Vulgar Favors: The Hunt for Andrew Cunanan, the Man Who Killed Gianni Versace - Softcover

"[An] exhaustive deconstruction of Andrew Cunanan's five murders . . . The breadth and thoroughness of [Maureen] Orth's research are often staggering."--The New York Times

"Fascinating . . . ripe with chilling detail . . . paints a disturbing picture."--Entertainment Weekly

"A fascinatingly detailed account."--USA Today

"It will hook you from the first page and never let you go."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth might be called the complete Cunanan. . . . She [has] an indefatigable hunger to know everything."--Chicago Tribune

"A detailed page-turner."--St. Paul Pioneer Press

"An exceptionally good account of suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan's spree in 1997 . . . Orth tells this twisted story with grace and courage."--Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Orth has an inviting, readable style."--Oakland Tribune

"The definitive book on the July 15, 1997 murder of Versace."--Sun-Sentinel

"An exhilarating journalistic chronicle of Cunanan's crime and flight . . . The book is charged with adrenaline and the pages just seem to turn themselves."--Lesbian and Gay New York

A note from the author
When Andrew Cunanan killed Gianni Versace in broad daylight on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, I had already been reporting on the young serial killer for two months for Vanity Fair. I knew then that Andrew Cunanan was a fascinating and cunning pathological liar who pretended to be a rich kid socialite and that he had meandered across the spectrum of gay America-- from the lower depths of the drug crazed underbelly to the highest, refined closeted circles on both coasts. After Versace's death catapulted him into being the number one story in the country for a time, I was determined to learn what caused the disintegration of a beautiful Sicilian-Philipino child with a genius IQ into a cruel killer. In trying to find out I made an offbeat odyssey across America haunting Cunanan's haunts and tracing his murderous trail. Along the way, I discovered the compelling human stories of the lives of all five of Andrew's victims and the riddles of his actual encounters and relationships with them; the details of his crimes and the complex web of law enforcement’s attempts and failure to apprehend him. (There were some really heartbreaking screw ups). What happens when a story becomes the cynosure of the scoop crazed 24 hour news cycle but the police investigating it are technologically a decade behind? How has the O.J. Simpson trial affected the criminal justice system? How does justice change when the victims are rich and famous? The book is filled with telling details, the result of my interviewing over 400 people and reviewing thousands of pages of police reports and FBI Freedom of Information Act records. Ninety-eight percent of my sources are on the record, so the facts are in incontrovertible order--though with Andrew Cunanan's bizarre life and murderous rampage they bear out the old cliché of often being stranger than fiction. I remained fascinated to the end and I hope the reader does too.