August, 1997
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Versace lived 'peaceful' gay life in Miami Beach

Gianni Versace, 50, dressed the world's most famous and beautiful people in risque haute couture. But he is remembered as a "generous," "sweet" and "kind" man who relished his privacy - to the point of insisting that no bodyguards accompany him during his frequent stays in Miami Beach.

While not flamboyant in his sexuality, Versace was openly gay and lived in domestic partnership with longtime boyfriend Antonio D'Amico. The couple had been together 11 years when Versace was gunned down, allegedly by Andrew Cunanan, on July 14.

Versace, along with Giorgio Armani, set the standard for ready-to-wear fashion among the extremely well-dressed. The Versace fashion house was a family-run business, with Gianni's sister Donatella and brother Santo overseeing operations along with him.

Versace, who began his fashion career at his mother's knee, designed for other houses before launching his own line in 1978. Since that time, Versace's name became synonymous with the sleekness, chic, and cool that characterized his fashions.

Unconfirmed rumors have speculated that alleged killer Cunanan "had a crush" on a member of Versace's entourage, probably D'Amico. It was D'Amico who discovered his lover's badly bleeding body on the front steps of their Miami Beach mansion. Police are still trying to link Cunanan to the Versace murder.

The hidden world of the Gammu Mu gay fraternity

He bragged about his alleged association with Gianni Versace and other luminaries, and while on the arms of his escorts he met many of them. He was known as a charming "gay gigolo" with a bevy of older benefactors.

Ultimately, he committed suicide aboard a luxurious houseboat belonging to a man who owns a gay health spa and is himself wanted on fraud charges.

Alleged "spree killer" Andrew Cunanan, 27, eluded capture for more than three months despite an international manhunt and attendant publicity. Questions are surfacing as to how the San Diegan managed such a feat.

Some are suggesting that he used his connections to high-living, often closeted gay men to his best possible advantage in his flight from authorities.

Cunanan was known to have associations to Gamma Mu, an elite group of gay socialites. Officially, the organization sponsors annual parties in all corners of the globe and acts as a networking resource for its members.

Cunanan appears to have taken advantage of one of the group's unofficial functions - introducing wealthy, usually older gay men to young, handsome companions.

Over the last several years Cunanan was romantically linked to several members of Gamma Mu, including Norman Blatchford, 60, with whom Cunanan lived until just before the killings began in early May. According to published reports, Blatchford threw Cunanan out after an undisclosed argument.

James Davis, a former Versace model who spoke with the Chicago Tribune's Achy Obejas after the designer was killed, described Gamma Mu as "very tight knit - once (you had a reputation as) a good person, it was like, 'what can we do for you?'" In late July, it was revealed that Versace and Cunanan were at the very least acquainted with one another - an acquaintanceship that may have been fomented when Cunanan, as Blatchford's companion, visited a Northern Italian villa footsteps from Versace's own.

While there is no evidence that any conspirators, witting or unwitting, aided Cunanan, there is rampant speculation that Cunanan may have intimidated closeted gay men into aiding in his escape, as well as selecting his victims from among Gamma Mu's ranks. The latter is fueled by the FBI's belief that Cunanan had assembled a "hit list" including wealthy gay socialites Harry de Wildt and Gordon Getty (it is unknown whether deWildt and Getty are themselves members of the Gamma Mu organization).

Goudie's gaffe

In the wake of Andrew Cunanan's apparent suicide, Chicago's WLS-TV Channel 7 anchorman Chuck Goudie's alleged tampering with potentially critical evidence against the fugitive has slipped into the shadows.

On July 22, Goudie approached the desk clerk of Cunanan's Miami Beach hideout, the Hotel Normandy, asking if Cunanan had "stayed in any other rooms." The clerk responded, "Yes, Room 332," and allegedly cautioned the reporter that the FBI had not seen the room yet. According to the Miami Herald, Goudie did not alert law enforcement but instead proceeded to enter the room and physically manipulate items of evidence, including pornographic magazines, hair clippers, and tufts of hair allegedly left behind by Cunanan. If Cunanan had been apprehended alive and brought to trial, Goudie's actions would have tainted the evidence from Room 332.

The manager of ABC's Miami affiliate decried Goudie's actions, though the station did air the ensuing report filed from the scene. WLS-TV issued a press release upholding Goudie's actions as "legal and ethical, in accordance with regular newsgathering procedures." Goudie himself declined comment.

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