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Spree killer Andrew Cunanan's crimes, including the murder of famed Italian designer Gianni Versace, will feature on this Wednesday's episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. The episode will mostly cover the life and death of Versace and the glamorous empire he left behind after Cunanan gunned him down outside his South Beach, Florida, mansion in July 1997.
The upcoming episode, titled The Death of Gianni Versace, will air on March 1, 2023, at 8 pm ET on Oxygen. The synopsis states:
"Gianni Versace's longtime partner, Antonio D'Amico, speaks about the murder of the fashion icon; Versace's murder came amid a monthslong manhunt for Andrew Cunanan, who was accused of committing four other murders throughout the U.S. in 1997."
Prior to Versace's murder, Cunanan was a suspect in four other killings committed in April and May of that year across three states. He was reportedly hiding in Miami for a while and committed suicide before he could be brought to justice. To date, the motive behind the designer's murder remains a mystery, although some allege that the 27-year-old spree killer was obsessed with him.
Spree killer Andrew Cunanan's first two victims were his friend and ex-boyfriend in Minneapolis
Andrew Cunanan's killing spree started in April and early May 1997, when he murdered his first two victims in Minnesota. One of the victims was his friend Jeffrey Trail, while the other was his ex-boyfriend David Madson. Trail was a former Naval commander, and Madson was an architect whom Cunanan referred to as "the love of my life."
Vanity Fair reported that in the weeks and months before the killings, Cunanan's ties with these individuals worsened because they both believed he was involved in illicit activities and did not want him to visit them in Minneapolis.
According to a 1997 New York Times article, detectives suspected Cunanan and Trail "were romantically linked, at least for a time, while they were living in San Diego," which thus concluded that he was likely involved in close relationships with his first two victims. Further speculation stated that he probably found out about Trail and Madson's alleged relationship and that "he may have been jealous."
However, the killer's former roommate reportedly revealed that he "loved David Madson very, very much... David didn’t want anything to do with him. I mean, David was Andrew's life."
Reports state that Jeffrey Trail was beaten to death with a claw hammer, and his body was found rolled in a rug and placed behind a sofa in David Madson's apartment on April 29. Meanwhile, Madson's body was found on May 3 on the east shore of Rush Lake near Rush City, Minnesota. Reports state that he died of gunshot wounds to the head.
Although investigators suspected Madson's involvement in Trail's murder alongside Cunanan, his family insisted that he was held hostage after witnesses claimed to have spotted the two together after the first murder.
Andrew Cunanan murdered the third and fourth victims in Chicago and New Jersey, respectively
After the first two murders, Andrew Cunanan left for Chicago, and in less than a week's time, on May 3, the wealthy 72-year-old property developer Lee Miglin's body was discovered in his house, stabbed and bludgeoned with clear evidence of torture. The victim's family insisted that he did not know his killer.
According to Town and Country, Cunanan, who stole Miglin's green Lexus, was then sought out in an interstate manhunt, during which he traveled to New Jersey, where on May 9, he shot a cemetery caretaker, William Reese, stole his red pickup truck, and left again.
Famed Italian designer Gianni Versace was Andrew Cunanan's final victim days before he shot himself in the head
Andrew Cunanan traveled to Miami on May 11, 1997, two days after killing his fourth victim in New Jersey. He checked into a hotel and reportedly spent his time doing drugs, eating fast food, stealing, and visiting gay nightclubs.
After spending more than two months in hiding, the spree killer surfaced once again and made his last hit, Gianni Versace. He shot the Italian designer outside his South Beach mansion on July 15.
Eight days later, on July 23, Andrew Cunanan shot himself in the head in a luxury boathouse, and with that came an end to the killing spree.
