How Darren Criss Transformed Into Versace’s Charismatic Killer

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The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story hopes to illustrate how homophobia led to the loss of one of the greatest creative minds of a generation.

On one side of that coin is Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez), the household name that broke barriers with his ostentatious and bold view of fashion and his love for life and the world. On the other is Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), the charismatic murderer who seduced and murdered four other people before fatally shooting Versace in the face.

It’s a career redefining role for Darren Criss, who first entered the pop culture zeitgeist far on the other side from Cunanan as Blaine Anderson on Glee. His tenure on the musical high school show had Tumblr dub him as America’s boyfriend. Fans who remember him as the sweet-hearted, tender Blaine — and those who dismissed him because of it — will be shocked as they tune into Versaceto see Criss play smarmy, manipulative and deeply disturbed. The young actor deftly makes you feel for and deeply fear Cunanan at the same time.

Episode 2 revealed how the series plans to pedals backward through Cunanan’s killer spree to show the evolution of a murderer in a new way. While Versace holds title prominence, it is Criss’ performance as Cunanan that the series hinges on for the rest of the run. TV Guide talked to Criss about sinking his teeth into the role, the weight of knowing Cunanan’s victims’ families are watching and why Glee co-creator and American Crime Story overlord Ryan Murphy handpicked him to play the game-changing part.

You’re a little bit too good, if you know what I mean, at playing a serial killer.

Darren Criss: Well, I am not thinking of it in terms of playing a serial killer. That’s not how I would wake up going to work. So when people say that, it’s odd to me because I forget that’s something he did.

How did you think of it then?

Criss: I thought of an excitable, ambitious, hungry, young man whose obsessions got the better of him and other people. And he had very basic desires that were pushed to huge extremes. So I would try to not focus on the things we do know and focus more on the things that we didn’t get to see and the things that one could like Andrew for, which made those horrible things much harder to ingest because you are coming from a point of entry that’s much more palatable, ideally.

Why The Assassination of Gianni VersaceWill Be Ryan Murphy’s Masterpiece

Do you want people to sympathize with him, or is that dangerous?

Criss: No. No, no, no, no, no. We have to. First of all, I can say this because I am very cognizant of somebody reading this or hearing this or seeing something. Every day, I walked into work with the weight of the family and friends of his victims, who are very much alive, who are very much around, who are very much, I’m sure, familiar of the TV zeitgeist that this show will be and how difficult this will be for them to have something they’ve tried to make some kind of peace with over 20 years and all of a sudden it’s water cooler talk.

That really weighs heavy on me, so I say that as a prologue to, as an actor, it is my job to sympathize with Andrew. I’m in the business of empathy. That is my livelihood. That is what I do for my living and for my livelihood. It’s so hard to do that with somebody like Andrew, but it’s necessary, not only for me but… I’m not asking people to sympathize with him. I challenge them to see what happens when they put aside the worst things that a human being can do and not think about, I guess, the end horrible products and seeing where they came from and really questioning at what point could this have been you or could’ve been any of us, as hard as that is to grasp.

And it is in that journey that we can really start exploring larger issues about obsession and about things that come from good places that can turn into dark endings. That’s what I’m hoping happens. It’s not as simple as asking people to just sympathize with somebody. It’s more about questioning themselves and seeing how much they can find in common with a conventional monster.

Did Ryan Murphy tell you why he thought that you would be the best person for this?

Criss: No…I mean, look, I’m half Filipino, in the same age range as Andrew, and I’m very lucky to be in Ryan Murphy’s camp. So part of me jokingly was like, “Ryan, while I know there’s plenty of wonderful half-Filipino actors out there, as far as finding another person that kind of looks like him, is in the same age range, and is in your Rolodex of actors, I defy you to find somebody else, man.” I would say that jokingly as almost like holding him hostage. Like, “If you want to do this, let’s do this together.”

So while I’m sure there are a lot of other people that could’ve done this, I think he stuck with me because I was probably the one closest to his world that was not only game but kind of fit the bill. I also think that if they didn’t get a half-Filipino actor to do this, I think the Filipino community would’ve cried bloody murder, and rightly so. So here we are.

How much research did you do for it beyond the book the series is based on? Or did you kind of want to stay within the script?

Criss: I’m glad you asked that. There’s only so much research one can do for somebody like Andrew because he was a hundred different people to a thousand different people, so even the people that I have talked to who have approached me, that knew Andrew in different capacities, even different stages of his life, knew him at different moments, so there’s only so much you can glean from that.

There’s a couple of different Andrews that exist to me. There’s the one that walked and talked and navigated this earth. That person I will never get to know. There is the person that I can glean from Maureen’s book, which is, again, a thousand different Andrews. And then there is the person in the script that is written by Tom Rob Smith and the world that Ryan Murphy has curated. That’s the one I have to service. We take some liberties with characters. I don’t think for any storytelling flourish but for necessary thematic connective tissue. So that was the one that I ultimately wanted to service.

There’s only so much research I could do, which is nice because it’s a nice way to be like, “I don’t have to do any research.” But that’s not the case. I think you just have to make yourself available to all emotions at all times, and then just go into work every day playing each individual scene and hoping they stitch together as a whole.

I think as far as getting into Andrew’s head is concerned, there’s a lot of things that I found in common with him, and I think there’s more things that we all have in common with somebody like Andrew than we like to admit. And so just holding onto those common denominators are not only important but easy and a good way to stay on his, dare I say, side, as horrible as that sounds.

What was the shooting order for this series? Did you guys largely go in episode order? Because I know you went and shot at the actual house.

Criss: It was all over the place. It was like shooting a nine-hour movie. We shot everything all over the place. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to track the timing of stuff.

Even the order of the series is kind of weird because we’re going backwards through his evolution as a serial killer. So for you, how did you track of like, “Okay, it’s this day, and I am at this place in his psyche”?

Criss: Oh, yeah. I enjoy that chronological Tetris. I sort of have this masochistic joy of piecing those things together. Maybe it’s my weird OCD thinking. So it wasn’t hard for me. I enjoyed that challenge. I don’t know what the question is. I think I’m just agreeing with you that, yeah, it’s hard, but you do have to sort of map out where everything is. And you have to be very delicate with it because you can’t go to a 10 when you know in sequence you haven’t earned it yet. Or conversely, let’s say you’re at Chapter 2, and you dial it to an 11, but now you’ve blown your wad on where you get to in Chapter 12.

