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Versace's Medusa: Andrew Cunanan
The world’s most successful gays are found in California and Florida, as are its most prolific serial killers. This literary thriller takes the form of a memoir in which Gianni Versace’s Great Gatsby life story is cut short by Andrew Cunanan as in a scene out of Cruising. The cast includes the exotic poster boy killer with a series of faces, a pair of handsome, star-crossed former lovers, two innocent strangers seized at random, the undisputed Tsar of fashion and gay Baroque design, mysterious sets of HIV-test results, secret societies, suicides, and a frenzied media coverage. The novel retells the story of that murderous spree during the summer of 1997. It dramatically recreates those events and reveals the motivations of the unique serial killer, the celebrity designer, and the mysterious narrator. Set against a background of gay and Art Déco lifestyle in South Beach, Miami, it explores the worlds of high culture and fashion, Calvin Klein underwear models, recreational drug taking, sex (casual, anonymous, consensual non-consent), leather, S&M-B&D, and of HIV/AIDS. Previous serial killers like “The Doodler” and “The Scorecard Killer” are called to account as are those who thank God for HIV/AIDS and believe that gays like devils deserve to be burned. The fear and loathing that fanned the flames in New Orleans that claimed 32 LGBTI victims in 1973 burst back into life when Gianni Versace faced his Medusa, Andrew Cunanan.
204 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 16, 2018
Fictional account of actual events surrounding the murder of Versace. An exploration of the possible motivation and mind set of his killer Andrew Cunanan. A very dark, but well written book.
February 24, 2021
Versace’s Medusa
Followers of popular culture will likely remember that day in 1997 that Gianni Versace was murdered on the front stairs of his Miami Beach home. The fashion design icon had just returned home after purchasing his morning newspaper.
Versace’s Medusa is CTP Diamond’s second novel on the nature of good and evil. Seeking deeper meaning into the nature of evil and motivation to kill, Diamond fictionalizes the murder of Gianni Versace and the life history motivations of his murder, Andrew Cunanan. Diamond interweaves symbolism and literature as added layers to an otherwise straight narrative thriller.
This book is not so much about Gianni Versace, as it is about the nobody man who murdered him, Andrew Cunanan. In Versace’s Medusa, Diamond presents an “imaginative work of fiction” and a “dual psychobiography of Gianni and Andrew.” Diamond has visualized the life of Andrew Cunanan, gleaned from numerous media and other reports.
While Versace was a well-known personality, his killer was not. At least in the beginning. The House of Versace chose Medusa for its logo. Versace was captivated by the beauty of the original Medusa. You will recall that in the Greek myth, jealous Athena turned this beauty into a Gorgon with a death stare and hair of snakes. See the cover of Diamond’s book for Caravaggio’s depiction of the murderous hag. At the very end of Versace’s life, another death-dealing Medusa would enter the scene. After a fleeting glance between the two, Gianni Versace was turned stone cold on the cement steps of his home.
Why kill? For love or for money, according to the late-night and early morning murder mysteries that I watch. Love. Money. Diamond may find this explanation to kill much too naïve. He delves deep into Cunanan, but not in liner progression. Human motivation to kill is a complex phenomenon. We, along with the author, can only surmise about why Andrew Cunanan went on a killing spree murdering five people, including Gianni Versace. The baby-faced charming Medusa-like Andrew is transformed into a serial killer hag when he feels exposed by former male lovers. He even kills an innocent man to steal his car for the murderous road trip. Five murdered men and one suicide.
Rather than being sensationalist like the many tabloid stories written on the event, Versace’s Medusa probes deeply into personality and life history events. According to Diamond, Andrew Cunanan always wanted to be a somebody. In fact, his parents, particularly his father, raised him to be an entitled somebody. Eventually, at the age of 27, Cunanan found himself to be a stale sugar boy, thrown out by numerous older, wealthy gay men who may have used him to recapture their own youthful fantasies. Cunanan did not age gracefully. He never really found the fame and fortune what he was looking for. He fantasized about Versace, and even inserts the famous fashion designer into his own inner circle. Nobody knows if they ever met.
Diamond refers to the shapeshifting narrator as a “Satanic Majesty.” Satanic royalty. You will have to decide upon the nature of narrator for yourself. And yes, Their Satanic Majesties Request is the name of the well-known 1967 studio album by The Rolling Stones.
For Andrew Cunanan, being notorious and being remembered as a murderer may have been better than being a nothing. In Versace’s Medusa, Diamond opens up multiple possibilities for readers to dive into deep levels of personality, life events and motivation to kill. In the end, it may well be, that when solving a crime, you have to come face to face with yourself.
Followers of popular culture will likely remember that day in 1997 that Gianni Versace was murdered on the front stairs of his Miami Beach home. The fashion design icon had just returned home after purchasing his morning newspaper.
Versace’s Medusa is CTP Diamond’s second novel on the nature of good and evil. Seeking deeper meaning into the nature of evil and motivation to kill, Diamond fictionalizes the murder of Gianni Versace and the life history motivations of his murder, Andrew Cunanan. Diamond interweaves symbolism and literature as added layers to an otherwise straight narrative thriller.
This book is not so much about Gianni Versace, as it is about the nobody man who murdered him, Andrew Cunanan. In Versace’s Medusa, Diamond presents an “imaginative work of fiction” and a “dual psychobiography of Gianni and Andrew.” Diamond has visualized the life of Andrew Cunanan, gleaned from numerous media and other reports.
While Versace was a well-known personality, his killer was not. At least in the beginning. The House of Versace chose Medusa for its logo. Versace was captivated by the beauty of the original Medusa. You will recall that in the Greek myth, jealous Athena turned this beauty into a Gorgon with a death stare and hair of snakes. See the cover of Diamond’s book for Caravaggio’s depiction of the murderous hag. At the very end of Versace’s life, another death-dealing Medusa would enter the scene. After a fleeting glance between the two, Gianni Versace was turned stone cold on the cement steps of his home.
Why kill? For love or for money, according to the late-night and early morning murder mysteries that I watch. Love. Money. Diamond may find this explanation to kill much too naïve. He delves deep into Cunanan, but not in liner progression. Human motivation to kill is a complex phenomenon. We, along with the author, can only surmise about why Andrew Cunanan went on a killing spree murdering five people, including Gianni Versace. The baby-faced charming Medusa-like Andrew is transformed into a serial killer hag when he feels exposed by former male lovers. He even kills an innocent man to steal his car for the murderous road trip. Five murdered men and one suicide.
Rather than being sensationalist like the many tabloid stories written on the event, Versace’s Medusa probes deeply into personality and life history events. According to Diamond, Andrew Cunanan always wanted to be a somebody. In fact, his parents, particularly his father, raised him to be an entitled somebody. Eventually, at the age of 27, Cunanan found himself to be a stale sugar boy, thrown out by numerous older, wealthy gay men who may have used him to recapture their own youthful fantasies. Cunanan did not age gracefully. He never really found the fame and fortune what he was looking for. He fantasized about Versace, and even inserts the famous fashion designer into his own inner circle. Nobody knows if they ever met.
Diamond refers to the shapeshifting narrator as a “Satanic Majesty.” Satanic royalty. You will have to decide upon the nature of narrator for yourself. And yes, Their Satanic Majesties Request is the name of the well-known 1967 studio album by The Rolling Stones.
For Andrew Cunanan, being notorious and being remembered as a murderer may have been better than being a nothing. In Versace’s Medusa, Diamond opens up multiple possibilities for readers to dive into deep levels of personality, life events and motivation to kill. In the end, it may well be, that when solving a crime, you have to come face to face with yourself.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews