72-year-old real estate tycoon Lee Miglin was found dead in the garage of his Gold Coast home on the morning of May 4. But some bizarre details about the crime scene began to emerge. All Rights Reserved. But that doesn't mean that what The Assassination Of Gianni Versace portrays is fully accurate. The California native, who could speak two languages, dropped out of college and funded his lifestyle thanks to relationships with older, wealthier gay men, federal investigations found. Ive never seen any credible evidence to show that there was a relationship, Robert Milan, a former assistant states attorney for Cook County, told ABC News. So far, they have refused. Cunanan's motivations are similarly mysterious, try to pawn one of Miglin's coins in Miami, of friend Jeff Trail and ex-boyfriend David Madson. Cunanan and Versace did not know each other, according to People, although they may have briefly met prior to the killing. Cunanan's third victim was 72-year-old prominent real estate developer Lee Miglin from Chicago. "We don't even think about it," said Marylin. The car belonged to one of the men that Cunanan was suspected of murdering in Minneapolis. Egan is trying to evict his mother-in-law from the garage. From a Tribune report at the time: As detectives swarmed the neighborhood for clues, no one paid much attention to the Jeep. Miglin did in fact come from this background to develop the Bar Association and Madison Plaza buildings with his partner, J. Paul Beitler, as well as many other significant structures in the Chicago area. In fact, it seems likely that Miglins murder was equally random, if more elaborate, with Cunanan deciding he needed a new getaway car and somehow catching sight of the Lexus. There had been no forced entry into his home, which implied that Miglin could have known his assailant. The show sticks closely to this gruesome version of events. A Chicago murder mystery becomes a mushroom cloud. As depicted in 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,' Cunanan killed four other men before murdering Versace in July 1997. "It's very difficult," Miglin's son Duke told ABC7Chicago. Another theory suggested that Cunanan might have met the victims son, Duke Miglin, who was for a while an aspiring actor in Hollywood (and did indeed appear in the movie Air Force One). Once they decide to base something on my book, they have artistic license to do certain things.. "We know who we are and what we stand for.". Egan has offered to allow the Miglins to continue using the garage if they pay $1,400 a month. "Lee Miglin built that garage for his . He had been beaten and stabbed. Cunanan's string of murders ended on July 23 of that year with his suicide by firearm. After telling Miglin, Im in control now (a quote added for dramatic effect, since no one else was in the garage to verify), the fictional Cunanan gags the older mans mouth with a gardening glove, ties him up, and hits him repeatedly in the face. The idea that he just picked him up off the street and stalked him and tortured him and then killed him is bizarre not the most likely scenario.". After the first two murders, Andrew Cunanan left for Chicago, and in less than a week's time, on May 3, the wealthy 72-year-old property developer Lee Miglin's body was discovered in his house . Duke Miglin was an aspiring actor in the 1990s, with a role in Air Force One. From there, Cunanan drove off in Reese's truck. Ultimately, police ruled Miglin's murder a crime of opportunity, according to the Chicago Tribune. The pair engage in an intimate conversation onstage after the show. Lee Miglin was found in his garage with several shallow stab wounds, his throat slit by a bow saw, his feet bound, and his head wrapped in tape, according to a May, 1997 article in Newsweek. Miglin was meant to pick Marilyn up from Chicago O'Hare airport that morning. Cunanan and Miglin are shown sharing a long embrace and kiss. He was "a man I could have been," as Cunanan remarked to his friend Ronnie in Episode 2. CHICAGO (CBS) -- On May 4, 1997 - 25 years ago Wednesday - Chicago real estate magnate Lee Miglin was found brutally murdered under a car in the garage of his Gold Coast mansion. Trail had reportedly told friends that he had had a big fallout with Andrew and never wished to see him again.. They were tracking every lead they could -- hunting for Gianni Versace's suspected killer:. Former U.S. naval officer Jeffrey Trail had become friends with Cunanan in San Diego in 1991, while Trail was stationed there. Season 2 0f American Crime Story: The Assasination of Gianni Versace airs Wednesdays on FX. Marilyn Miglin, the Chicago beauty mogul who rose to fame as a host of the Home Shopping Network and was thrust into the national limelight again in 1997 when her husband Lee Miglin was. CBS News Correspondent Dave Fehling reported the house was about two and a half miles from the Versace villa, but only blocks from the Normandy Hotel, where Cunanan was known to have been staying. The 27-year-old Cunanan committed four other murders in a nationwide spree before killing Versace in Miami in July 1997. Miglin's son, Duke, added, "There was no relationship whatsoever.". Tuesday night, however, an officer started writing a third parking ticket for the vehicle and decided to call in the license plate. The skyscraper was never built. I am rather leaning towards Miglin being a closeted gay older man that Andrew connected with by chance rather than it being a "random killing." Miglin-Cunanan relationship: This is probably the most contentious part