Emotionally mapping things is really, really fun for me, so it didn’t get confusing. It’s like a fun game for me as an actor, and I enjoy that process a lot. But yes, to your point, yes, I did do that. And that’s a very important thing to do because we went a lot through time. And I still haven’t seen the series, so I have no idea how it ends up playing out.

The series is going backwards through the murders, which is sort of a weird trip for the audience to go through.

Criss: What I realized we were doing while we were shooting was that we’re setting up — because you’re going backwards — you’re starting with the worst parts of Andrew. So it’s really weird to go back and then see the best parts of Andrew, and then really kind of question how they’re connected, but you see how they’re connected at the same time. And it feels bizarre.

The tension of this is built on his obsession with Versace and that connection that he feels to the designer, but you and Edgar don’t share a lot of time on screen together. Did you and Edgar keep that distance off set as well? What were those conversations like about forming Andrew and Gianni’s relationship?

Criss: I didn’t observe that distance because we were already apart most of the time anyway. But I think we are both excited to see the show for many reasons, but one, because we didn’t get to experience each other’s experience of the show. I haven’t seen all the stuff with the Versace family. He hasn’t seen any of the Andrew stuff. He wasn’t there. I wasn’t there. So it was like we were shooting two completely separate movies. One existed in this very glamorous, beautiful, lush world of ‘80s and ‘90s excess, and the other one exists in this very dreary, sad world.

For that reason, I think we’re both excited to see what it looks like and how they juxtapose against each other because with the show, what we’ve heard, what we’re going for was kind of dichotomizing these two men’s lives and trying to parallel them or juxtapose them in whatever way they naturally do.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story continues Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.

‘Versace’ Recap: Gianni Learns Difficult News & Andrew Stays Under The Radar

The second episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story starts out in Miami in March 1994. Gianni Versace keeps a low profile as he goes to the hospital for blood work. He catches a glimpse of two gaunt men in their side-by-side hospital beds. The show implies that Gianni finds out he’s HIV-positive. (The Versace family vehemently denies this.) Despite the diagnosis, Gianni is certain he will get better. Donatella is devastated over the news. “What is Versace without you?” she asks her brother, who replies, “It will be you.” She continues, “Who am I without you?” He says, “You’ll find out.” Donatella is equal parts angry and sad over the diagnosis. She blames Antonio for allowing Gianni to participate in wild activities. She thinks that Antonio has given Gianni nothing — no marriage, no kids, nothing. But Donatella doesn’t see everything. She doesn’t see Antonio comforting Gianni or taking care of him. Gianni senses the tension between Antonio and Donatella. He begs them to get along so they can all be a family.

Cut to three years later and one day after Gianni’s death. Donatella tells Antonio that “there is no need for us to pretend anymore.” Donatella goes to see Gianni’s body and dresses him in a custom Versace suit. The stoic Donatella finally breaks down in tears over the loss of her beloved brother. She cremates Gianni and takes his ashes back to Italy.

Three months before Gianni’s death, Andrew Cunanan is on the run. He heads to Miami after killing four innocent people. He shows no remorse for the crimes he’s committed. Andrew drives to the Normandy Plaza and asks for a room. Right off the bat, he name-drops Versace and schmoozes the concierge. He stays under the radar, but not completely out of sight. During his first night in Miami, he walks right up to Versace’s villa. The gates are locked, of course. He buys a camera and takes photos of Versace’s house to have for himself.

The police are looking for him, and there are boxes of wanted posters just waiting to be distributed, but they’re not a priority. Detective Lori Wieder thinks otherwise. Agent Evans is convinced that Andrew is headed to Ft. Lauderdale, but he’s right there in South Beach.

Andrew meets a man named Ronnie (Max Greenfield) and asks where he can get some drugs. Ronnie reveals he has AIDS and explains how he made his way to Miami. He asks Andrew if he’s sick, and Andrew quickly gives him a definitive no. Andrew admits that he lost both his best friend and lover in the past year, but doesn’t say anything about being the one to kill them. Ronnie also asks why Andrew’s in Miami. “I know people,” Andrew says. “Versace.” Andrew tells yet another wild story and claims Versace proposed to him, but it “didn’t work out.” When Ronnie says he doesn’t like Gianni’s clothes, Andrew is offended. Andrew calls Gianni a “great creator” and the type of “man I could have been.”

In addition to the murderous side of Andrew, he’s also got a sadomasochistic side. He wants to live out these crazy sexual fantasies that involve duct tape. A lot of duct tape. He picks up an elderly man on the Miami beach and goes back to the man’s hotel room. He loves when his sexual partner is helpless and suffering. Andrew duct tapes the man’s face and nearly suffocates him. The man calls 911 but doesn’t say anything when the responder answers. Another missed opportunity. (Can we also talk about Darren Criss in that pink underwear? Whoa.)

Just a few days before Gianni’s death, there was a fashion show. Donatella thinks Gianni is stuck in the past. His only concerns are fashion and the art of fashion. Donatella considers the politics and image. Donatella and Gianni engage in sibling rivalry at the fashion show, with Gianni coming out on top. Gianni believes this is his second chance. His health is improving, his designs have never been better, and Antonio wants to marry him. He has it all. Meanwhile, Andrew has nothing. “I’ve done nothing my whole life,” Andrew says. He envies Gianni’s life. He wants Gianni’s fame and fortune, but he doesn’t want to work for it. Ronnie knows something is up with Andrew but is too scared to ask.

Andrew trades in an expensive gold coin at a pawn shop for quick cash. When the pawn shop worker looks at the list of wanted posters, Andrew’s isn’t there. Another missed opportunity. He stops for food and the cashier recognizes him from America’s Most Wanted and calls 911. Andrew is gone by the time the police arrive.

Gianni and Antonio decide to go out to a club nearby. Andrew, realizing Gianni’s not home, goes to the same club. Gianni and Antonio leave soon after arriving, realizing they’re done with their wild phase. It’s time to settle down. On the dance floor, Andrew tells a stranger that he’s a “serial killer.” If only the stranger knew that Andrew is being serious…

‘Versace’ Recap: Gianni Learns Difficult News & Andrew Stays Under The Radar

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Review: Episodes 1 and 2

FX’s American Crime Story is back with an all new season, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which takes on yet another 1990s-based murder. Unlike the sprawling focus of The People vs. O.J. Simpson, however, The Assassination of Gianni Versace focuses in on one individual, and explores the path of destruction he created with his actions. Our first The Assassination of Gianni Versace review looks at the first two episodes of the season: “The Man Who Would Be Vogue” and “Manhunt.”

