Cunanan didnt leave a note when he killed himself in July 1997, and Wednesdays episode relies heavily on alleged dialogue between Cunanan and Lee Miglin. Tying Miglin up and wrapping his head, Donoghue said, was strictly practical, to keep him quiet and to keep him from moving around. As told by the FX series, Miglin was a closeted, 72-year-old real estate magnate who paid for Cunanan's services as a gigolo while his wife (played by Judith Light) was out of town. Tuesday night, however, an officer started writing a third parking ticket for the vehicle and decided to call in the license plate. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reported from Miami, police quickly dismissed the idea that Versace's murder was a random act. Police response: Chicago Police Supt. Cunanan bound Miglin with duct tape, stabbed him 20 times with a screwdriver, then cut his throat with a hacksaw (Dibdin, 2018). The first episode shows Versace and Cunanan meeting in the VIP area of a nightclub, where an initially irritated Versace is eventually won over by Cunanans story about his mothers upbringing in Italy. CBS 2's Edwards talked with CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger, who has researched and reported extensively on the Cunanan murders. He also talked about wanting to reveal Miglin's orientation to the world through the manner of his death, leaving his body surrounded by gay pornography and wearing more traditionally feminine underwear. Later, Cunanan goes on a date with Versace to the San Francisco Opera, where the designer is working on Capriccio. "I can tell you unequivocally that we have not found a link between Andrew Cunanan and anyone in the Miglin family," former Chicago police superintendent Matt Rodriguez told ABC in July 1997. It was actually DNA evidence from the beard trimmings that definitively tied Cunanan to Miglin's murder. 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. Instead, the story delves into the crime Versaces killer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), committed before heading for Miami: the May 1997 murder of successful Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Meanwhile, investigators later learned that after murdering Miglin, Cunanan not only ate some ham and left a sliced ham on Miglin's desk, but he also hung around at the Miglin home to shave and take a shower. But the plan fell through. I am an advocate of Edgar from way back, Lee Miglin told Crains Chicago Business in 1994. In an emailed statement to The Chicago Sun-Times, American Crime Story executive producer Brad Simpson said: Bustle reached out to FX and the network declined to give additional comment. "I made an effort to be all right, so everyone else could be all right," she told the Chicago Tribune. Fact Checking 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace': Did Andrew Cunanan Know Victim Lee Miglin? 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. "A lot of false things were brought up and they were very hurtful, very painful, for me personally and there were attacks on me as well that I really didn't appreciate. He began his career selling premixed pancake batter out of the trunk of a beat-up old car, Marilyn Miglin says at the fundraiser on American Crime Story. She goes on to mention that Miglin built the Chicago Bar Association building (he developed it with business partner J. Paul Beitler in 1990). Another man, Jeffrey Trail, 28, had been found beaten to death with a hammer and rolled in a carpet in Madson's apartment on April 29, 1997. Miglin was Cunanan's third victim (out of what would become five total), and the show bluntly depicts the way Cunanan bound him with tape and brutally tortured and murdered him in Miglin's garage while his wife, Marilyn, was out of town on business. Child on bike hit by school bus in Mount Prospect: police, Chicago mayoral race down to Vallas, Johnson in runoff election. Look at my husband Lee, one of seven children, the son of an Illinois coal miner. The 72-year-old was reportedly cleaning a garage behind his home when Cunanan attacked. "What do you say about a man you loved passionately for 38 years a man who exemplified courage, and honor, and dignity, and a code of ethics beyond any that I think anybody's ever had?" The FBI painted Cunanan as a highly intelligent and dangerous man who desired a life of luxury. On the night of May 4, 1997, Andrew Cunanan murdered Miglin and stole his Lexus to flee the scene of the crime. Cunanan's fourth victim, William Reese, was also reported as a crime of opportunity: Cunanan needed his truck, so he shot Reese in the head and stole it. As The Assassination Of Gianni Versace (editor: Emily Greene) accurately shows, Miglin and his wife Marilyn were prominent figures in the city. As noted in published reports, Miglin was born in 1924 in downstate Illinois the son of a Lithuanian immigrant coal miner. On July 15, 1997, Cunanan approached the famed Italian designer as he returned to his Miami Beach mansion after a morning trip to a nearby caf. Lee, portrayed by Mike Farrell of M*A*S*H, had his real estate company and Marilyn, played by Judith Light of Transparent, owns a cosmetics and fragrance company. Police responding to the attack found Reeses stolen truck in a nearby parking garage, along with Cunanans clothes, a fake passport, and newspaper clippings detailing his murders. Andrew Cunanan and David Madson met in November 1995. He had been bound with duct tape, stabbed more than 20 times with a screwdriver and had his throat cut open with a hacksaw. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Twenty years after the murder, Cunanans motive is still unclear. Andrew Cunanan was entirely dependent on the property of others, who really did have power in social environments. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. There are references made to this not being their first meeting and not their first meeting of a sexual nature. Cunanan had a. On the morning of Saturday, May 3, Kyle Hilken and Scott Schmidt were out looking for a fishing spot at East Rush Lake when they stumbled upon Madson's body in some nearby brush. Why did he want him dead? In the aftermath of the murder, reporters and authorities tried to find a link between Miglin, who appeared to have been happily married for nearly 40 years, and Cunanan. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. About three years ago, Marlena Miglin added Egan to the title when she was trying to get a business loan. 