of the story. "I lived the life of a fairy princess and I had a prince for 38 years, and then one day my prince went to war and didn't come back," she said. As Washington Post writer Edward Walsh wrote on May 8, 1997: "(Miglin) is widely credited for his concept of redeveloping aging warehouse areas into what is known today as upscale business parks, and at the time of his death had built a company responsible for developing several high-rise buildings in Chicago and its suburbs and managing 22 million square feet of office and retail space.". Blachford was 58 when they met and grieving the loss of his partner of 26 years, who had recently died of AIDS . "There's so much pain generated from what happened 20 years ago and now another something else that is out of our control here is happening again," Duke Miglin said. And in her Vanity Fair report on Cunanan, she wrote that he was a sex worker. Long Waits, Short Appointments, Huge Bills. "I'd say it's highly probable that he knew Miglin," said McCrary. On the road he hears over the car radio that the police are able to track his movements through the cars phone. Miglin was found in his garage, partially hidden under a car, with several stab wounds, all his ribs broken, his throat slashed, his feet bound, his face wrapped in masking tape with just a small hole below his nose for him to breathe through, and his body partially covered in plastic and brown wrapping paper. None of this information really explains why Cunanan did what he did. The steps of Versaces Miami Beach home shortly after his murder. Police still did not know why Cunanan had tortured and murdered Miglin and after Cunanan took his own life without leaving a suicide note, there was no way to find out from him. Schlesinger said there was some speculation that Versace and Cunanan had met briefly at an opera performance in San Francisco but it would have been in passing. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. The fashion designer was returning home from his morning walk to the News Caf, where he went to purchase magazines, when a man approached and fired two shots into his head. Tying Miglin up and wrapping his head, Donoghue said, was strictly practical, to keep him quiet and to keep him from moving around. Miglin was also known for philanthropic activities, including fundraising for the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Museum of Science and Industry. The 27-year-old was on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, suspected in the killings of four other people in Minnesota, Illinois and New Jersey. Police officers are later shown examining Miglins bloody body, which was surrounded by male pornographic magazines. The episode's version of events depicts that Lee Miglin knew Andrew Cunanan before Cunanan allegedly killed him. He left no suicide note or explanation for his crimes. Versace had a longtime boyfriend, Antonio DAmico. A knife is stuck in a ham on a desk. The details of the robbery are accurate, but there is no hard evidence for the shows assertion that Miglin knew Cunanan, much less engaged his sexual services. That certainly could have been used by Cunanan to force his way into the Miglins' townhouse, if that is what happened. There are references made to this not being their first meeting and not their first meeting of a sexual nature. Yet, this version of events goes against what Miglin's family has. Some reportsincluding one in the New York Timesclaimed that Cunanan had told friends he was HIV-positive, and that he was murdering former lovers out of a desire for vengeance on whoever had infected him. Lee Miglin was born and raised in Westville, Illinois in 1925. He also appeared to have been tortured with a screwdriver. The minute you start feeling sorry for yourself, everyone else falls.". Marilyn Miglin, who was married to Lee for 38 years, has remained relatively silent on the death of her husband. ", "In the Miglin case, this was such a horrible crime. While those are the facts of the gruesome murder, what isn't known is why Cunanan targeted Miglin specifically, if in fact he did. said EP Nina Jacobson. On the morning of July 15, he was returning from a walk when Cunanan approached him and shot him on the steps of his house. But that's just one theory. "There was no relationship whatsoever," Duke said. He ultimately killed himself a week after Versace's death, as Miami police closed in on him. In the show, Cunanan drives to New York in the Lexus and then almost immediately heads south. After the standoff, police went in and found the body speculated to be Cunanan's inside though police were not yet identifying Cunanan at that point. Iconic Chicago columnist and longtime CBS 2 contributor Irv Kupcinet had once described Lee and Marilyn Miglin as two of Chicago's finest citizens. Rodriguez, now in his 80s, told the Tribune Wednesday he didnt know he was going to be portrayed on the show and he didnt personally examine Miglins body as was shown on the series or talk with Marilyn Miglin in her home. Four mug shots of Andrew Cunanan, who shot and killed fashion designer Gianni Versace. But the murder of Miglin, and Cunanan's whereabouts, remained a mystery until Tuesday, July 15, 1997 when fashion icon Gianni Versace was shot on the steps of his oceanfront villa,Casa Casuarina, in Miami's South Beach neighborhood. He had been bound with duct tape, stabbed more than 20 times with a screwdriver and had his throat cut open with a hacksaw. