Speaker 1: All right. If you don't remember the nineteen nineties, in
Speaker 1: the early days of everybody's obsession with Versace fashion, you
Speaker 1: may remember the f X drama about John Ivversace's murder.
Speaker 1: The show The Assassination of Jeanni VERSACEI American Crime Story,
Speaker 1: debuted in twenty eighteen. It explored the nineteen ninety seven
Speaker 1: murder of one of the hottest clothing designers in the
Speaker 1: entire world. I'm Patty Steele. What motivated Versace's murderer? Was
Speaker 1: it envy, sex for hire or something else? That's next
Speaker 1: on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. Johnny VERSACEI
Speaker 1: had a clear sense of direction from the time he
Speaker 1: was a little kid. He was born in nineteen forty six.
Speaker 1: He grew up in Reggio, Calabria, Italy. Right off the
Speaker 1: bat he loved fashion and architecture. His mother had a
Speaker 1: sewing business, so she took him on as an apprentice.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon headed to Milan to work in fashion design,
Speaker 1: and several years in he started to get noticed. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, he opened his own boutique in Milan,
Speaker 1: and he was an international sensation in no time. His
Speaker 1: designs were sexy, and colorful. His rivalry with Giorgio Armani,
Speaker 1: who had simple designs in quiet, dark colors, led to
Speaker 1: fashion insiders saying Armani dresses the wife, Versace dresses the mistress.
Speaker 1: He started to design costumes for music artists as well
Speaker 1: as ballet, opera, theater, and film, and that led to
Speaker 1: friendships with folks like Eric Clapton, Princess Diana Whitney, Houston,
Speaker 1: Naomi Campbell, cap Moss, Madonna Elton, John Tupac, Shakurt, Joan Collins,
Speaker 1: and countless other hotshots. Eventually, his company, Versace began to
Speaker 1: produce more than just clothing. They got into accessories, fragrances, makeup,
Speaker 1: and home furnishings. Johnny VERSACEI was on top top of
Speaker 1: the world, and it stayed that way through the eighties
Speaker 1: and well into the nineties. Meantime, he had a very
Speaker 1: stable personal life. He met his partner Antonio Demico, a model,
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, and they were together until Johnny's
Speaker 1: death fifteen years later. The pair lived in Versace's mansions
Speaker 1: in Italy, in Milan and Lake Como in New York City,
Speaker 1: and most notably, his spectacular villa in Miami. Beach Casa Cassuarina,
Speaker 1: which brings us to a warm, sunny morning in Miami,
Speaker 1: July fifteenth, nineteen ninety seven. Johnny liked to take a
Speaker 1: morning walk in his silk pajamas and head to a
Speaker 1: small cafe where he sat outside for coffee, reading in
Speaker 1: people watching. Sounds like a perfect morning. He finishes his
Speaker 1: coffee and he heads home down Ocean Drive. Now it's
Speaker 1: eight forty five am and he's just started to enter
Speaker 1: his gate. Beautiful fancy gates to walk up the step
Speaker 1: to his front door. At that moment, Andrew Cunanan, a young,
Speaker 1: really troubled guy with a violent past, steps out from
Speaker 1: the shadows. In the blink of an eye. Cunanan raises
Speaker 1: a handgun and fires two shots. Johnny VERSACEI instantly collapses.
Speaker 1: He's shot in the head. He's mortally wounded, his blood
Speaker 1: pouring down the marble steps of his own South Beach palace.
Speaker 1: Johnny Versace's murder sent shockwaves all over the world. How
Speaker 1: could such a vibrant, beloved, iconic figure become the victim
Speaker 1: of such a crazy act? And who is this guy?
Speaker 1: This killer? And why did he do this? Andrew Cunanan
Speaker 1: was born in California. He had a demanding father, who
Speaker 1: then abandoned the family after getting involved in some business fraud.
Speaker 1: It up ended Andrew's life. While he was a psychological mess,
Speaker 1: he went to some prestigious private schools and managed to
Speaker 1: create a false pri sona of wealth and status. There.
Speaker 1: As he got a little older, he started mingling easily
Speaker 1: with wealthy older men, getting money and social connections from them.
