A Designer Murder.

Italian designer Gianni Versace had just returned home from getting coffee at a cafe near his South Beach, Miami, home. As he neared the steps of his house, around 8:30 a.m. on 15 July 1997, he was shot in the back of the head and then once more as he lay on the ground. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police announced that they suspected the gunman was Andrew Phillip Cunanan, age twenty-seven, a suspect in several other murders around the United States. Cunanan was found dead on 23 July 1997 in a Miami houseboat after a four-hour standoff with police. The assailant's death brought little relief to a fashion public that had grown quite fond of the slain designer's work.

A Popular Designer.

Versace was born on 2 December 1946 in Reggio di Calabria, Italy. His mother, Francesca, was a dressmaker; he fashioned puppets from...