ON THIS DAY

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July 15, 1997

Gianni Versace murdered.

Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (1946 – 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-up, home furnishings and clothes. He also designed costumes for theatre and films. As a friend of Eric Clapton, Princess Diana, Whitney Houston, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Madonna, Elton John, Tupac Shakur, Joan Collins and many other celebrities, he was one of the first designers to link fashion to the music world.

On 15 July 1997, he was murdered outside his Miami Beach mansion, Casa Casuarina, by serial killer Andrew Cunanan.

On the morning of 15 July 1997, in Miami Beach, Florida, Versace exited his mansion and walked on Ocean Drive to retrieve his morning magazines. Usually, Versace would have an assistant walk from his home to the nearby News Cafe to get his magazines, but on this occasion he decided to go himself. Versace had returned and was climbing the steps of his Miami Beach mansion when a man dressed in a gray T-shirt, black shorts, a white hat, and carrying a backpack shot him in the head at point-blank range with a .40 caliber Taurus PT100. Versace was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, at 9:21 a.m. He was 50 years old at the time of his death.

Versace was the last victim of Andrew Cunanan, a serial killer who had earlier murdered four other men. Cunanan died by suicide on a houseboat eight days after Versace's murder.

Cunanan was obsessed with the designer and often bragged about his close "friendship" with Versace, although this was symptomatic of Cunanan's delusions of grandeur: he often falsely claimed to have met celebrities. However, FBI agents firmly believe that Versace and Cunanan had previously met in San Francisco, although what their relationship entailed is still a mystery.

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