Andrew Cunanan

The youngest of four children, Andrew Phillip Cunanan was born August 31, 1969, in National City, California, to Modesto "Pete" Cunanan, a Filipino,[4] and Mary Anne Schillaci, an Italian American. Modesto was serving in the United States Navy in the Vietnam War at the time of his son's birth. After leaving the Navy, where he had served as a chief petty officer, Modesto worked as a stockbroker.[5]

In his youth, Cunanan lived with his family in National City and attended Bonita Vista Middle School.[6] In 1981, his father enrolled him in The Bishop's School, an independent day school located in the affluent La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. There Cunanan met his lifelong best friend Elizabeth Cote. At school, he was remembered as being bright and very talkative, and testing with an IQ of 147.[7]

As a teenager, Cunanan developed a reputation as a prolific liar, given to telling tall tales about his family and personal life. He was adept at changing his appearance according to what he felt was most attractive at a given moment.[5] Cunanan identified as gay in high school, when he began having liaisons with wealthy older men.[8] He was voted "least likely to be forgotten."[9] After graduating from high school in 1987, Cunanan enrolled at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), where he majored in American history.[10]

In 1988, when Cunanan was 19, his father deserted his family and moved to the Philippines to evade arrest for embezzlement.[11] That same year, Cunanan had begun frequenting local gay clubs and restaurants, and his mother, who was deeply religious, learned about his sexual orientation. During an argument, Cunanan threw his mother against a wall, dislocating her shoulder. Later examination of his behavior indicates that he may have suffered from antisocial personality disorder, characterized by a lack of remorse and empathy.[12] In 1989, Cunanan dropped out of UC San Diego and settled in the Castro District of San Francisco, a center of LGBTQ culture, moving in with friend Liz Cote and her boyfriend, Phil Merrill.[5]

Collection of FBI photos

In San Francisco, Cunanan continued his practice of befriending wealthy older men, and also reportedly began creating violent pornography.[5] He also socialized in the Hillcrest and La Jolla neighborhoods of San Diego, as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona, "apparently living off the largesse of one wealthy patron or another."[8] Cunanan is also believed to have been dealing drugs, including prescription opioids, cocaine, and marijuana.[13][14] He used several aliases: Andrew DeSilva,[15] Lt. Cmdr. Andy Cummings, Drew Cunningham, and Curt Matthew Demaris.[16]

Cunanan first met fashion designer Gianni Versace in San Francisco in October 1990,[17] when Versace was in town to be fitted for the costumes he had designed for the San Francisco Opera production of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio.[18] Versace's family has always denied that the two men ever met.[14] In December 1995, Cunanan met David Madson, a Minneapolis architect, in a San Francisco bar. They began a long-distance relationship shortly after, but Madson ended the relationship in the spring of 1996, telling friends he sensed something "shady" about Cunanan.[14][19] Cunanan told friends that Madson was the "love of my life".[11]

In September 1996, Cunanan broke up with Norman Blachford, a wealthy older man who had been hosting and financially supporting him.[14] He soon maxed out his credit cards.[9][18] Cunanan's close friend Jeffrey "Jeff" Trail, a former Navy officer working as a district manager for a propane delivery company in Minneapolis, had told his former roommate Michael Williams that Cunanan had resumed selling drugs.[20] Cunanan also was known to regularly consume these drugs, especially methamphetamine.[18]

By April 1997, friends reported Cunanan was abusing painkillers and was drinking alcohol "like there was no tomorrow."[11][14] Later that month, Cunanan told friends he was leaving San Diego for Minneapolis to "take care of some business matters" with Trail,[15] who had recently distanced himself from Cunanan.[21] Trail expected Cunanan to move to San Francisco upon leaving Minneapolis. Before Cunanan's visit, Trail told his sister that he "did not want Andrew to come".[22] A week before his death, Trail told Williams that he had had a "huge falling out" with Cunanan and said, "I made a lot of enemies this weekend ... I've got to get out of here. They're going to kill me."[18]

On April 24, Cunanan and four friends attended a going-away party at Hillcrest's California Cuisine, a rare occasion when Cunanan did not cover the tab.[13] He had reached the credit limit on both his credit cards, and had to ask for a credit extension to afford his plane ticket to Minneapolis.[3] Upon arriving in Minneapolis the next day, Cunanan stayed with Madson, a mutual friend of his and Trail's, in Madson's loft apartment.[9] That night, Cunanan and Madson dined at Nye's Restaurant and visited The Gay 90's nightclub.[22] On April 26, Cunanan stayed in Trail's apartment while Trail was out of town with his boyfriend, Jon Hackett. The following afternoon, Trail told Hackett that he needed to have a "pretty important" conversation with Cunanan. When Trail and Hackett later arrived at Trail's apartment, there was no sign of Cunanan or his belongings. Trail left his apartment to see Cunanan shortly after 9 p.m. and was likely let into Madson's apartment at 9:45 p.m.[14]

On July 23, 1997, Cunanan's body was found in a luxury houseboat in Miami Beach, after a caretaker reported hearing a gunshot to police.[35] He had shot himself in the head[36] with the Taurus pistol stolen from Trail; it was the same weapon he used to kill Madson, Reese, and Versace.[12][31][37]

Cunanan's cremated remains are interred in the mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego.[38]

Cunanan's motivation remains unknown; at the time of the murders there was extensive public and press speculation linking the crimes to Cunanan's alleged discovery that he was HIV positive,[39] although an autopsy revealed he was HIV negative.[40][41]

Although police searched the houseboat where Cunanan died, he left no suicide note and few personal belongings.[42] Investigators noted Cunanan's reputation for acquiring money and expensive possessions from wealthy older men.[42] Police considered few of the findings to be of note, except multiple tubes of hydrocortisone cream and a fairly extensive collection of fiction by C. S. Lewis.[42][43][44]

Cunanan was portrayed by Shane Perdue in the film The Versace Murder (1998),[45] Jonathan Trent in the film Murder in Fashion (2009),[46] Luke Morrison in the television film House of Versace (2013), and Darren Criss in The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018), the second season of the television series American Crime Story.

Andrew Cunanan was briefly mentioned in the television series Big Mouth on Netflix in the episode titled "Horrority House". One of the characters, Matthew, dresses up as Gianni Versace for Halloween. He claims it was a couple costume and his boyfriend was supposed to come as Andrew Cunanan.[47]

He has also been the subject of several true crime television series' episodes: Mugshots on Court TV, with "Andrew Cunanan – The Versace Killer",[48] and Six Degrees of Murder, with "The Body in the Rug".[49] He has also been featured on ABC's news television series 20/20,[50] and Investigation Discovery's show Most Evil in various episodes, where he is examined by Columbia University forensic psychiatrist Michael H. Stone.[51]

• List of fugitives from justice who are no longer sought
• List of serial killers in the United States

• Indiana, Gary (1999). Three Month Fever: The Andrew Cunanan Story. ISBN 9780060191450.
• Orth, Maureen (1999). Vulgar Favors. Dell. ISBN 9780385332866.
• Schecter, Harold; Everett, David (1997). The A-to-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. ISBN 9780671020743.

• Andrew Cunanan at Find a Grave
• Andrew Cunanan's FBI file