After his first meeting with Versace, Cunanan began to hustle sex for drugs and money. As the sex got rougher and the drugs got harder his grip on reality and fantasy began to cross dangerously until, convinced that he had AIDS, he decided that he had nothing to lose anymore. He went on a murderous rampage over a three-month period that landed him in the headlines of papers and TV programs across the country. He was added to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. By the time he was done the entire world would know his name and his face.
Andrew Cunanan shot Gianni Versace to death on the steps of Casa Casuarina on the morning of July 15, 1997. He shot him in the head from behind. Versace never saw him coming. Cunanan himself died of a single self-inflicted gunshot to the head on July 23. He did not have AIDS.
Versace: His Final Hours features commentary from Antonio D'Amico, Versace supermodel Janice Dickinson, fashion writer Joan Juliet Buck, Vulgar Favors author Maureen Orth, along with Versace's friends Doretta Palazzi and Lazaro Quintana, and Cunanan's friend Anthony Dabiere.
It covers Cunanan's murders in Minneapolis, Chicago, and New Jersey along with his motives. It also tells a story that few know; even as the police and FBI were conducting a full-blown manhunt, not one of their 3,000 Most Wanted fliers had been posted in South Beach. Documents containing Cunanan's thumbprint, name, and his correct address in South Beach had been turned in to an investigator — who then left on vacation. They were sitting, still on his desk, when Versace was shot to death. But for these mistakes Gianni Versace might never have died.
Previously in the Final 24 review series:
Janis Joplin: Her Final Hours
Keith Moon: His Final Hours
Article comments
1 - Miss Bob Etier
I always found the death of Gianni Versace to be particularly sad, in a world crammed with sad deaths. The irony of Cunanan choosing that time and place is overwhelming. Fascinating review, GG.