"Neighbors in the building heard loud voices, an argument, something about 'Get the fuck out,'.... Trail was bludgeoned furiously with a claw hammer between 25 and 30 times, mostly on his head and face. Initially, he mounted a fierce defense. His watch was frozen still at 9:55 p.m., the time police believe he thrust his arms up against the attack. ... Police do know that the hammer came from an open tool box in the apartment. It must have been grabbed spontaneously, meaning Trail's killing was not premeditated. ... Cunanan may then have used the gun to coerce Madson into helping him roll the fully clothed corpse into a large living room rug. They also believe there was a plan to dispose of the rug, but that never came to pass. Instead, for most of the next two days Madson and Cunanan remained holed up there with the body. No efforts were made to clean up the bloody mess. ... April 29, police entered the apartment and found the body and the dog inside. ... recovered were Cunanan's duffel bag and a single pair of bloody Levis (38-inch waist)." [France, Out]

"Inside they found an empty handgun holster and a box of .40-caliber Golden Saber bullets. Ten bullets were missing." [Suro & Russakoff, The Washington Post]

"Cunanan grabs a hammer, perhaps from the open red toolbox later found on the dining-room table just a couple of feet from the door. He swings. The hammer gashes into Trail's left forearm at least three times as he deflects the blows. ... Madson's door is open. Cunanan swings and misses, leaving a crescent-shaped dent in the wall next to the door. At least one blow connects with Trail's skull. A single drop of Trail's blood flies directly across the hall and hits the wall. Brain matter hits the inner frame of the door. The door slams shut. Trail's battered body crumples onto an Oriental-style rug just inside the door. Cunanan stoops over his dying friend, raining blow after blow after blow on his head. In all, Trail is struck 27 times." [Walsh & Graves, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

"Cunanan is covered in blood -- his face, his white Banana Republic T-shirt and his blue baseball cap. ... The body, with Trail's wallet still tucked in his back pocket and his pager clipped to his belt, is rolled up in the rug. It's dragged 10 feet across the hardwood floor and left behind Madson's brown leather sofa. Two rolls from a six-pack of Brawny paper towels are used to mop up some of the blood, as are towels and a Navy T-shirt identical to the one Trail is wearing under his blue-and-white checked flannel shirt. The items are stuffed into a plastic drawstring bag, along with Trail's broken watch, a gold ring and the hammer. Cunanan leaves bare footprints in Trail's blood. But no paw prints are left in the blood, and no one hears barking. Prints barks at everything. If Prints isn't there, it's doubtful that Madson is either." [Walsh & Graves, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

David Madson
May 2, 1997

"David Madson was shot near a Minnesota lake, 50 miles away. One bullet had pierce his back and another had grazed his cheek. But the one that killed him had entered through his eye, at close range and had passed clear through his head. There was no sign of a struggle." [France]

"The Chisago County autopsy report said Madson was shot three times along the shore of East Rush Lake, one in the back, once in the face and once in the side of the head. The architect also had defensive wounds on his fingers. All the bullet wounds were from the same .40-caliber handgun later used to kill Reese, a New Jersey cemetery caretaker, and Versace." [Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

"...[T]wo fisherman discovered Madson's body on the grassy shore of East Rush Lake, about 40 miles from Minneapolis. Madson had been shot three times with a 10mm semiautomatic, and his red Jeep Cherokee was missing." [Suro & Russakoff, The Washington Post]

