Versace died in 'Mafia hit'

[sethii]

The fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered because of debts to the Mafia – who then tried to steal his ashes to blackmail his family, according to a supergrass.

Gianni Versace was allegedly killed 'over debts' he had with the Godfathers Photo: REX


By Nick Pisa in Rome 5:01PM GMT 05 Dec 2010

The 50-year-old Versace was gunned down on the steps of his Miami apartment in 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan.
According to a new book by Giuseppe Di Bella, a former member of the Calabrian Mafia known as the N'drangheta, Versace was allegedly killed "over debts" he had with the Godfathers.
In the book Metastasi, Di Bella alleges that Versace was being used by Godfather Paolo De Stefano to launder money.
Di Bella told investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi:"There were rivers of money from *****, extortion, protection rackets, loan sharking, mountains of money and it had to be made clean.
"Bars, restaurants, property and luxury goods were used but also clean businesses like that of Versace."
Di Bella also describes how the N'drangheta plotted to steal Versace's ashes from a cemetery near his family home on Lake Como on New Year's Eve 1997 but it was never carried out.
Giancarlo Capaldo, of the Rome-based anti Mafia department, said: "We have opened a file into what Di Bella says – he is an informer and his information in the past has always proved correct."
In a statement the Versace family denounced the claims as "false and shameful".
"We reserve the right to protect the memory and reputation of Gianni Versace in civil and criminal courts," the statement added.

telegraph.co.uk

 

[ad041715]

This allegation leaves a lot of questions unanswered. So what happened next? They just approached Cunanan to murder Versace over 'debts to the Mafia'?

 

[kokobombon]

^as I understood it, yes. Probably to scare the family so they´ll pay the debts... if it´s true of course. I hardly remember the case, did the police ever catch the "killer"?

 

[saann]

^ it says in the article that he was shot by a serial killer

it does seem like there's a lot more to it. and if it's true, for how long did they launder money with the help of the Versace house? did it still go on after his death?

I wonder how this will affect the Versace business if it turns out to be true

 

[gius]

i remember an article a long time ago posted here on vogue italia, their photographers and a bunch of other italian fashion houses all linked to the mafia

 

[Label Basher]

I hardly remember the case, did the police ever catch the "killer"?

He killed 5 people, Gianni being the last and then a few days later he shot himself. He was never brought to justice.

I was obsessed with Versace as a teen and did my main project on him in Fashion Studies at school. The story is inked in my brain.

 

[ultramarine]

Theres something I dont quite get .. I think I read on a Vanity Fair article about Cunanan about his killing spree where he murdered a lot of his ex-lovers .. including Gianni. Why did he killed all this other guys if he was "hired" to kill just Gianni?

And why will he kill himself if he did it for the money?

This story just doesnt add up .. my take? the house of Versace may or may not linked to mafia but now they're using it as some sort of bragging rights way to intimidate or gain street cred ...

Anyway, its all wrong ...

PS A cookie to whomever can pronounce that mafia guys name

 

[j.cruz146]

^lmfao! the last sentence was pure gold. you deserve a cookie! haha

but i still agree with everything you just said. i might not have known of him cause of my young age at the time (7), but i do love him now.

my take is that only the family knows what happened. maybe it was all part of donatella's long life plan to be head b!tch!

 

[Echoes]

PS A cookie to whomever can pronounce that mafia guys name

a former member of the Calabrian Mafia known as the N'drangheta,


Not a person's name, rather the name of the group, faction or family. 'Mafia' is sort of a collective reference to a number of separate entities. Most well known is La Cosa Nostra.

I don't speak Italian, but it would be along the lines of dran - getta.

 

[saann]

Theres something I dont quite get .. I think I read on a Vanity Fair article about Cunanan about his killing spree where he murdered a lot of his ex-lovers .. including Gianni. Why did he killed all this other guys if he was "hired" to kill just Gianni?

And why will he kill himself if he did it for the money?

