There is one night in particular Mark Fanta will never forget among his many interactions with Andrew Cunanan.
It was sometime in 1996 and Fanta, his then-partner Michael Williams, their close friend and ex-roommate Jeffrey Trail, Trail’s friend Cunanan and Cunanan’s older companion and benefactor Norman Blachford were having dinner together.
As the five men sat around chatting, Cunanan regaled them with his ‘terrible’ woes.
‘”Norman and I are redecorating our house in La Jolla. And I’m having such a difficult time finding the right fabric to re-cover these chairs,”’ Fanta recalls Cunanan saying, in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail.
‘He goes: “You have no idea how terrible it is.”’
‘Mike and I just looked at each other like: who is this guy? He was so full of himself.’
Fanta adds: ‘Andrew was loud, boisterous, he had to be the center of attention everywhere he was… he had a tendency to date multimillionaires who would give him the lifestyle he wanted to live [but] he always made it sound like it was his own money.’
To Fanta, that one little anecdote provides the perfect insight into Cunanan’s character.
Mark Fanta never saw any warning signs about what Andrew Cunanan (pictured) was capable of
Miami Beach police officer on the scene of the murder of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace
Pretentious, attention-seeking, boastful, and obsessed with wealth and social status, yes.
Perhaps even a fantasist.
But a serial killer?
That was something Fanta never saw in his acquaintance who would soon top the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
‘There was nothing, no red flags,’ he says. ‘I didn’t catch anything so far that he’d do what he did.’
That’s why, despite admittedly not being Cunanan’s biggest fan, what happened a few months later came ‘totally out of the blue.’
‘I’ll never forget that phone call,’ Fanta says.
It was April 1997 and Williams broke the devastating news to him that Trail was dead – and that the man they had shared many a dinner and social occasion with had murdered him in the most brutal fashion imaginable.
Cunanan had bludgeoned Trail to death with a claw hammer inside an apartment in Minneapolis and then rolled his body up in a carpet.
Mark Fanta (left) and his then-partner Michael Williams (right) met Andrew Cunanan through their close friend Jeffrey Trail
That was only the beginning of his killing spree.
For the next 79 days, Cunanan would kill another four victims across four states, culminating in the execution-style murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami mansion.
The serial killer’s reign of terror came to an end July 27, 1997, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a houseboat on the water just across from Miami Beach’s iconic Fontainebleau Hotel.
It was perhaps a symbolic end for a man who clutched onto the wealth and status of the rich – but ended up always just out of reach.
Almost three decades on, Cunanan’s motive for the horror killing spree remains unclear.
But, like many, Fanta has a theory that his obsession with striving for a rich, privileged lifestyle played a part.
‘I think he just snapped,’ he says.
‘Norman had broken it off with Andrew so he was cut off and he had no money.
‘Jeff was gone [after he moved to Minneapolis]… Andrew couldn’t cope. His whole world collapsed.’
Jeffrey Trail is remembered as ‘really easygoing and funny… a real all-round nice guy’ by his friend Mark Fanta
The somewhat loss of these two key figures – and the money and lifestyle one of them gave him access – was the tipping point for Cunanan as far as Fanta is concerned.
‘I think he had nowhere to go and no money. And Andrew loved money… Andrew probably felt boxed into a corner.’
He adds: ‘I just think he snapped and lost it and he was 100 percent angry with the world apparently not living up to the life he felt he should be living… and he unfortunately took it out on those five victims.’
Fanta first met Cunanan through Trail, a Gulf War veteran and former Naval officer who once gave an anonymous interview to ‘48 Hours’ about what life was like being gay in the military.
After leaving the Marines, Trail met Fanta and Williams and they became very close friends, even moving in with the couple for a brief time at their home in San Diego.
Fanta remembers Trail fondly.
‘Jeff was just really easygoing and funny. He had a great sense of humor, a good head on his shoulders,’ he says.
