How Jeff Trail & David Madson’s Real Relationship Reportedly Stoked Andrew Cunanan’s Paranoia

Spoilers through the episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The past two episodes of American Crime Story (executive producer: Nina Jacobson) Season 2 have introduced Darren Criss’s Andrew Cunanan’s first two victims. But given the backwards chronology of the show, some viewers may still be confused about the real life history between the three men. In The Assassination Of Gianni Versace, Jeffrey Trail and David Madson are depicted somewhat ambiguously as having been in a relationship with each other at the time of their deaths. The episode “House By The Lake” seems to imply that jealousy over this relationship is what motivated Cunanan to murder both men. But is this really what happened?

In the opening moments of the Feb. 7 episode, Andrew invites Jeff over to David’s apartment with the intention of murdering him. As David and Jeff are on the way up in the elevator, David nervously tells his friend, “He knows about us.” A few moments later, Jeff is dead. Given that the real Cunanan took his own lifebefore he could be interrogated by police, the world may never know his true motives for allegedly killing his five victims. As such, Versace writer Tom Rob Smith is forced to take some creative liberties to fill in gaps in the heavily researched narrative of Maureen Orth’s 1999 non-fiction book Vulgar Favors, on which the season is based. But the idea of a relationship between David and Jeff might be one of Smith’s biggest inventions, according to other sources.

In an article published four days after Versace’s 1997 murder, The New York Times quoted Trail’s sister Lisa as saying, “Jeff had just started a new relationship.” Lisa alleged her brother was uncomfortable over Cunanan’s impending visit to Minneapolis: “Her brother, she said, feared Mr. Cunanan might insinuate himself in a way that would make trouble for Mr. Trail and his partner,” the article states. Although the piece never names Trail’s partner, it’s clear that it wasn’t Madson, since the article explains that Cunanan had to spend the night at Madson’s apartment because “Mr. Trail had gone out of town with his partner.” Ergo, Trail’s partner and the person Cunanan was staying with couldn’t have been the same person.

Indeed, Orth’s 1997 Vanity Fair article “The Killer’s Trail” — which formed the basis for Vulgar Favors — names Trail’s partner at the time of his death. “Trail had made it clear that he wouldn’t be around much the weekend of Andrew’s visit,” Orth wrote. “His boyfriend, Jon Hackett, a student at the University of Minnesota, was celebrating his 21st birthday, and Trail was taking him out of town Saturday night.” In fact, Orth’s account of the murders implies that Trail and Madson weren’t even that close; she states that the pair had only “casually” befriended one another after meeting in Minneapolis and realizing they both knew Cunanan.

But just because Trail and Madson weren’t dating — or reportedly even particular close — doesn’t mean Cunanan knew that. In fact, Orth claimed in her piece that a large part of the reason for his visit to Minneapolis was his paranoia over their relationship. “Cunanan had told a friend that he was uncomfortable having the two people he cared most about living in the same faraway city without him,” she wrote, getting up to who knows what in his absence.

So why does Versace (executive producer: Alexis Martin Woodall) include the line where David worries that Andrew “knows about” him and Jeff? Well, the Feb. 14 episode, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” might clear that up. Despite seeming to imply that they were in a relationship only a week before, the show makes no mention of such a connection between Jeff and David while exploring Trail’s backstory and the events leading up to his murder. In fact, David is shown inviting another man over to his apartment — although no mention of Hackett is made.

There are two possibilities that explain the “he knows” line in retrospect. One is that the scene is Andrew’s imagined version of events of what happened after David went to let Jeff in; he feared that his two closest friends were in a relationship, so that’s what the viewer sees. The other is that David simply wasn’t referring to Andrew knowing about some secret relationship — but rather, that he knew both he and Jeff were planning to cut Andrew out of their lives after that weekend, as is revealed in the opening moments of the Feb. 14 episode. Either way, the line seems designed to instill the same paranoia in the viewer that Andrew was feeling at the time, while clearing up the truth of David and Jeff’s relationship in the following episode.

Ultimately, Smith isn’t writing Versace to serve as a factual tell-all of the people involved in Cunanan’s killing spree, but rather to serve as a parable to highlight how life in the closet damages gay men in various ways. “If you look at the crimes themselves, they express various facets of homophobia,” Smith told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. He continued:

“You have the murder of Jeff, which is clearly about someone who should have had this brilliant military career. He was the perfect soldier, utterly dedicated, and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was just such a travesty. You have people who went to give their lives for their country and to say to them, ‘We don’t want your life,’ or, ‘Your life is meaningless to us’… It seems to me irrational and cruel, and it destroys people. And then you have a very different facet of homophobia with the second victim, David. You had this brilliant young man caught up in a murder, and so ashamed of who he is that he just can’t say to Andrew, ‘I need to go to the police now.’ Why doesn’t he break from that guy much sooner? It’s because he just knows, ‘If I go to the police, they won’t believe me.’ That’s heartbreaking.”

Versace will continue to explore the various ways in which homophobia contributed to the tragic events of this story in the season’s remaining four episodes.

Al Coronel: Hope everyone is watching this season of American Crime Story – The Assassination of Gianni Versace. It is a story of not only Gianni’s senseless murder but also about the other victims of the deranged mind of Andrew Cunanan who’s dark and gripping story is portrayed profoundly by Darren Criss. I feel honored to help tell their story. It was a pleasure to share the screen with Finn Whitrock who plays Jeff Trail, Cunanan’s first victim. Thank you to the crew and to director, Daniel Minahan. (who happened to direct several of my favorite episodes of Game of Thrones!!!) for this amazing experience.

American Crime Story: Versace Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

I’m starting to think they should have called this series ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace by the Coward Andrew Cunanan.’

Just like the big screen movie about Jesse James and his killer Robert Ford, this isn’t a true story about the man who was assassinated and his life. This is about Andrew Cunanan.

And American Crime Story: Versace Season 1 Episode 5 continues to give us a look into the mind and actions of a killer.

