Andrew Cunanan was a big talker and wanted all the best things in life. Unfortunately, he was unwilling to work to reach his goals. Instead he lived off the wealth of his older lovers and off the money from the drugs he sold (and used). Then Cunanan’s desire for the finer things and wanting people to know his name led him down the path to serial murder and eventually the assassination of Gianni Versace.
Spree Killer andrew cunanan
Minneapolis
Jeff wasn’t eager to hangout with Andrew making sure he had other plans that would keep him away as much as possible. Jeff was going to take his new boyfriend, Jon Hackett, for a night in the country for Jon’s birthday. Jeff did offer that Andrew could stay at his apartment while Jeff and Jon were away. David picked Andrew up at the airport and they hung out that night. Andrew quickly alienated himself from David’s friends by lying about his family money. He spent Saturday at Jeff’s house using Jeff’s phone to make long distance calls to California including Norman Blachford. Norman said this call was to say goodbye, but Andrew told him that he would “keep in touch.”
On their way back, Jon remembers Jeff telling him that he had to talk to Andrew about something “pretty important,” but Jon never found out what. Jeff dropped Jon off at work and said he’d see him later at Jon’s birthday party that night. Jeff baked Jon a cake.
Jon got home from work around 6 PM and took a nap before his birthday party and clubbing that night. Around 8:00 PM, Andrew called Jeff’s apartment. Andrew left a message for Jeff saying that he would like to see him and left David’s number for Jeff to return his call. Jeff called him back and told Jon he was going to swing by David’s and talk to Andrew and then he’d meet Jon for their night out. Jeff left around 9 PM and never made it to the bar.
Around 9:45 PM, the front door to David’s apartment building called up to David’s loft and someone physically came down to open the door, because the building didn’t have a buzzer system. When Jeff entered David’s loft, he was attacked by Andrew.
Jeff’s Murder
A forceful blow to the head by a hammer was first. Jeff attempted to protect himself – raising his arms up, but that didn’t stop Andrew or protect Jeff. Jeff’s raised arms caused him to get hit on his left wrist and hand. Jeff’s Swiss Army watch stopped at 9:55 PM. Jeff fell to the floor, unconscious. Andrew continued to hit Jeff with both sides of the hammer 27 times in his head, face, and chest. During the attack, Andrew hit the wall and before the door was closed, he hit the door hard enough a neighbor heard it slam shut. The door was open during the first blow so there was blood spatter across the hall and brain matter in the doorframe.
Andrew had figured out no one was interested in continuing their relationships with him. He was losing everything: Norman’s money, Jeff’s friendship, and David’s love. Everyone in Andrew’s life had gotten tired of him and were making moves to disengage. Jeff’s body fell on a rug in the entryway so he was rolled up in the rug and dragged behind the sofa. Before rolling him up, Jeff’s watch and ring from the Navy were removed, placed in a bag with a bloody shirt, the bloody hammer and the towels used to clean up the blood. This bag was tucked away under the dining room table.
The blood was cleaned up mostly, but 2 sets of footprints were left in blood on the hardwood floor. One pair were barefeet and the other set were from someone wearing shoes. Jon had waited for Jeff at the club, but when he never showed up he went to Jeff’s apartment around 3 am, but no Jeff.
Jon waited to see if, MAYBE Jeff would come home with a benign explanation. But when Jeff hadn’t shown up by 8 am, Jon called hospitals, jails, Jeff’s work, Jeff’s other friends, and even called his own dad (a jail administrator). Jon called the police who said unless Jeff’s parents call, Jon would have to wait 72 hours before he could file. Jeff hadn’t come out to his parents yet so Jon wasn’t ready to call them and out him when there was a possibility Jeff could be fine. Police told Jon, Jeff’s a “big boy” and he could come and go as he pleased.
Monday, Jon went to class, followed his usual routine, but when he went to Jeff’s apartment around 8 PM – Jeff had still not shown up, and since he was still in the 72-hour window, Jon waited…
Meanwhile, David’s coworkers were worried because he hadn’t shown up for work. Around noon Monday David’s co-worker/friend, Linda and his friend Laura met at David’s loft. They knocked, heard scratching at the door, and thought they heard whispers. However, no one answered.