‘He was just a real all-round nice guy.’
Gianni Versace, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell together in 1992 – five years before his murder
One day, Trail brought his friend Cunanan into the restaurant in San Diego that Fanta and Williams owned.
Fanta’s first impression was that Cunanan was ‘outgoing and funny.’
But the more he saw of him, the more he found him ‘very pompous,’ ‘pretentious’ and with a ‘have-it-all attitude.’
Everything was about looks and money and status, he says.
Fanta says he quickly realized Cunanan wasn’t someone he wanted to be good friends with.
‘Andrew was someone I definitely kept at arm’s length… It was more we would do something with Jeff and Andrew would be there,’ he says.
He and Williams often wondered why Trail was friends with Cunanan.
‘Andrew and Jeff were very different. Jeff was an ex-Marine and a very down-to-earth, nice guy. Andrew was very look at me,’ he says.
Real estate tycoon Lee Miglin (with his wife Marilyn) was murdered inside his mansion in Chicago
David Madson (left) was found dead in Minnesota. William Reese (right) was killed in New Jersey
At that time, Cunanan was dating and living with Blachford.
The two men had met in 1994, not long after the AIDS-related death of Blachford’s long-term partner.
At 58, the wealthy businessman and socialite was more than twice Cunanan’s age.
Cunanan had a penchant for finding rich, older gay men who would fund his lavish lifestyle and open doors to a high-society circle of people.
From what he saw, Fanta describes Cunanan and Blachford’s arrangement as a ‘relationship of convenience’ or even ‘a prostitute thing.’
‘Let’s put it this way. If Norman didn’t have any money, Andrew wouldn’t have been with him,’ he says.
In late 1996, Blachford seemed to have had enough of Cunanan and ended their relationship – and Cunanan’s access to money and an elite social scenes.
Then, Trail got a new job and moved to Minneapolis.
Fanta says he was ‘bummed out’ his friend was moving to another state – but it seems Cunanan had stronger feelings.
Andrew Cunanan had a penchant for finding rich, older gay men who would fund his lavish lifestyle and open doors to a high-society circle of people
It was April 1997 when Williams bumped into Cunanan by chance, who told him he was heading to Minneapolis to visit their mutual friend, Fanta says.
‘We didn’t think anything of it… he was just going to see a friend,’ he says.
After all, there had been no warning signs of the violence Cunanan was capable of.
It was 9.55pm on Sunday April 27 when Trail’s watch – and life – stopped.
Two days later, his body was found inside a carpet in David Madson’s loft apartment in the Minneapolis Warehouse District.
He had been beaten in the head 27 times.
A bloody claw hammer was found close-by – along with a duffel bag with Cunanan’s name on it.
Cunanan then stole the former Marine’s semi-automatic handgun and bullets and he and Madson vanished.
Madson was a successful architect who was friends with Trail and had previously dated Cunanan.
The handgun that Andrew Cunanan used to kill his five victims and then himself
Initially, police probed the possibility Madson may have been Cunanan’s accomplice.
An answerphone message on Trail’s machine revealed Cunanan had lured him over to Madson’s apartment that fateful night. Witnesses also reported seeing Madson and Cunanan walking Madson’s dog after Trail had been killed.
But, Madson turned out to be another victim.
Four days after the bloodbath was discovered in his apartment, Madson’s body was found by a lake in a rural area outside Minneapolis.
He had been shot three times in the head with Trail’s stolen gun.
From there, Cunanan continued his murderous rampage, heading to Chicago where he murdered real estate magnate Lee Miglin in his luxury mansion.
Miglin’s wife – popular Home Shopping Network host Marilyn Miglin – had returned from a business trip to find her 72-year-old husband missing and a gun in the bathroom.
On the morning of May 4, Miglin’s body was found in the garage. His throat had been slashed.
Whether or not the murder was personal or Miglin was simply targeted due to his wealth remains unclear. The Miglin family has always denied he had any connection to the serial killer.
