Cunanan kills self after murder spree

by Lori Weiner

On July 23, the flight of accused "spree killer" Andrew Cunanan ended with resounding finality when his corpse was discovered inside a Miami Beach houseboat. The San Diego native was the nation's most wanted fugitive after the murder July 14 of designer Gianni Versace. Prior to the Versace killing, Cunanan was the main suspect in four additional murders stretching from Minnesota to New Jersey.

The circumstances which led to Cunanan's cross-country bloodletting may now never be known, but it is possible to piece together a composite of the chameleon-like, enigmatic figure. What results is a portrait of an empty, self-hating man who lived ostentatiously in defiance of his bankrupt soul; an intelligent, even brilliant man who valued only popularity and wealth.

APRIL
In mid-April, the handsome man was feted at a lavish dinner party, replete with candlelight and entrees of ostrich washed down with champagne.

His friends in the exclusive gay community of La Jolla, Calif., just south of San Diego, would miss Andrew Cunanan. Many expressed surprise when the popular, ebullient partygoer revealed his plans to relocate to San Francisco to be nearer his daughter, since he had never before mentioned a child. It seemed odd that Cunanan, the "social butterfly," would abandon the flamboyant, narcissistic nightlife he loved, but that was Andrew - given to grand statements and dramatic flourishes that often shocked even his closest friends. Grandiosity was Andrew Cunanan's raison d'etre. Though he was unemployed, he always had plenty of money; money for designer clothes, for sumptuous dinners, for extravagant trips across America and Europe. When he entered La Jolla's exclusive establishments, the staff all smiled widely: waiting on Cunanan almost always resulted in a minimum 30% tip.

Andrew exuded wealth and privilege like one born to the lifestyle, and that's what he told anybody who would listen; he was alternately the scion of a Jewish family with "a parking lot monopoly," or a Filipino sugar plantation magnate. But in reality, Andrew Philip was the fourth and last child of Mary Ann and Modesto Cunanan. The senior Cunanan served in the U.S. Navy before fleeing to his native Philippines under charges of embezzlement; after her husband left, Mary Ann Cunanan was forced into a life of welfare and public housing.

In February and March, Cunanan's demeanor changed from vain, fun-loving and fanciful to reserved and angry. Cunanan allegedly visited a San Diego clinic in February, telling a counselor that he feared he had contracted AIDS. According to a counselor who allegedly spoke with Cunanan, he became enraged during his visit, slamming his fist into a wall and vowing that "whoever gave me this ... I'm gonna get 'em." Other counselors at the clinic, Davids' Place, dispute this scenario and do not remember such an outburst. [An autopsy was scheduled for July 24 to determine if Cunanan was HIV+.]

Also in early 1997, Cunanan lost the favors of a wealthy San Diego businessman who had been "keeping" him in luxurious surroundings for the better part of one year. Cunanan's benefactor was a patron of the arts who was possibly responsible for introducing his young consort to Gianni Versace.

He also belonged to Gamma Mu, an exclusive organization of wealthy gay men; Cunanan was allegedly "kept" by several members of the group over the years, reports say.

The circumstances of Cunanan's ouster from the older man's home are unknown, though they may have involved the younger man's relationship to David Madson, the Minneapolis architect whom Cunanan called "the love of his life."

After being removed from the benefactor's elegant residence, Cunanan took a sparse apartment with a platonic friend. It is here that the genesis of Cunanan's homicidal rage may have been seeded.

At his farewell party, Cunanan announced that before settling in San Francisco, he would fly to Minneapolis and "take care of business" with 28-year-old Jeff Trail. Trail met Cunanan while stationed in San Diego during a 1994 stint in the Navy but had recently moved to Minneapolis. While it is unclear whether Trail and Cunanan were ever lovers, Andrew apparently had a deep affinity for the ex-sailor: "If Jeff grew a goatee, Andrew grew one too," says Trail's sister Lisa. On July 17, the London Telegraph quoted a Cunanan acquaintance, Mark Whitmore, as stating that Andrew was "devastated ... to the point of being physically ill" when Trail moved.

