Read the true story of the manhunt that inspired The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story , the acclaimed FX series.   “The breadth and thoroughness of [Maureen] Orth’s research are often staggering.”— The New York Times   “Fascinating . . . ripe with chilling detail.”— Entertainment Weekly On July 15, 1997, Gianni Versace was shot and killed on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. But months before Versace’s murder, award-winning journalist Maureen Orth was already investigating a major story on Cunanan for Vanity Fair . Culled from interviews with more than four hundred people and insights gleaned from thousands of pages of police reports, Vulgar Favors tells the complete story of Andrew Cunanan, his unwitting victims, and the moneyed world in which they lived . . . and died. Orth reveals how Cunanan met Versace, and why police and the FBI repeatedly failed to catch him. Here is a gripping odyssey that races across America—from California’s wealthy gay underworld to modest Midwestern homes of families mourning the loss of their sons to South Beach and its unapologetic decadence. Vulgar Favors is at once a masterwork of investigative journalism and a riveting account of a sociopath, his crimes, and the mysteries he left along the way. “A fascinatingly detailed account.” — USA Today   “It will hook you from the first page and never let you go.” — San Francisco Chronicle   “ Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth might be called the complete Cunanan. . . . She [has] an indefatigable hunger to know everything.” — Chicago Tribune   “A detailed page-turner.” — St. Paul Pioneer Press   “An exceptionally good account of suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan’s spree in 1997 . . . Orth tells this twisted story with grace and courage.” — Fort Worth Star-Telegram   “Orth has an inviting, readable style.” — Oakland Tribune   “The definitive book on the July 15, 1997 murder of Versace.” — Sun-Sentinel   “An exhilarating journalistic chronicle of Cunanan’s crime and flight . . . The book is charged with adrenaline and the pages just seem to turn themselves.” — Lesbian and Gay New York Maureen Orth’s award winning career began as one of the first women writers at Newsweek . Currently a special correspondent for Vanity Fair , she has profiled everyone from Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel to Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, and has researched and written groundbreaking pieces on Woody Allen and Michael Jackson, among others. Her far-ranging work not only includes the investigation of serial killer Andrew Cunanan but also a bestselling cover story for National Geographic on the Virgin Mary Prologue The phone rang about one A.M., and my husband sleepily caught the receiver. "Is Maureen Orth there? Is this Maureen Orth, the writer?" The male voice was insistent. "Who's this?" "I want to discuss the article." A pause, then a click. "It sounds like him," my husband told me. "Who?" "The guy you're writing about." "What? You mean Andrew Cunanan?" "Weird," my husband said. Then he flopped over and went back to sleep. But by then I was wide awake. About ten days later, hours after Gianni Versace, the famed fashion designer and gay icon, was murdered, the phone rang again a little after one A.M. I was already booked on a morning plane to Miami to report the breaking story of Versace's murder, because the number-one suspect was Andrew Cunanan. By then I had been reporting on Cunanan for nearly two months for Vanity Fair magazine--his favorite publication. I also had learned that he had met Versace several years earlier and that he was suspected of killing four other people, including his best friend and the only man he ever said he loved. "Hello. Is Maureen Orth there?" My husband recognized the same gay male voice. "Who's calling?" But the person on the other end thought better of it. The long-distance background sound cut off abruptly. I will never know if I thereby lost the scoop of my life. Under any other circumstances, appearing in Vanity Fair would have been Andrew Cunanan's dream come true. By then, however, in early July 1997, he was about to become the subject of one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. Thousands of people would be looking for him, yet nobody knew where he was. Nine days later, Andrew Cunanan's body was found on what would become an infamous Miami Beach houseboat. Moreover, the aftermath of his crimes and his cruel and tragic journey through America would reverberate for months. What began in the media misleadingly as a "gay lover's quarrel," confined to a closed but "out" gay world, built as Cunanan's murders became more heinous and bold into a story that catapulted him to the forefront of the mainstream press--leading the evening news, on the cover of both Time and Newsweek. But before Andrew Cunanan killed Gianni Versace and gained worldwide notoriety, he had already traversed a gay paral