"He was shot three times -- between the shoulder blades, across the right cheek and through the right eye -- with a .40-caliber handgun. His body was dragged into tall weeds and left near the water's edge. The body showed few signs of decomposition, suggesting to investigators that Madson had spent substantial time with Cunanan before he was killed sometime between late Thursday and early Saturday morning. ... Dr. Lindsey Thomas, who performed Madson's autopsy, said a test that determined potassium levels in Madson's eye fluid shows he probably was killed four to six days before his body was found. ... There had been several reported sightings of Cunanan and Madson on Friday: driving north on Interstate Hwy. 35, eating cheeseburgers and drinking beer in a Rush City bar. None were confirmed. Thomas said she found no food in Madson's stomach; a large meal would take three to six hours to fully digest. Those things coupled with the potassium test, she said, make it improbable that Madson ate that meal or was still alive Friday. ... In an attempt to further narrow Madson's time of death, Chisago County officials have hired a forensic entomologist to study fly larvae found in Madson's mouth. The Madson family said preliminary results of those tests are expected soon. But Thomas said it's nearly impossible for any onetest to pinpoint time of death. [Walsh & Graves, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

Lee Miglin, 72
May 4, 1997

"It is believed that Cunanan took sport in the torturing of Miglin. He wrapped his head in masking tape, leaving small holes for breathing. He plunged a pair of pruning shears into the man's chest and slit his throat with a gardener's bow saw -- "a worse death than Christ," was how Miglin's 96-year-old mother described it." [France, Out]

"...Miglin's body, wrapped in duct tape with space left at his nose so he could breathe, had been found under a car in the garage of his Gold Coast home. His killer had stabbed him with pruning shears, then sawed through his throat with a gardening saw. The killer had also nibbled on some ham and an apple, then made off with Miglin's green 1994 Lexus." [Lacayo, Time]

"Police discovered the body of Miglin ...at least partially covered in paper or other debris in the rear of a detached garage behind his home on East Scott Street early Sunday. ... Early reports suggested Marilyn Miglin called police after discovering a gun that did not belong to the family in the couple's three-story home, and after failing to locate her husband. Police, however, refused to say exactly what prompted the Sunday morning emergency call that brought them to the house sometime after 8 a.m. There, they discovered the victim with his throat slashed, perhaps by a gardening instrument found in the garage, according to police sources, who estimated that Miglin was killed between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. His face was wrapped in a plastic bag fastened around his neck with masking tape, his feet apparently were bound and the left half of his body was tucked under the front end of a car parked in the garage." [Ferkenhoff and Bukro, Chicago Tribune]

"Someone cut his throat with a gardening saw.Ý Someone punctured his chest dozens of times with gardening clippers. Someone wrapped his head with masking tape -- two breathing holes left at the nostrils. Someone ran him over five times with his own car, a green 1994 Lexus. That someone, police say, is Cunanan." [Merzer, Detroit Free Press]

"The first jurisdiction to charge Cunanan with murder closed its case on Thursday and released an investigative file.... The file also includes the autopsy report on Miglin, a Chicago real estate developer, believed to be Cunanan's third victim. It documents 49 separate injuries to Miglin, including 19 blows to his head and face. 'All of that demonstrates the rage Cunanan had to be experiencing at the time he killed Mr. Miglin,' Reuter said." [Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

"Miglin was stabbed twice through the heart with a screwdriver. His head was nearly severed with a garden saw. Every rib was broken, apparently after he was run over by a car in the garage. Recently released police files from Miami Beach indicate that Miglin was already dead by noon Saturday...." [Walsh & Graves, Minneapolis Star Tribune]
Ý

William Reese, 45
May 9, 1997

"There was no such drama in the shooting of caretaker William Reese, 45, in an isolated national cemetary in Pennsville, N.J." [France, Out]

"State park employees told police and the FBI that they saw a man fitting Cunanan's description lying on the grass in the park on the afternoon of May 9, several hours before William Reese, the cemetery's caretaker, was murdered in his office. The remote, five-acre cemetery has almost no traffic because most of its graves hold bodies from the Civil War era.... Cunanan may have been watching Reese because it appears that the caretaker had just finished work at the time he was murdered. Investigators said he was killed with a shot to the head from the same 10mm semiautomatic used to kill Madson" [Suro & Russakoff, The Washington Post]

