Facing Death

On May 9, according to the Feds, Cunanan left another corpse when he traded in the Lexus for the red pickup truck of the cemetery's caretaker. And a clue: the shell casings from the .40-caliber bullets used to kill the caretaker, William Reese, match the .40-caliber shells used to kill Madson.

Of average height and weight (5 feet 9, 160 to 180 pounds), lacking any obvious distinguishing features - a large nose, say, or buck teeth - Cunanan is easy to mistake or miss. Though he was put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list after New Jersey, he seemed a phantom: there were Cunanan sightings from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, but no real leads. All this time, in fact, he was living in a dumpy hotel in Miami Beach, a few miles north of Versace's mansion. He drove straight from New Jersey to Florida, police believe, stopping in South Carolina to steal a new license plate for the red pickup truck. On May 11, he had to use one of his IDs to pawn some valuables, possibly some gold coins stolen from Miglin. He left a thumb print on the receipt, NEWSWEEK has learned - a precious clear print for the FBI. In early June, he parked the red pickup in a South Beach parking garage only two blocks from Versace's villa on Ocean Drive. The truck just sat there, unnoticed. The authorities did not wake up to Cunanan's whereabouts until late June, when a series of sightings around West Palm Beach convinced the Feds that the real Cunanan had finally surfaced.

Still, the FBI was curiously lax about spreading the word. The FBI said it put out 2,000 leaflets with Cunanan's picture in south Florida, but gay activists say the warnings weren't enough to alert the hip scene at South Beach. This apparent sloth is now the source of considerable anger. Laughing bitterly even as he mourned Versace, Paul Galluzcio, a well-known Manhattan restaurateur, told NEWSWEEK, ""The thing is, Cunanan's not even being careful, and the FBI can't catch him. We feel as though it really has to get serious before the FBI gets serious. To them, it's like, "Eh, another faggot gets killed.' It took someone like Versace to get killed to get their full attention.''

Other gays, however, note that South Beach is an insular enclave, a wonderland sometimes heedless to care. AIDS-awareness activists complain that talking about high-risk sex is considered bad form in South Beach. Even after Versace's death, some nightclub owners did not want to prominently display Cunanan's poster for fear of driving off customers. Max Blandford, the manager of a popular gay dance club, the Warsaw Ballroom, is an exception. He told NEWSWEEK that he was planning on enlarging Cunanan's photo and plastering it across his outside window. ""For me, it's bad business to have a dead clientele,'' he explained.

It is possible that Cunanan struck as soon as he arrived in Miami. On May 12, the day Cunanan checked in to the Normandy Plaza, a 41-year-old gay man named Casey Patrick Sigler was beaten to death by a man he apparently met in nearby Flamingo Park, a gay pickup spot. Murders of gay men, while extremely rare, are not unprecedented in Miami Beach, and there is no evidence that directly implicates Cunanan. Police say their prime suspect is black, but witnesses say a man matching Cunanan's description entered the apartment building that same night. And some details of the murder resembled Cunanan's other handiwork. The victim's face had been brutally beaten, and his car (a Toyota Celica) disappeared after the killing.

AT THE NORMANDY, CUNANAN would often leave late at night and not return until dawn. Otherwise, he lay low. Its lobby adorned with photos of celebrated guests, including John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, the Normandy has seen better days. The clientele now runs to low-budget tourists and down-on-their luck drifters. Cunanan checked in without a suitcase, using a French passport and an ID with one of his aliases. (Police asked the hotel not to say which one.) ""He always wore that cap and very, very dark glasses,'' says hotel manager Miriam Hernandez. He paid $35.73 a night for room 116 for a week, then moved up to room 201 and started paying the more economical weekly rate of $230.50. After another week, he decided to save a few more bucks and paid the monthly rate, $690.50, and moved into room 322.