Editor's Letter

Murder in Miami

A few months before Gianni Versace was shot and killed in Miami, he dropped by the Vanity Fair offices for a chat. He had been ill, but now, in a brown cashmere turtleneck and with a South Florida tan, he looked robust and full of vim.

He had just moved into an extraordinary brownstone on East 64th Street in New York, where he had thrown a memorably glamorous dinner some weeks earlier. We talked about that evening, and he said he wanted me to bring my family down to stay with him and his sister, Donatella, and her family in South Beach this summer. z

He was full of plans for the future, talk5 ing animatedly about taking his company £ public and about the myriad projects he ¾ had bubbling around him. Versace was always working. The homes in Milan and on Lake Como, in New York and in Miami, were elaborate, baroque settings for a full-time work campaign. He produced big, visual books; designed theatrical and opera costumes; and created four couture and ready-to-wear collections every year. And he did all this while overseeing, with Donatella and their brother, Santo, a $900 million fashion empire. Appearances to the contrary, Gianni Versace's life was about work, not play.

The arc of his year in the pages of Vanity Fair has been telling. In January, writer-at-large Marie Brenner and photographer Bruce Weber produced a stunning story on the New York town house, which Versace had spent the previous year renovating. In the June issue, contributing editor Cathy Horyn profiled Donatella, who has emerged as a colorful, slightly rococo fashion power in her own right. In July, Princess Diana wore one of her favorite Versace dresses on the cover.

Well before that cover appeared, special correspondent Maureen Orth had begun to report on a cross-country murder spree that was allegedly the work of Andrew Cunanan, then an obscure suspect in the series of sadistic killings. As we were closing the story for this issue, Cunanan emerged as a recognized fugitive, wanted by the F.B.I. as a presumed serial murderer. When he became the chief suspect in the murder of Gianni Versace, Vanity Fair's story took on a new dimension. Orth, who by that time probably knew more about Andrew Cunanan than anyone outside of the F.B.I., flew to Miami the morning after the murder. She was besieged by hundreds of requests from newspapers, magazines, and television networks around the world to tell what she knew. Between interviews, she continued her reporting. The result, "The Killer's Trail," on page 268, is a remarkable portrait of a serial murderer and the tragic path he cut across America. Even in the heat of August, Orth's story will send a chill up your spine.