By March, Trail had gotten involved in "a new relationship" - a relationship that some sources insist also involved David Madson, the "love of (Cunanan's) life." According to Lisa Trail, "Jeff told me that he did not want him (Cunanan) to come visit in April" because he "feared (Cunanan) would 'make trouble' for him and his new partner." If Cunanan was, in fact, aware of a liaison between Trail and Madson, his seemingly offhand comment about "taking care of business" may very well have been more ominous than it sounded.

With his credit card at its limit, Cunanan contacted the issuing bank and wangled an extension; he used the additional funds to purchase a one-way ticket for Minneapolis, arriving April 24 or 25.

On April 27, Madson, Cunanan, and an unidentified friend had dinner. Later, they met Trail at Madson's loft apartment. During the night neighbors heard the sounds of a loud argument, followed by a thud.

On April 29, Trail's bludgeoned corpse was discovered wrapped in a carpet at Madson's loft. Just four days later, on May 3, two fishermen discovered Madson's corpse in a lake 50 miles north of Minneapolis, gunshot wounds in his head. Police investigating the case believe that Madson was killed to prevent him from revealing information about Trail's death. Police also theorize that Cunanan killed Trail after Trail refused to get involved in street sales of a prescription painkiller, Vicodin.

MAY
By the time Madson's body was found, Andrew Cunanan was long gone, allegedly driving to Chicago in Madson's red Jeep Cherokee, where on May 5 wealthy businessman Lee Miglin, 72, was found murdered in his Gold Coast garage.

Miglin's killing was particularly macabre; he was found with his throat slashed, his feet bound and his head wrapped in a plastic bag fastened around his neck with masking tape. Cunanan was linked to the murder when a Chicago police officer ticketed Madson's Jeep, parked illegally mere steps from the Miglins' tony Gold Coast estate; a check of the license revealed the vehicle to be stolen. While authorities deny that Miglin knew Cunanan, unconfirmed speculation suggests that Cunanan may have been acquainted with Miglin's son Duke, an aspiring actor living in Southern California.

On May 6, Minnesota authorities filed formal murder charges against Cunanan for the killings of Trail and Madson.

Meanwhile, Miglin's Lexus automobile had disappeared. On May 8, the Lexus' cellular phone was activated in the Philadelphia area.

Later in the evening of May 8, Miglin's Lexus was found abandoned in a Pennsville, NJ, cemetery alongside the body of William Reese, 45, a caretaker.

The caretaker's vehicle, a 1995 Chevy pickup truck, was gone. And so, apparently, was Cunanan, though evidence gathering efforts meant to conclusively place him at the Chicago and Minneapolis murder scenes were ongoing. While law enforcement officials claimed to have located "several clear prints" from Miglin's home and Madson's Jeep, they proved fruitless in fingering Cunanan; the 27-year old had no criminal record or military background and never provided fingerprints to the government. This meant that authorities were forced to compare fingerprints from each individual crime scene in the hope of a match. San Diego police seized personal items from Cunanan's La Jolla apartment in an attempt to obtain fingerprints; these, too, yielded nothing.

Federal authorities advised New York City's gay and lesbian leaders that Cunanan would likely travel there and attempt to melt into Manhattan's bustling gay community. In response, the New York Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project posted a $10,000 reward for Cunanan's conviction and distributed flyers with his photo throughout the city. After Cunanan was dead, police found evidence that Cunanan had been in New York and even caught at least two movies while there.

On May 11, a passenger aboard a bus traveling from New York City to Scranton, Pa., told authorities that he sat next to a man he believed to be Cunanan. The FBI descended on Scranton, but Cunanan was not apprehended.

On May 12, Cunanan's mother Mary Ann, who lived at the time in downstate Eureka, Ill. (she has since relocated to Southern California), proclaimed in a Chicago Sun-Times interview that her son earned his keep as "a high class homosexual prostitute." In the same article, a Cunanan acquaintance from San Diego insisted that the murder suspect not only knew Lee Miglin's son Duke, but the two were in fact "close friends." The source later denied having any definitive knowledge of Cunanan's relationship to the younger Miglin.

On May 13, Cunanan was officially charged with the murder of William Reese, the caretaker. Photos of Cunanan were also placed on the World Wide Web in the hopes that increased publicity would aid in his capture.