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. Did he place an ad in a gay magazine or newspaper as a rentboy? The motive behind Cunanan's third murder remains a mystery, according to an article by ABC7Chicago 20 years after Miglin's death. Cunanan fled the scene on foot. The Miglin family has vociferously denied that Lee or his 25-year-old son, Duke, a fledgling actor in Hollywood who has a bit part in this summer's Air Force One, ever met Cunanan. He began his career as a salesman for Arthur Rubloff & Co. in Chicago, as noted by the Washington Post. 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. One of the most ambiguousand contentiouselements of the series is the relationship between Cunanan and Versace, and whether they even knew each other. Cunanan would later try to pawn one of Miglin's coins in Miami prior to his murder of Versace. Now Egan wants access to the garage and is trying to evict his in-laws from the property. Days later, Cunanan shot and killed his former lover David Madson, 33, and dumped his body near a lake in Minnesota. The red Jeep he drove to Chicago was found parked two blocks from the developers house. From Vulgar Favors: I guessed Lee Miglin would never have left a Coke can in his sink or a pint of ice cream on his countertop, let alone a ham on his desk, said Stephen Byer, who came upon the crime scene with his wife Barbara. I have wanted to share this with you for a long time, but never had the chance, Lee Miglin is shown saying to Cunanan as he divulges his plans for the Skyneedle, which at 1,952 feet and 125 stories would be the tallest building in the world. I promise you, this will happen, Miglin tells Cunanan. He said if you don't help me I'm going to proceed to file a lawsuit against you, your mother and your wife for the garage," Duke said. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. Despite Miglin's wife and their son Duke vehemently denying any previous connection between Cunanan and Miglin, reports from several people indicate Miglin and Cunanan may have been involved on a . Schlesinger said, "Cunanan was not a normal guy.". Cunanan became the most wanted and feared man in America, leaving the nation in a simultaneous state of terror and fascination as his grisly crimes played out over a period of more than two months. On July 10, Versace arrived in Miami to stay at his opulent mansion in the South Beach area. Ms. Miglin called 911 and reported her husband missing, and also reported the couple's 1994 green Lexus missing from the garage. Again, the only source for the magazines on the scene is Orth, who says they had been left not far away, and even her account maintains Miglin was wearing regular mens Calvin Klein underwear. Cunanan, realizing he has to ditch the Lexus, spots a red pickup truck and trails the driver, William Reese, to the Finns Point National Cemetery, a Civil War memorial where he is the caretaker. "Lee Miglin built that garage for his . The series, which premiered Jan. 17, is slated for a nine-episode run. And if we didn't know, we really tried to allow for interpretation. "That's right," Andrew answered. After taking the life of the one of the world's most famous fashion designers of the time, serial killer Andrew Cunanan was on the run. CHICAGO (WLS) -- Twenty years after the murder of Chicago real estate mogul Lee Miglin, the garage where he was killed is still causing pain for his family. As played by the ever-genial Mike Farrell, Miglin is portrayed as the opposite of a bumptious, hard-charging Trumpian developer, happy to cede the spotlight to his more vivacious wife.This self-effacement is apparently entirely in character. But American Crime Story is still giving a very controversial account of the murder, especially since authorities never found solid evidence of a connection between the two men. Marilyn Miglin is shown telling Rodriguez two leather coats, two suits, $2,000, some inconsequential pieces of jewelry, gold coins, a dozen pairs of Sulka black socks and Miglins Lexus are missing. All rights reserved. The police deemed the murder a crime of opportunity, according to the Chicago Tribune. Marilyn Miglin said on Tuesday, May 6. Iconic Chicago columnist and longtime CBS 2 contributor Irv Kupcinet had once described Lee and Marilyn Miglin as two of Chicago's finest citizens. Marilyn Miglin died just this past March at the age of 83, and maintained to her death that her husband and Cunanan never knew each other. Miglin was killed in the garage on May 3, 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. He had been shot in the head, and his red pickup truck was gone, replaced by a green Lexus with Illinois platesthe same one Cunanan stole from Miglins garage. "We always wanted to be very careful; even though there were blanks to fill in, we tried really hard to fill them in with what we believed to be true and framed through the larger themes. 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. 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.. He was on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, the subject of a national manhunt, and was hiding out in Miami Beachs gay scene at the time he killed Versace. 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. Per Orth, Cunanan considered Trail to be his best friend, and referred to him as my brother." 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. Investigators said that Madsons body showed no sign of restraints, and his only defensive wounds were in his fingers, suggesting that he had raised his hands to try and deflect one of the shots. Madsons family members suspected that he had accidentally walked in on the killing of Trail, and subsequently been taken hostage by Cunanan, and this is the version of events that plays out in American Crime Story. According to Orth's book, the two met in mid-1994, three years before the murders. 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). Miglin made his money as a real estate developer. Matt Rodriguez. The Sky Needle is grounded in fact (the project. "He asked me if I would be willing to talk to my sister about helping him settle his divorce proceedings. Marilyn Miglin, who was married to Lee for 38 years, has remained relatively silent on the death of her husband. Cunanan was a serial killer, suspected in four other deaths. "We were discussing Marilyn's fundraising at the Drake, which was very successful, and that they were planning to go to Israel and name a wing in her honor, and he was looking forward to that.". When he didn't show up, she became suspicious about her husband's whereabouts, according to the Chicago Tribune. 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