Donatella Versace did her best to micromanage the chaos that followed the murder of her brother Gianni on the steps of his Miami villa on July 15, 1997. But you won’t see that level of damage control on the new FX limited series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
In Maureen Orth’s book “Vulgar Favors,” the basis of the FX series, she claims Donatella actively tried to fight Florida law to get her brother’s ashes out of Miami and back to Italy the day of the murder.
“Florida law demands that any body involved in a homicide remain intact in the state for at least forty-eight hours,” Orth writes.
Orth claims that Versace, who would only answer questions from the police through an intermediary, feared that her brother’s HIV diagnosis — which she wanted to be kept secret — would come out in the autopsy.
While Gianni’s corpse was being embalmed, the book says, lawyers for the family went into a protracted battle with the lawyers for the Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapel funeral home in North Miami over the 48-hour stipulation.
Writes Orth, “At one point things got so heated that Florida Governor Lawton Chiles was reportedly appealed to directly on the phone to query the law — hoping that Versace’s remains could be removed. The request was denied.”
With her hands tied, Versace’s heavily guarded coffin was moved to a crematorium in Pompano Beach on Thursday morning, two days after Andrew Cunanan killed the fashion icon, and sent into the fire. His ashes were placed in a 20-by-14 gold neoclassical box and wrapped in dendrobium orchids.
By 7:30 p.m., Donatella was in a car on the way to the airport with her brother’s ashes. She hasn’t set foot in South Beach since.
While Miami police and the FBI frantically searched for Cunanan and assembled the investigators who worked on the murder cases for his four other victims, Donatella had a funeral to plan — in Milan. A week after her brother’s murder, as police discovered Cunanan’s corpse in a nearby houseboat — he had shot himself through the mouth — a grandiose, star-packed funeral Mass took place in the historic Milan Duomo. Orth says Donatella greased some holy palms to see that Gianni received the showcase ceremony he deserved.
“Knowledgeable sources in the Italian government whispered that the Versaces had donated one billion lira, or $750,000, to the church for the honor of having Gianni’s funeral in the cathedral,” she writes.