Or so reports today's Miami Herald. Three law-enforcement sources tell the paper that autopsy tests on Cunanan will show that the 27-year-old was not HIV-positive. Cunanan fatally shot himself in the face last week in a houseboat in Miami Beach, eluding capture to the end, even as he brought closure to the three-month-old, nationwide manhunt for the FBI's most-wanted fugitive.
If the Herald's sources are right (and the coroner's office in Florida may never confirm or deny the report, since state law there deigns AIDS tests be kept confidential in most cases), it would not be the first time that Andrew Cunanan confounded the so-called experts.
In trying to solve the riddle that was Cunanan, much was made of the theory that the young man, who was gay and a "high-class prostitute," in the words of his own mother, had learned he was infected with HIV this spring, high-tailed it out of his hometown of San Diego, California, and started offing friends, lovers and strangers.
The theory, at first, was based on nothing more than speculation--pundits equating gay with AIDS. Then, a San Diego AIDS counselor told reporters of a curious encounter he'd had with Cunanan last February. As the counselor discussed safe-sex practices with the man, Cunanan became enraged, vowing: "If I find out who did this to me, I'm gonna get them,"
In other Cunanan news today (the story just won't go away): producer Dino De Laurentis (King Kong) wants Keanu Reeves or Brad Pitt to play the alleged killer in a movie based on the notorious man's life, according to the New York Post.
The newspaper reports that De Laurentis had been tracking the Cunanan story even before the Versace slaying and had sent an early proposal to Reeves, who turned it down. (A spokesman for Reeves today said he was "unaware of any proposal." Pitt's people say they haven't seen a thing on the project.)
In the wake of Cunanan's mega-notoriety, the veteran movie producer is reportedly updating the script and getting ready to send it off to Reeves again. Pitt, too.
This reputed project is not be confused with yet another Hollywood-ization of the suspected killer's life. ABC confirmed this week that it's developing its own Cunanan docudrama.