Linda thought David’s stalker had finally done something. The women went back to the office to call the police who asked to meet the women at David’s building around 2:30 PM. However, the officers refused to enter the loft claiming they didn’t have probable cause. They had no reason to believe David wasn’t in the apartment not answering the door or David had left for a bit and Prints was having separation anxiety. The officers left without entering the loft.
Linda and Laura weren’t satisfied and left a message for the building superintendent, Jennifer Wiberg, with their concerns, asking her to check. When Jennifer got the message around 4 PM, she went to David’s loft with another neighbor/friend of David’s. They knocked, but the only response they got was Prints barking so Jennifer used her master key. When they entered, Jennifer saw the body rolled up in a carpet with the feet sticking out. They went back to Jennifer’s to call 911. It took 15-20 minutes for the police to arrive.
First on the scene was Sergeant Bob Tichich who said, “We knew right away it may be a gay thing.” Jennifer had informed officials David was gay and they immediately assumed the dead body in the loft was David Madson. David’s wallet was on the table and in the bedroom: leg cuffs with keys, duct tape – used and on the roll, porn videos, lube, and steroids, In a black duffel bag along with an empty gun holster and magazine, was a box of 15 – .40 caliber bullets. There should have been 25, but 10 bullets were missing.
Detectives never went near the carpet roll because they wanted the medical examiner there before anything else. The medical examiner arrived at David’s loft around 7:20 PM and unrolled the rug to take a look at the body. The body wasn’t taken off the rug until they were back at the morgue for fear they’d lose evidence. Friends named David’s stalker ex, Greg Nelson as a possible suspect and one suggested a man named Andrew who’s last name they couldn’t remember, but knew he was into illegal and dangerous things.
A friend of David’s told the detectives that his hair was very blond, but the body in the rug clearly had dark, almost black hair. Photos of David confirmed that this dark-haired body was not David. Investigators began to think this body was actually the friend they’d heard was visiting David, Andrew No Last Name who was described as having dark hair. Detectives changed their tactic and now assumed David was their main suspect and Andrew was dead.
On Tuesday, Jon finally spoke with someone at Jeff’s work. Work had not heard from Jeff either and were concerned. Jon tried the hospitals in the area again, but when that still turned up nothing, Jon tried again with the police. They were at least asking Jon questions this time, but still disregarded Jon’s complaint.
One of their first questions was whether Jon was Jeff’s lover which Jon confirmed. He said he wanted to file a missing person’s report; the police told him they couldn’t do anything without a family member filing the report, but Jeff’s parents were still unaware anything was amiss. They were focused on Jeff’s older sister, Lisa who was 8 months pregnant and had gone into premature labor after a very difficult pregnancy. Ann Trail had also had surgery a couple weeks before due to a cancer diagnosis.
The Trails received a call from Jeff’s friend/coworker in the late afternoon Tuesday asking if they’d heard from Jeff. They hadn’t, so the friend and Jon Hackett made an appointment to meet the police face-to-face. Police finally agreed to file a local missing person’s report for Jeff Trail Tuesday, April 29th. Around 9 am, Jeff’s autopsy was started, and he was still thought to be Andrew. His body – still on the rug in order to preserve evidence – was moved. They discovered a wallet in the right rear pocket with Jeff Trail’s ID. They found Jeff’s Marvin the Martian tattoo, pierced nipple, and toe ring. Detectives called Jeff’s parents to let them know they’d found their son’s body.
Now that the body in the rug was identified as Jeff Trail, detectives were confused as to the dynamics, but had a ready explanation: gay love triangle. Tichich was completely convinced David Madson was the murderer. Tichich was described as “monotone and with a seemingly breathtaking lack of comprehension of how his blunt speech might affect others – he is tone deaf to feelings.”
