Ep 15: Gianni Versace and the Victims of Andrew Cunanan

Detective Society

Discussing the murder of Gianni Versace and the 4 victims who came before him.

Show Intro:

The following is quoted from a profile of Donatella Versace from September of 2017 by Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian

"When my brother was murdered, I had the eyes of the whole world on me and 99% of them thought I wasn’t going to make it. And maybe I thought the same, at first. My brother was the king, and my whole world had crashed around me.”

“I was his doll and his best friend. He dressed me up in cool clothes, took me out to discos and clubs from when I was 11. I loved it. It was the best time of my life,”

“For the first five years, I was lost, Now, I feel like the death of my brother made me strong. But for a long time it was a trauma. You know the first thing I did when I heard the news, the day he died? I ran to the room where my children were, to turn off the TV.

But I wasn’t quick enough, and they were watching their uncle covered in blood, and they were asking me why. I had to be strong for the company. But most of all I had to be strong for the family.

People thought I wasn’t a warm person, but I was just trying to keep myself together.”

In case you've never heard his name, Gianni Versace was a prolific and iconic fashion designer who defined the 90s as an era of over-the-top opulence.

He challenged what is meant to be modern, masculine, and openly gay.

On the morning of July 15th, 1997, when he was 50 years old, Gianni Versace was shot and killed by a serial killer named Andrew Cunanan, on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion as he returned him from a morning walk on Ocean Drive.

His murder would shock the world and was the first step in unearthing the trail of death of disaster that Cunanan left behind.