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Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 – July 23, 1997) was an American spree killer who murdered at least five people, including fashion designer Gianni Versace, during a three-month period in 1997, ending with Cunanan's suicide, at age 27. On June 12, 1997, Cunanan became the 449th fugitive to be listed by the FBI on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
[edit] Early life
Cunanan was born in National City, California, the youngest of four children to Modesto Cunanan and Maryanne Shilacci. Modesto Cunanan could not attend the birth of his son Andrew, as he was serving in the Marines in the Vietnam War at the time. Andrew was raised in various locations in Southern California.[citation needed]
In 1981, his father enrolled him in The Bishop's School in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California. At school, Cunanan was remembered as being bright and very talkative, testing with an I.Q. of 147, however he was described as a weird kid who was often bullied at the hands of fellow students.[citation needed] After graduating from high school in 1987, he became a student at University of California, San Diego, where he majored in American history.[citation needed]
After graduating from UCSD, he settled in the Castro District of San Francisco.[citation needed]
Before the murders, Cunanan was involved in petty theft and drug dealing.[citation needed]
[edit] Murders
The first known murder was that of his friend Jeffrey Trail, a former US naval officer and propane salesman on April 25, 1997, in Minneapolis.[1] The next victim was architect David Madson, who was found on the east shore of Rush Lake near Rush City, Minnesota, on April 29, 1997, with gunshot wounds to the head.[citation needed] Police recognized a connection, as Trail's body had been found in Madson's Minneapolis loft apartment.[citation needed]
Cunanan next drove to Chicago and killed 72-year-old Lee Miglin, a prominent real estate developer, on May 4, 1997.[citation needed] Five days later, Cunanan, who took Miglin's car, found his fourth victim in Pennsville, New Jersey, at the Finn's Point National Cemetery, killing 45-year-old caretaker William Reese on May 9, 1997.[citation needed] Cunanan apparently killed him for his pickup truck, leaving Miglin's car behind.[citation needed] Following this murder, the first of a non-acquaintance, the FBI added him to its Ten Most Wanted list. While the manhunt focused on Reese's truck, Cunanan "hid in plain sight" in Miami Beach, Florida, for two months between his fourth and fifth murders.[citation needed] He went out mostly to gay nightclubs, and made little attempt to disguise his appearance.[citation needed] He even used his own name to pawn a stolen item, knowing that police routinely check pawn shop records for stolen merchandise.[citation needed] Finally, Cunanan murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace, on July 15, 1997.[citation needed]
The gun used by Cunanan for the murders was a Taurus semi-automatic pistol in .40 S&W caliber, which had been left behind in California by first victim Jeff Trail when he relocated to the Midwest.[1]
Eight days after murdering Versace, on July 23, 1997, Cunanan committed suicide by gunshot wound to the head in the upstairs bedroom aboard a Miami houseboat.[citation needed] The suicide was apparently to avoid capture by the police, who finally discovered Reese's stolen truck nearby and obtained tips from neighbors that someone resembling Cunanan was living in the houseboat.[citation needed]
[edit] Motive
At the time of the crimes, there was much public and press speculation that Cunanan's motives were tied to a diagnosis of HIV infection; however, an autopsy found him to be HIV-negative. Cunanan was widely reported to have engaged in prostitution with older men, [2] resulting in media speculation that some of his victims were former clients.[citation needed]
Police searched the houseboat where Cunanan died in order to piece together a motive for his killing spree.[citation needed] However, Cunanan left behind few personal belongings.[citation needed] This surprised investigators, given his reputation for acquiring money and expensive possessions from wealthy, older men.[citation needed] Police considered few of the findings to be of note, except multiple tubes of hydrocortisone cream and a fairly extensive collection of the fiction of C.S. Lewis. [3]