Within the first few minutes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, it becomes clear this is a different beast than the first season. Besides the obvious difference in subject matter, The Assassination of Gianni Versace operates on a completely different wavelength than People vs, O.J., and its different tone and atmosphere are immediately apparent.

Where as People vs. O.J. was bathed in shadow, even during the day with the California smog making full-blown sunshine impossible, Versace is sun-dappled, opening on the pink-hued, picturesque locals of Miami Beach. If you had been expecting Versace to work its way up to its titular slaying, the first episode of the season, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue,” will catch you completely off guard: the murder of the fashion mogul happens in the beginning of the show.

There’s a slight build-up: director Ryan Murphy gives us a study in contrasts. We watch as the wealthy Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez) rises in his breezy, gorgeous mansion and begins his relaxing, pampered day, all while the sweaty, nervous Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) stalks around the beach, living out of a backpack. Cunanan staggers into the crystal clear water and shrieks, half-laughing, half in agony. And then he sets about his foul deed.

Who are these people? Versace doesn’t really introduce them, but in these first few minutes we know exactly who they are. We know Versace is a man who has it all: huge house, lots of money, a steady romantic partner – Antonio D’Amico, played by Ricky Martin – and a lust for life; and we know Cunanan is a man who has literally nothing. And yet that man with nothing is able to quite casually take everything Versace has away with few shots from a handgun.

Just as The People vs. O.J. was not really about O.J. Simpson, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is not really about Gianni Versace. Instead, it uses Versace’s death as a starting point to track the life and crimes of Andrew Cunanan, a con artist and serial killer who was able to evade capture for so long due to indifference. Cunanan was a gay man preying on other gay men – crimes that law enforcement weren’t necessarily chomping at the bit to solve in the 1990s. Homosexuality, and society’s reaction to its culture, is the overarching narrative hook of Versace, as racism was for People vs. O.J.

As episode one unfolds, you get the sense that Ryan Murphy and company are trying to ease the audience into what this new season is going to be while hitting beats familiar to the first season. After Versace is gunned down, the narrative begins jumping around, showing a clearly out-of-its-depth police force already beginning to bungle this huge murder case, as well as ghoulish souvenir hunters willing to break through the police tape to dab a torn-out Versace magazine ad in a pool of the slain fashion designers blood. Penélope Cruz’s Donatella Versace enters the picture, and proceeds to steal the show. Cruz nails the real Donatella’s voice, but also makes the character her own – a brooding-yet-imposing figure trying to figure out how to keep the Versace name (and brand) alive now that her brother is dead. Flashbacks also begin – and these are what you need to start paying attention to. Because as episode two makes clear, the whole show is going to consist of flashbacks.

The Man Who Would Be Vogue presents a scene that the Versace family insists never happened: a moment where Cunanan meets and charms his way into Versace’s life years before the murder. Whether or not this event actually happened is irrelevant – this scene exists to start revealing to us who Cunanan is: a charming, manipulative psychopath, able to sweet-talk his way into seemingly anyone’s life.

Here is The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s biggest strength and weakness. Darren Criss’ performance is remarkable – the type of committed, engrossing work that gets labeled as “career defining” and wins awards. Yet it’s nearly impossible to empathize with Cunanan. One of the People vs. O.J.’s greatest strengths was finding a way to make nearly every character (save possibly Simpson himself) relatable. Even blow-hard lawyer Johnnie Cochran was given a sympathetic, or at least empathetic, backstory. As Versace moves forward, or rather, backward (more on that below), Cunanan becomes worse – a cruel, unfeeling creature who kills with impunity.

Episode 2, “Manhunt,” is the first episode that truly reveals the narrative format the show will be taking. Like Christopher Nolan’s Memento or Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible, Versace is a story told in reverse. Every episode jumps back to events that occurred just before the previous episode. So while “The Man Who Would Be Vogue” has Cunanan already in Miami Beach, about to murder Versace, “Manhunt” presents us with his arrival – blowing into town in a red pickup truck, blasting and singing along to Laura Branigan’s “Gloria.” This brief, amusing moment is perhaps the most likable Cunanan will ever seem in the series. Once he arrives in Miami Beach, however, he instantly begins working the angles, needlessly lying about his past to a hotel manager as he takes up residence in her run-down, pastel-colored hotel by the sea.

One in Miami Beach, Cunanan befriends a local named Ronnie (Max Greenfield), but it’s not entirely clear what, if anything, Cunanan wants out of the friendship, other than perhaps someone to spend time with as he waits to make his big move against Versace. Ronnie is HIV positive, although he never quite comes out and says that. He instead mentions being sick, and then asks Cunanan, “Are you sick?” The vagueness allows the question to linger – Cunanan is not HIV positive, but he has a different sickness somewhere inside him; a sickness robbing him of empathy, driving him to do his terrible deeds.

Sickness is what opens Manhunt as well. In a rather heartbreaking mini-movie taking place right before the title card, we get a whirlwind tour of events in Versace’s life. The fashion designer arrives at a hospital, incognito, and travels down a lonely wing where he sees two sick, dying men laying side by side in hospital beds. Versace is sick, and yet again, the show takes a vague approach to his illness. It’s heavily implied here that Versace has AIDS or is HIV positive, but the Versace family disputes this claim. According to them, the fashion designer had ear cancer. Tom Rob Smith, who wrote the script and helped develop the season, maintains he talked to off-the-record sources who confirmed Versace had HIV. Whether or not Versace did, this moment is intended to establish the fashion designer looking death in the face – and coming back from the brink.

Later in the episode, we see Versace talking about how he feels healthy and alive again, and how he wants his designs to reflect life. But here, in this opening, the focus shifts abruptly from Versace coming to terms with his illness, to Versace’s body being prepared in the morgue – the gaping bullet hole in his face being sealed up so he can be presentable in an open casket. Donatella later arrives, dresses the dead man in a fine suit, and then Versace is cremated. We see all of these minute yet devastating details, and the message is clear: this is what Andrew Cunanan did. With a few bullets, he reduced Versace to a literal pile of ashes – ashes that are soon placed in a gold, ornate box, and flown away on a private jet by Donatella.