We start by stepping further back in time yet again to meet the man Andrew bludgeoned to death at the beginning of American Crime Story: Versace Season 1 Episode 4. The man is Jeff Trail, and he’s a former naval officer, now working at a gas company in Minneapolis.

It was fairly obvious based on the brief conversation between Jeff and David a few moments before Jeff’s murder that neither man was particularly fond of Andrew at this point. But now we get some actual context to show why Andrew’s friends were just about done with him.

Jeff: He’s got no one. He’s got nothing. Everything he’s told you about his life is a lie. You know that, right?
David: Do you even like him?

Seeing Andrew’s desperation as he pleaded with David to marry him was honestly odd. When Andrew shows up in Minneapolis, he and David are not a couple and barely even friends it would appear, yet within hours he’s asking David to marry him?

Andrew is so very clearly off mentally and emotionally, and David seems to notice more so than Jeff, who wants no parts of Andrew.

After getting a full episode of the aftermath of Jeff’s murder and Andrew’s relationship with Jeff, it was interesting to see how different Jeff and David were towards Andrew.

Save for a few scenes showing how Andrew and Jeff first met, we only see Jeff’s hostility and anger, whereas David is empathetic and concerned.

And quite honestly Jeff has every right to be upset with Andrew. Andrew’s postcard fiasco was very hurtful to Jeff. As his sister explains, Andrew’s trying to “out” Jeff was extremely threatening.

Digging further into Jeff’s past reveals a man that seems to be almost ashamed of who he is. He’s a man that can acknowledge that stepping in to save a man from being beaten to death for being gay was a heroic moment and one to be proud of, yet he regrets his actions every single day.

Why? Because of what it did to his career. What it did to his life.

For a man that was defined by his job and his title, not having that any longer was a huge burden on Jeff’s shoulders. He carried that burden with him to his death.

While this remains a story much more about Andrew Cunanan than Gianni Versace, the eponymous designer does make an appearance this week. Gianni is ready to come out publicly as a gay man, but he receives pushback from Donatella.

I hadn’t seen the Versaces in a long time, and to be honest, the storyline wasn’t missed. I don’t like saying that, but it’s been fascinating to get these glimpses into the lives and situations of Andrew’s other victims. The other people whose deaths weren’t front page news and water cooler fodder.

I don’t think the irony of Gianni’s freeing interview opposite Jeff’s darkened interview was lost on anyone. Though a bit heavy handed, we saw the lesson before us.

While Gianni was at the top of his game and feeling lucky to be alive, he wanted to be true to himself, to Antonio and his fans by admitting to everyone who he really was. And because of his stature in society, he could do so on a public platform.

On the other hand, at a time when the discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was in full effect, Jeff conducted his interview shrouded in darkness as he feared for his job, his security and even his life.

They were two very different men sharing their stories of what it means to be a gay man at that point, under vastly different circumstances.

If this were a different show, I would have liked to delve even further into this. But this isn’t that show. Instead, we jump pretty quickly away from the interviews and back into Jeff and his final moments.

No one wants your love!

– Jeff [to Andrew]

Seeing the moments leading up to Jeff’s murder from Andrew’s perspective doesn’t do much but add a greater sense of dread.

Andrew was an unstable man who came to Minneapolis looking for one thing and suddenly realized that he wasn’t going to get it. And unfortunately, Jeff Trail and David Madson were casualties of internal war.

What did you guys think about “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”? Where do you think the series will head from here? Were you glad to see the Versace family back?

American Crime Story: Versace Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

A devastating episode of American Crime Story is the season’s best yet

“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell"A-

If there’s one prominent problem with the majority of true crime narratives, it’s that they put the focus entirely on—or grossly glorify—the criminal rather than spending time with the victims. The approach makes sense because that’s often what people want: the gory details, insight into a murderer so we can try to put together the “why?” puzzle pieces. Interest in the victims is secondary and cursory: limited background details, just enough to let us know how we can possibly avoid that same fate. While The Assassination Of Gianni Versace certainly is heavy on Andrew Cunanan, an episode like “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” proves why victims’ stories are important, too—and the result in this season’s best episode so far.

“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” brings Versace back into the mix by juxtaposing him publicly coming out (in Advocate) with Jeff Trail’s struggles of being closeted in the Navy. It’s an interesting juxtaposition because the military and fashion worlds feel miles apart, and like polar opposites. The cold open, however, features Donatella worried—and perhaps a little angry—about Versace’s decision, concerned that being so public will affect sales, stock, and public perception. Not to mention, it appears Donatella and Antonio have always been at odds (we saw a bit of this in the pilot episode) so she thinks Versace is only coming out to appease Antonio (“You want to be famous,” she accuses him) who is frequently mistaken for an assistant instead of Versace’s partner. Versace’s mind won’t be changed; he had “a second chance” after he got sick but survived, and he wants to live openly. Jeff, too, wants to live openly but that’s impossible with his career in the Navy, and more so during the height of the Don’t Tell Dont Ask days.

That policy, which wasn’t repealed until late 2011, is indeed the focal point of an episode that is both powerful and heartbreaking. After Andrew watches a video of Jeff’s appearance in a 48 Hours episode dedicated to DADT, the episode smartly puts the killer on the backburner for a while to instead jump back to 1995. The bulk of the hour is about a crucial period during Jeff’s time in the Navy, starting with him breaking up a fight between a straight officer upset that another officer “brushed up against me” and then, later, stopping gay bashing in his bunk. The targeted officer cries to Jeff that he needs to be reassigned; he knows that there’s a target on his back, and he knows that there won’t always be someone around to intervene. Another officer spots the two of them and the intimate moment is cut short by the realization that Jeff just made himself a target, too. The scene is informed by the 48 Hours interview where Jeff tells the story of saving a sailor’s life. “If I hadn’t done it, if I hadn’t stopped them, no one would have suspected me.” And then the kicker: Jeff dreams of taking that moment back.

