TV’s ’48 Hours’ to revisit Versace/Cunanan story

This coming July will mark the 20th anniversary of Andrew Cunanan’s “killing spree” national rampage that ended with the killing of fashion designer and icon Gianni Versace. Cunanan committed suicide after murdering a total of five people in the cities of Minneapolis, Chicago and Miami. For weeks this story made world headlines that turned into a mass media frenzy with the killing of Versace.

The difference between a “mass murder” and a “killing spree” is that the latter happens one after another quickly. Andrew Cunanan was a long-time San Diego resident and during those three weeks in July, the national and soon the world media descended on our city from respected Time Magazine to The National Enquirer. Soon it all turned into a media circus with coverage every night on all the national news programs.

Andrew Cunanan was a little above average looking guy who was well known in the local gay bar scene as a big tipper and designer label queen who wanted everyone to think he was very rich. The truth is that Cunanan had an older “boyfriend” who was very wealthy and lived in La Jolla. To some friends he confided that he had a “sugar daddy.”

Well, this past week CBS TV’s 48 Hours crew was in San Diego filming for an upcoming special to air this July on the Versace/Cunanan story, 20 years later. Because of Cunanan’s “kept lifestyle,” the media focused a lot on kept boys and their “sugar daddies,” wealthy closet cases and their double lifestyles and the gay male nightclub scene.

Cunanan’s killing spree rampage began after his older boyfriend dumped him and supposedly gave him money to get out of town. Cunanan ended up flying to Minneapolis and killing a former boyfriend, and then really flipping out and killing four other individuals, not only Versace, but a wealthy and much closeted well-known Chicago businessman.

When what seemed like every media outfit descended on San Diego, they started interviewing many local San Diego gay personalities and friends of Cunanan including almost everyone at Flicks, his favorite hangout.

I knew Andrew Cunanan; we weren’t good friends, but good acquaintances. I knew his roommate who I arranged a $75,000 interview with The National Enquirer and of course he skipped town before giving me a promised “gift” for negotiating the interview. (I did get a $5,000 “consulting fee” from The National Inquirer.)

I was flown to New York for interviews on both the Today Show and Good Morning America and yes, Anchor Matt Lauer interviewed me and boy is he short in person. Soon, Time, Newsweek and Entertainment Tonight, etc. contacted me and the rest is history for my “15 minutes” of media interviews.

There were a lot of sensational media stories including that Andrew Cunanan was coming back to San Diego to shoot people at our Pride Parade and also that the FBI offered protection to the then Union-Tribune publisher and wealthy closet case David Copley. One false and sensational story was that Cunanan had AIDS and wanted to give it to people and kill them with it. (He never had HIV-AIDS an autopsy later reported.)

I never ever mention Cunanan’s older boyfriend because I respected him and he, unlike other business people, gave back to our community’s organizations. I was interviewed by CBS producer Ryan Smith, who informed me that this will be an hour special in July.