The murder of Lee Miglin

Here in Chicago, I had heard prior to the murder that Miglin was a big closet queen. So when the murder happened, it was always assumed that Andrew was getting paid by daddy Lee.

Lee Miglin was a long time member of Gamma Mu. This confirms that he was a gay man. He met Andrew Cunanan at Gamma Mu events. Most likely Cunanan used this to connect with and murder him in Chicago during his spree.

OF COURSE Andrew knew Lee Miglin - he didn't just walk up and down Astor Place looking for an older rich gay guy.

I lived in Chicago at the time and the press clamp down was unbelievable. It was a "random robbery" - sure, Marilyn.

I think what happened in the show is probably close to how it happened in reality. The whole "he got killed for a car...it was random" Marilyn story is understandable in that they didn't want to confront the truth, but given what Cunanan was doing & who he knew, I believe the FX version of events. Maybe he was "bisexual" or something - thus he had a wife & son.... but he was still interested in men. The other thing I read was that in Chicago, he was very well-liked and nobody really wanted to hear anything scandalous about him because of what a nice person he was, particularly among the cutthroat business-people he dealt with. People liked him, so they didn't want to really hear about his infidelity & liaisons with male escorts.

was the event shown in the previous episode of Cunanan going to the hotel of that married man real?

R3 that’s not out of the question. He didn’t know Versace before he killed him.

I posted this in the Cunanan 'American Crime Story' thread, but at the time they suspected Cunanan had a grudge against Lee Miglin's gay son, Duke. Duke allegedly embarrassed Cunanan had a high society soiree in L.A. He belittled or snubbed Cunanan in front of L.A.'s gay, rich elite and Cunanan was enraged, so he went after Duke's father.

I lived directly across the street from Miglin. I assumed that it was a random hook up gone wrong; it didn't seem like he knew Lee beforehand. I could be wrong. I don't know how much the press tried to protect Lee and Marilyn's reputation.

r7 "at a high"

The fact that the Miglin family haven't come out publicly against the show, unlike the Versaces (who simply didn't want everyone to know that Gianni was poz and had threesomes), is very interesting.

Marilyn is too high on Pheremones and Pthalates to comment

former FBI agent Gregg McCrary said it was "highly probable," they knew each other for reasons unknown to the public.

I had a friend that worked in the same building as the Miglin company and the rumor at the time was that the son was tied to it somehow. I wish I could remember the details.

Is it possible Andrew fucked both Duke and Lee? Like he starting fucking Duke but then moved onto Lee to get more cash and he enjoyed the kink factor?

I have heard both Miglin men were involved w/him too. Chicagoan here.

Andrew was the kept boy of Norman Blachford in San Diego. In his salad days, he aspired to be the queen of Hillcrest's gay society. Granted, LA isn't that far away, but it seems unlikely that he would be that pissed off at Duke Miglin, who was pursuing a movie career in Hollywood.

There seems to be confusion about whether Marilyn Miglin is alive or dead. I don't think she appears on HSN any more, yet surely Chicagoans would know if she had died...? She apparently remarried in 1999, only to have that husband die a few months after they married. Internet claims she is about 80 now? Lee was 72 when he was killed.

I also heard that Duke Miglin snubbed him at an event - but I had heard it was at the Opera in SF.

Duke was an asshole from what I heard. But in any event, it was not a random event. As for as Versace, that was planned because he wanted some sort of fame and everyone knew that Versace lived very openly and like a local on Ocean Drive. Very easy to just sit and wait for him to walk outside.

Well this is kind of gay.

After Cunanan's death they found a calendar (or architectural magazines) with Miglin's house featured in it, in Cunanan's house or apartment, where he lived.

It is a bit strange that Cunanan got inside the house easily and also that he went to see Miglin when he knew he would be alone with him and his wife away.

If Marilyn is still alive she would be 78-79 since she was 20 when she married Lee in 1959. If she is alive does anyone here know if she lives in the same house?

r16 No there really isn't any confusion about it, there was just an article about her since the show aired.

What was going on with the son - it looked like they played the scene like the son recognized the name when the officer asked if they knew Andrew Cunanan

Interesting that Marilyn just "powered through" the horror and kept the Murder House, giving it to her daughter. Now, THAT'S denial!

[21] thanks. R20

Andrew had serious daddy issues, among many other issues. Lee could have been his sugar daddy or he could have been jealous of Duke having a rich, successful father.

I watched an interview with Cunanan's father years ago. He basically didn't care that his son killed all those people but he started yelling at the reporter for saying Andrew was gay.

[r25] wow. I would have loved to see that.

The scene of Cunanan killing Lee was so disturbing as well as the murder last week

There was a credible article that came out 3-4 years after the murder (Chicago Times? It was linked here a week or two ago in that long thread about the show) in which the police were quoted in the sense that it wasn't a break-in, so Miglin let Cunanan into the house, it happened on a weekend Marilyn was out of town, etc. So, it doesn't take a genius to connect the dots and draw the appropriate conclusion.

Watching last night I found it curious that he killed Lee in the garage and not inside the house. I wonder what his thinking was in taking him away from the house. He didn't want a body inside the house while he was relaxing?

[29] yes , very curious. I don’t think he had scoped out the garage before they went there (?)

Beyond sadistic

I didn’t think Judith was that good. She was chewing a lot of scenery. I thought the guy playing Lee was much better. As a lot of fact checkers have pointed out, the last episode took a lot of liberties.