On Friday, May 2nd, police executed a warrant on Jeff Trail’s apartment that Tichich had previously told the friend he could clean. At this time the only fingerprint from Andrew that was anywhere for detectives to use was the single thumbprint from Andrew’s California driver’s license. Meanwhile, David and Andrew were still missing, but David would be found soon and discredit any theories by Tichich.
David’s Murder
David’s body was found Saturday, May 3rd, 1997 in Chicago around 10:45 am. David was fully clothed on his back near a lake. He’d been shot through the right eye, right cheek, and the back between his shoulder blades. It appeared his body had been dragged about 20 feet from the murder scene to the spot it was found. According to officers, David’s body appeared “fresh.”
David’s Jeep was gone, but a set of keys was found nearby including the key fob for his Jeep. The forensic pathologist decided David had been dead for about 36 hours. There were bugs in David’s mouth and during the processing of the scene bullets were found from a .40 caliber in the grass. The gun wasn’t found at the site.
The body was found Saturday and the autopsy performed Monday so they didn’t have a name for the body for days, but authorities were certain this was David Madson so they got permission to contact the Madson family. The Madsons received a phone call from detectives about 2:15 PM Saturday to prepare them.
Once they were certain it was David’s body, focus turned toward Andrew. A nationwide alert was issued for Andrew Cunanan aka Andrew DeSilva. He was listed as armed and dangerous and wanted for 2 murders, likely driving David’s stolen red Jeep Cherokee.
At David’s autopsy, the medical examiner collected a number of samples, but didn’t run tests on any of them to get a more precise time of death. They determined the time of death for David was Friday, May 2nd.
Lee Miglin’s Murder
After murdering David, Andrew headed to Chicago to Lee Miglin – a real-estate bigwig, married to Marilyn for 37 years with 2 adult children. Lee and Marilyn were engaged within 6 weeks of their first date and 10 years later they had Marlena followed by Duke 3 years later. Lee started making money by selling stainless steel flatware door-to-door and even sold premixed pancake batter out of his car trunk. But he was now described as a “mogul.”
Lee’s real-estate firm, Miglin-Beitler was responsible for building many important buildings. The Miglin-Beitler firm was, at one point, managing 32-million square feet of buildings in the midwest.
Marilyn Miglin – a well known member of the Home Shopping Network (HSN), sold her make-up line and perfume and owned 6 pieces of commercial property on Oak Street. In 1994 her company netted $25 million. By the time Andrew Cunanan came around, Duke and Marlena were 25 and 28, respectively. Marlena was in Denver with her husband, and Duke was in Hollywood, currently a small-time actor who’d landed a very minimal role in Air Force One.
Andrew once told a friend he was planning to start some kind of business and he had an investor named Duke in Chicago who’d back him financially. The Miglins would adamantly deny knowing Andrew at all. Lee was described as “quiet and meticulous, always carefully and elegantly dressed, never without a fresh manicure.” The Miglin house had to be spotless to the point that “Lee demanded a thorough scrubbing of the walls of their garage.”
Sunday, May 4th around 8:15 am, Marilyn Miglin returned from a business trip. Lee always picked her up at the airport, but he didn’t show. Marilyn took a cab to the house, but knew something was wrong. She went to their neighbors’, the Byers’ and told them Lee was missing.
She said when she entered the house and walked into the kitchen there was a half-eaten pint of Häagen-Dazs on the counter with a spoon in it that had clearly been out of the freezer for a long time, in the sink there was a can of Coke – empty and tipped over, and she saw a gun in an upstairs room. Marilyn called the police, but it had been 15 minutes and no one came. Mr. Byer offered to go through the house.
The Miglin house was difficult to maneuver for people unfamiliar with the layout because they’d bought 2 side-by-side townhomes and opened up the downstairs, but upstairs was still separated; meaning if you go up one flight of stairs, you have to come back down and up a different flight of stairs to get to the other half of the upstairs. Mr. Byer said he got lost almost immediately, but upstairs he saw things that were unusual.
In the library, on the desk there was a whole, on-the-bone ham with a slice cut out and a knife stuck in it. There wasn’t even a plate under the ham.