“After all he went through, to die like this,” she mutters, her glassy gaze on the box. This is the sum total of an iconic life: dust. It’s haunting, and it’s necessary. Occasionally, Versace will dip into camp territory, but moments like this are essential to remind us that while Cunanan may occasionally seem darkly comedic, he also destroyed lives.

As for Cunanan, “Manhunt” begins to peel back the curtain on him as an individual. Again, Criss’ performance is stellar, full of bluster and confidence always masking panic and rage. In Criss’ hands, Cunanan is a cross between Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley and Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, image-obsessed and possessing the cunning ability to adapt and turn himself into whatever the situation calls for. “Manhunt” even gives him a very Bateman-esque moment, where he dances around a room to pop music as a victim struggles before him. This scene is shocking, starting off amusing and descending into high tension. Hoping to score money for drugs, Cunanan has picked-up an older, closeted man at the beach. They go back to the man’s posh hotel room, and Cunanan proceeds to wrap the man’s entire head in duct tape – taking away his humanity, removing any trace of personhood. The man struggles to breathe as Cunanan hovers over him, scissors clenched in a fist. Cunanan eventually stabs a hole around the man’s mouth so the man can breathe. Later, the act over, Cunanan leaves as if nothing happened at all. The man, clearly traumatized, slips on a wedding ring, picks up the phone, and dials 9-1-1. Yet when the operator asks him what his emergency is, the man whimpers, “Nothing,” and hangs up.

This is Cunanan’s ultimate power. By preying on closeted gay men, he knows his chances of being caught are slim to none – because law enforcement doesn’t care. We get a front row seat to this as FBI agents show up and meet with local cops. The FBI is pretty sure Cunanan is coming to, or already in, Florida. When a local cop suggests they hang Cunanan’s WANTED fliers in the gay section of town and start canvasing, the FBI seems utterly indifferent. “This isn’t our top priority,” they say. In other words: they couldn’t care less.

Versace isn’t shying away from the implications presented here: that if someone, somewhere, just gave a damn, Versace (and other people) would still be alive, and Andrew Cunanan would’ve been stopped a lot sooner.

As for Cunanan, he closes out “Manhunt” by letting his mask of sanity slip. While stalking (and failing to find) Versace at a gay nightclub, Cunanan encounters another man. “What do you do?” the man asks. “I’m a serial killer,” Cunanan yells into his ear over the pounding music. When the other man at the club asks him to repeat that, Cunanan launches into a laundry list of jobs: “I’m a banker, I’m a stockbroker, I built movie sets, I…” – here are all Cunanan’s various fake identities coming out in one arterial gush. He senses the end is near. Earlier, Ronnie told him that he personally moved to Miami Beach because he once heard that people who don’t have much time left to live often decide to live by the water. Cunanan has gotten so far on his wits, and lies, but here, in this moment at the club, you sense that he knows he can’t keep this up much longer. You sense that Ronnie’s earlier question is echoing in his head.

“Are you sick?”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Review: Episodes 1 and 2

American Crime Story Review: Always on the Run Now

Rating: 8.9

In “Manhunt,” an opening flashback takes us into the 1990s, where Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) is diagnosed with a severe illness. They don’t dwell on the diagnosis, but it’s strongly hinted that Versace had HIV (his family has denied this, and “cancer of the ear” is called out in his Wikipedia entry). Considering ear cancer isn’t contagious, or particularly linked to one’s sexual proclivities, it’s interesting that, following the diagnosis, there’s a showdown between Antonio (Ricky Martin) and Donatella (Penelope Cruz), who seems to blame Antonio, and the couple’s apparently polyamorous lifestyle, for the situation. Gianni begs them to “be a family” as he attempts to regain his health.

We then return to the present (meaning 1997), where Antonio and Donatella are still locking horns as Versace is presented in an open casket and cremated.

We pull back a couple of months, in what we can assume will be a backward-spooling breadcrumb trail of the moments that led Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) to murder Versace. We see him stealing a license plate in a South Carolina Walmart parking lot and tearing down the highway, where a radio station he flips past mentions his own name in connection with the murder of Lee Miglin in Chicago. He blithely changes stations, singing exuberantly along with Laura Branigan’s “Gloria.” (“Gloria, you’re always on the run now / Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow.”) He arrives in Miami, has an incredibly creepy conversation with the woman at the desk of a sleazy motel (“I’m a fashion student,” he gushes, “and I think Mr. Versace will find my conversation quite wonderful”). He bags a room and unpacks his gun. We see him try the locked gates of Versace’s palazzo on the waterfront. He buys a disposable camera and starts photographing the mansion, seemingly very focused on the gorgon detail on the gate. Back in his hotel, he studies the pictures.

The FBI shows up and the agents act really cagey with the South Beach police, refusing to clarify why they think Cunanan would be in Miami and oddly reluctant to accept help scouring the gay bars, clubs and beaches of the area.

Cunanan immediately hoovers up a buddy who knows where to score. Ronnie (Max Greenfield) is openly HIV positive, so Cunanan makes up a story about all the people he helped working at an AIDS initiative in San Diego. Then, he tops it off with the story of the time Gianni Versace proposed to him over dinner at Stars (a perfect detail, as anyone who was in the Bay Area in the 1990s can attest, right down to the fact that in his haughty description Cunanan slightly mispronounces the name of celebrity chef Jeremiah Tower). He picks up an older man on the beach and… teaches him a very difficult-to-watch lesson in submissiveness. The traumatized man calls 911, then hangs up.

We cut to a fashion show. Gianni complains that the models “look ill.” Donatella shows up, clears the room, and tries to convince him that he’s in danger of being a has-been. He stands his ground; the show’s a success and even his kind of insufferable sister has to concede that his standing up for his own style wasn’t wrong.

Cunanan and Ronnie get high in the hotel room. Ronnie tries to talk “Andy” into opening a florist’s kiosk while Cunanan wraps his face in duct tape, as he had done to the older man.

Antonio tries to talk Gianni into joining a threesome. Gianni sketches instead, pausing to watch them with an inscrutable expression. Later, Antonio says he “doesn’t want that anymore” and says he wants to marry Gianni.

In need of cash, Cunanan stops in at the pawnshop we saw in the season premiere and sells a gold coin. The shopkeeper (Cathy Moriarty) is immediately suspicious and looks at a wall of FBI Wanted flyers. (Gee, too bad the agents didn’t have any particular enthusiasm for distributing his picture.) After watching a fake Donatella trying to get into the house (“No, baby, I’m sorry,” Gianni calls from the balcony, “I can only handle one Donatella”), Cunanan rushes back to the hotel, gets his gun, tears down his serial-killer-standard wall mural of Versace pictures, and leaves Ronnie.