As Chicago marched bravely through a record-cold spring, Cunanan literally disappeared. During the last week of May, a flurry of news reports hinted that he was still on the East Coast awaiting Boston's Gay and Lesbian Pride Day, celebrated during the first week of June. Flyers with Cunanan's photograph were circulated throughout Boston, but if Cunanan was there, nobody reported seeing him. Also during the latter part of May, Cunanan was featured on America's Most Wanted, an appearance which led to hundreds of tips. None, however, yielded tangible results.

JUNE
On June 12, Cunanan was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. A $10,000 bounty was offered for information leading to his arrest.

At the end of June, Cunanan was once again featured on America's Most Wanted. By now, the fugitive was believed to be winding his way back to the West Coast, perhaps to finally fulfill his plans of relocating to San Francisco. These suspicions were lent further credence when a priest serving a large lesbian and gay congregation in New Mexico notified authorities, claiming that a man he believed to be Cunanan had attended some of his church's recent services. Even with this, the most promising Cunanan lead in over a month, federal authorities seemed no closer to apprehending him than before.

Initially, the FBI took an almost flippant attitude toward the manhunt, with one former fugitive hunter insisting that Cunanan's inexperience would result in a quick arrest. But Cunanan, who spent most of his life picking and choosing from a variety of identities at whim, has proven to be more skillful than the FBI suspected. A spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department was equally confident, telling Outlines in early June that "it's just a matter of time" before Cunanan slipped.

JULY
Law enforcement's confident swagger became stunned disbelief on July 14, when Italian designer Gianni Versace, 50, was gunned down on the steps of his Spanish-style mansion in South Beach, Fla. Police linked the crime to Cunanan almost instantly, announcing the discovery of "numerous pieces of evidence" implicating the fugitive. The evidence seized was indeed damning: less than three blocks from Versace's home, Cunanan allegedly parked the pickup belonging to New Jersey victim William Reese. The personal property of Chicago victim Lee Miglin, an imprinted Bank of America check bearing Cunanan's name, a file folder containing newspaper clippings about the manhunt, and Cunanan's passport were among the items found in the truck.

Less than 12 hours after the Versace slaying, Miami police in conjunction with the FBI held a press conference officially naming Cunanan their prime suspect. At the time, FBI Agent In Charge Paul Philip stated that the agency was "aware that (Cunanan) was in Miami for several weeks" and that a "massive Cunanan information campaign" had been directed to the gay community in South Beach. But the affluent men living, working, and playing in the area told a different story: not one of the three gay publications serving the South Beach community received any information on Cunanan from the FBI. Over the next several days, as information about Cunanan's alleged whereabouts continued to trickle in, observers wondered how extensive the FBI's "massive information campaign" had actually been; if eyewitness accounts were correct, Cunanan arrived in South Beach during the first week of June and remained there, patronizing gay businesses, staying in a public hotel, buying sandwiches at the corner subway shop, and impressing those who encountered him as "soft spoken and expensively dressed" until July 14, the day Versace was killed. If, skeptics wondered aloud, the FBI had indeed blanketed the community with Cunanan's "wanted" posters prior to the Versace slaying, could he have possibly remained so anonymous for a full month? Paul Galluzcio, a well-known Manhattan restaurateur, told Newsweek, "The thing is, Cunanan's not even being careful, and the FBI can't catch him. We feel as though it really has to get serious before the FBI gets serious. To them, it's like, 'Eh, another faggot gets killed.' It took someone like Versace to get killed to get their full attention."

On July 19, Miami police issued a press release stating that Cunanan "may be dressed as a woman" in an effort to elude authorities and "may have shaved off all his body hair to add to this illusion." The FBI made a list of wealthy gay men it called "potential Cunanan targets" and warned them to take precautions. Exactly why the specific men in question would be targeted by Cunanan is not something the agency has directly addressed.

Various reports ascribed Cunanan's alleged attack on Gianni Versace to a crush Cunanan allegedly had on the designer's boyfriend, or another member of his entourage. Still others claimed that Cunanan has a private hit list of anywhere from 10 to 20 men, individuals who were due, in Cunanan's mind, for his own brand of permanent comeuppance. One revelation made public during the last week of July concerned Cunanan's acquaintance with Gianni Versace. Apparently, the men met at least once in 1990 while Versace was in San Francisco overseeing the costumes for that city's opera production, Capriccio; Versace allegedly sought out and warmly greeted the man who would later take his life. The FBI stated that Cunanan harbored an obsessive fixation on the designer for years.

