Miglin's daughter, Marlena Miglin, is now going through a bitter divorce from Tim Egan, 2nd Ward Democratic committeeman. What truly happened remains a mystery to this day, but Gregg McCrary, former supervisory special agent of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, told Vanity Fair that he thinks the possibility of Miglin's murder being random is unlikely. When he didn't show up, she became suspicious about her husband's whereabouts, according to the Chicago Tribune. 25 years ago: Andrew Cunanan's murder spree takes Lee Miglin's life. Trail had reportedly told friends that he had had a big fallout with Andrew and never wished to see him again.. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Police spotted a car with a Minnesota license plate near Miglin's home after the murder, another report from The Chicago Tribune noted. Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 - July 23, 1997) was an American serial killer known to have murdered five people, including Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin, during a three-month period in mid-1997. Miglin proudly shows Cunanan the plans for his dream project, the Sky Needle, that at 125 stories was to be the tallest building in the world. The show also includes the rather creepy details about how Cunanan made himself at home at the Miglins' after the murder. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The perpetrator stole $2,000 and some of Miglin's personal items. Trail wasa graduate of the U.S. "My father didn't get to see my children, he didn't get to meet my wifeThere's never really closure in a situation like this.". From a Tribune report at the time: As detectives swarmed the neighborhood for clues, no one paid much attention to the Jeep. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. Despite Miglin's wife and their son Duke vehemently denying any previous connection between Cunanan and Miglin, reports from several people indicate Miglin and Cunanan may have been involved on a . Cunanan opened fire at point-blank range, shooting Versace twice in the back of the head, according to FBI records. Another theory suggested that Cunanan might have met the victims son, Duke Miglin, who was for a while an aspiring actor in Hollywood (and did indeed appear in the movie Air Force One). Police press conference: We consider Andrew Cunanan to be armed and to be extremely dangerous. Miglin's black Lexus was found abandoned in a New Jersey cemetery, near the body of cemetery caretaker, William Reese, Cunanan's fourth victim. Ive never seen any credible evidence to show that there was a relationship, Robert Milan, a former assistant states attorney for Cook County, told ABC News. He and his wife Marilyn lived in the Chicago area. He also appeared to have been tortured with a screwdriver. After murdering Miglin in his garage, Cunanan went into the family's home, ate a ham sandwich, shaved and rested. Madsons body is found on the shore of Rush Lake in Minnesota. In fact, the series depicts Miglin as being a closeted homosexual who hires Cunanan as a sex worker. However, Advocate writer Ted Gideonse disputes this, saying it was not, and suggests that had Miglin lived, Orth could be sued for libel. The only evidence there is points toward Cunanan killing Miglin for his car and his money, even if that means there is a lot left unexplained about the murder itself. So it's important to remember that this episode is a dramatization of an incomplete set of facts. That. In the aftermath of the murder, reporters and authorities tried to find a link between Miglin, who appeared to have been happily married for nearly 40 years, and Cunanan. According to Orth's report, a friend of Cunanan's had told the FBI that Cunanan had said he was going to start a movie set business with a friend. Andrew Cunanan and David Madson met in November 1995. Marilyn Miglin, who was married to Lee for 38 years, has remained relatively silent on the death of her husband. A frenzied manhunt for Cunanan, who was immediately labeled a serial killer by the media, led investigators to a luxury houseboat on July 23, where they found him dead of a gunshot wound to the . Yet, this version of events goes against what Miglin's family has maintained for 21 years. Cunanan did not torture Reese like he did Miglin, and that makes it seem like perhaps there was something more personal about Miglin's murder. After killing Miglin, Cunanan left with his car, several items of clothing, $2,000 in cash, and some gold coins from the safe. His wife Marilyn had become suspicious when she arrived home from a business trip to Canada that morning, only to find her husband missing and a handgun in a bathroom though the gun later turned out to be a replica. Either [Cunanan] knew of the guy or knew his son. The police deemed the murder a crime of opportunity, according to the Chicago Tribune. The family of one of Andrew Cunanan's victims disputes the version of events presented in FX series. The episode builds on the scene from the previous week where Cunanan sells his services to an older, successful man, whom he subjects to some BDSM that looks like its going to go too far and end tragically before Cunanan relents. Its unclear how much of this were meant to take at face value, and how much is Cunanans delusional, grandiose idea of the relationship he feels he deserves to have with Versace. "A Random Killing" moves through the events preceding the crime and its aftermath, but