Andrew Cunanan July 1997: a serial killer who is gay ignites a firestorm of twisted media reports and assassinates out designer Gianni Versace before killing himself. (Gods & Monsters).

"I will never forget that summer," says Cathy Renna, news media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Renna is referring to 1997, when Andrew Cunanan murdered five men, including fashion designer Gianni Versace on July 15. Then, eight days after shooting Versace at point-blank range in broad daylight, the 27-year-old Cunanan committed suicide on a house-boat in Miami Beach, Fla.

Before killing Versace, Cunanan killed acquaintance Jeffrey Trail and ex-lover David Madson in Minnesota, then stabbed and tortured wealthy Chicago businessman Lee Miglin. He eventually drove to New Jersey, where he shot and killed cemetery caretaker William Reese.

"That he was on the loose and targeting gay men prompted a lot of concern," Renna says. "There was this dangerous person out there, and we didn't know where he was."

The FBI put Cunanan on its "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list. Sensational reports of a "homicidal homosexual" from San Diego riveted the nation.

"There was a lot of this `He's a gay killer,'" recalls Renna, whose organization took up the task of monitoring--and at times castigating--the media. "There was this wall-to-wall coverage and a constant linking of his homosexuality and the crimes. There was a lot of seedy coverage that I don't think we'd see happen now."

When Cunanan took his life, he left authorities, the press, and the public guessing at his motive. Speculators cast a wide net. Robbery? Fame? A mob hit? Jealousy? Some guessed that Cunanan was HIV-positive and seeking revenge, but a posthumous HIV test proved otherwise. There were reports that Cunanan was a methamphetamine addict driven over the edge and some links to possible steroid abuse, which could have turned him violent.

"The real answer to [why Cunanan killed Versace] went down with the ship, so to speak," Miami Beach police chief Richard Baretto said when he announced five months after Cunanan's suicide that the investigation had ended.