Perhaps the most unnerving news came on July 20, when it was revealed that on July 7, a full week before Versace's murder, Cunanan pawned a gold coin belonging to Chicago victim Lee Miglin at a South Beach shop, Cash On The Beach. Astonishingly, the fugitive used his real name, signing "Andrew P. Cunanan" on the pawn slip and even providing a thumbprint for the clerk, Vivian Oliva. When Oliva offered $190 for the coin, Cunanan allegedly joked, "I worked so hard to get this - can't you offer me any more?"

Under Miami law, pawnshops are obligated to send transaction records to the police 24 hours after they take place, which Oliva did on July 8. But the police did not review the records until after Versace was dead. And by then, Cunanan had once again disappeared. The general public was aghast that for the fifth time in three months, the nation's most notorious active murderer seemed to have easily eluded authorities, despite an international dragnet.

At approximately 3 p.m. on July 23, Chicago radio stations began reporting that a man who might be Cunanan had barricaded himself inside a Miami Beach houseboat. The boat belongs to Torsten Reineck, a Miami Beach resident who also owns a gay health club in Las Vegas. Sources say that Reineck recently put the boat up for sale, asking $250,000. Reineck himself has been a fugitive since 1992, wanted on fraud charges. (Late on July 24, Reineck had been located in Las Vegas and was questioned by authorities - he denied knowing Cunanan. German authorities have decided not to seek his extradition for Reineck's fraud charges.)

One hundred police and FBI agents surrounded the property, with SWAT teams securing adjacent areas by land, sea, and air. At 7:03 p.m. Chicago time, SWAT teams moved in, entering the houseboat in a single file line with rifles drawn.

Witnesses reported hearing a muffled shot after police boarded the houseboat. However, it wasn't until approximately 10 p.m. Chicago time that an official announcement was made: the body of a white male had been found inside which authorities "believed to be that of Andrew Cunanan." Very early in the morning of July 24, thumbprints provided positive identification - the corpse discovered in the master bedroom with blood flowing copiously from its ears, nose, and mouth was, indeed, Cunanan's.

The FBI also confiscated evidence that may be linked to the murders Cunanan is suspected of committing, including a blue safe in the bedroom with the corpse.

The intrigue and speculation surrounding Cunanan has not ended with his death, and is likely to continue for some time. Insight into exactly what drove Cunanan to his final desperate acts may be forthcoming - authorities discovered "several" notes aboard the boat, though their contents remained sealed as Outlines went to press.

There are lingering questions as to Cunanan's association with members of Gamma Mu. And there remains Cunanan's cryptic comment, delivered at his farewell dinner in La Jolla just before the murders began: "Nobody will ever know the truth."

In addition, a national hotline for survivors of sexual abuse by priests reports that someone using the name "Andrew DeSilva," one of the pseudonyms used by Cunanan, called the hotline more than a year ago seeking counseling for abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of a priest.

Stanley Trail of DeKalb, father of victim Jeff Trail, said that he "is very glad that he's been stopped and that nobody else got hurt when he got stopped. But I take no joy in his death ... now nobody will be able to tell me why this happened."

The media attention given to Cunanan presents quandaries for lesbians and gays, particularly since the lifestyle of "serious partying" practiced by Cunanan is viewed with embarrassment in some communities. The mainstream media's emphasis on Cunanan's sexuality, in particular a burgeoning interest in S/M beginning about a year before the killings, leads to a legitimate fear of unjust criticism and unfair assumptions in the aftermath of Cunanan's actions. Comments such as that posted Wednesday on America Online's OnQ bulletin board are typical: "Nobody said Son of Sam (David Berkowitz) was a Jewish killer ... why is everybody calling (Cunanan) a gay killer?"

Cunanan & The Caretaker
Three months after a murderous rage carried him across the continental United States, accused "spree killer" Andrew Cunanan clambered aboard a houseboat in Miami Beach and ended his life, along with one of the most mysterious crime sprees in modern history.