Since that moment, Jeff has lived with the knowledge that saving one person essentially derailed his own life. If he had ignored it, if he had let this man die, it’s highly possible that Jeff could have continued to serve without incident—but then he’d have to deal with knowing he turned a blind eye. There was no winning for him, so he chose the self-sacrificing route. This doesn’t just speak to his character as a fellow gay officer, but also to his base qualities as a caring human being, which makes everything even harder to watch because we know the outcome.

Through Jeff, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” shows the horrible implications and consequences of the titular policy. It forced members of the military to stay in the closet, to lie about their lives, to spend all their time in the service living in fear that they could be outed—or attacked just for being suspected of “homosexual activity”—and kicked out. It also allowed some officers to encourage others to out their colleagues and, in some instances, it forced gay military members to turn on others in order to save themselves. One officer, the episode shows, was cut a deal by the military police: if he outs the gay military officers he knows—through tattoos, because he doesn’t know their names—then he won’t get dishonorably discharged. Jeff keeps his cool during that conversation but you can tell that he’s trying to quell his inner panic. (It also now makes more sense why last week’s episode lingered on Jeff’s tattoo in the morgue.) And sure enough, there’s an immensely upsetting scene where Jeff tries to carve off his tattoo.

Writer Tom Rob Smith accurately captures the weight DADT had as it loomed over the gay military community, resulting in an episode that just feels heavy, like there was an anvil on my chest crushing me more and more as the hour continued. There’s so much tension built in to small actions, such as Jeff’s captain wordlessly handing him the Dignity And Respect: A Training Guide On Homosexual Conduct Policy book or Jeff slipping on his pristine white shoes to match his dress whites. The former is jarring because you almost want to laugh at the cartoonish cover, but its comic book approach only heightens how fucked up the policies are (and Jeff can recite the specific regulation from memory; another tell). The latter is more urgent, setting up Jeff’s aborted suicide by hanging. It’s a testament to how powerful and effective the storytelling is in this series: We know that’s now how Jeff dies, but I still held my breath. But in a way, some of Jeff did die while in the Navy.

Another impressive task the episode pulls off is having Jeff’s military experience seamlessly lead to depicting why he was originally so drawn to Andrew (a stark contrast to two years later in the airport). Andrew clocks Jeff as new to the gay bar scene, and he uses this to position himself as a charming, knowledgeable, comfortably-out gay man, and one who is willing to welcome Jeff to the scene. What Jeff craves—what he doesn’t get from the military—is to be open about who he is and accepted for it. Andrew doesn’t just accept him but celebrates him, even paying for all of Jeff’s drinks that night. It’s easy to see that magnetism that drew Jeff to Andrew, the beginnings of their friendship before it went awry, and why Jeff now feels like he “owes” Andrew. (It’s also interesting to note of how that mix of respect and envy Jeff felt toward Andrew for those early days is similar to how Andrew felt toward Versace.)

Toward the end, there’s something beautiful about seeing both Versace and Jeff able to talk about their sexuality—even if Jeff is doing it anonymously—in their respective interviews, despite them both knowing that it could affect their careers. Jeff says so explicitly (“By talking to you, it’s the end of my career but honestly maybe my career died a long time ago because they know”) and I’m sure Donatella’s concerns are in the back of Versace’s mind, too. It’s freeing, even if just for a moment, but, of course, it’s cut short by Andrew.

Stray observations

So, uh, happy Valentine’s Day!

Both Cody Fern and Finn Wittrock have been tremendous these last two weeks! ACS really kills it when it comes to casting, huh?

Here’s a link to the Dignity and Respect manual if you want to flip through it—I couldn’t bring myself to really dive in because, as a queer military brat, this episode was especially rough to watch. (It also reminded me of the PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly army comics I used to read as a kid, despite never knowing what the hell they were talking about.)

It was good to see Versace & co. back this episode! I’m glad the series included the Advocate interview, which I know was important to Ryan Murphy.

A devastating episode of American Crime Story is the season’s best yet

Yes, The US Military REALLY Handed Out “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Comic Books

In case you were wondering what Season 2 of American Crime Story would be about now that all five of Andrew Cunanan’s alleged victims have met their fates, the title of the Feb. 14 episode is here to give you a clue. In “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” The Assassination Of Gianni Versace (executive prodicer: Nina Jacobson) continues to tackle the issue of homophobia in the ‘90s and the ways in which being forced to live life in the closet can emotionally and psychologically affect gay men. But is the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell training comic shown in the episode real? Or is that a fanciful creation on Ryan Murphy’s part to illustrate the military’s institutional homophobia?

It’s reasonable (and perhaps even smart) for viewers to question the veracity of everything they see in Versace (executive producer: Alexis Martin Woodall). While The People v. O.J. Simpson had a very public and notorious televised trial to base its episodes on, there is still a lot that’s not known about why Andrew Cunanan killed Gianni Versace, what their relationship was (if any), and what exactly happened between him and his other alleged four victims. Although the series is adapted from Maureen Orth’s 1999 non-fiction book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U. S. History, the credits of each episode declare that portions of each episode had to be imagined based on what little is known about the case.

But the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell comic that Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock) is given by his superior officer in the flashback to his time in the Navy is actually a case of truth being stranger than fiction. Yes, the military really did hand out pamphlets illustrating its policy against discussing homosexuality with comic-book-like panel drawings. One such example is a brochure entitled “Dignity & Respect: A Training Guide On Homosexual Conduct Policy,” published by the Pentagon in 2001, as reported by Mother Jones. This is the exact book that’s handed to Jeff by a superior officer in ACS. The real publication date is four years after Versace’s death, so the series did fudge the dates. However, it’s proof that pamphlets lie these did, sadly, exist.

The real-life pamphlet depicts several examples of soldiers being subjected to discharge proceedings due to their sexuality: one for being caught engaging in “homosexual acts” by another soldier, another for volunteering to his superior officer the fact that he’s gay. In another panel, a soldier is informed that “Don’t Tell” means that the only persons he should talk to about his sexuality are a chaplain and/or an attorney. In another, an officer explains:

“Army policy does not focus on what a person ‘is,’ but on his or her conduct. Homosexual conduct creates an unacceptable risk to unit cohesion and standards of morale, good order, and discipline. Therefore, a soldier who commits a homosexual act, or has a propensity for homosexual conduct as demonstrated by a statement or admission, will be subject to discharge.”

