suddenly agreed to help police and found his body 30 minutes later?), and the police will never be able to completely prove that he murdered Petito.