Six days later, William Reese, a cemetery worker in Pennsville, N.J., was gunned down during the theft of his 1995 red Chevrolet pickup, the same vehicle found near the Miami Beach home where fashion designer Versace was shot to death Tuesday. Miglin’s 1994 Lexus had been stolen, and Madson’s Jeep Cherokee was found nearby. His family has adamantly denied that he knew Cunanan. On May 3, Lee Miglin, 72, a Chicago developer with strong social and political connections, was found murdered, tortured and wrapped like a mummy in his Gold Coast home. Police here say Madson, Trail and Cunanan had been seen dining together just the night before Trail was thought to have been killed.
He had been shot to death at close range. A few days later, Madson’s body was found near a lake north of Minneapolis. Within days, police in Minnesota found the bludgeoned body of the 27-year-old Trail wrapped in a rug in the apartment of David Madson, 33, an architect and former Cunanan lover. His guests ate filet mignon, ostrich and salmon and drank copious amounts of champagne as Cunanan announced that he was moving to San Francisco but that, first, he needed to go to the Midwest for reasons he did not detail. In late April, Cunanan, who was living with a roommate in a modest apartment in Hillcrest, held a going-away party for himself at one of his favorite restaurants. It may have been in one of the Hillcrest nightspots favored by military officers that Cunanan met Jeffrey Trail, a Naval Academy graduate who is among the four, now five, people that Cunanan is suspected of killing. “He seemed to know when certain ships were in and the guys would want to unwind and have fun.” “Maybe it was his father’s influence or something, but Andy seemed to particularly like military guys,” said one active-duty Navy officer. His mother lives in public housing in Illinois and asserts that her ex-husband took all the family’s money when he fled. In high school, where he excelled in cross-country running and French, he liked to scandalize his straight friends by intimating that he was being “kept” by wealthy friends, who provided him with such gifts as a red leather jumpsuit with an oversized zipper.Ĭunanan’s father, a retired Navy officer, fled the country in 1988 after being charged with financial flimflammery in his stockbrokerage. Still, Cunanan had a predilection for the flamboyant. The group’s executive director remembers Cunanan as nicely dressed, respectful of his elders, “a real gentleman.” The club holds parties and gatherings at locations across the country, invitation-only, discretion absolutely required. He could talk about politics and foreign affairs and was fluent in languages.”Ĭunanan, who often went by the name Andy DeSilva, attended events sponsored by Sigma Mu, an exclusive gay social club based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “A lot of these young boys are pretty but have nothing to say,” said Nicole Ramirez-Murray, society columnist for the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times. He favored tailored suits with designer labels. In Hillcrest, that can take you a long way.”Ĭunanan, 27, who grew up in San Diego and attended a swank prep school and then UC San Diego, also lived a second life: this one more discreet, totally removed from public view.Ĭunanan was not the only younger man to be a part of the upper reaches of gay society in San Diego, but he was notable for his wit, intelligence and sense of style. “He was fun, he had money, and he was available. “It wasn’t so much that he was good-looking or buffed out, but he was sexy and exciting in other ways,” said one former acquaintance.
He was partial to bars frequented by young military officers and other young professionals. And he always picked up the tab.Īt the dance parlors where gay-rock videos blare long into the night, he would dance until closing time, often bare-chested, sometimes leaving alone, sometimes with someone he had just met.
He was a raconteur, possessed of a distinctive laugh and a love for spinning tales of trips to Europe and pending movie deals in Hollywood.
He loved to host dinner parties for a coterie of good looking young men. In the hard-rock nightspots and trendy restaurants of this city’s gay enclave, Andrew Phillip Cunanan cut a memorable figure.