i was watching logo (i'm a good fag) and there was a segment on elton john. of course, the insane meanderings and the tragedies caused by andrew cunanan were mentioned. gianni versace and elton were extremely close. it was strange suddenly to remember the disintegration of lives that occurred that summer 10 years ago. i recall it being so unsettling then. and i remember being totally creeped out by the fact that cunanan was so homogenous. i mean, so not distinct. i remember travelling somewhere, being at the airport and looking around and instantly being a little afraid because he literally could have been anywhere in that airport and no one really would have noticed. certainly not me.
then there were stories of drugs, prostitution, and pornography. now, i grant you, these are not commonplace in most gay men's lives. however, these are not strangers for many either. it is a very odd passing-of-the-torch ritual that happens from generation to generation in certain circles. but, the real question i have is the presence of meth in this story. i think at that time, really only certain cities on the west coast were seeing the ravages of meth. as a nation, the hooplah surrounding the horrors for some who use meth had not surfaced. and so when i look back on this very tragic incident, my immediate question is how much of a role did tina play? did she drive andrew to crazy town? or did she just push him over the edge? was it her finger that pulled the trigger and snuffed out the lives of miglin and versace and the others? was all this done in a psychotic state that miss thing had orchestrated?
perhaps these questions have been asked before. and if you have already heard them or read them or answered them for yourselves, i apologize for redundancy. i know that i could never really get a handle on the situation until i applied my first hand knowledge of meth to this story. and i am certainly not offering anything like an excuse, but this connection does bring a level of understanding for me to an otherwise completely baffling situation.
Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 – July 23, 1997) was an American serial killer of Italian[2] and Filipino[3] descent who murdered five people, including Gianni Versace, in a cross-country journey during a three-month period in 1997, ending with Cunanan's suicide, at the age of 27. In the middle of that spree, on June 12, 1997 he became the 449th fugitive to be listed by the FBI on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Born in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego, California, Cunanan graduated from The Bishop's School in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, in 1987.
The first murder was that of his friend Jeffrey Trail, a former US Naval Officer and propane salesman on April 27, 1997, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [3] The next victim was architect David Madson, who was found on the east shore of Rush Lake near Rush City, MN after the Minnesota Corrections Association Fishing Tournament on April 29, 1997 with gunshot wounds to the head. Police recognized a connection, as Trail's body had been found in Madson's Minneapolis loft apartment, and started an intensive nationwide manhunt.
Cunanan next drove to Chicago and killed prominent real-estate developer Lee Miglin, 72, on May 4, 1997. Five days later, the intensive manhunt for Cunanan, who escaped in Miglin's car, culminated with the fourth victim in Pennsville, New Jersey, at the Finn's Point National Cemetery, killing caretaker William Reese, 45, on May 9, 1997. Cunanan apparently killed him for his pickup truck, while leaving Miglin's car behind.
While the manhunt focused on Reese's truck, Cunanan remained in hiding in Miami Beach, Florida, for months between his fourth and fifth murders. Finally, for his fifth murder he chose fashion designer Gianni Versace, who was killed on July 15, 1997.
Eight days later, on July 23, Cunanan committed suicide in the upstairs bedroom aboard a Miami houseboat 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.
The gun used by Cunanan for some of 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.[3]
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.[4] Media speculation connected the fact that most of his victims were older gay men to Cunanan's prostitution, but after Cunanan's suicide it is impossible to identify motives with certainty.
What is known about Andrew Cunanan is brief. He spent money lavishly on himself (owing Neiman Marcus $46,000 at his death[citation needed]) and dealt drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine. He was fluent in seven languages by age 21.
Cunanan frequented the gay neighborhoods in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Most who knew Cunanan described him as intelligent, articulate, vain, and charming. One partner described Cunanan's sexual tastes as "extreme." The same partner attested to Cunanan's like of violent and sadomasochistic pornography.
courtesy of wikipedia
and now here are the killers and their 4th single for reasons unknown
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