"Sometime between 4:30 and 6:15 p.m, Cunanan marched cemetery caretaker William Reese down the basement stairs of the Finn's Point National Cemetery office and forced him to his hands and knees. He shot him once through the back of the head. The bullet, a .40-caliber Golden Saber hollow point, was the same kind that killed Madson." [Walsh & Graves, The Minneapolis Star Tribune]

Gianni Versace,Ý
July 15, 1997

"On his return to the house, just as he was opening the ornate wrought-iron gate, Versace was approached suddenly by a white man in his mid-20s. Some witnesses described an ambush-style killing in which the attacker pumped one bullet into Versace's head from behind, then another as he fell to the ground. But two other witnesses, who were later questioned by FBI agents, have told TIME that first Versace appeared to struggle briefly with his attacker over a bag. ... At the sound of the gunfire, meanwhile, Versace's companion D'Amico had rushed from inside the house to find the designer face up on the pavement in a spreading pool of his own blood. At the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, doctors declared him dead. Ballistics tests later found that the gun that killed Versace was the same one that had killed two of the earlier victims. " [Lacayo, Time]

"Just before 9 a.m. a gunman walked up behind Versace as he attempted to open his front gate. The gunman fired two bullets into the back of the designer's head, then fled. Versace, fatally wounded, lay in a pool of blood on the sidewalk. His sunglasses, sandals and wallet lay untouched at his side. ...shell casings found near Versace's body were similar to those found at the scene of another slaying Cunanan is suspected of committing in Minnesota." [Chicago Tribune]

"Gianni Versace may have seen his killer because only one of two bullets fired into the designer last month entered from the back of his head, the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported. One of the two .40-caliber bullets that killed Versace entered through his left cheek and not through the back of his head as first thought. The bullet was likely fired from a gun pressed against Versace's cheek, the newspaper reported Thursday, citing information from the Dade County Medical Examiner's Office." [Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

"'The shooter fired twice, striking the victim once in the center of his face to the right of his nose, and once in the left side of his neck just below the left ear,' according to one police report. 'The neck shot was through and through. The victim was initially found crumpled on the ground more or less on his right side.'" [Staff writers, The Miami Herald]

"The bullet entered just above Versace's mouth and to the left of his nose, leaving a gaping wound. ... At first, doctors, police and witnesses were under the impression that Versace's facial injury was an exit wound. Rushed to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, he was pronounced dead and it was announced by hospital staff that he had been shot twice in the back of the head. But the autopsy showed the damage was done by the entry of a bullet. The disfiguring of his victims' faces was a Cunanan trademark, and one that many serial killers employ, according to retired FBI agent Peter Smerick. ''It's a way to dehumanize the victims and it also shows a rage-filled, angry killing,'' said Smerick, a one-time profiler for the FBI. Cunanan's first victim, Jeffrey Trail, a former best friend, was bludgened to death and left unrecognizable. His second victim, former lover David Madson, was shot in the head rolled into a carpet, his face totally covered. The third victim, Chicago businessman Lee Miglin, had his head taped like that of a mummy." [Yanez, The Sun-Sentinel]

"One witness, Evan Gray Gertz, told police that Cunanan apparently was waiting for Versace that morning, sitting in the grass on the beach side of Ocean Drive across from the mansion. Gertz said Cunanan crossed the street to the residence as his victim approached. Gertz did not see the shooting, but remembered that Cunanan 'did not walk with a natural sway of both arms . . . his right arm was fully extended and stationary at his side.' Other witnesses picked up the story, saying Cunanan sped up the steps to reach Versace, and fired just after the designer had placed his key in the lock." [Staff writers, The Miami Herald]