The houseboat where Cunanan shot himself belongs to Torsten Reineck, a Miami Beach resident who owns a gay health spa in Las Vegas. There is no evidence at this time to suggest that Reineck and Cunanan knew one another, though German authorities call Reineck a "fugitive" who has been wanted since 1992 on fraud charges. Reineck told authorities in Las Vegas that he did know Cunanan. Meanwhile, German authorities said they will not seek Reineck's extradiction, and his mother said that while Reinick had gay friends, Reinick himself is heterosexual.

At approximately 3 p.m. on July 23, a caretaker, Fernando Carreira, who had arrived at the presumably vacant houseboat to perform routine maintenance, notified police, stating that he had been "fired upon" by a "white male with dark hair." More than 100 Miami police officers and FBI agents descended on the houseboat, with SWAT teams covering the surrounding areas by air, sea, and land. After repeated pleas to the unidentified occupant of the houseboat to "come out" met with no response, officers hurled tear gas into the two-story home. Six SWAT team members dressed in flak jackets and armed with rifles and a shield took occupancy of the houseboat. Initially, police claimed "not to have found anything" inside, but several hours later amended the statement, claiming that an unidentified white male body was discovered in one of the second-floor bedrooms. The victim appeared to have shot himself in the mouth using a .40 caliber handgun.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 24, the body was positively identified as that of Andrew Cunanan. Thumbprint comparisons was used to make the identification. Late on July 24, authorities revealed that before killing himself Cunanan contacted "an associate" looking for a passport with which to leave the country. When those plans fell through, Cunanan apparently decided to commit suicide rather than be taken alive.

All told, five killings in four states have been ascribed to the San Diego resident: Jeff Trail, 28, and David Madson, 33, in Minneapolis; Lee Miglin, 72, in Chicago; William Reese, 45, in Pennsville, NJ; and internationally renowned designer Gianni Versace, 50, in Miami Beach.

The weapon recovered from the suicide is the same gun authorities believe killed Gianni Versace, David Madson, and William Reese.

Miami Police Chief Richard Barretto attributed Cunanan's suicide to the "unprecedented amount of pressure put on (him) by law enforcement and media exposure. ... I think he was a desperate person. He was in a situation where it was very, very difficult for him to move about." Added FBI spokeswoman Colleen Rowley, "We were probably prepared for something like this. A person who is using desperate means and exhibiting this kind of violent behavior, you have to be prepared for a very violent conclusion."

When notified of his son's death Cunanan's estranged father, Modesto, refused to believe the reports were true until "(he) heard it from the FBI," adding that his son was "(definitely not homosexual) - no way. I raised the boy from the cradle so I should know if this guy is gay or not." Cunanan's aunt Barbara Carlos, 64, remembered him as a "good boy" and added "even if we have not been together for a long time, we are saddened by what happened." Mrs. Carlos, the younger sister of Modesto Cunanan, last saw her nephew in 1983, when Cunanan was just 14.

In an interview on Chicago's WBBM-AM radio station the morning of July 24, Phil Horne, who was to have been Cunanan's roommate in San Francisco, said that he did not believe that the fugitive was HIV+. "The last time I saw him, he was talking about risque things ... things you wouldn't expect someone to talk about if they had a potentially terminal illness." He added that Cunanan's lover had broken up with him just before he left San Diego for the last time. Horne did not elaborate as to whether the lover in question was Cunanan's older benefactor, Norman Blatchford, or David Madson, the second victim attributed to Cunanan's coast-to-coast rampage.

Fernando Carreira, the caretaker who alerted police to a bullet being fired (which, it turns out, was not aimed at Carreira but was Cunanan's suicide bullet), has had to hire a lawyer to convince authorities that he deserves the reward money. Despite the fact that Carreira saved taxpayers millions of dollars in law enforcement costs, some of the institutions who offered reward money are saying Carreira only turned in Cunanan by "happenstance" and therefore he does not deserve the funds. The FBI said he will get their $10,000 reward money, and the Manhattan Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project gave their $10,000, but it still not known if Carreira will get what could amount to more than $50,000 from other agencies. New York City has denied that Carreira is entitled to their $10,000 reward.

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