Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 – July 23, 1997) was an American spree killer who murdered five people over three months from April 27 to July 15, 1997. His victims include Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin, as well as his former boyfriend David Madson and friend Jeffrey Trail. Cunanan killed himself on July 23, 1997, eight days after murdering Versace. Cunanan's status as a serial killer versus a spree killer has been disputed, as multiple sources, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, list him as a serial killer.

Early life and education

The youngest of four children, Andrew Cunanan was born August 31, 1969, in National City, California, to Modesto "Pete" Dungao Cunanan and Mary Anne Schillaci. Modesto was serving in the United States Navy in the Vietnam War at the time of his son's birth. After leaving the navy, where he had served as a chief petty officer, Modesto worked as a stockbroker.

In his youth, Cunanan lived with his family in National City and attended Bonita Vista Middle School. In 1981, his father enrolled him in The Bishop's School, an independent day school located in the affluent La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. There Cunanan met his lifelong best friend, Elizabeth "Liz" Cote.

At school, he was remembered as being bright and very talkative, and testing with an IQ of 147.

As a teenager, Cunanan developed a reputation as a prolific liar, given to telling tall tales about his family and personal life, and served as a general under Ferdinand Marcos. He was voted "Most Likely Not to Be Forgotten" by his classmates, sometimes reported as "Most Likely to Be Remembered" by several media reports about Cunanan.

After graduating from high school in 1987, Cunanan enrolled at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), where he majored in American history. In San Diego, Cunanan began using the surname DeSilva to disassociate himself from his Filipino heritage and present a Portuguese origin. He also adopted a more elaborate fake background, most often claiming that his father was an Israeli millionaire, that he had been disowned by his parents after coming out and that he had been previously married to a "Jewish princess".

In 1988, when Cunanan was 19, his father deserted his family and moved to the Philippines, where he remarried, to evade arrest for embezzlement. when Versace was in town to be recognized for the costumes he had designed for the San Francisco Opera production of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio, possibly at the nightclub 1015 Folsom. Versace's family has always denied that the two men ever met. Cunanan told friends that Madson was the "love of [his] life". Cunanan also was known to regularly consume these drugs, especially methamphetamine. Trail expected Cunanan to return to San Francisco upon leaving Minneapolis. Before Cunanan's visit, Trail told his sister that he "did not want Andrew to come."

David Madson

David Jon Madson, 33, was Cunanan's second victim. Authorities believed Madson remained in his apartment with Cunanan two days after Trail's murder, as one neighbor witnessed both men in the apartment elevator on April 28, and another neighbor witnessed the pair walking Madson's dog on April 29.

Lee Miglin

On May 3, Cunanan drove to Chicago, Illinois, and killed 72-year-old Lee Albert Miglin, a prominent real estate developer. He bound Miglin's hands and feet and wrapped his head with duct tape, then stabbed him more than twenty times with a screwdriver, slit his throat with a hacksaw, and stole his car. Miglin's family maintain that the killing was random, but former FBI agent Gregg McCrary argues it is unlikely that Cunanan would have bound and tortured Miglin without some motive.

William Reese

On May 9, in Pennsville Township, New Jersey, at Finn's Point National Cemetery, Cunanan shot and killed 45-year-old cemetery caretaker William Richard "Bill" Reese. Later that day, when Reese did not return home for dinner, his wife visited the cemetery to check on him and found the caretaker's office door ajar with the radio playing inside. She then called the police, who found Reese shot in the head by the same Taurus pistol Cunanan used to murder Madson. Unlike Cunanan's other victims, whom he killed for seemingly personal reasons, authorities believe Cunanan murdered Reese simply for his 1995 red Chevrolet pickup truck. Cunanan used this truck to drive to Florida.

On May 12, Cunanan began staying at the Normandy Plaza Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, where he paid $29 per night in cash. On June 12, he was listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. While the manhunt unsuccessfully focused on Reese's stolen truck that Cunanan was using, he "hid in plain sight" for two months. Cunanan used his own name to pawn a stolen item on July 7, despite knowing that police routinely reviewed pawn shop records. On July 14, seemingly out of money, Cunanan checked out of his hotel without paying for his last night there. when he was shot once in the back of the head and once in the left cheek with the same Taurus pistol Cunanan used to murder Madson and Reese. A witness pursued Cunanan but was unable to catch him as he fled into a nearby parking garage. Responding police found Reese's stolen vehicle in a nearby parking garage. It contained Cunanan's clothes and clippings of newspaper reports about the earlier murders.

Motives

Cunanan's motivation remains unknown. At the time of the murders, there was extensive public and press speculation linking the crimes to Cunanan's alleged discovery that he was HIV positive, although an autopsy revealed he was HIV negative. Although police searched the houseboat where Cunanan died, he left no suicide note and few personal belongings. Investigators noted Cunanan's reputation for acquiring money and expensive possessions from wealthy older men. Later examination of his behavior indicates that Cunanan may have had antisocial personality disorder, characterized by a lack of remorse and empathy. He had shot himself in the head with the Taurus pistol stolen from Trail; it was the same weapon he used to kill Madson, Reese, and Versace. Cunanan's cremated remains are interred in the mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego.

Aftermath

Cunanan's father Modesto, who was living in Plaridel, Bulacan, during the murders, reportedly abandoned his house after Cunanan was identified in the spree killings following the murder of Versace, leaving behind a white cross wrapped with a blue ribbon and a note stating, "My son was an altar boy. He is not a serial killer or a homosexual". As of 2018, it remained unclear whether the project was ever finished.

Cunanan was portrayed by Shane Perdue in the film The Versace Murder (1998); Jonathan Trent in the film Murder in Fashion (2009); Luke Morrison in the television film House of Versace (2013); and Darren Criss (who won an Emmy Award for his performance) in The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018), the second season of the television series American Crime Story. Cunanan has been referenced in songs by Shyne ("Bad Boyz", 2000), Eminem ("Criminal", 2000), Modest Mouse ("Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)", 2015), and Mickey Avalon ("Stroke Me", 2009).

He has also been the subject of several true crime television series' episodes: Mugshots on Court TV, with "Andrew Cunanan – The Versace Killer", and Six Degrees of Murder, with "The Body in the Rug". He has also been featured on ABC's news television series 20/20, and Investigation Discovery's show Most Evil in various episodes, where he is examined by Columbia University forensic psychiatrist Michael H. Stone, as well as a two-hour episode of Dateline NBC.

See also

  • List of serial killers in the United States

Notes

References

Bibliography and further reading

  • Andrew Cunanan's FBI file