A Chance Meeting With Versace Killer Andrew Cunanan
Wikimedia CommonsAndrew Cunanan’s FBI Most Wanted poster. The serial killer was very adept at adopting different looks, styles, and personalities throughout his cross-country killing spree.
Gianni Versace was one of the most famous and successful fashion designers of the 20th century. His untimely murder thus captivated the nation, while the killer who did the deed was far more prolific than people initially knew.
Andrew Cunanan shot Versace in the back of the head twice as he was opening the front gate of his Miami Beach home. Unbeknownst to anyone, the 27-year-old fugitive from California had already killed four others in the three preceding months.
Journalist Jamilah King recounted a chilling childhood memory on Twitter in 2018 of meeting the serial killer when she was in sixth grade. It was the spring of 1997, and King went to San Francisco’s Panhandle park to play basketball.
This time, however, she noticed a man watching her. He was young, but clearly an adult. He seemed suspicious to King, but then again, so did most people in that area at the time.
When he approached her from afar and placed himself beneath the basket — she’d seen enough and grabbed her things. That’s when Cunanan engaged.
Then he stops me. "Hey, you're really good," he says. I mutter a thank you and walk toward my bike, which is on the ground a few feet away.
— Jamilah King (@jamilahking) January 18, 2018
“You should keep practicing,” he continued.
King kept walking towards her bike, when he offered her a dollar. Unfortunately, that conniving trick worked on the 11-year-old. A dollar was enough to buy two Baby Ruth chocolate bars, after all. Fortunately, she was smart about it.
King ran up to Cunanan and snatched the dollar from him, then jumped on her bicycle and sped off. It was only months later that she understood how much danger she was in when she saw Cunanan’s mugshot on TV.