But Versace has left. He and Antonio go to a crowded club, Antonio repeats his marriage proposal. They leave just as Cunanan walks in. “What do you do?” a young man asks him.

“I’m a serial killer.”

American Crime Story Review: Always on the Run Now

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Episode 2 Recap: Andrew Cunanan and the Pink Speedo

After sharing the limelight with the Versaces in the premiere of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss’ Andrew Cunanan took over the spotlight in Wednesday night’s second installment. The first episode showed us how the actual murder happened; this one was a step away from that action, and a beginning of the character study of Cunanan that this series really is.

It’s also the introduction of that infamous pink Speedo Criss was spotted wearing on set. Suffice it to say both episode and Speedo do not disappoint.

There’s another big moment near the end of the episode to focus on, but let’s first turn our attention to that Speedo. It comes out as Cunanan walks Miami Beach — where he’s fled to hide after a series of murders across the country. The police manhunt, as we see in parts of this episode, is hugely ineffective. Homophobia runs rampant in the police department; this is the ‘90s, and no one wants to put flyers up in the gayborhood.

As a result, Cunanan is able to hide in plain sight at a motel. He meets Ronnie, a squirrelly guy played by New Girl’s Max Greenfield, who nonetheless is earnest to a fault. Ronnie shares his tale of accepting that he was going to die, only to be flummoxed when he lived. “They handed me my life back, and I didn’t know what to do with it,” he says, voice trembling slightly.

Cunanan’s response is to lament the deaths of his best friend and soulmate — people, we know, he actually killed. When Ronnie questions if they both died that year, Cunanan is ever so slightly defiant in his affirmative response. Trusting as Ronnie is, there’s a hint of skepticism in his eyes.

As depicted by Criss, Cunanan is a performer, a chameleon. His life is whatever he needs it to be in the moment. But he’s not quite convincing enough. There’s always a seed of doubt there. He has to supplement his decent-but-insufficient storytelling skill with charm and sex appeal — hence the Speedo reveal.

Cunanan strips down to his bright, pink swimwear to take a shower on the beach, all while bragging about his connection with Gianni Versace. He goes so far as to invent a proposal from the legendary fashion designer, which Cunanan says “didn’t work out.” His story is clearly bullshit, even to someone as trusting as Ronnie. But when he’s fit, cute, and wearing not much clothing, it’s easy to be charmed by Andrew Cunanan.

Throughout the series, we’ll see men with sharp minds being won over by Cunanan, either sexually or merely to succumb to his will. In this scene, we see exactly how hypnotizing Cunanan can be when he properly mixes his tall tales with his impressive physique. With historical hindsight, we can question why anyone ever trusted Cunanan. We can see how flimsy his stories were. But devils don’t lead with their horns; they appear in forms most tempting. His darkness is seductive, shrouded in grand stories of brushes with fame and fortune. The greatest danger of a man like Andrew Cunanan is in how charismatic he can be.

It’s little wonder Cunanan successfully lures a wealthy, married, older man back to his hotel room, only to duct-tape his face and leave him gasping for air. By the time Cunanan has used his john for a free meal and drink, the man is simply relieved to have survived.

Cunanan eventually leaves the motel and Ronnie, almost running into Gianni Versace himself at a club. He misses the designer, however, and instead ends up dancing with a random guy on the dance floor — yet another man entranced by Cunanan’s looks. This time, though, as the guy asks what Cunanan does, the killer’s chameleon colors fail him.

“I’m a serial killer,” he confesses. The guy questions him, confused. “I said I’m a banker!” Cunanan says. And then he breaks.

“I’m a stockbroker, I’m a shareholder,” he begins. “I’m a paperback writer. I’m a cop. I’m a naval officer. Sometimes, I’m a spy. I build movie sets in Mexico and skyscrapers in Chicago. I sell propane in Minneapolis, import pineapples from the Philippines. I’m the person least likely to forgotten. I’m Andrew Cunanan.”

Without his grand stories, the true Cunanan is laid bare: He’s a kid desperate to be remembered, to be interesting. History has remembered him, of course — not as a banker, or a stockbroker, a shareholder, or any of his other many disguises. In his desperation to be famous, he became infamous.

But it was well into his spree of killings that Cunanan got to the end of his rope. Next week, we’ll learn what drove him to murder Lee Miglin — and the effect it had on his wife, Marilyn Miglin (played by Judith Light). That episode, like this one, and all the others, is just another piece of one complicated puzzle: How did Andrew Cunanan become Andrew Cunanan?

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Episode 2 Recap: Andrew Cunanan and the Pink Speedo

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 2 Recap: Penelope Cruz is MVP

Not one to pass up a good sense of wordplay, the second episode of FX’s Versace series is titled “Manhunt.” On the surface (and boy is this show delighted and seduced by glitzy, glistening surfaces!) this refers to the FBI’s literal manhunt for Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). One of America’s Most Wanted killers— even before he shot the Italian designer—Cunanan narrowly avoided being caught by the FBI in the days leading up to the infamous assassination that guaranteed we’d all know his name. But, as the show is focused on the way gay men nurture different kinds of intimacies with one another, the literal meaning of a man hunt is always there in the edges of every scene.

The FBI describes Cunanan as a predatory escort: every interaction he has simmers with a kind of inauthentic authenticity. He’s always calculating how well his lies are landing and how successful he’s being at passing himself off as whoever the person in front of him would like him to be. Since we get to see him alone, where he rehearses his lines in front of the mirror and indulges in off-kilter behavior (like, you know, covering his eyes and nose with duct tape before telling his newfound Miami friend that he’s going to take a shower now), we know there’s something off about him. But he’s charming to a fault, which is why he’s able to lure an older man to hire him and allow him to toy with autoerotic asphyxiation while Cunanan dances around to Philip Bailey and Phil Collins’ “Easy Lover.”

