A Short Story

Stop the Killings: A Short Story
By Theodore Sares

For quite some time now, I have been looking to write articles in a new genre. Stories about the pathos of boxing and articles dealing with issues of individual freedom are great, but at some point there is a need to see if I can really be more versatile...to see if I can actualize that idea that has been ensconced in my brain for so long. Well, that time came and I decided to do a piece that either involved a spree killer or a mass murderer. Sooner or later, I'd work my way to a serial killer, but first things first.

I reside in northern New Hampshire which is adjacent to central Maine so where else could rural poverty, unemployment, and despair engender enough rage and anger to trigger spur-of-the-moment murders? Maybe West Virginia or Mississippi, but for my fictional purposes, the northeast is just fine. Thusly prepared, I began to map out plots and fill in gaps. As a factual backdrop, there were two stories in particular that haunted me and, I believed, would provide a solid conceptual platform for my new fictional pursuits.

One involved Andrew Cunanan, a real-life American Psycho who murdered five people, including famed fashion designer Gianni Versace, in a cross-country spree killing journey during a frightening 3-month period in 1997. Among other "colorful" things, he was called a crack head, brilliant child, male prostitute, clever cross dresser, aging kept boy, S&M porn star, and chameleon.

The first murder of Cunanan's spree was that of his friend Jeffrey Trail on April 27, 1997 in Minneapolis. Trail was bludgeoned furiously with a claw hammer between 25 and 30 times, mostly on his head and face. The next was his former lover, architect David Madson, who was found outside Minneapolis two days later with gunshot wounds to the head. One bullet had pierce his back and another had grazed his cheek. But the one that killed him had entered through his eye at close range and had passed through his head. Police quickly recognized a link, as Trail's body had been found in Madson's loft apartment. They then began an intensive manhunt. Cunanan, meanwhile, drove to Chicago where he killed prominent real-estate developer Lee Miglin, 72, on May 4. It is believed he took pleasure in torturing Miglin. He reportedly wrapped his head in masking tape, leaving small holes for breathing and then plunged a pair of pruning shears into his chest and slit his throat with a gardener's bow saw. A report documented 49 separate injuries to Miglin, including 19 blows to his head and face. It demonstrated the unbridled rage Cunanan was experiencing, not to mention his pattern of disfiguring his victims' faces.