Andrew Cunanan

Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 – July 23, 1997) was an American spree killer who murdered five people over three months from April 27 to July 15, 1997.

His victims include Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin.

The youngest of four children, Andrew Cunanan was born August 31, 1969, in National City, California, to Modesto "Pete" Dungao Cunanan (June 25, 1930 – June 2, 2005), a Filipino-American, and Mary Anne Schillaci (November 4, 1938 – April 15, 2012), 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.

In his youth, Cunanan lived with his family in National City and attended Bonita Vista Middle School.

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 "Liz" Cote.

At school, he was remembered as being bright and very talkative, and testing with an IQ of 147.

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.

Cunanan identified as gay in high school, when he began having liaisons with wealthy older men.

He was voted "Most Likely Not to Be Forgotten" by his classmates, sometimes reported as “Most Likely to Be Remembered” by several media reports about Cunanan.

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.

In 1988, when Cunanan was 19, his father deserted his family and moved to the Philippines to evade arrest for embezzlement.

That same year, Cunanan had begun frequenting local gay clubs and restaurants, and his mother, who was a deeply religious Catholic, 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.

In 1989, Cunanan dropped out of UC San Diego and settled in the Castro District of San Francisco, a center of gay culture, moving in with Cote and her boyfriend, Phil Merrill.

In San Francisco, Cunanan continued his practice of befriending wealthy older men, and also reportedly began creating violent pornography.

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."

Cunanan is also believed to have been dealing drugs, including prescription opioids, cocaine, and marijuana.

He used several aliases: Andrew DeSilva, Lt. Cmdr. Andy Cummings, Drew Cunningham, and Curt Matthew Demaris.

Cunanan allegedly first met fashion designer Gianni Versace in San Francisco in October 1990, when Versace was in town to be recognized for the costumes he had designed for the San Francisco Opera production of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio, although Versace's family has always denied that the two men ever met.

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.

Cunanan told friends that Madson was the "love of my life".

In September 1996, Cunanan broke up with Norman Blachford, a wealthy older man who had been hosting and financially supporting him.

He soon maxed out his credit cards.

Cunanan's close friend Jeffrey "Jeff" Trail, a former Naval 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.

Cunanan also was known to regularly consume these drugs, especially methamphetamine.

Cunanan died by suicide on July 23, 1997, eight days after murdering Versace.

By April 1997, friends reported Cunanan was abusing painkillers and was drinking alcohol "like there was no tomorrow".

Later that month, he told friends he was leaving San Diego for Minneapolis to "take care of some business matters" with Trail, who had recently distanced himself from Cunanan.

Trail expected Cunanan to return to San Francisco upon leaving Minneapolis.

Before Cunanan's visit, Trail told his sister that he "did not want Andrew To come."

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."

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.

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.

Upon arriving there the next day, Cunanan stayed with Madson, a mutual friend of his and Trail's, in Madson's apartment.