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The enigma of Andrew Cunanan

July 24, 1997
Web posted at: 1:32 a.m. EDT (0532 GMT)

SAN DIEGO (CNN) -- In public, acquaintances say he was softspoken and unassuming, an intellectual who spoke several languages and easily discussed world affairs. They described him as handsome and gregarious, lavish and boastful, always dining with the social elite though he had no visible means of support; at parties, he craved attention.


Cunanan

He has been openly homosexual since high school. His own mother called him a "high-class homosexual prostitute," and his friends and acquaintances say he sought out older, wealthy gay men. His father has denied reports of the son's homosexuality, calling him "an altar boy" with a good Catholic upbringing.

Andrew Cunanan, one of the FBI's most wanted men in America, became the suject of a massive manhunt for his alleged role in a cross-country killing spree. Authorities have called Cunanan, 27, the sole suspect in the murders of five men, the latest being Italian designer Gianni Versace.

On Wednesday, they believe he may have taken his own life after being cornered in a Miami Beach, Florida, houseboat just 2 1/2 miles from where Versace was shot to death.

After storming the houseboat, police found a body inside that they said resembled Cunanan. Early Thursday they were still awaiting positive identification of the person they said died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

News that Cunanan was suspected in a killing spree came as a shock to his friends, who attended an extravagant going-away bash Cunanan threw for himself in April before leaving San Diego.

"The Andrew Cunanan I know is not a violent person," Elizabeth Cote said in a videotape the FBI released Wednesday. She said Cunanan was godfather to her children.

One acquaintance, Anthony White, told CNN that Cunanan seemed to change in his last six months in San Diego, moving into an apartment in a modest neighborhood and cutting his hair shorter than his typical hairstyle. Some friends have suggested Cunanan snapped after being rejected by a lover and his best friend.

"People said that he just changed," White said.

Cunanan never made it to San Francisco. Instead he bought a one-way ticket to Minneapolis, where friends said he told them he had unfinished business to settle. He reportedly stayed with a former lover, David Madson, 33, and arranged for a fling with an old friend, Jeffrey Trail.

Trail's body was found wrapped in a rug in Madson's loft on April 29, his head bashed in; Madson's body was found four days later about 60 miles north of Minneapolis. He had been shot once in the head.

Authorities believe Cunanan then went to Chicago and killed real estate investor Lee Miglin with a saw blade and pruning shears. Cunanan also was charged on a federal count of killing William Reese, a caretaker of a New Jersey cemetery who was found shot once in the head.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 
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