does not truly answer the most pressing question: why did Andrew Cunanan kill Lee Miglin? Cunanan's motivations are similarly mysterious, try to pawn one of Miglin's coins in Miami, of friend Jeff Trail and ex-boyfriend David Madson. But the plan fell through. And if we didn't know, we really tried to allow for interpretation. All rights reserved. That Sunday night, CBS 2's Jodine Costanzo reported police found Miglin, 72, with his throat slashed ear-to-ear and his feet bound with masking tape. His body was found five days later on the shore of East Rush Lake near Rush City, Minnesota (approximately one hour from Minneapolis by car), with gunshot wounds to his head and back. The first episode shows Versace and Cunanan meeting in the VIP area of a nightclub, where an initially irritated Versace is eventually won over by Cunanans story about his mothers upbringing in Italy. Cunanan became the most wanted and feared man in America, leaving the nation in a simultaneous state of terror and fascination as his grisly crimes played out over a period of more than two months. Moreover, the crime scene showed . Again, the only source for the magazines on the scene is Orth, who says they had been left not far away, and even her account maintains Miglin was wearing regular mens Calvin Klein underwear. Crime specialists told Orth for her Vanity Fair article that Cunanan randomly killing Miglin didn't make sense to them. In the one scene in which the police speak with Duke about Cunanan, he doesn't give any indication that he recognizes Cunanan's name from anywhere. The book includes more details about the crime scene and the conditions in which Miglin's body was found, Vanity Fair noted. Episode three focuses on one such incident: Cunanan's brutal murder of Chicago real-estate mogul Lee Miglin in May of that year. "A lot of false things were brought up and they were very hurtful, very painful, for me personally and there were attacks on me as well that I really didn't appreciate. Maureen Orth, in her book Vulgar Favors on which the series is based, supports the first two details but is more vague about the concrete block to the head, reporting only that there were two dozen blows to the head, face, and chin. That Cunanan threw a concrete block on Miglins chest is less in doubt, as it would account for the multiple broken ribs. Maureen Orth's Vulgar Favors recounted the horrifying details: Miglin had been bound and gagged with a glove, his head wrapped in tape like a mummy. 72-year-old real estate tycoon Lee Miglin was found dead in the garage of his Gold Coast home on the morning of May 4. Miglin's body was found on the floor of the garage behind his home, but there were questions as to whether Miglin was actually killed in the garage. Ms. Miglin called 911 and reported her husband missing, and also reported the couple's 1994 green Lexus missing from the garage. The series, which premiered Jan. 17, is slated for a nine-episode run. Police also later found a duffel bag in Madson's apartment with Cunanan's name and a La Jolla, California address on it. Her website describes her as a beauty authority, author and speaker who is among the nations top-500 women business owners.. Cunanan was a serial killer, suspected in four other deaths. His mouth was gagged with a white garden glove with numerous black rubber dots. His watch had stopped at 9:55 pm, which investigators believed was the time of his killing on Sunday, April 27. Attention was now focused on a 27-year-old fugitive named Andrew Cunanan. "We know who we are and what we stand for.". But the mystery of why he went on a killing spree remained baffling. Miglin was stabbed more than 20 times with a screwdriver on May 3. The Tribune explores what Wednesdays episode got right and wrong about the events that occurred in Chicago, based on reporting at the time. Scenes for American Crime Story were filmed in September outside 2104 N. Fremont St., in Lincoln Park. From there, Cunanan drove off in Reese's truck. As depicted in 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,' Cunanan killed four other men before murdering Versace in July 1997. That certainly could have been used by Cunanan to force his way into the Miglins' townhouse, if that is what happened. The series, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, is based on the 1999 book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth, who covered the Cunanan manhunt for Vanity Fair. On May 4, 1997, Cunanan drove to Chicago, Illinois, and killed Lee Miglin, a prominent real estate developer. On Friday, May 9, he shot and killed cemetery caretaker William Reese in rural Pennsville, New Jersey in order to steal Reese's red Chevrolet pickup truck. The details of the robbery are accurate, but there is no hard evidence for the shows assertion that Miglin knew Cunanan, much less engaged his sexual services. Indeed, according to the 1997 Chicago Tribune report of the murder, "There was no forced entry to the home, suggesting that Miglin knew his assailant or was accosted outside and forced into the home.". As a police assault team closed in on a houseboat which Cunanan had broken into, Cunanan shot himself in the mouth using the same gun he had used to kill Madson, Reese, and Versace. That check showed that the Jeep was being sought by Minnesota authorities in connection with the two killings there. Marilyn Miglin called the police around 8 a.m. that Sunday, after discovering a 9 mm handgun in the bathroom. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Brad Edwards is an investigative reporter and main anchor at CBS2 Chicago. Cook County medical examiner Edmund Donoghue dismisses the element of ritualistic torture. Cunanan then took off. Here's what we know about Miglin and his family. And I still don't.". What the executive producers told me at the 2018 TCA Winter press tour is that they tried to do justice to the victims as best they could based on the differing statements and accounts. Cunanan and Miglin are shown sharing a long embrace and kiss. Cunanan's third victim was 72-year-old prominent real estate developer Lee Miglin from Chicago. The 27-year-old Cunanan committed four other murders in a nationwide spree before killing Versace in Miami in July 1997. Miglins green Lexus was also missing from the garage. Wednesday evening, police sources said the proximity of the Jeep to Miglin's Gold Coast townhouse remained the only concrete clue to link Cunanan to the Chicago slaying.. Blachford was 58 when they met and grieving the loss of his partner of 26 years, who had recently died of AIDS . He killed William Reese, a 45-year-old. So I understand it is their choice. Duke Miglin was an aspiring actor in the 1990s, with a role in Air Force One. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Versaces longtime partner and family have said portions of the series are inaccurate. Trails sister told the New York Times that Cunanan had a strange fascination with Trail, and often appeared to try and emulate him. As youve already seen, FXs The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is less a show about Versace than it is about his killer, Andrew Cunanan, a social-climbing narcissist whose desperation to be admired and important ultimately propelled him into a murderous rampage. Cunanan would then travel to Miami before shooting Gianni Versace on the front steps of his mansion on July 15, 1997. Child on bike hit by school bus in Mount Prospect: police, Chicago mayoral race down to Vallas, Johnson in runoff election. Madson was so driven, he applied to law school and architecture school. The Sky Needle is grounded in fact (the project. On 4 May 1997, Miglin was murdered by a serial killer named Andrew Cunanan, whose case, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, was created into a television series. Lee, portrayed by Mike Farrell of M*A*S*H, had his real estate company and Marilyn, played by Judith Light of Transparent, owns a cosmetics and fragrance company. Marilyn Miglin said on Tuesday, May 6. According to ABC-7 Chicago's recent look back at Miglin's death on the 20th anniversary of the murder, Cunanan covered Miglin's head and face with tape, tortured him with a screwdriver and. The minute you start feeling sorry for yourself, everyone else falls.". He stole Miglin's care and got a head start on what became a nearly. Did Cunanan somehow meet Miglin through Gamma Mu, a secretive gay men's fraternity? Tying Miglin up and wrapping his head, Donoghue said, was strictly practical, to keep him quiet and to keep him from moving around. Miglin family members have long denied Lee Miglin and Cunanan knew each other before the attack. He was shot in the head with Trail's handgun. And the show uses real life details to come to these conclusions, such as Cunanan's obsession with wealth and privilege, as well as the manner in which Miglin's body was really found. Lee Miglin was born and raised in Westville, Illinois in 1925. The 72-year-old real estate agent was found bludgeoned and stabbed by the man who later killed Versace. Orth called Madson the great unrequited love of Cunanans life and noted that although the pair had broken up in the spring of 1996, Cunanan kept a picture of Madson on his refrigerator door. At any rate, the FBI looked into these claims that Cunanan knew Miglin or his family, but no link was ever established. Separate fact from fiction with this timeline of Cunanans real-life murders. "It was built by my father. He killed William Reese, a 45-year-old cemetery worker in New Jersey, less than a week later. On May 4, 1997 - 25 years ago Wednesday - Chicago real estate magnate Lee Miglin was found brutally murdered under a car in the garage of his Gold Coast mans. However, the dominance and submission play quickly took a violent turn. Both the FBI and the Cook County State's Attorney's office looked into possible links between the spree killer and the Miglins, but no unimpeachable link was ever established. Cunanan later pawns a gold coin in Miami Beach and uses his real name on the pawn shop form, one of the details that comes to light after Cunanan kills Versace in Miami Beach in July 1997. .css-1du65oy{color:#323232;display:block;font-family:NewParis,Georgia,Times,serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;-webkit-font-smoothing:auto;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-1du65oy:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1du65oy{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1du65oy{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1du65oy{font-size:1.3125rem;line-height:1.2;}}Kate Recreated a Past Outfit for St. David's Day, Royals Confirmed to Attend Charles's Coronation. We consider Andrew Cunanan Trail 's handgun series depicts Miglin as being a homosexual! Three focuses on one such incident: Cunanan 's murder spree takes Lee Miglin was born and raised Westville. 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