The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was officially repealed by President Obama in 2010, but the atmosphere of suppression and suspicion that it engendered within the military continues to impact LGBTQ servicemen and women to this day — especially transgender recruits.

It’s a neat trick that, the further back in time Versace moves, the more socially relevant the show becomes to our current times. What started as a lavish and colorful recreation of a beloved fashion designer and his tragic death has slowly transformed into something more universal, melancholy, and insightful. By examining the societal pressures and prejudices that inflicted both Andrew Cunanan and those who came into contact with, Versace is doing more than providing audiences with a true crime fix: it’s highlighting injustice by contrasting how much has changed since the ’90s… with how much hasn’t.

Yes, The US Military REALLY Handed Out “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Comic Books

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: Fact-checking Episode 5

The second season of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology series, titled , explores the titular designer’s brutal 1997 murder at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. We’re walking through all nine episodes with Miami Herald editorial board member Luisa Yanez — who reported on the crime and its aftermath over several years for the Sun-Sentinel’s Miami bureau — in an effort to identify what ACS: Versace handles with care versus when it deviates from documented fact and common perception. The intention here is less to debunk an explicitly dramatized version of true events than to help viewers piece together a holistic picture of the circumstances surrounding Versace’s murder. In other words, these weekly digests are best considered supplements to each episode rather than counterarguments. Below are Yanez’s insights — as well as our independent research — into the veracity and potency of events and characterizations presented in episode five, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

What They Got Right

Cunanan’s animus toward Jeff Trail
“It all begins with Trail,” Yanez asserts. “Whatever Trail did to him or whatever he felt, he really hated him.”

Donatella Versace’s media wariness
“She didn’t speak to the media here,” confirms Yanez while reflecting on scenes depicting Donatella’s concerns about bad PR. “We knew that she was around. She was very private. She didn’t make statements.” Yanez isn’t aware of whether Donatella was opposed to her brother being publicly out, though in a recent Vogue interview, she does share that the best advice Gianni ever gave her was, “Be true to yourself.”

The public perception of Antonio D’Amico
Yanez says that if Donatella was dismissive of Antonio, she wasn’t alone. She and her colleagues’ perception of him at the time “was not very respectful,” she says. “We saw him like Donatella sees him, as just a boyfriend.”

Trail’s CBS interview
It was with Richard Schlesinger for 48 Hours, and he was in silhouette speaking bravely about the military and federal government’s shortsightedness, his Naval officer cap visible in the foreground. In a blog post last year, Schlesinger wrote that Trail’s brutal death left he and his colleagues “stunned and saddened” and feeling a “connection to the horror that Cunanan had created.”

The encounter at Flicks
Although the Sun-Sentinel sent reporters to San Diego, Yanez admits that “the bar scene became background” to their coverage of Cunanan. It’s difficult to corroborate the exact time and location of Jeff and Andrew’s first encounter, but Trail’s friend Michael Williams told the San Diego Reader at the time that Andrew was a regular at Flicks nightclub. Flicks’ owner seconded as much to the New York Times.

What They Took Liberties With

The Advocate interview
In August 1995, The Advocate did publish an exclusive interview with Gianni authored by Brendan Lemon. Antonio did sit in on the interview, and Gianni wasn’t shy about referencing him as his “companion” of 13 years. The article, cited by Ryan Murphy as inspirational, unabashedly linked the designer to his orientation as a gay man, although it also was upfront about the fact that Gianni had never really “shirked homosexuality.” He and Lemon had in fact sat down to promote Versace’s book, Men Without Ties, and so the depiction of their exchange in “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” as a platform for his coming out is somewhat romanticized. When Vulture reached out to FX to confirm that this particular Advocate interview inspired the storyline, executive producer Brad Simpson replied in an email, “In 1995, Versace sat with The Advocate. He had Antonio sit in on the interview as depicted in the show. He allowed The Advocate to be open about his homosexuality, identifying Antonio as his companion and collaborator, and allowing himself to be described as ‘out.’” But one detail the show definitely took license with? Antonio’s hair. It was, as Lemon describes, styled as more of an era-familiar Caesar cut.

Gianni Versace’s virtuous reputation
Versace was largely regarded as a kind and big-hearted man. But both ACSon the whole and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in particular portray him as almost preternaturally compassionate and even-keeled. “In the time before [his murder], he kind of became a bad guy on the beach,” recalls Yanez. “When he bought that property, there was an old hotel next door where a lot of low-income people lived. So you had this mansion he built, and next door this fleabag kind of thing. There came a chance to buy that hotel, and he immediately bought it and had everybody evicted, knocked that hotel down, and expanded his mansion. So he became this rich baron. There was a cost of that to other people, his quest for beauty.”

Cunanan’s closet collage
Earlier this season, Cunanan’s Normandy Plaza room décor included a slapdash shrine of sorts to Gianni comprised of various Versace clippings. Ditto his San Diego closet in this episode, which is partly covered by a makeshift mural featuring the Advocate piece. Neither Yanez nor anyone else can testify to how Andrew adorned the walls of his final West Coast haunt. She was, however, intimate with how he left his last room at the Normandy, and says, “In fact, [police] went through every detail in that room, and it was mostly fashion magazines and books. We detailed everything in that room, but there was no serial-killer shrine hidden. There was no trace of Versace there, nothing that would say, ‘Oh, he was stalking Versace.’”

The Trail family
Like the episode prior, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” opts for a fairly dramatic conclusion, this time overlapping the moment of Trail’s murder with the birth of his niece. But as Jeff’s older sister Candace told People back in 1997, their sister Linda had delivered her baby the day prior. And while Jeff enthuses, “I’m going to enjoy being an uncle so much,” he’d already been: It was Linda’s third child.

