Considering the worldโs perverse fascination with all things true crime, it comes as no surprise that the most recent instalment of the American Crime Story franchise, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace, was such a smash hit and inspired an array of new theories surrounding the fashion designerโs death.
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Twenty-two years since hismurderoutside of his Miami Beach mansion, five different hypotheses regarding Versaceโs links to serial killer Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss) have emerged after the the showโs on-screen depiction.
Here, we dive deep and recap the five theories behind Gianni Versaceโs death.
The โHomophobiaโ Theory
Some are speculating that the Miami police were somewhat responsible for the death of Gianni Versace (played by รdgar Ramรญrez), given the homophobia that dominated society at the time. Many of Andrew Cunananโs victims were gay, and some have speculated this lead to a less-thorough investigation into his multiple murders.
โHe wasnโt caught because he was targeting gay people, and people didnโt care,โ the showโs director Ryan Murphy toldEntertainment Weekly. โThe more I had read about it the more I was startled by the fact that [Cunanan] really was only allowed to get away with it because of homophobia.โ
According toRolling Stone: โThose involved with The Assassination of Gianni Versace have suggested that homophobia, particularly within law enforcement, decreased the urgency of the investigation, as if a gay man who kills other gay men was considered less of a threat worth prioritizing than the average heterosexual spree killer.โ
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The โStrangersโ Theory
Arguably one of the most unclear aspects of the seriesโ retelling of the story is the true nature of the relationship between Versace and Cunanan, if there even was one. The premiere episode of the show portrays Versace and Cunanan meeting in the VIP section of a nightclub in 1990, were a frustrated Versace is eventually charmed by Cunananโs story about his motherโs childhood in Italy. The pair later go on a date to the San Francisco Opera, where Versace was a costume designer at the time.
According to theVersace family, however, the designer had never encountered Cunanan prior to his murder. The family claim that at that point in Gianniโs life, he was highly focused on his work, always going to bed early and completely committed to his long-term relationship.
Some reports allege that Cunanan had told his friends that he was HIV-positive, and that he was killing past paramours out of vengeance for possibly infecting him.
An autopsy, however, revealed that Cunanan was actually HIV-negative. Versaceโs family have always maintained that the designer did not have HIV.
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The โNature Vs. Nurtureโ Theory
One theory suggests that Andrew Cunanan was a pathological liar but that despite that, wasnโt actually born a psychopath. Itโs been alleged that he became one during his time at the elite Bishopโs School in La Jolla, where he was forced to hide the fact that his parents were not wealthy and could not afford his tuition from his classmates.