[Caution: spoilers about The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story ahead!]
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story chronicles Andrew Cunanan's (played by Darren Criss) murder spree in 1997, killing four men before shooting acclaimed designer Gianni Versace (played by Edgar Ramirez) on the steps of his Miami mansion. Though the Versace family contends FX's series is fictitious, the series is based on the book Vulgar Favors by investigative journalist Maureen Orth -- a Vanity Fair correspondent who spoke to more than 400 people in researching her exhaustively detailed book. Orth's story is a sad, gruesome, terrifying and shocking tale that, in executive producer Ryan Murphy's hands, illuminates how institutionalized homophobia allowed a killer to remain on the loose for months. But as is the case with adaptation, some licenses get taken when translating material from real life to the screen. So what's fact and what's fiction? TV Guide weighs claims from the series against the book below.
EPISODE 3, "A Random Killing"
Episode 3, "A Random Killing," depicts the murder of Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell) a prominent Chicago real estate magnate who was murdered in his own garage after being wrapped in duct tape. That Andrew is the person who committed the murder isn't up for debate; law enforcement officials now consider that a fact based on the S&M nature of the crime and evidence linking him to the green Lexus Andrew stole. What remains contentious though, at least for the Miglin family, is how Andrew came to know -- and then kill -- Miglin at all. FX's series shows Andrew and Miglin having an affair that rewarded Andrew financially for his time with the wealthy and connected businessman. But the Miglin family, led by matriarch Marilyn (Judith Light) has never wavered in denying that Lee Miglin and Andrew knew ever each other -- that it was a crime of happenstance. What's the truth and what's fiction? Here's the truth behind 7 things from this episode.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, Mike Farrell as Lee Miglin." data-image-credit="Matt Dinerstein/FX" data-image-alt-text="The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, Mike Farrell as Lee Miglin." data-image-credit-url="" data-image-target-url="" data-image-title="The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, Mike Farrell as Lee Miglin." data-image-filename="17130-versace-miglin.jpg" data-image-date-created="2018/01/30" data-image-crop="" data-image-crop-gravity="" data-image-aspect-ratio="" data-image-height="1380" data-image-width="2070" data-image-do-not-crop="" data-image-do-not-resize="" data-image-watermark="" data-lightbox="">1. Did Andrew Cunanan really did not know Lee Miglin, as his wife Marilyn maintains in the series?
Fiction -- if the reporting in Orth's book is to be believed. Orth interviewed some 400 hundred people for Vulgar Favors, and it strongly suggests that Andrew Cunanan knew Lee Miglin and/or his son Duke, an actor living in Los Angeles. It's important to note that book never explicitly makes this claim, the family has steadfastly denied knowing Andrew and no hard evidence exists. No official report was ever released. But in a separate story about the case Orth wrote for Vanity Fair, former FBI agent Gregg McCrary said it was "highly probable," they knew each other for reasons unknown to the public.
First, the Miglins lived in a leafy, relatively tucked away section of Chicago's Gold Coast area, which reduced the likelihood a burglar randomly picked the Miglin's home. No sign of forced entry appeared present, which led investigators to theorize that Andrew either held a gun to Miglin, or he was let in voluntarily. Also, most burglars flee a home after robbing it, whereas Andrew stayed overnight -- even taking a bath, as depicted in the series. Other clues suggest an intimate knowledge.
Andrew lied obsessively, so almost nothing he said could be taken at face value, but he did claim to have visited Chicago many times, and he told at least one person that one of his sugar daddies was a Chicago real-estate tycoon. An expert in Orth's book says wounds on Miglin's face indicate a "personal" impetus. A neighbor claimed to have seen the red Jeep Andrew had been driving near the Miglin's home -- once with two people in it, a fact Orth said was omitted from the unreleased report. Another person who lived close to the Miglins, Betsy Brazis, rented her place from the Miglins. She also told police she saw the red Jeep Andrew near her house a few times before Miglin was found. Vulgar Favors also quotes her as saying, "I saw other things that I never divulged to the police, because they did not ask me direct questions. I didn't respond out of respect for the Miglins."