Cunanan and Madson’s night out
Andrew and David did hit the town two nights before Andrew began his killing spree. And they did dine at popular Minneapolis spot Nye’s, per police. And Nye’s was a legendary polka hall (and piano bar) that was recently revitalized. But police elaborated that after their meal, the pair went dancing at known gay hotspot The Gay 90’s, the same club where — tragically — Trail’s boyfriend Jon waited in vain for Jeff the night he was murdered. And while Maureen Orth’s reporting circa fall ’97 claims that Madson’s friend Monique Salvetti met up with David and Andrew at Nye’s, a Daily News article from earlier that year reports that while Madson was confiding in Salvetti, an anonymous coworker joined the pair Friday evening at a separate café. This somewhat jibes with an Los Angeles Times account tracking the duo’s movements from Caffe Solo to The Gay 90’s, though they place them there on Saturday night, less than 24 hours before Trail’s murder. Meanwhile, both the Star-Tribune and the New York Times support the episode’s version that Cunanan spent Saturday in Trail’s apartment. Then there’s the FBI file, which reports that Salvetti was out with David and Andrew on Friday at Nye’s, and that Madson and Cunanan had dinner the following night at Monte Carlo Restaurant, capped off by dancing at The Gay 90’s before Andrew crashed at Jeff’s place. The only thing all parties agree on is that no one fully anticipated the bloodshed to come.

The postcard
Andrew absolutely sent romantic, over-the-top postcards to his lovers. He sent dozens to David Madson, of which his sister kept copies. (The FBI has the originals.) But whether he effectively outed Jeff by mistakenly sending one to his father Stan is, like much of Trail’s life as documented in “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” hard to pin down.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: Fact-checking Episode 5

On ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ Gianni Weighs the Consequences of Coming Out Publicly

We continue moving back in time, leaving Gianni’s assassination further behind as we’re given the context behind two infamous interviews. On the one hand, Versace (Edgar Ramirez) gears up to face a reporter from gay magazine The Advocate to finally come out publicly — much to the dismay of his sister, the ever business-driven Donatella (Penelope Cruz). On the other, a young closeted navy officer participates in a CBS news segment about “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Only, we’ve met the officer before. His name is Jeff Trail. He’s played by Finn Wittrock. We’ve already seen how he died at the hands of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), bludgeoned with a hammer at the home of Minneapolis architect David Madson (Cody Fern), whose own death we saw in last week’s episode.

The episode, aptly titled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is very much focused on Jeff: we see his stint in the navy (where he saved a fellow officer from getting beaten up for being gay), witness his first meeting with Andrew (at a gay bar where they hit it off), and later still get a chance to relive the ill-fated weekend before he showed up at David’s apartment. Further expanding its examination of the culture of silence that fueled much of the still-rampant homophobia in the 90s, this latest episode connects Jeff’s own experience in the navy with Versace’s own desire to be more open about his private life.

But where Jeff finds an unlikely cheerleader in Andrew, who actually thinks the former navy officer should be brave and show his face on the CBS News segment (he chose instead to have his face be obscured to keep his identity safe), Gianni only finds pushback from the one person he’s always trusted when it comes to his label’s PR: Donatella. To her, coming out so publicly will spell disaster for their brand. She’s worried about how many people will be put off by his admission, how many investors will flee their company, and how women across the world will see the Versace style differently. “You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” she tells him. “You’ve forgotten how ugly the world can be.” Nevertheless, Gianni is resolute. It helps that Antonio (Ricky Martin) has emboldened him to be braver, especially after his near-death experience with the unnamed illness from a few episodes back. He wants to be as bold as his clothes. “Is the brand of Versace braver than the man?” he asks his sister, finally making her relent and understand better why getting this off his chest, with his partner of more than a decade in tow, is so important to him.

This Week’s MVP: Donatella’s jacket.

Okay, Murphy-staple Wittrock (you may know him as the tighty whitey-wearing serial killer in American Horror Story: Freakshow) astounds in this episode playing the troubled Navy officer with wounded sincerity, but we have to give the costume designer of this show her due. Lou Eyrich has won three Emmys already for working on Murphy’s American Horror Story franchise. But she is doing just as fabulous work in this fashion-heavy show. Everything from Cunanan’s penchant for tight briefs to Versace’s bold satin shirts shows how the costumes (both off-the-rack and high-fashion) help to tell the story while also being downright amazing. Though truly, when you’re outfitting Penelope as Donatella and Edgar as Gianni — the Versace siblings are as colorful a pair as one can find — you really can’t go wrong.

Better yet, they truly help inform character. Donatella’s jacket, after all, is both warm yet imposing. It’s a working woman’s blazer that dares you to call it tacky (that pink! those butterflies! the gold pattern!) It’s ostentatious while also being understated, the kind of piece you can see her picking out of her closet almost absent-mindedly. But with those sleeves rolled up and those big, gold pieces of jewelry adorning her, we get to see Cruz-as-Donatella as the kind of no-nonsense style icon she’s always been, always having business in mind even while styling herself as she were about to be in a lavish editorial spread about female executives shattering glass ceilings.

With the show skipping back and forth in time, at times leaving its titular Versace assassination behind, we’re curious where Murphy and his team take us next week when we travel to San Diego for a Cunanan birthday celebration.

On ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ Gianni Weighs the Consequences of Coming Out Publicly

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: I’m Coming Out

Editor’s rating: ★★★☆☆

Oh, thank God. Gianni Versace is back, he wears an amazing Versace top while being interviewed by The Advocate, and, as a special bonus, we also get Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace wearing a fitted butterfly blazer and microscopic black skirt. What better outfit to wear when being super mean to your brother and his lover? I would probably let someone treat me as shabbily as Donatella does Antonio as long as she dressed like that.

Those few scenes add splendor to the otherwise dreary and sad world of Andrew Cunanan, where we’ve been living for the past few episodes. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is really about coming out and the two very different experiences of these two very different men. We see Gianni in his great designs and well-lit photo shoot for his Advocate cover, immediately contrasted with Jeff Trail, one of Cunanan’s victims, giving an interview with CBS News about gays in the military where he has his face and voice disguised “like a criminal.”

