MIAMI – In the 1990s South Beach was a tropical playground. Super models were all over the place, the rich and famous came to play and the gay community here was growing. It was an exciting place to see and be seen.
“It was 12 blocks long, it was an oasis of fabulosity, it was amazingly gay. It was a haven, it was our safe space, then it turned into something else,” said Drag Queen Daisy Deadpetals. She performed on South Beach at the time and worked in impressive circles, including with fashion Icon Gianni Versace.
“I was his champagne girl for his parties at Warsaw Ballroom,” she recalls. “It would not be uncommon dancing next to Madonna, or Donatella or Sylvester Salone would come out,” she said.
When Versace was murdered, Daisy tells us everything changed in a flash, knowing that killer Andrew Cunanan was still out there.
By this time, he was on the FBI’s top ten Most Wanted list for killing four men during a nationwide murder spree.
Cunanan was thought to circulate in gay circles and was suspected of changing his appearance while hiding among us.
“It was just terrifying going to work and I’d think, ‘Can I call out today?’ And I just couldn’t afford it. It was scary going into work.” Daisy said.
While the manhunt continued surveillance video captured Cunanan at gay nightclub Twist on Washington Ave.
“He had been in this nightclub for a couple of evenings,” said Frank Scottolini. He was the general manager of Twist at the time. He said he actually saw Cunanan leave the club two nights before the murder.
“My heart dropped when he walked out that door and I saw him. My heart sunk,” he said. “It was just unbelievable. And then I doubted myself 10 seconds later and thought that was crazy, it couldn’t be him and it was. I’ll always be upset about that,” Scottolini said.
Making it even more unreal, Cunanan was gutsy showing up there.
“He clearly didn’t care,” Scottolini said. “We’re catty-corner from the police department. They would have been here in seconds, minutes had they known,” he said.
Just 8 days after Versace was gunned down, Cunanan killed himself on a houseboat in Miami Beach.
What changed after that happened, after the murder,” CBS 4’s Ted Scouten asked Scottolini. “It was the end of the innocence of South Beach, celebrities didn’t come in as much anymore. Not that that’s the end all be all, but everyone was more cautious.
For Daisy Deadpetals the murder and its aftermath changed her life.
“This also impacted your life,” Scouten said to Daisy. “Absolutely,” she said. “I moved from South Beach because there was no more work going on and I had to do what I loved to do,” she said.
A quarter century later, it’s Versace’s kindness that’s remembered. “He was our local hero, he would hang out with us, just have a good time with us and made sure we were okay,” Daisy said.
“We loved Gianni Versace so much,” Scottolini said. “He wasn’t a highfalutin celebrity. He was a member of our community and that’s what we thought of him like. And it was really, really sad.”