And if the episode is clearly most interested in Cunanan’s ability to seduce any and everyone around him, “Manhunt” also shows us the intimacy that bonded Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) and Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin). Despite what Gianni’s sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz) would have wanted, the two had found a way to live their lives in contradiction to what’s expected of a couple. No talk of kids or marriage or stability, things presumably Gianni wanted at one point. Instead, they had lots of fun, and often enjoyed inviting others into their bedroom. A point of contention between the two Versace siblings, the episode nevertheless suggests that days before the designer was killed, his beloved Antonio had finally decided to settle down:

“I don’t want this anymore,” he tells Gianni as they lounge by the pool. “I want you. I want to marry you.”

The response he gets is heartbreaking: “You can say it in the morning. But can you say it in the evening?” The hunt, both men know, calls out to Antonio once the sun goes down and he may not be able to let that go as easily as he’d like, even if it is what his lover would ultimately so want.

This Week’s MVP:

Given she’s a graduate of the Almodóvar school of melodrama acting, it shouldn’t be surprising that Cruz is nailing her role as Gianni’s caring if abrasive sister. Here is the kind of larger-than-life woman whose mood swings, paired with her raspy voice and striking blonde hair, would easily make her a punchline (see, for example, Maya Rudolph’s hilarious take on Donatella on SNL). But the Spanish actress plays her like a livewire always on the verge of lashing out (out of grief, out of anger, out of jealousy); what gives her strength is also what threatens to undo her.

Seeing her go head to head against Gianni (days before he’s killed, over disagreements about their runway show) and Antonio (years before, when the free-wheeling promiscuous lifestyle he and Gianni were leading finally took a toll on the designer’s health) was just divine. We expect to see that moment when she yells “You’ve given him NOTHING!” at Antonio to become a go-to reaction gif. But she’s just as good in the quieter moments, like when she seethes silently at seeing her brother’s latest collection be a success despite her reservations about it, or later still when she all but loses it as his remains are cremated, her face a frozen mask of grief.

Update on Ricky’s speedo: it made the briefest of appearances. More importantly, we also got treated to a full-blown sex scene in the Versace bedroom (including a third!) where Martin wore nothing but a black pair of briefs which he soon got rid of.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 2 Recap: Penelope Cruz is MVP

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Episode 2 Review: Manhunt

There’s a creeping sense of foreboding that is built effectively throughout this slower-paced episode, only to be deflated time and again. The effect builds stress for the viewer, and shows us that for Andrew Cunanan, violence was not indiscriminate but rather one of many ways to pass the time, like lying on the beach.

The Cunanan parts of the episode feel like the writers telling us: we’re not there yet. This is not the main event. The law enforcement discussion of Andrew’s four murders before Gianni certainly suggests that we will see those killings early on, rewinding to show how Cunanan became the man who showed up on Versace’s doorstep with a gun. Here again, Darren Criss’s performance sells us on this steely-eyed “predatory escort,” and his clear-eyed malevolence is so immediately understood by the audience that it’s more shocking when he doesn’t murder someone, or even physically harm them at all.

In the premier, we were treated to an awful lot of Cunanan showing off his off-putting, yet somehow winning, chameleon-like qualities as he met people in different times, places, orientations, and socio-economic standings. But if the Andrew of Episode 1 is inscrutable, the one we get to know in Episode 2 is surprisingly candid. Even before he tells a cute guy in a club that he’s a serial killer, confessing his many fake personas, we see Ronny repeatedly pick up on his strangeness.

“Manhunt” also expands on Max Greenfield’s Ronnie, a lonely HIV+ gay man who Andrew connects with easily. Ronnie’s story is heartbreaking because while we see it across Greenfield’s perturbed face every time he catches something amiss, he seems to want companionship so much that he’s willing to overlook his intuition. I hope we’ll be seeing more of Greenfield’s effective performance in the future, as his presence in Cunanan’s hotel room during the police raid suggested in the premier.

On that point, we spent more time with our law enforcement officials this episode. It’s startling that they knew Cunanan’s full name after he killed Lee Miglin, his third (known) victim, although they neglect to mention a circumstance of his death that bears a striking similarity to the events of this episode. They even somehow knew that he would be in the general area. But their shortsighted approach to finding their suspect (who needs fliers, anyway!) and their fidelity to the victim profile of closeted men, caused them to miss what was right in front of them all along.

Another heartbreaking moment comes courtesy of Andrew’s victim-who-wasn’t. The man clearly picks up guys often enough (and feels badly enough about it) that he answers “yes” when asked if he’s done it two or three times. The look on his face when he calls 911 to report what has happened is devastating. His self-doubt, shame, and likely correct guess about how that call would be received keep him from reporting, and Cunanan continues on his predatory way. To be clear, it’s not the man’s fault that Cunanan remained free. This small but portentous moment at the phone is an excellent reminder of the #MeToo dynamics specific to the experience of men who experience sexual violence, as the encounter with Cunanan surely is. Any experience where there’s no safe word (or even the means to say one, or otherwise object) and one person nearly dies cannot be considered consensual any longer, even if it started that way. Even if he paid for it.

On the other hand, Versace’s story gave a moving look into Gianni’s life, focusing on his two soul mates: his sister and Antonio. It becomes even more clear that they have no great affection for one another, or at least Donatella doesn’t for Antonio. And she does not mince words. There’s already a hint of what will happen to their relationship after Gianni’s death, and it certainly doesn’t suggest that they will be family, as he urged.

The heartbreak of Gianni surviving HIV but being shot by a near-stranger doesn’t escape Donatella, but it’s a worthwhile reminder for a modern audience, particularly those to young to remember the days when the so-called Gay Plague was a death sentence. Here we also got one of our first real looks into Gianni’s life and creative process, and the way he thought of his life’s work. His wish for models who are not dainty but rather look like they eat, have sex, and live real lives is certainly pleasing to modern sensibilities, and is a reminder of the way he departed from his contemporaries. The shout-out to Carla Bruni (then a model, not yet a first lady), the rise of Galliano and McQueen are reminders that while Gianni is a legend, he still had to fight for it, the empire he created from nothing.

In the premier, it comes across that Gianni is at least a happy participant in he and Antonio’s open sex life, although of course that comes from Antonio. This deeper look into their loving partnership shows that perhaps Gianni tired of that life before Antonio, and perhaps was never as interested to begin with. It’s sweet to see Antonio commit to a life together “in the evening,” not just in the morning, but the knowledge that they will lose each other (and a little real-world knowledge about how all of this turns out for Antonio) turns the moment into a wince.