Mr. Byer carefully made his way through the house to a bathroom where there was a gun on the bathroom counter and black stubble that had been shaved in the sink. It wasn’t possible for this to be from Lee because all of his hair was white. Byer also noticed the tub looked like it had been bathed in by someone especially grimey and the person left the towels on the floor. He continued moving through the house and up to the 3rd floor where he found closets opened with Lee’s clothes all over the place. Mr. Byer was opening closet doors with his shirt sleeve and slightly nervous one of those doors would open and Lee would tumble out.
The police still hadn’t shown up at the Miglins’ house so Byer kept searching, getting the keys to the garage. When he entered the garage, Byer noticed Lee’s green Lexus was missing, but otherwise nothing was concerning. It took Marilyn calling a police captain she knew for the police to finally show up. Once officers were on the scene and an investigation began, they went back to the garage, did a cursory glance, but still nothing.
Mrs. Byer felt she needed to check again – something was off, that’s when she found Lee Miglin’s body. She’d seen some brown wrapping paper sticking out from under the Jeep that was covering Lee. Lee was fully clothed, lying on his back on the garage floor. All of his clothes were clean without any cuts despite Lee having been stabbed multiple times. He had one shoe on with a tube of hydrocortisone cream underneath his body. Gay porn magazines were nearby and a white gardening glove was stuffed into Lee’s mouth.
Lee had been bound with an extension cord around his ankles, there were over 2 dozen blows to his head, face, and chin, his head had masking tape wrapped around it like a mummy covering everything except his nostrils and the very top of his head. Lee’s neck had been slashed and he had 2 stab wounds about 2 inches deep in his chest that punctured his heart.
Then Lee’s head was almost decapitated by a garden bow saw that created a 7-and-a-half inch gash on the back of his neck that was about 2 inches deep cutting into his throat. 2 bags of cement were thrown on his chest breaking every single rib.
Then Andrew covered Lee in plastic trash bags and the brown wrapping paper. Despite the brutality, there was little blood outside of the area around Lee’s body and no defensive wounds on Lee as though he didn’t fight at all – his family said Leed would have fought. Time of death was estimated between 2 PM Saturday and 6 am Sunday.
Was it a surprise attack on a stranger or was Andrew an invited guest who murdered Lee? Andrew seemed comfortable in the Miglin house, there was no struggle, and $2,000 from the safe was now missing.
Also interesting – the Miglins’ house was not attached to their garage. In fact, their garage was diagonally across the alley from their house. How would a stranger know to go to the Miglins’ house from that garage?
3 days after Lee’s body was found, a red Jeep Grand Cherokee with 3 parking tickets was located around the corner from the Miglins’ townhome. The Jeep had a Minnesota license plate and was registered to David Madson.
The Murder of Bill Reese/Andrew on the Run
Andrew left Chicago in Lee’s Lexus which had a car phone that could be tracked even if it wasn’t in use, as long as the engine was on. However, Andrew made it easy for them by using the phone a couple times. It wasn’t until Friday May 9th, that Jeff Trail’s colleague and boyfriend were searching through Jeff’s apartment, they figured out that Jeff’s .40 caliber was stolen.
On May 10th, America’s Most Wanted started airing pieces about Andrew Cunanan, asking for information.
Meanwhile, Andrew’s in New York listening to news reports revealing the Lexus phone is being tracked. Andrew ripped the antenna off the car and tried to destroy the car phone, but he couldn’t fully disconnect it. Andrew needed to get rid of this car. Andrew visited an information center and asked about sights a tourist should see. He was told about Finn’s Point National Cemetery where soldiers from the Civil War and German POWs from World War II were buried.
45-year-old Bill Reese had been the caretaker of the cemetery for 22 years. He loved his job. The night of May 9th around 5:30 PM, Bill wasn’t home. Bill had recently been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy so his wife, Rebecca was worried. Rebecca drove out to the cemetery and when she got to the office, Rebecca called her father and then she called the police.