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Police believed Miglin had been murdered between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. the day before. ''He went out in the afternoons and late evening,'' William J. Esposito, the bureau's deputy director, said at a Washington news conference, per the New York Times. He was pursuing a career with the California Highway Patrol before suddenly and unexpectedly moving to Minneapolis. Cunanan bound Miglin with duct tape, stabbed him 20 times with a screwdriver, then cut his throat with a hacksaw (Dibdin, 2018). Crime specialists told Orth for her Vanity Fair article that Cunanan randomly killing Miglin didn't make sense to them. Naval Academy in Annapolis and a Gulf War veteran. Andrew Phillip Cunanan (August 31, 1969 - July 23, 1997) was an American serial killer known to have murdered five people, including Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin, during a three-month period in mid-1997. American Crime Story alleges otherwise. Separate fact from fiction with this timeline of Cunanans real-life murders. From Vulgar Favors: Lee, born Albert Lee Miglin, one of eight children of a central Illinois coal miner, began his career selling stainless steel flatware door to door and premixed pancake batter out of the trunk of his car.. The Cook County Medical Examiner's office said his clothes were saturated in blood, but the area around him was clean suggesting that his body may have been moved. All rights reserved. Cunanan was visiting Minnesota at the time, had stayed at Trails apartment the night before his murder, and called Trail on Sunday evening to invite him over to Madsons apartment. The only evidence there is points toward Cunanan killing Miglin for his car and his money, even if that means there is a lot left unexplained about the murder itself. As ACS executive producer Simpson said, no one will ever know what happened in the moments leading up to Miglin's murder. The series, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, is based on the 1999 book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth, who covered the Cunanan manhunt for Vanity Fair. Miglin's daughter, Marlena Miglin, is now going through a bitter divorce from Tim Egan, 2nd Ward Democratic . Heres what to know about suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan: Hours after Versaces shooting death, authorities identified Andrew Cunanan as the prime suspect. The Washington Post noted the link was found in a sport-utility vehicle that had been parked illegally near the Miglin home for several days. There were over two dozen blows causing bruises or lacerations to his head, face, and chin; the blood from these wounds soaked through layer upon layer of three-quarter-inch masking tape that had been wound around his head mummy-style, except for an opening at the nostrils and at the top of his head. Gay pornographic magazines had been left not far away.. His face was wrapped in masking tape, his feet were bound, and his throat was slashed. The SUV had Minnesota license plates that had been registered to Minneapolis interior designer David Madson, 33, whose body had been found near a lake in Chisago County, Minnesota the day before Miglin's body was found. And I still don't.". Cunanans killing spree began in late April 1997 when he used a hammer to fatally beat Jeffrey Trail, a 28-year-old former naval officer he knew, in Minneapolis, for reasons that remain unclear, the FBI said. Miami Beach police and FBI agents surround the houseboat where Andrew Cunanan's body was later found. But as to the Miglin case, Schlesinger said when it comes to whether Miglin and Cunanan knew each other, he is "not sure it really matters. According to the Vanity Fair article written by Maureen Orth, the author of the book about Cunanan on which this season of American Crime Story is based, Cunanan slept in Miglin's bed, used the bathtub, and shaved at the vanity. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. Police response: Chicago Police Supt. On Friday, May 9, he shot and killed cemetery caretaker William Reese in rural Pennsville, New Jersey in order to steal Reese's red Chevrolet pickup truck. Miglin, 72, invites him into his Gold Coast home while his wife is away on a business trip. The murder comes when Cunanan leads Miglin to the garage under the guise that they are going out together somewhere and then Cunanan proceeds to kill Miglin in the garage. Miglin's body was found on the floor of the garage behind his home, but there were questions as to whether Miglin was actually killed in the garage. An open pint of chocolate ice cream and a Coke can are shown on the kitchen counter. Miglin's body had been found that morning in the garage behind the mansion at 25 E. Scott St. where he lived with his wife, cosmetics entrepreneur, "Home Shopping Network" host, and "Queen of Makeovers" Marilyn Miglin. Miglin home: Miglin was killed at his Gold Coast home on East Scott Street. Criss Cunanan is nothing if not an unreliable narrator. This echoes the scene in the drama where, after reminding him of her connections, Marilyn emphasizes to Rodriguez that, despite there being no sign of forced entry, the murder was nothing more than an opportunistic attack, repeating that the killer took money, two suits, some insignificant jewelry, two leather coats, some gold coins (one of which turned up in a South Beach pawn shop), and the Lexusplus a dozen silk Sulka socks. But Versace wasn't the only one who lost his life at the hands of 27-year-old serial killer Andrew Cunanan. 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