This illustrates just how difficult and different coming out was for different classes of people in the mid-‘90s. Versace, as a millionaire with a thriving business in a creative field, was allowed to come out without much consequence. (Although the actual Advocate interviewwasn’t exactly as depicted here.) Donatella is worried that celebrities and tastemakers will leave the brand like they did to Perry Ellis when it was discovered that he was dying of AIDS. Her brother retorts, “At least we’ll keep Elton,” meaning the famously out rocker Elton John. (Duh.)

Versace’s coming out is seen as a celebration, something that advances gay rights and gay visibility. It was only possible because he was in fashion, one of the industries where you can’t swing a designer handbag without hitting a friend of Dorothy’s. Not everyone was so lucky to have the financial success and protection that Versace did, and things were a lot harder for them.

Look at how it was for Jeff Trail. He’s forced into the closet so that he can continue to serve his country and be a member of the military. Everyone in his family has served. While coming out might have a bit of an impact on Versace’s multimillion-dollar business, if Trail came out, he’ll lose his job, possibly his family, and everything he holds dear. Coming out isn’t a choice for him, especially after his commanding officer gives him a creepy comic book (seriously, U.S. military? A comic book?) about how he can’t be gay and in the Navy at the same time.

I always say that the closet makes people crazy, and in this case, it leads Jeff to consider severe self-harm. He thinks about cutting out a tattoo on his leg when he hears that a gay man has been caught for cruising on his military base and is going to rat out the tattoos of every enlisted man he’s slept with. First of all, this is a bad idea because it doesn’t work (except as a plot device on Riverdale). Second of all, it’s a bad idea because who the hell wants to carve out their flesh in the shower with a box cutter and some alcohol?

After the comic book incident, Jeff tries to hang himself in the shower rather than come out, but he can’t do it. He’s suffering under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” not only in the military, but also in his own mind. Maybe if he doesn’t talk about it, he seems to decide, he can be just a little bit gay. Even after he’s out of the military, he refuses to come out to his parents despite his sister insisting that he do it. He knows that she has his back, so why can’t he still be true to himself? After being in the military for so many years, the homophobia is coming from inside the house.

I didn’t really like the way the episode played out, however. We see Jeff first through Andrew’s eyes, when he plots a trip to Minneapolis (on American Express’s dime) in a last attempt at having a normal life by marrying David. Thanks to the last episode, we all know how that ends. I’m still fascinated with the series playing out backwardsbecause Andrew’s trip always had an air of failure about it, from the moment he shows up at the airport to a less-than-fuzzy reception from his former friends. Because of what we’ve seen, there is a much more sinister overtone to the proceedings.

What I didn’t like is that we see Jeff talking on tape about saving a man’s life in the military and how he wouldn’t do it again because that is what outed him to his fellow sailors. I feel like that really took away from the magic of seeing him actually save the man, comfort him in the showers, and get caught by that very imposing looking dude with a mustache. (How come the old-school bigots in these things always have a mustache?) If we didn’t know what was coming, it would have had more impact. The same goes for when he finally gives the interview later in the episode. It just seemed like needless repetition. The emotion could have been more intense if we didn’t see Andrew watching that video in the first place and didn’t know exactly what Jeff was going to say.

The relationship between Andrew and Jeff is also very confusing. Andrew definitely saved Jeff the first time he came into a gay bar: He needed someone to show him the ropes, prove to him that being gay wasn’t so awful, and to joke about his name being spelled out in sparklers on the bar. But eventually, Jeff is the only one who sees that Andrew is just spinning a bunch of lies, and that he’s a dangerous sociopath who could cause them all a lot of pain. David, on the other hand, sees Andrew as harmless and wants to help him. He even offers to break his date with the hunk in the leather vest so they can talk, but Andrew can’t abandon his “crazy stories” about starting a new life in San Francisco in order to ask for help. When he does accept David’s offer, it’s only as a pretense so that he can kill both David and Jeff. The crazy stories are stronger than any real connection with a human being.

What confused me was when Andrew and Jeff have their confrontation in Jeff’s sad apartment when he returns home to find Andrew eating Fruit Loops on the floor and his military uniform splayed out on the bed. He confronts Andrew about the story and about sending a postcard to his parents trying to out him. Even though Andrew saved him, Jeff wishes they never met. “The bars, the meals, the men. Everything you gave me means nothing,” he tells Andrew. “I want my life back. My real life, as a soldier.” Jeff equates gay life with Andrew and since Andrew is a person of mirages masking an empty and rotten core, he sees gay life the same way. We would assume that because Andrew was his role model, Jeff thinks it is impossible to live a rewarding and openly gay life. He sees gay values as being about fun times, meaningless sex, designer clothes, and hot go-go boys in star-spangled Speedos. That’s why he rejects both Andrew and gay life and ends up yelling at other veterans in the lunchroom of a shitty factory.

I could buy that, except that Jeff also has David in his life. We get hints that they’re a couple — even though David was obviously seeing other people — so why wouldn’t David be a good role model for Jeff? He’s openly gay, he has a successful career, and he’s a caring person who seems to be about more than just hookups in the back of bars. Shouldn’t Jeff see that he can have a life like David’s? Shouldn’t he know that Andrew is the negative extreme played up by the media and shitty military comic books?

Tragically, he doesn’t. Finn Wittrock does an excellent job showing Jeff’s pain and struggle, just as Darren Criss and Cody Fern have both been spectacular in the past two episodes. It’s going to be a really tough Emmy race if they wind up duking it out with each other. This episode as a whole, however, seems a little bit clunky. It’s just too much of a stretch to knit all of these stories together in a meaningful and emotionally impactful way. Still, the differences between these coming out stories is key to understanding exactly how and why Versace’s death happened, and I’m glad the show is drawing those unique parallels.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: I’m Coming Out

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 5: Dignity and Respect

Now that we are halfway through “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” we can reasonably infer that there are no more bodies to fall. The fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death outside his Miami Beach villa in the season premiere. The Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin was tortured and bludgeoned, and a New Jersey cemetery groundskeeper, William Reese, was fatally shot, execution-style, in Episode 3. Two more men were knocked off in Episode 4: the Minneapolis architect David Madson and the Navy veteran Jeff Trail.