Police found nothing as well, but then…the basement (locked on both the inside and outside locks). After breaking the locks, the police found Bill Reese at the bottom of the stairs “slumped against the wall.” Suicide was ruled out because there was no weapon. Bill Reese was murdered solely for his car. Andrew drove straight down I-95 (runs from Maine to Florida) without being stopped once. The police agencies and FBI were arguing jurisdictions allowing Andrew to escape to Miami after a brief stop in South Carolina to steal a license plate (the owner never reported it – he thought it fell off).
The FBI contacted the National Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project to get their help getting the word out to members of the LGBTQ+ community. In New York a $10,000 reward was offered, but other places like San Diego and Miami, had very little if any communication between the FBI and the LGBTQ+ community so there were no rewards or warnings.
Andrew had travelled over 1,000 miles in 2 days and parked Reese’s truck right out in front of the Normandy Plaza Hotel and left it for weeks while he lived there. Gianni Versace’s mansion was nearby on Ocean Drive and was very easy to find and well known. It was called “a high-camp tropical fever dream” and “a palazzo in drag.” Versace was everything Andrew always dreamt of being so Andrew spent his time stewing over the injustice of Versace having his life.
Andrew spent the next few months living in the Normandy Plaza Hotel, doing lots of drugs, selling himself for money to buy more drugs, and going out to gay clubs. Fortunately for Andrew the FBI nor any other agencies bothered to distribute flyers about him. Andrew wasn’t even disguising himself very much, other than a hat or a cheap wig sometimes.
June 12th – Andrew was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List (the 449th person added) thanks to America’s Most Wanted. However, before the murder of Gianni Versace, Andrew’s only pictures were faxed, older pictures of him when he was thin and put together. No flyers were distributed in Miami. Miami Beach Police had a flyer on the wall in their department.
June 12th – he moved Reese’s truck to a parking garage just blocks from Versace’s mansion.
July 7th – Andrew went to a pawn shop to pawn a gold coin he’d stolen from Lee Miglin’s safe. They offered $190 for the coin which made Andrew mad, but he went through with the transaction. The pawn shop had to check ID, get contact information, and a signature. Andrew filled out the forms honestly including his address at the Normandy. He also showed his real U.S. passport for ID and signed the form “Andrew Cunanan.”
It was required by law that the pawn shop turn over the paperwork to the Miami Beach PD. She did but nothing happened. Miami Beach had Andrew’s full information sitting there from July 7th until after Versace’s murder without taking action.
Wiliam Hagmaier, head of the FBI profiling unit at the time, (also the man to take Ted Bundy’s final confessions) said at one point, Andrew’s “making a Bundy run; he’s going to hit Florida next.” Hagmaier was disregarded. Andrew’s friend Liz Cote’s husband told the FBI Gianni Versace should be on their list of possible victims. Also disregarded. Norman Blachford also told the FBI Miami would be a good place to check. Ignored. Multiple other people mentioned Versace to the FBI without follow through.
The FBI refused to take into consideration that Andrew was gay so they didn’t focus on places where Andrew could go slip into the local scene without sticking out.
Gianni Versace’s Murder
Tuesday, July 15th, 1997, Andrew Cunanan shot Gianni Versace. Andrew walked up behind Versace and shot him at point blank range. The first shot hit right behind his left ear – tearing through his brain, specifically the base of his brain destroying his spinal cord. Versace was immediately brain dead, but his heart was still fluttering. The second bullet entered the right side of his face near his nose. Versace fell to the ground on the steps of his mansion.
The first shot was so close Versace had “stippling” on his neck and upon exiting Versace’s head, the bullet shattered against one of the bars of the metal gate. A fragment hit a dove in the eye, killing it immediately and leaving it lying dead near Versace. A neighbor, not even 30 feet away, saw it all. Andrew had been so focused on killing Versace, he hadn’t seen her or cared. She noticed the killer walked like “Donald Duck” she was able to provide a description and the direction he ran.