So far, almost every character who we’ve seen spend any real amount of time with Cunanan has figured out some aspect of his act, though I doubt most of them would suspect what he was truly capable of. The john who Cunanan almost suffocated, his college friend, the high school friend and her boyfriend, and poor Ronny have all noticed. In Murphy’s eyes, Cunanan is a compulsive liar and shapeshifter, though not the most diligent one. He can be convincing for a few minutes, but he quickly loses track of his lies, or otherwise doesn’t care to keep them straight. He even signs his full name and hotel address when he pawns a gold coin, and the pawn shop owner checks the board for where that flyer should be. All of this reinforces the larger point of Versace’s narrative: how did this guy get away with it?

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Episode 2 Review: Manhunt

‘Versace’: Why Did the Manhunt for His Killer Last So Long?

[This story contains spoilers from the second episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.]

Andrew Cunanan killed himself a week after he murdered Gianni Versace on the steps of his own home, but the 27-year-old con artist had been on the run for much longer than that — and on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for more than a month before the fashion designer’s death. The second episode of FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story took a look at how, exactly, it was possible that a serial killer like Cunanan could have gone so long without getting caught.

According to creator Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith, institutionalized homophobia at the time was partially to blame. Vulgar Favors author Maureen Orth, who wrote the book on which the second season is based (and reported on the hunt for Cunanan for Vanity Fair), told The Hollywood Reporter that simple disorganization also played a role.

The second episode of the season, titled “Manhunt,” focused briefly on the various ways law enforcement bungled their hunt for Versace’s (Edgar Ramirez) killer, Cunanan (Darren Criss), despite the fact that he had killed four other people before arriving in Miami and eventually shooting the famed fashion designer on the front steps of his Miami Beach mansion. The disorganization and the disregard for Cunanan’s gay victims compounded the tragedy of Cunanan’s killings.

“There’s an enormous sense of injustice,” executive producer Nina Jacobson told THR. “Had the victims been straight, in all likelihood, he would have been caught much sooner, and Versace would never have died.”

Said Orth, “One of the biggest changes from today to that time is how gays are politically organized, because today they’re far more powerful politically than they were 20 years ago. In Miami beach, for example, they didn’t want to have anything to do with cops at all. This was a place for hedonism and pleasure, and so I think a lot of it had to do with incompetence, and then in some cases they just weren’t comfortable, they didn’t get it.”

Star Criss, who plays the killer, told THR that he thinks Cunanan was able to evade capture for so long because small instances of homophobia — “fear and misunderstanding on an institutional level within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, within local police force,” for example — were able to compound into a much larger issue.

“I think a big point of Maureen’s book was how the fuck did this happen? Even by the time he’d killed four men and was on the lam, before he killed Versace, he should have been caught. He was just living out in the open and a lot of that has to do with, I think, homophobia,” Criss said. “There’s just so much fear and misunderstanding that just let this slip through the cracks.”

While Orth is unfamiliar with FBI protocol in 2017, the author did note that after the failures in the Cunanan case came to light, procedures changed.

“To the FBI’s credit, after this happened and they realized how woefully inadequate their outreach was to the gay community, they did take steps to overcome that,” she said.

“Manhunt” centered on Cunanan’s brief friendship with an HIV-positive junkie named Ronnie, whom Orth said was a very real person — he just didn’t bear any resemblance to New Girl star Max Greenfield who portrayed him on Versace.

“They were in the same hotel,” she said. “They stayed on the same floor together. Ronnie was one of these down-and-out druggie guys and hustlers, and it was interesting because … the real Ronnie had long white hair, platinum white hair, and he’s tall and skinny. He doesn’t look anything like the Max Greenfield character, but he definitely was a real person.”

At the end of the episode, a pawn shop clerk called the FBI to tell them that Cunanan had been to her shop to sell a rare coin and used his real name, and she’d submitted the proper paperwork — they just hadn’t followed up despite the fact that he was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.

“Whomever was in charge of the paperwork had been called up, I think, to work on the Cunanan chase, and then they didn’t turn in the paperwork because it was a long weekend and the guy had an extra day off, or something,” Orth said. “Now, that has been computerized and changed, but the fact [is] that he gave his real name, and used his real passport. Andrew had a very high IQ and was very smart, and a lot of times I was told by some of these police profilers that these guys, they like to taunt police, they like to show how much smarter they are.”

‘Versace’: Why Did the Manhunt for His Killer Last So Long?

American Crime Story: Versace Recap: Sex, Lies and Duct Tape

Wednesday’s American Crime Story returned us to the summer of 1997 — La Bouche was topping the charts, body glitter was all the rage and a wide-eyed Andrew Cunanan was arriving in Miami Beach ready to make a name for himself.

And by “make a name,” I mean the bespectacled serial killer conjured yet another alias to secure a room at Miami’s Normandy Plaza, where he came upon a tragic soul named Ronnie (played by New Girl‘s Max Greenfield). I would say he befriended Ronnie, but that would imply Andrew was capable of forming a genuine connection with another human being — and I’d sooner believe that Will Chase grew out his own mustache for this show. (Side note: Anyone with behind-the-scenes intel on Chase’s ‘stache should feel free to drop a comment on the matter below.)

Money wasn’t an issue for the duo, as Andrew’s side business — which mostly involved seducing married men, wrapping their heads in duct tape, then eating room-service lobster — was simply flourishing. You know, if you look past all the lies and drugs and face-stabbing, these two actually had a nice little arrangement. And Ronnie really cared about Andrew; he even had aspirations of opening a flower kiosk together. It was very “Somewhere That’s Green.”

Sadly, Ronnie’s dream was not meant to be. After wrapping his own head in duct tape (there was a lot of that this week) and taking a long shower, Andrew walked out of Ronnie’s apartment — and his life — for good. Even worse, when Ronnie questioned if Andrew considered him a friend, Andrew chillingly replied, “When someone asks if we’re friends, you’ll say no.”

That line, of course, was a reference to the final scene of the pilot when the police knocked down Ronnie’s door looking for Andrew at his last known address. And speaking of the authorities, this episode really showed how little interest the police — and even the FBI — had in pursuing a string of gay-related crimes, even one as twisted as Andrew’s killing spree.

Wednesday’s episode also took us back to 1994, the year Versace was allegedly diagnosed with HIV. (Though Versace’s family denies his illness, Maureen Orth’s biography — upon which this season of American Crime Story is based — claims the fashion icon was HIV-positive at the time of his murder.)

