DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

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If there was any overpowering imperative in Cunanan's life, it was envy: of someone else's money, lover, looks, friends, life, happiness. If he saw things he wanted, he would worm his way toward them, through charm, intrusion and lies, traversing divergent worlds to possess or, as it turns out, to destroy. A flamboyant presence in Hillcrest, San Diego's gay district, he was also once "employed" by a member of Gamma Mu, the exclusive and discreet fraternity of rich gay men. Even as he mingled with closeted military men at San Diego's naval base, he knew how to deal drugs: give a client a first batch free and make them feel welcome to more, at a price. Cunanan had an astonishing range of knowledge: of the way the U.S. military command is structured--and of the hierarchy of chimpanzees. Zeeland recalls that Cunanan would jokingly refer to his friend Trail, in the lingo of chimp studies, as an "alpha male," adding that subordinate chimps paid homage to alpha males by displaying their genitals. He would then proceed to do so, remaining fully clothed. It was Trail, the alpha male, who would be bludgeoned to death with a claw hammer in the apartment of Cunanan's ex-lover Madson on April 29.

Why was Madson not killed till four days later, near a lake 30 miles north of Minneapolis, Minn.? Why did Cunanan decide to torture Miglin to death the next day and not just take his Lexus? The ingredients that went into these cruelties may never be detected. In any case, there was private elation at the news of Cunanan's death in La Jolla among the rich, closeted gay men for whom respectability requires a veneer of heterosexuality. Here Cunanan had lived with businessman and arts patron Norman Blachford. Before Blachford, Cunanan had been known as the companion to two other local "benefactors"--one of whom was reportedly so nervous that Cunanan would name names if apprehended that he considered suicide himself.

Now the panic has eased. Cunanan is a name that echoes only in nightmares, like Bundy, like Dahmer, another lesson in how a monster can put on a pretty face.

--Reported by Greg Aunapu and Tammerlin Drummond/Miami, Elaine Lafferty/San Diego, Jenifer Mattos/ Seattle, Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles and Elaine Shannon/Washington

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