Speaker 1: He was charming. He was a good looking guy, but
Speaker 1: also horribly insecure with a volatile temper. By his mid twenties,
Speaker 1: it all started to fall apart. He was in bad
Speaker 1: shape socially and financially, and that's when his life spun
Speaker 1: out of control. He launched a gruesome cross country murder spray.
Speaker 1: Before he got to Miami, Andrew had committed four brutal
Speaker 1: murders in Minnesota, Chicago, and New Jersey, leaving cops baffled
Speaker 1: and the public scared. There didn't seem to be an
Speaker 1: mo His victims included former lovers, acquaintances, and even strangers.
Speaker 1: The FBI called him a spree killer, a person motivated
Speaker 1: to kill a number of people in a short period
Speaker 1: of time. Andrews stayed on the move and constantly changed
Speaker 1: his appearance. FBI wanted posters described him as intelligent, dangerous,
Speaker 1: and highly elusive, a killer whose motives were unpredictable. It's
Speaker 1: been almost thirty years, and yet it's still not one
Speaker 1: hundred percent clear what brought Andrew Cunanan to Johnny Versachi's doorstep.
Speaker 1: Some think they might have met years earlier, though what
Speaker 1: that would have entailed is unclear, while others think Andrew
Speaker 1: was simply an outsider looking in at Versachi's impossibly glamorous,
Speaker 1: successful life and he became fixated. Whether he knew him
Speaker 1: personally or not. Andrew was definitely obsessed with Johnny and
Speaker 1: often bragged about him being a close friend of his.
Speaker 1: Andrew definitely had delusions of grandeur. Acquaintances say he regularly
Speaker 1: lied about meeting and knowing lots of celebrities. On the
Speaker 1: other hand, FBI agents firmly believed that Versace and Cunanan
Speaker 1: had met in San Francisco, but they don't know the
Speaker 1: nature of that relationship. One story in Vanity Fair claimed
Speaker 1: the two met at a San Francisco nightclub in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety and could have gotten together later because both were
Speaker 1: apparently involved in sects for hire circles in both Miami
Speaker 1: and San Francisco. The Versace family, of course denies that scenario,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, even the Miami
Speaker 1: Beach Chief of Police said, I don't know that we
Speaker 1: are ever going to know the answers. Whatever the reason,
Speaker 1: Versace became Cunanan's final victim. Following the murder, Miami police
Speaker 1: launched one of the biggest manhunts in US history, but
Speaker 1: Cunanan had vanished without a trace. The fashion world was distraught.
Speaker 1: Versace's funeral at the Milan Cathedral had two thousand in attendance,
Speaker 1: names like Elton john Naomi Campbell, JFK. Junior's wife, Caroline
Speaker 1: Bessett Kennedy, and Princess Diana, who, of course was killed
Speaker 1: in a Paris car accident just a little over a
Speaker 1: month later. Still, the city of Miami was in a
Speaker 1: panic as the police in FBI searched for Cunanan. Then, finally,
Speaker 1: eight days after Versace's murder, a caretaker noticed that someone
Speaker 1: had forced their way into an unoccupied houseboat at a
Speaker 1: quiet marina near Miami Beach. Cops surrounded the area and
Speaker 1: moved in. It was July twenty third, nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: they approached the houseboat Suddenly, a single gunshot echoed from inside.
Speaker 1: Andrew Cunanan had committed suicide, leaving so many unanswered questions.
Speaker 1: On the boat, cops found newspaper articles of Cunanan's killing
Speaker 1: spree that he'd cut out, and fast food wrappers, but
Speaker 1: there was not much else. Johnny was cremated and his
Speaker 1: ashes buried in the Versace family crypt at Lake Como.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath, Johnny's sister Donetella took over running the
Speaker 1: Versace fashion empire. The Casa Kasuarina, the mansion and murder site,
Speaker 1: was sold and turned into a super luxury hotel. While
Speaker 1: Versace had left a generous bequest to his lover of
Speaker 1: fifteen years, Donnatella, and the Versace family took him to
Speaker 1: cord and cut it way back. The murder of John
Speaker 1: A Versace made a lot of the glitterati take a
Speaker 1: much closer look at their security measures, and it left
Speaker 1: everyone else considering how envy can destroy so many lives.
Speaker 1: Hope you're enjoying the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave
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Speaker 1: On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia,
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Speaker 1: Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We
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Speaker 1: Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: The pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.