So as this second season of “American Crime Story” works its way backward in time, we have moved past the body count to what should be the most interesting moment in any serial killer’s story: the moment before he starts to kill.

Yet frustratingly, five episodes in and with four more go to, we are barely any closer to knowing what turned Andrew Cunanan into a pathologically mendacious psychopath, much less a killer.

There is still time to explore that question, but by structuring this narrative in reverse chronological form, the show’s creators have demanded a great deal of patience from viewers — and taxed the patience of this one — as they’ve asked us to bear witness to ruthless, grisly violence.

So far, I don’t feel my patience has been rewarded. I’ve given this season credit for some unforgettable characters — especially Marilyn Miglin, the tycoon’s widow, and David Madson, the semi-closeted architect (thanks in large part to exceptional performances by Judith Light and Cody Fern). But I increasingly find Andrew Cunanan, as portrayed by Darren Criss, to be more an irritation than an enigma. His self-absorption, narcissism, casual cruelty, lack of empathy and penchant for self-pity have not been leavened by any redeeming qualities.

To be frank, I have come to find him so charmless that I nearly cringe any time he appears onscreen. I do not care for his petty lies — the Walter Mitty world in which he is the scion of a pineapple magnate, the builder of sets for the movie “Titanic,” the owner of a fabulous condominium in San Francisco — and, what’s worse, I’m starting to lose interest in how he turned into a killer. It will be a real challenge for this series to create a back story that makes Cunanan’s crimes explicable.

Unlike Episodes 3 and 4, which were effectively character studies of two lives upended by Cunanan’s malevolence, Episode 5 doesn’t have a singular focus. It begins in Milan, where Gianni Versace announces to his sister, Donatella, and to his partner, Antonio D’Amico, that he plans to come out, through an interview in the gay magazine The Advocate. From there, it jumps to Minneapolis, where Jeff Trail, Cunanan’s first victim, works at a propane plant, having been forced out of the Navy for being gay. It then moves backward in time to San Diego, where Trail, in his first visit to a gay bar, meets Cunanan.

The episode’s narrative arc connects the coming out of two men — Versace and Trail — who, other than being gay and getting killed by Cunanan, seem to have little in common.

Versace is depicted as wanting to show gratitude for being alive despite having received a diagnosis of what we’re led to believe is HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (The Versace family has disputed the notion that Versace was HIV-positive, as hypothesized by the journalist Maureen Orth in her book “Vulgar Favors,” on which the series is based.)

Versace shares his plans with his sister, who is worried that Versace’s coming out as gay will hurt the fashion empire he has worked so hard to build. She worries that “the rock stars, the actors, the royalty whose endorsements we cherish — they might not want to be associated with us.”

“You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” she tells him. “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.” Their exchange reminds us how recently spheres that now seem safely liberal — Hollywood and fashion — were still hostile to open gayness, an aversion that is far from vanished today.

We first meet Trail at the propane factory where he works. A co-worker, an ex-Marine, learns that Trail worked on an aircraft carrier that was decommissioned after the first Gulf War. Trail says he misses the military life, and regrets leaving. The Marine, who was enlisted, is startled to learn that Trail, a Naval Academy graduate with two siblings in the military, left a promising career as an officer. Trail flies into a rage, shouting, “It was my decision!”

Trail’s back story turns out to be more complicated.

In 1995, he broke up a homophobic attack on a gay sailor who would otherwise have been beaten to death. For his valor, he was quickly suspected of being gay himself, and subjected to increasing harassment. In one cringe-inducing scene, he tries to cut off a tattoo for fear that it could be used by military investigators to identify homosexuals who have had hookups aboard the aircraft carrier; in another scene, he puts on his dress whites and comes close to hanging himself.

It was the time of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Clinton-era policy in which gay and lesbian service members were ostensibly tolerated as long as they did not come forward. The compromise was an uneasy and often dishonest one, embodied by a scene in which Trail is given a comic-book-style “training guide on homosexual conduct and policy.” Its title, “Dignity and Respect,” seems like a cruel joke.

Trail leaves the military and decides to give an interview to CBS News — his face is obscured — in which he comes forward about the agony of being gay in the military. If he hadn’t stopped the gay-bashing attack, he says, “no one would have suspected me” and his life wouldn’t have been ruined. “I did a good thing, and I can’t tell you about how many times I’ve dreamed about taking that moment back and letting him die.”

That interview is juxtaposed with the far more positive disclosure in which Versace tells The Advocate about D’Amico. It is an affirming and empowering moment, one that demonstrates the obvious point that coming out, while never easy, is vastly easier for some than for others.

But what does it add up to? That Versace and Trail both made sacrifices to come out as gay men does nothing to elucidate for us why they were targeted by Cunanan, or whether anything other than cruel coincidence cut short their lives at his hands.

We see glimpses of Cunanan’s potential to be charming, when he helps to usher Trail into the gay world at a bar. (Trail’s first time, as he reveals.) We learn that the romance, if there was any, quickly wore thin. When the two reconnect in Minneapolis a few years later, Trail’s sympathy is nearly depleted: Cunanan sent his father a postcard outing him, but claims that it was an innocent mistake. Back at Madson’s apartment, Cunanan gives Madson an expensive watch and declares: “You are the man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you marry me?” Madson looks horrified.

“We can’t get married,” he says. “We can’t. You understand? Even if we could, we can’t.”

Madson urges Cunanan to stop telling the crazy stories. But Cunanan can’t let go of his delusions. “I told you I’m going to start a new life in San Francisco, and I just need someone to share it with,” he says. He is at his most vulnerable, but instead of doing what a sane person would — seek out the solace of friends and family, and perhaps professional help — he can’t let go.

