Andrew Phillip Cunanan: serial killer                                       

This killer was born on August 31^st, 1969 (I was visiting a friend in Belize that month) and killed himself on July 23, 1997. He was an American serial killer who murdered at least five known people, including fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago tycoon Lee Miglin, during a three-month period in mid-1997. His string of murders ended when he murdered Versace and he ended his own life on July 23, 1997 when he shot himself by his own handgun. He was then 27 years old.

Cunanan was born in National City, California, to Modesto "Pete" Cunanan, a Filipino American, and Mary Anne Schlack, an Italian American. He was the youngest of four children. His father was serving in the US Navy in the Vietnam War at the time of his son's birth.

In 1981, Cunanan's father enrolled his son when he was 12 in the independent day school, The Bishop's School in the  La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. At school, Cunanan was remembered as being bright and very talkative, with an I.Q. of 147. (His IQ was 25 more than my own)

However, as a teenager, he developed a reputation as a prolific liar given to telling fantastic tales about his family and personal life. He was also adept at changing his appearance according to what he felt was most attractive at any given moment.

When he was 19, his father deserted his family to avoid arrest for embezzlement. That same year, his mother learned that Cunanan was gay. During an ensuing argument, he threw her against a wall, dislocating her shoulder. Later examination of his behavior from reports indicate that he may have suffered from antisocial personality disorder, a personality disorder characterized by an abnormal lack of empathy (earlier known as psychopathy). People who suffer from that kind of mental illness don’t have a conscience. For example, if he lies to you so he can steal your money, he won’t feel any moral qualms about what he has done to you though he may pretend to be sorry. On the other hand, a sociopath typically has a conscience, but it’s weak. He may know that taking your money is wrong, and he might feel some guilt or remorse, but that won’t stop his behavior. Cananan was a psychopath, not a sociopath.

After graduating from high school in 1987, Cunanan enrolled at the University of California, San Diego for one year, but spent most of his time in the San Francicso Bay Area's thriving gay community. While there, he lied to his new friends that he had gone to the Choate Boarding School, dropped out of Yale, and transferred to Bennington College. He conned his way into the lives of wealthy men and women. He was exchanging sex for housing and financial support. He also began dealing in drugs.

In his final years, Cunanan had lived without any specific job and supported himself by befriending the wealthy older men and women while spending their money so that he could impress his acquaintances in the local gay community, such as boasting about social events at clubs and often paying the checks of his acquaintances at restaurants.  One millionaire friend had dumped Cunanan in 1996. I guess he had enough of this scrounger.

In April of 1997, Cunanan told his acquaintances that he was going to Minneapolis to visit an old friend with whom he had unfinished business to deal with. That was when Cunanan's killing spree began. On April 27^th, 1997, he murdered his former San Diego lover, Jeffrey Trail, who had been a former US naval officer and who later was a propane salesman. Following an argument between the two of them, Cunanan beat Trail to death with a claw hammer and left his body rolled up in a rug in a closet in the loft-apartment that belonged   to David Madson, his next victim.                 

Architect David Madson, who had once been Cunanan's lover, was Cunanan’s second man to be killed. His body was found on the east shore of Rush Lake that is near Rush City, Minnesota on May 3, 1997, with gunshot wounds to his head and back. Cunanan probably killed him after Madson found Trail’s body in the closet.  He used Madson’s vehicle to transfer his body to where it was left.  Now Cunanan had then become a serial killer.

Cunanan then drove to Chicago and on May 4^th, 1997, he arrived at the home of 72-year-old Lee Miglin who was a prominent real estate developer. The two men had been lovers in the past so Cunanan had no difficulty getting in his victim’s home when he pressed the doorbell. Miglin’s wife was out for the evening so the two men were alone in the house.

Some men when they are having sex with women or men, prefer to let their sexual partner play the dominate role in whatever sex games they are playing.  Cunanan was playing the dominant role that night and Miglin was willingly playing the submissive role.

Cunanan guided Miglin to the latter’s garage and then Miglin permitted Cunanan to bind him with duct tape on his hands and feet and Cunanan further wrapped the duct tape around Miglin’s head with the tape so that he could only breathe through his nose.  Cunanan then stabbed Cunanan over and over again 20 times with a screwdriver and sawed Miglin’s throat open with a hacksaw.

When his wife returned home, she discovered her husband’s body.  At the crime scene, police later found evidence that Cunanan had taken a bath in their tub, shaved at their sink, and eaten a sandwich in their kitchen.

Following this murder, the FBI added Cunanan to its Ten Most Wanted list. I don’t know how they determined it was Cunanan who had committed the murder at that particular time unless they lifted his fingerprints off the screwdriver and the hacksaw.  If he didn’t wipe them off those utensils, he wasn’t very bright for a man with a high IQ.

Five days later, Cunanan, who took Miglin's car, found his fourth victim in Pennsville, New Jersey, at the Finn's Point National Cemetery. Cunanan knew that the police would be looking for Miglin’s car so he needed a second car.  He shot to death 45-year-old caretaker William Reese in his basement even while his victim was begging for his life and then he stole his red pick-up truck.

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. He even used his own name to pawn a stolen item, knowing that the police routinely check pawn shop records for stolen merchandise. He wasn’t a complete stupid man so I have theorized that perhaps he wanted to take the risk which would add excitement to his life.  

On July 15^th, 1997, Cunanan murdered Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace by shooting him twice on the front stairway of his Miami mansion. A witness attempted to pursue him but was unable to catch up to him. Later, Reese's stolen truck, as well as Cunanan's clothes, an alternative passport, and newspaper clippings of Cunanan's murders, were found in a nearby parking garage by responding police officers.

On July 23, 1997, eight days after killing Versace, Cunanan killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot to the right temple in the upstairs bedroom of a Miami Beach houseboat that he had broken into. He used the same gun he had used to kill Madson, Reese, and Versace which was a   Taurus .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol  which had been stolen from the first victim, Jeff Trail. Cunanan’s cremated remains are interred in the Mausoleum at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in San Diego, California. His remains should have been interred in the city dump.  

It was widely known that this killer engaged in prostitution with older men resulting in speculation in the media that two of his victims were previous customers and that he had previously met Reese purely by happenstance.

It is believed that he met Versace at some event and they briefly spoke to one another. It has been suggested that he was envious of Versace’s wealth and that is what prompted him to kill him.

Who really knows what goes on in the mind of a psychopath who has no qualms about hilling his or her fellow human beings?