After hearing shots, D’Amico ran to the gate and saw Versace lying in a pool of blood. A friend took off after Andrew, but Andrew was able to evade him and eventually police. 911 was called at 8:44 am and police were on the scene within 2 minutes. Versace already had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. At 9:12, officers entered a parking garage in their search and found a pile of clothing next to a pick-up truck – Reese’s truck. They realized their assassin was likely Andrew Cunanan.
By 9:21am, Gianni Versace was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Still no bulletins or information was released to the public about Andrew Cunanan. Plus, the one eye witness they had provided a phony name and then ghosted. A press release night at 8:30 PM that night gave a description of Andrew. Andrew made no attempt to get rid of any incriminating evidence in Reese’s car. He left his driver’s license and passport, Lee Miglin’s Lexus insurance card, and Bill Reese’s social security card.
It was determined the .40 caliber casings in the murders of David Madson, Jeff Trail, Bill Reese, and (later) Gianni Versace all matched. And still, no one issued an arrest warrant because it’s “circumstantial evidence” and they “didn’t have the gun.”
Manhunt and The End of the Manhunt
The manhunt for Andrew Cunanan was described as the largest manhunt since James Earl Ray, but was eventually considered the largest failed manhunt. On Wednesday, the lady from the pawnshop contacted police to follow up on the form she completed and because she was sure that was the same Andrew and he might come back for the coin. Police staked out the pawnshop, but Andrew didn’t come back.
At least one investigator on the case admitted that they were nowhere close to finding Andrew ever. The different agencies were not sharing information or evidence. A profiler for the FBI prophetically said, “If he’s still in Miami, he plans on dying in Miami.” It wasn’t until July 23 that he’d find out how right he was.
On that day Fernando Carriera, a property manager, went to go check on one of his properties. This property was a light blue houseboat. Carriera and his wife trekked over to the houseboat around 3:45 PM on July 23rd. The door was unlocked.
He and his wife walked in the house to find every light on and the typically open shades were pulled closed. Carriera kept walking through the house, in the living room cushions were pulled off the couch with a blanket to make a pallet on the floor with chairs upturned to make a fort. A pair of sandals on the floor suggested someone was in the house. While reaching for the gun he always kept on him, he heard a gun go off upstairs. The Carrieras bolted from the house. in his panic, Carriera fumbled with his phone calling his son instead of 911 so he asked him to call.
Police were there within minutes and the Carriera’s had watched the house from a distance so no one had exited the house. Police quickly jumped to the conclusion that Andrew Cunanan was inside and weren’t sure if he was in there waiting to fire on police. For hours, police staked out the houseboat, contacted the owner, and did outside investigating before deciding to enter the houseboat.
At 8 PM, pepper gas was shot into the house and by 8:20 PM SWAT entered. On the second floor, they found the cold body of a male – gunshot wound through his mouth and a gun in his hand with no vital signs. He had at least a few days’ growth of beard with his head on 2 pillows that were by now blood soaked. Due to the excessive tear gas, it wouldn’t be until 9:30 PM before detectives working the case could enter the houseboat with masks and identify the body as Andrew Cunanan. He’d used the same gun he’d used to kill all his victims to end his own life. The Miami sergeant who was there and had pursued Andrew for days said, “We immediately high-fived each other.”
By 10:24 PM, the news reported Andrew Cunanan, the man who killed Gianni Versace had taken his own life with the same gun he used to kill the Italian fashion designer (the news was unconcerned with the other people he murdered). However, it wasn’t until 5:10 the next morning that the body was officially identified as Andrew Cunanan with fingerprints.
The manhunt was over and Andrew Cunanan was dead.
sources for this episode
Who Was Andrew Cunanan? – 12 Facts About Gianni Versace’s Killer | townandcountrymag.com
Andrew Cunanan – Mom, Movies & Murders | biography.com
Why Andrew Cunanan Killed Guianni Versace | Time | time.com
The Killer’s Trail: Andrew Cunanan and Gianni Versace | vanityfair.com
Independent School Grades 6-12 in San Diego | bishops.com
Vulgar Favors: The Assassination of Gianni Versace by Maureen Orth
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