Lastly, Orth quotes in her book a New York real-estate financier, Jack Shaffer, who worked with Miglin's firm, who claims to have seen Duke Miglin and Andrew together. In the anecdote, Shaffer and his partner said they saw the Miglins in the United Airlines' Red Carpet Lounge at a Los Angeles airport. According to their story, Duke arrived with a friend who left a lasting impression; when they saw Andrew's picture in the news when he became a suspect, they were certain it was him. They couldn't swear to it in court though.
Brazis, who led an AIDS support group in Chicago even before she became the Miglins' tenant, said in Orth's book his identity was well-known. "Lee's name would come up occasionally as a gay 'straight' man," she said.
The Miglins were high-powered and influential; they owned property on a ritzy stretch where upscale stores including Barneys and Versace were located. Marilyn served as an officer of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and served on Illinois's Economic Development Board. Nobody has explicitly said so, but FX's series magnifies what's suggested in the book: Marilyn used her power and influence to make the investigation go away.
2. Did Marilyn Miglin really come home and find no one in the house as she did in the series?
Fiction -- if you count the family dog. There's an interesting omission from the series: Honey, the Miglins' "aging" retriever. Orth reports that neighbors said the dog barked frequently at strangers, but didn't bark the time of Miglin's murder and was not harmed. Honey, Orth said, was later the target of Marilyn Miglin's fury for not barking as she did usually, and she sent the dog to live in the country for months.
3. Did Andrew leave ice cream sitting on the counter, and the ham with a knife in it sitting out?
Fact. Lee Miglin was notoriously fastidious, so the instant Marilyn saw the pint of Häagen-Dazs ice cream with a spoon in it on the counter, she knew something was wrong. The Miglins' friend Stephen Byer found the ham with a knife in it on Lee's desk in the library. Not shown in the series: Marilyn had been upstairs and saw a gun, too.
4. Did Lee Miglin really have that creepy altar in his basement?
Fact. On his search of the home, Byer stumbled onto the altar with more than a hundred unlit candles. The Miglins were Catholics. Of course, there's no way to know if he was down there atoning for his same-sex attraction as shown in the series.
5. Was Lee Miglin wearing women's underwear when they found his body?
Fiction, probably. Vulgar Favors says Lee Miglin was found lying on his back fully clothed, wearing a tan suede jacket, white shirt, and jeans, with a shoe on and one off. Underneath, he was wearing "black Calvin Klein bikini underwear trimmed in white." There's no explicit mention of said underwear being women's -- a fact the hyper-detailed story would've likely pointed out. Orth said that the medical examiner did not consider the underwear as a sign of a double life. "Marilyn was high fashion--she probably bought it for him," he told her.
6. Did police almost catch Andrew because of the cell phone in Lee Miglin's Lexus?
Fact. The FBI, Chicago police and Philadelphia police were aware the phone in Miglin's car was pinpointed in Philadelphia on May 8; the next day, The Chicago Tribune ran a story based on this information thanks to a leak in Chicago law enforcement. Police publicly confirmed the tip. That, Orth said, might've been the most serious blunder in the manhunt for Andrew. Once the story got out, Andrew heard it and tried to rip the phone's antenna out of the car. He never found the power box though and when he realized he couldn't completely disconnect it, he decided to ditch the car.
7. Did Andrew visit a Versace store in New York after killing Lee Miglin?
Fiction. He might've, but there's no mention of that in Orth's book. He did, however, shop for jeans at a Levi's store on 57th Street near Fifth Avenue. And, in what could've been a deliberate taunting of law enforcement, he went to see Jim Carrey's Liar Liar, and Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.
Other Links From TVGuide.com The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime StoryDarren CrissEdgar RamirezRyan MurphyJudith Light