And the fallout from the diagnosis brought out Donatella’s true feelings about Antonio, whom she blamed for her brother’s infection. “He wasn’t enough for you,” she said. “You wanted more. More fun, more men.” She also chastised him for not finding a way to give her brother a family, which she claimed Antonio knew he always wanted. “If you had given him anything, I would have given you respect,” she said. “But you gave him nothing.”

Versace later clashed with his sister, who expressed concerns about newer designers stealing attention — and business — away from the company. (He also argued that the Versace models were too skinny, but that’s a whole other fight.) Determined to prove her wrong, and to prove that he wasn’t going to let his recent diagnosis slow him down, he pulled off a crowd-pleasing runway surprise, temporarily zipping Donatella’s lips. (No small feat, as you can imagine.)

American Crime Story: Versace Recap: Sex, Lies and Duct Tape

Fact-checking The Assassination of Gianni Versace: Episode Two, ‘Manhunt’

The second season of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology series, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, explores the designer’s brutal 1997 murder at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Each week, we’re taking a close look at 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 the results of our digging into the veracity and potency of events and characterizations presented in episode two, “Manhunt.”

What They Got Right

The Normandy Plaza Hotel
Though Andrew Cunanan reportedly changed rooms more than once, ACS can be forgiven compressing time by jumping directly from his first accommodation to fateful room No. 322 with the ocean view. Otherwise, all the depressing details of his final lodging place check out, from the Mylanta-toned décor and decrepit hallways down to the lobby area’s Marilyn Monroe portrait and Cunanan’s affable rapport with manager Miriam Hernandez. The only minor discrepancies? The address shown on the building’s façade in “Manhunt” reads 7436, when the actual listing for Normandy Plaza was 6979 Collins Avenue. Also, all real-life documentation of Cunanan’s Kurt DeMars pseudonym spells on his passport with one “r,” not two.

The FBI fliers
As in episode one, “Manhunt” harps on the fact that FBI agents inexplicably failed to distribute fliers warning that Cunanan was on the loose in the greater Miami area, let alone within the gay community. In a flashback to the days before Gianni’s murder, G-men on hand even tell Miami PD that “fliers aren’t a priority for us right now.” Sadly, as the FBI file on Cunanan(see: page 158) illustrates, their position on that only changed in the hours after Versace had been brutally gunned down.

Donatella’s feud with Antonio
Last year, Antonio spoke publicly about Donatella’s supposed viciousness toward him, telling the Sun, “In public Donatella was crying on my shoulder and in private she was treating me like shit […] I felt she was doing everything she could to get rid of me from the business.” Donatella, for her part, told the New York Times in 1999 that, “My relationship with Antonio is exactly as it was when Gianni was alive. I respected him as the boyfriend of my brother, but I never liked him as a person, so the relationship stayed the same.” (Elton John, for whatever it’s worth, had Antonio’s back.) Their rift, underscored as it is in “Manhunt,” appears to be one of the few things all parties involved can agree upon.

The Versace family’s insecurities
Wall Street Journal writer Deborah Ball gained access to Donatella and brother Santo, among others, for her 2010 book, House of Versace. In it, she confirmed that there was a degree of jealousy and competition between the siblings, as “Manhunt” makes plain. Also, Gianni was definitely kept on his toes by then-upstarts like Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. However, if New York Times fashion critic Amy Spindler’s review of all three designers’ spring ’97 runway looks is any indication, Gianni was far from done as a pioneering designer.

What They Took Liberties With

The duct tape scene
It’s not entirely untrue that Cunanan wrapped an older, wealthy suitor’s head in tape and dined on his tab. But Cunanan’s real-life submissive was Lee Miglin, the Chicago businessman whom he killed roughly two months prior to murdering Versace. And he covered Miglin’s face with masking tape, not the duct variety, and left breathing holes in his nose, as opposed to puncturing an oral opening. Also, per at least one account, pruning shears were among his weapons of choice while brutally slaying his victims. And while the show’s portrayal of Andrew gorging on lobster and mic-dropping a champagne flute were dramatic flourishes, he capped off his far deadlier encounter with Miglin by making himself a ham sandwich.

The little girl in the parking lot
According to the voluminous FBI file on Cunanan, there’s little doubt he swapped out license plates on his stolen red pickup truck at a Walmart parking lot in Florence, South Carolina, around the second week of May. (See: page 49 of said file.) This is not to be confused with widespread reports of an anonymous tip that Cunanan had been spotted at a North Carolina Walmart after killing Versace. (That lead was a dead-end.) Still, there’s no evidence of a moment when Cunanan snags those S.C. plates while a terrified little girl stares blankly at him and he grins back like a murdery creep.

The date with Versace in San Francisco
Cunanan’s claim to Ronnie about Versace having proposed to him at San Francisco’s Stars restaurant is very much the kind of story he wanted people to believe. Except this particular fib is lifted from a similarly tall tale that Cunanan spun way back in 1990, one that was debunked by the San Francisco Gate two days after Versace’s death.

The SWAT raid on Ronnie’s room
Whether Ronnie referred to his Normandy Plaza bestie Cunanan as “Andy” is anyone’s guess, but in fairness to American Crime Story, very little about their relationship is clear. For one, a Washington Post piece reported that Ronnie’s girlfriend Fannie, not Ronnie, was occupying the room when SWAT teams burst in. But CNN’s on-scene story counters that Ronnie was in fact the one stirred by their raid. The two outlets also differed on whether law enforcement found Ronnie and Fannie’s room number on a pawn ticket or business card in Andrew’s stolen pickup truck. Minor details aside, there’s not much concrete evidence that Ronnie, as “Manhunt” implies, tacitly abetted Cunanan’s getaway. He was, however, a former florist.

The night before the murder
In “Manhunt,” Cunanan stops by popular Miami Beach gay dance club Twist, nearly crossing paths with Gianni and Antonio, who apparently spent their last night together in the same venue before departing and having an emotional conversation about marriage. In fact, Cunanan did hit the town late on July 14, but it was reported to police that he was seen at rival hotspot Liquid, where he stayed for hours. Also, an employee at Miami Subs was among the many who allegedly spotted Cunanan, according to the Washington Post, but he did not actually phone his sighting into the cops like his counterpart did in “Manhunt.” To be fair, depicting a close call with the law is more dramatically taut than detectives interviewing a would-be witness days later.

Fact-checking The Assassination of Gianni Versace: Episode Two, ‘Manhunt’