ÝÝÝÝÝ"I recognized that it was Versace but I wasn't sure because he was dressed very casual. ... He was walking a little bit faster than a normal pace. ... I looked at [Versace] and from his feet, from his sandals and up to his eyes; when I saw that it was him, he saw that I recognized him, he smiled at me. I smiled. He changed directions. He shifted diagonally going towards the steps of his villa. At that moment I saw a person, a guy, very close to the villa walk who had already entered from Eleventh.... I thought it was one of Gianni Versace's admirers or someone who knew him because he sped up to reach Versace. At that moment I turned around to look at Versace one last time. The guy had already reached Versace on the steps. It was the moment he was reaching from his back he pointed his gun with his arm very stretched out as Versace was placing or trying to place his key in the lock....
ÝÝÝÝÝ"He couldn't even turn around. And the murderer was behind his shoulders. ... I remember Versace couldn't turn. It was here and he was blocked but it was from behind, it was maybe this point right here... He was touching. [The second shot was] immediately right after the first. Two dry shots. There was no smoke. There was nothing. It was a precise shot.
ÝÝÝÝÝ"The murderer came, walked backwards from the steps. He placed his gun in the bag which was open and he continued on his way down to the street as if nothing had happened. Very calm. He had a Donald Duck walk, like so [...with his feet pointing outwards].
ÝÝÝÝÝ"Some people came out of the house.... He was halfway down the street almost towards the end of the empty lot. Because he was walking very slowly.... They saw what had happened. And the blond guy asked who did that... And I said, 'That guy there.' The blond guy... began to run right away. Then I looked at Versace, blood started coming out. Guys were crying. Then I saw the blond guy came back.
ÝÝÝÝÝ"I only saw his right arm and he had white skin, nothing strange.... it could have been tan.... He didn't have a build of someone who was sporty, he had a normal build. A black basetball cap. Worn down over his eyes. I didn't even see his nose.... he was clean-cut. He didn't even have a beard.... He had a T-shirt on... like a basketball players... short pants... sandals ... [5'6"?] A bit taller [5'7", 5'8"?] Yes, a bit taller.... I just know that he placed the gun in a bag, but it whether it was a backpack or a bag here, I don't know.... [The gun was] black... it wasn't shiny... rectangular. I thought it was a joke or a game. The shots came pretty close.... Like this: Tatt, tatt, this....No blood came out from his head, nothing.... After, that is why I couldn't believe it was something." [Colakovic,witness deposition, reprinted by Miami Herald.]

Andrew Phillip Cunanan,Ý
July 23, 1997

"Upstairs in the master bedroom, they found a man wearing only boxer shorts lying face up on the bed. On his stomach, a .40 caliber gun. The man had what looked like a week's growth of beard. He had shot himself in the mouth." ["Biography This Week," A&E Channel]

"His body lay lifeless in the houseboat, the revolver by his groin. As for his face, one source said it still bore a resemblance to the photos in his wanted posters." [Chua-Eoan, Time]

"SWAT team members who stormed the houseboat late Wednesday found Cunanan's body on the bed in the upstairs master bedroom, the affidavit said. Large amounts of blood were seen coming from the suspect's ears, mouth and nose and he had a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun lying on his groin. The Dade County Medical Examiner Department said Cunanan shot himself in the mouth." [Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times]

"Bloody bandages, cotton swabs, gauze pads and penicillin pills were among the items found on the houseboat in Miami Beach where Cunanan ended his life with a gunshot to the head on July 23. 'I believe he did have a wound on his stomach, and he was treating himself with the medical supplies found on board,' Anne Figueiras, spokeswoman for the Miami office of the FBI, said today. She said she did not know when, where or how Cunanan suffered the injury. The wound, near Cunanan's navel, appeared to have troubled him for a while, possibly before he allegedly killed Gianni Versace on July 15, the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported...." [Associated Press, The Washington Post]

"The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported in Thursday's editions that the doctor who performed the autopsy was baffled by the wound and unable to pinpoint how it occurred, except to say that it appeared to be two weeks old. Cunanan killed himself eight days after Versace was killed. The perfectly round, shallow puncture wound, which was bright red and appeared infected, was below the suspected killer's bellybutton, a source who was not identified told the newspaper." [Associated Press, The Washington Post]