Why was his murder of Miglin so much more, well, gross than the others? Was it because he had more time? I can usually handle these descriptions pretty well, but that made me almost throw up. I could never in a million years sleep a single night in the house where my husband was tortured and murdered.

[quote]I thought the guy playing Lee was much better.

"The guy playing Lee" Seriously?

[quote]was the event shown in the previous episode of Cunanan going to the hotel of that married man real?

Good question. Did anyone ever come forward after the fact to discuss their interactions with Cunanan? Because that's the only way we'd know.

[quote]Lee Miglin was a long time member of Gamma Mu.

Not that I want to dispute this R2, but how do you know. Orth never found out about this.

R16, Marilyn was on HSN this week.

That bitch is still alive?

Yeah Marilyn Miglin is 79 now, she is still kicking and selling her products on TV.

You are correct r36. Maureen was never able to show Lee Miglin was a member of Gammu Mu.

[quote] she is still kicking and selling her products on TV.

And still claiming her husband was straight.

[quote]What was going on with the son - it looked like they played the scene like the son recognized the name when the officer asked if they knew Andrew Cunanan

This was discussed in the actual thread on this show, but there is reason to believe Andrew knew Lee's son Duke Miglin.

What is a gammu mu?

[quote] Andrew knew Lee's son Duke Miglin.

Oh, Andrew also knew Lee. In the biblical sense.

[quote]Gamma Mu, the extremely private fraternity of about 700 very rich, mostly Republican, and often closeted gay men

One of Cunanan's sugar daddies, Blachford, was a Gamma Mu member, he sought out these people deliberately.

Why would a bunch of closeted wealthy men have a "fraternity"? Wanting to relive those college years? How would Andrew have found out about this?

You are wondering why a bunch of closeted gay men would like the opportunity to sneak away from their closeted lives and hang out with other gay men....?

And Andrew got involved with Gamma Mu through Norman Blanchford, a sugardaddy/boyfriend of his who was a member. Literally what r45 just said.

R47 How would he have met this Blanchford guy?

If only there was a way to know...

You might not leave your house r48, but Andrew Cunanan was a social butterfly. It is possible to meet people.

Why would any rich old closet case pay for everything some hustler wanted without sex in return? I read Cunanan didn't have sex with his sugar daddies.

Blachford was/is some ugly and old gross looking dude. Cunanan was part of an escort service in Florida and California.

According to Orth's reseach, Cunanan, through Blachford Cunanan became member of Gamma Mu for a while. Then the FBI contacted some Gamma Mu members and warned them they could be in danger of being blackmailed by Cunanan. After that he was kicked out of the club.

R51 - I hadn't heard that Cunanan didn't put out with Blachford. That's ridiculous. Who pays that kind of money for friends?!?! Free drinks can buy friends.

If I had that kind of money I'd want something in return.

The origin of that is Andrew told a couple people he didn't actually sleep with Norman.

Just because Andrew said that, does not mean it is true.

R56 You're right. He lied more than Trump does, so I'm sure he lied about that at some point.

For that much money, you can get an even better looking whore who'll put out. I'm not buying it.

Exactly r57, Andrew was a pathological liar. It was one of his defining characteristics.

[quote] He didn’t know Versace before he killed him.

That's disputed. They were seen talking to each other at a San Francisco club months before the murder.

Cunanan wasn't afraid to do really creepy and kinky stuff, whether he slept with Blachford isn't really relevant. Fact is that Blachford wanted him around and showed him around, they traveled to Europe together. Who knows what nature their relationship was like, I am sure Cunanan was up to everything as long as he could move in those rich circles.

Versace was a star so Cunanan def knew of him. Why do people harp on whether they’d had a random encounter in the past?

Years before the murder r60. They talked at a club in San Francisco in 1990 ( Cunanan started killing people in 1997).

Whether they talked outside of that meeting is a matter of dispue, one person is adamant they saw him and Versace driving together in a limo that weekend.

Why was his murder of Miglin so much more, well, gross than the others? Was it because he had more time?

He did apparently have more time than he did for William Reese. But no one is entirely sure of the circumstances under which he killed Jeffrey trail and David Madson. Madson was the only person who might have known why Trail was killed (he seems to have helped Cunanan dispose of the body), and he went to his grave without telling anyone.

Trail was killed pretty horribly himself, with the back of a clawhammer taken to his head. Madson was shot to the back of the head.

The TV show's version of events was that Cunanan was so insanely envious of Miglin's accomplishments (he shaped the development of downtown Chicago and was hoping to build the tallest building in the world there) that his murder was his way of getting out his rage that he never managed to be as important.

[quote] Why do people harp on whether they’d had a random encounter in the past?

Why are you so threatened by people asking about it? They clearly had talked once at a club, (it was witnessed by many people), and if they knew each other beyond that, that might shed more light on the reasons for Versace's murder.

I'm really interested in tomorrow's episode to see the shows take on Madson helping Cunanan and going along with him? Was he just scared for his life, feeling sorry for him, or did he think of trying to stop him?

[quote]Trail was killed pretty horribly himself, with the back of a clawhammer taken to his head.

Yeah Jeff Trail was killed quite gruesomely. Andrew bludgeoned over 15 times with that hammer to his head.

Is Gamma Mu supposed to stand for Gay Male?

Do we know what other big wigs belonged to Gamma Mu?

I was thinking Gay Men R68. Gay Male sounds kind of oddly clinical.