Badpuppy Gay Today

Thursday, 15 May 1997

Reports about the whereabouts of Andrew Cunanan, suspected of leaving a trail of four corpses in his wake, began to surface in San Diego where first-noticed droppings ignited a manhunt for the alleged gay hustler. According to reports, the fugitive made himself available to men who wined and dined him before they got dispatched.

Cunanan is believed to have fled the West in stolen vehicles, landing in Chicago, in Minneapolis, in Pennsylvania, and finally in New Jersey. One of the stolen cars, a 1994 Jade green Lexus belonged to Lee Miglin, a murdered millionaire real estate developer, found at Fins Point National Cemetery outside of Pennsville, New Jersey.

Lee Miglin was discovered wrapped in tape, plastic and brown paper in his garage.The 72- year old man had been tortured. Cunanan is also a suspect in the execution-style shooting of 33-year old architect David Madson, and in the claw-hammer bludgeoning death of 28-year old Jeffrey Trail, a gas company district manager, both of Minneapolis.

When Madson failed to show up for work, police went to look for him at his loft, finding Trail's body wrapped in a rug. Fishermen discovered Madson's body near East Rush Lake, two bullet holes in his head.

Nicole Ramirez Murray, a social columnist for San Diego's Gay and Lesbian Times, described the 27-year old Cunanan as "an American Gigolo" a cultivated young man whose looks and sexuality got him entries to fancy parties where he was generally at the side of an older man.

He could talk politics and current events, according to astonished observers and he wore chinos and open-necked shirts to what Ramirez Murray described as "the (San Diego) parties of the elite of the gay and lesbian community".

The fugitive's mother has described him as "a high-class homosexual prostitute," and says that it became clear he was openly gay when, in the late 80's he attended the Bishop's School, a prep school in La Jolla. At graduation, he was voted "Least Likely to Be Forgotten." At that time he was being courted by older men with money.

The word around San Diego was that Cunanan was "kept." The hustler, say those who remember him at gatherings, often introduced himself as an heir to "old money", or, sometimes, as a successful businessman, or, even, as the representative of a wealthy businessman of the sort who belonged to international social clubs.

"We have a lot of physical evidence and circumstantial evidence all pointing to Mr. Cunanan," says Chisago County prosecutor Jim Reuter.