Italian designer Versace became Cunanan’s fifth and final victim on July 15, 1997
Gianni Versace’s mansion in Miami is seen in the aftermath of his execution-style murder
The bloodstained steps of Gianni Versace’s Miami home after his murder on July 15 1997
Cunanan took off again in Miglin’s stolen green Lexus before his killing spree entered a third state.
On May 9 – when he learned police were tracking him through the phone in Miglin’s car – Cunanan shot and killed 45-year-old cemetery worker William Reese in Pennsville, New Jersey, stole his red truck, and ditched Miglin’s Lexus.
By this time, Cunanan was the most wanted man in America.
Back in San Diego, Fanta and Williams held a celebration of life in honor of their good friend Trail.
But with Cunanan still on the run, not knowing where he was headed next or who might be his next target was terrifying, Fanta recalls.
‘I was freaking out,’ he says.
‘That whole timeframe of when Andrew went on his killing spree was nerve-wracking as we didn’t know where he would end up.’
Williams was one of the few people connected to the case willing to speak to the media while Cunanan was still at large – and Fanta feared this might put a target on their backs.
Gianni and his sister Donatella Versace together. Versace’s family insists he had never met Cunanan
Princess Diana comforts Elton John at a memorial mass for Gianni Versace in Milan in July 22 1997
‘[Andrew] was moving across the country fast. I was concerned. I didn’t want him showing up at our door,’ he says.
Two months passed before Cunanan’s location would be revealed through a fifth and final murder that reverberated around the world.
Every morning, Italian designer Versace would rise early and walk three blocks from his iconic villa Casa Casuarina on Ocean Drive in Miami to the local News Café.
The morning of July 15, 1997, was no different.
The 50-year-old picked up a coffee and copies of Vogue and the New Yorker and headed back towards his palatial mansion.
As he climbed up the pristine marble steps toward the iron gate, Cunanan approached and shot him twice in the back of the head.
The execution-style killing rocked the fashion and celebrity world, with photos of the bloodstained steps broadcast around the globe and stars from Princess Diana to Elton John cutting devastated figures at his funeral.
While Versace’s family insists there was no prior relationship or meeting between the two men, Vanity Fair contributing editor Maureen Orth reported that Cunanan and Versace once met in a San Francisco nightclub in 1990.
Mark Fanta and Mike Williams held a celebration of life memory of their close friend Jeffrey Trail
Versace’s home turned into a makeshift memorial for the famous fashion designer
Like the rest of the world, Fanta says he was in ‘utter disbelief’ when he learned the identity of Cunanan’s latest victim.
During all his boastful stories, Fanta says Cunanan never once mentioned meeting the fashion designer.
The manhunt for Cunanan intensified following Versace’s slaying but, for another eight days, he evaded capture.
Then, on the morning of July 23, a caretaker of a houseboat noticed someone had broken in.
A four-hour police stand-off ensued before cops stormed the houseboat and found Cunanan dead inside from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The two-month-long killing rampage – and terrifying manhunt – was finally over.
‘We were living it but it was also like we were watching a soap opera on TV,’ Fanta says.
‘It was so crazy and unbelievable.’
The manhunt ended at this houseboat in Miami where Andrew Cunanan took his own life
Even with the benefit of hindsight, Fanta says he can still think of no clues that hinted at what Cunanan would go on to do.
‘I never picked up on anything,’ he says.
‘I wish I’d been more in tune with why Andrew was the way he was – if he needed to get help or therapy… I wish I could go back and help Andrew not have the outcome he did by murdering five people… but it didn’t come across to me that he was this person that needed help.’
He says: ‘His outrageous personality to me was just the way he was.’
This outrageous personality appears to be something noticed years earlier by Cunanan’s high school classmates who voted him: ‘Most likely to be remembered.’
But, rather than for the wealth and status he wanted, Cunanan is remembered now for the terror and trail of death he left in his wake.
