The End of the Cunanan Manhunt: AP Footage from Miami Beach, July 24, 1997
AP footage from Miami Beach the day Andrew Cunanan was identified as the man found dead in a houseboat, with reaction from the city's mayor and a neighbor of the houseboat's owner. Cunanan is not heard.
- Subject
- Andrew Phillip Cunanan
- Recorded
- July 24, 1997
- Runtime
- 1:42
Content warning: Concerns a series of murders and the suicide of the man suspected of them; no graphic detail is spoken in the video.
The Report
This is a 1-minute-42-second Associated Press news item from July 24, 1997, posted by AP on its own archive channel. It was filmed in Miami Beach on the day Andrew Cunanan, the subject of a nationwide manhunt, was identified as the man found dead the night before in a houseboat. The item has no narration: it shows the houseboat and the crowd of reporters and camera crews across the street, with two brief comments, from Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber and from Brigitte Andreotti, a neighbor of the houseboat's owner. Cunanan is not heard.
Historical Context
Between April 27 and July 15, 1997, Andrew Cunanan was suspected of killing five men: Jeffrey Trail in Minneapolis; David Madson, found near Rush City, Minnesota; Lee Miglin, a Chicago real estate developer; William Reese, a cemetery caretaker at Finn's Point National Cemetery in Pennsville Township, New Jersey; and the designer Gianni Versace, shot outside his Miami Beach home on July 15. The FBI had placed Cunanan on its Ten Most Wanted list on June 12, 1997.
Circumstances
On the evening of Wednesday, July 23, 1997, after a caretaker reported hearing a gunshot, police found a body in a houseboat in Miami Beach. According to AP, it was identified as Cunanan's only early on Thursday morning; police said he had shot himself. AP reported that investigators did not know how long he had been staying in the houseboat, and that its owner, a German businessman, was himself wanted in Germany for fraud.
What the Report Covers
Mayor Gelber describes "a great sense of relief" in a community of fewer than 100,000 people, where the international investigation had brought "some level of apprehension and fear" for people's safety. Brigitte Andreotti says the houseboat's owner will be "outraged, upset" and "in shock and disbelief" that this happened on his property. The pictures show the media camp that had grown up around the scene.
What Makes the Recording Significant
The item is same-day agency coverage of the end of what AP called "one of the most intense manhunts in recent history," eight days after the murder of Gianni Versace, recording the scene and the first local reaction.
Archival Importance
It preserves how the end of the case looked and sounded in Miami Beach on July 24, 1997. It is a short wire item: no investigator or official speaks about the case itself.
Important Caveats
Cunanan does not speak in this video. Neither speaker's name is spoken; both come from AP's on-screen captions. AP's statements about the houseboat's owner (that he was wanted for fraud in Germany) are AP's 1997 reporting and were not checked further; the owner is not named in the audio, and the page should not name him.
Unidentified Voice: Yes.
Seymour Gelber: It's obviously a great sense of relief. [unclear: "It has" / "That has" / "But has"] disrupted what is a very small community of less than 100,000 people, with seven miles long, and this kind of international investigation brings a lot of concern, and there was some level of apprehension and fear for their own safety that many people have. I think there's great relief.
Brigitte Andreotti: I think he's going to be outraged, upset. I think he's going to be really in shock and disbelief that all of this is happening on his property. [01:28 to 01:42: no speech in either machine source (the captions show a stray "you" at 01:41); clip ends.]