He hovers outside Madson’s apartment, watching in anger and envy as the architect brings another man home. Later, in Trail’s apartment, he rummages through the closet and takes out Trail’s dress uniform, enraging him. “I don’t know you,” Trail shouts. “I don’t know what you stand for. I don’t know who you are. You’re a liar. You have no honor.” Confronted by the truth, Cunanan tears into Trail, calling him “a washed-up queer” reduced to “bitching about how you could have been someone.”

He continues: “When I found you that night at the bar, I was there for you, I saved you.”

Trail replies: “You destroyed me. I wished I’d never walked into that bar. I wish I’d never met you.”

We have yet to learn how their relationship soured, or what made Cunanan turn from cruelty to bloodthirst. But at this point, his character is so deranged, vile and incorrigible that I’m not sure I care to know.

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 5: Dignity and Respect

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ star Finn Wittrock on his heartbreaking role as Cunanan victim Jeff Trail

Finn Wittrock is well-known to fans of Ryan Murphy’s work from his performances HBO’s The Normal Heart and three seasons of American Horror Story, most notably his role as Dandy Mott in Freak Show.

But he’s never been as heartbreaking as he is on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Wittrock plays the first victim (and former friend) to Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Trail was also in the Navy during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era and was one of the first people to speak out about life as a closeted gay man in the military.

EW talked to Wittrock about the role and whether he’ll return to the world of AHS anytime soon.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you want to play this part?
FINN WITTROCK: Well it was sorta kinda a story that kept opening up for me, I would say. At first I was intrigued by the way Ryan was telling the story and the way Tom Rob Smith structured the narrative. I didn’t know much about Cunanan and his downward spiral.

But then I just really became enamored with Jeff and the kind of guy he was and what kind of upstanding American and true Patriot he was. He loved his country and loved being in the military and just had this secret — he knew who he was and was trying to make himself at peace with that and find some self but also it wasn’t compatible with the life he was living at that time. I was just really, really intrigued by that dichotomy of a guy who’s just really all-American, does everything right but the fact that he was gay he couldn’t ever really overcome that because he was stuck living two lives. And how amazing and sad that it was not that long ago? It’s not like we were talking about the ‘50s — it was like 1996.

The final relevant thing for me was it was right around when Trump did the transgender people in the military ban. When I was reading it at first, I was like, “Well this is a good story but it’s a little dated.” Then, that happened I was like, “F—! This is not dated at all. It’s more relevant than ever.”

Did you reach out to Jeff’s family? Or what kind of research did you do?
I didn’t. I felt weird about that. We had some really good Navy help on set in terms of getting the technicalities right. And then there is that real interview he did. It really does exist. His face is in shadow but it’s like a 20-minute interview about him coming out amidst Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Often as an actor, you have one thing as your anchor. That was it for me. I kept that video on me at all times. It’s an amazing introspection and a really brave thing for him to do at that time. Then, we had Maureen Orth’s book.

What was it like shooting this because you start with your murder and it goes backwards? It must have been challenging as an actor.
Yeah, and the nature of the shoot was already out of sequence because of the schedule. We were shooting different episodes one day to the next so I sometimes lost track of sometimes which episode I was actually in.

What I did when I first got the script was, I just tore them apart and put them in chronological order. I had to kind of do that because the structure is really fascinating to read but as an actor I had to kind of re-adjust my internal compass. The nature of his and Andrew’s relationship erodes over a few years so to really kind of be specific and map that was a challenge and was a kind of on-going conversation, like, Where are we right now? What’s happened?

I spoke to Edgar Ramirez about this, but is it more emotional to shoot a death scene when it’s a real person?
It can be haunting. I find you tread more carefully, if that makes sense. It’s more precious. Like when we’re doing Horror Story, it can be really dark and torturous. But it’s also like we’re just letting our imaginations run rampant and just running loose. This you feel a little more obliged to take things carefully and watch your steps and realize the preciousness of the story you’re telling.

Did Jeff actually attempt to cut off his tattoo?
It’s a bit of dramatic interpretation. I know everything Rob wrote in that is from real accounts of guys who were gay in the military. It’s not all his necessarily but it’s based on factual stuff. There’s a lot actually we don’t know about Jeff.

What was it that drew Jeff to Andrew in your opinion? Was it that he was so open and charismatic?
It is still a mystery. He seemed like such an upstanding guy who really believed in a moral right and standing up for what you believe in and all these admirable values. Then it’s like, How did you become involved with this guy who was so obviously a sociopath? But that’s the thing about them is, they know exactly what to do to make you trust them.

I think there was something in Andrew’s freedom and letting himself loose that really appealed to Jeff at that time. We’ve all maybe had friends who at certain times of your life came in and were just what you needed and you had a great, fun time. Then, you kind of grow out of that and you kind of move on and they don’t but the level of the friendship is so strong that you can’t just disown them so you’re caught with this person sort of hanging on you. I think that was part of the downfall — Andrew did not like getting shaken off.

How was that final fight between Jeff and Andrew to shoot? How was it working with Darren?
I remember that being a hefty day. It was a lot of dialogue and a lot of heated stuff. We kind of played with the temperature of how much is it an all-out battle. He’s a very easy partner to dance with. He likes to explore it and try different ways and try one way hotter and one way colder. It was a fun conversation in that way. It’s really interesting to watch him work. He was kind of playful on set and I know from playing some f—ed up people it can be a survival mechanism to kind of stay light when you’re not in it because otherwise it can kind of eat you.

What do you want people to take away from Jeff’s story?
It’s sort of a warning about what happens when you don’t share your real self with the people you love. It’s also a warning about our society not letting people be who they are and the dark road that can lead people down.

Is there any chance you can return to American Horror Story?
I don’t know. I would love to. I am committed to staying in the Ryan Murphy universe as long as he will have me.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ star Finn Wittrock on his heartbreaking role as Cunanan victim Jeff Trail