Versace not the only victim

Versace’s mansion, 10 years after murder:

This is something that’s been sticking in my craw for 10 years now.

Back in 1997, serial killer Andrew Cunanan went on an interstate killing spree. It started in Minnesota when he killed his friend Jeffery Trail. Two days later he killed architect David Madson also in Minnesota. According to Wikipedia police recognized a connection, as Trail’s body had been found in Madson’s Minneapolis loft apartment, and started an intensive nationwide manhunt. This barely made a blip in the national media.

Next Cunanan killed 72-year-old real estate developer Lee Miglin in Chicago. Cunanan escaped Chicago in Miglin’s car. His next murder kind of hit home for me. Cunanan’s next victim was William Reese from Pennsville, New Jersey. In 1997 I was living one county over from Pennsville. The local media exploded all over the story but still hardly anything on the national front.

Cunanan stole Reese’s truck with which he drove to Miami where he claimed his most famous victim, fashion designer Gianni Versace. That’s when the story blew up on the national media. Yet all the focus was on Versace. Very little mention was made of Cunanan’s other victims. Eight days later Cunanan killed himself in a Miami houseboat.

All I saw on the national media at that point were stories about other celebrities who lived in the Miami area who feared for their ‘lives’ while Cunanan was on the loose after Versace’s murder. Again little to no mention of Cunanan’s other victims.

Fast forward to today. Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the death of Gianni Versace and nothing has changed. No disrespect intended to the Versace family but again the article I linked to above made no mention whatsoever of Cunanan’s other victims.

So what’s my point? Well besides the fact that the national media obviously doesn’t really care about murder victims unless they’re famous, my point is that not everyone has forgotten the names of Jeffery Trail, Dave Madson, Lee Miglin, and William Reese.