This story just doesnt add up .. my take? the house of Versace may or may not linked to mafia but now they're using it as some sort of bragging rights way to intimidate or gain street cred ...

Anyway, its all wrong ...

PS A cookie to whomever can pronounce that mafia guys name

I'm also skeptical about that part and I like your take. but if it's true that they paid him then maybe he didn't commit suicide and they killed him instead so he wouldn't spill. Or I need to stop watching so many movies.

and I can pronounce it! Where's my cookie?

 

[shoesexy]

Silly.

 

[ultramarine]

Some tidbit appear on NYMags The Cut and they say that the guy who said it its pretty trustworthy .. so til then, we will have to wait.

PS Chocolate macadamia cookie is OK?

 

[Squizree]

It's not easy to believe, but if they say he's reliable then I guess we'll wait and see.

 

[radolgc]

I do not understand why anybody would like to know what happened and who did what...what diffcerence would it make? It will just feed the curiousity of some people. The truth behind such events will never be known or if some of us know it (as I think I do) nobody would evber believe them, cause often people do not believe what is in front of their eyes or what sounds logical...I spoke to an insider who is close to the family and i was never curious to know anything, I just heard a version of all this that sounded pretty believable...I do not want cookies, but I do not think it would be apprporiate to discuss such matters here and who knows what the conciquences might be...
And by the way there is NO LOGIC whatsoever in the version that he was murdered for having debts to the mafia! Nobody would believe such nonsense...after all Gianni was on of the richest designers out there and his fashion impire was successfull(which it still is even after his death), so it is more likely that somebody else is in debts to him...he did not need anybody or anything to be rich, he did what he loved and gained fame and fortune. There is always a good reason behind every "crime", but do you guys think that the truth will be publicly told?! I do not think so!

 

[Lalique]

Andrew Cunanan was a documented nutcase. There are a few books well-researched books out that detail his history with Versace, as well as the other murders he committed. He was killed in a shootout by police after he killed Versace in cold blood.

This was NOT a professional hit. JMO.

shoesexy, those cookies look tasty!

 

[radolgc]

"documented" cases are almost never what the reality is, so whatever books they might print, be sure the truth lies somewehere else...Andrew was probably just a victim who did the dirty job and did not know they will kill him after it! It is all so pathetic and predictible...and the real story sounds pretty logical...I mean the one I know that was never revealed.

 

[Psylocke]

http://www.welt.de/lifestyle/articl...ace-soll-seinen-Tod-bloss-fingiert-haben.html

(Google Transaltion)

Gianni Versace is said to have faked his death

A former Mafioso brings wild conspiracy theories surrounding the murder of Gianni Versace in circulation. He said: Versace was involved in Mafia business - and is still alive.

"Killing someone is in the Mafia to kill a fly," Giuseppe Di Bella, the Italian judicial witness testified against one of the largest mafia groupings in the country: the 'Ndrangheta. Di Bella has long worked for the organization before he decided to get out.

And he even has some people on his conscience. As a killer for the global Italian mafia organization he brought to unscrupulous people who drove a protection money and turned a lot of crooked things. That he makes public his story now, is due to the fact that Di Bella wrote down his experiences with the help of two journalists in the book "metastases", which is now published in Germany.

Gianni Versace is still alive


But the sensation in the brutal evidence of the Mafia is not one dead, the Di Bella on his conscience, but rather a mystery to one survivor said. It is none other than the famous fashion designer Gianni Versace.

The death of the designer is still one of the most spectacular of the 90 murder cases. According to present facts, the designer is on 15 Been in July 1997 on the steps of his mansion Casa Casuarina in Miami killed with two shots to the head. He just came back from the morning newspaper purchase. His longtime boyfriend heard the shots and found dead on the steps of Versace.

Perpetrator was the then only 27 years old American Philip Andrew Cunanan. The well-educated young man earned his living as Callboy in the gay community of New York, but was peeved by escalating drug use and personal problems more lovers, and eventually lost his source of money. It probably drove him to the crime.

At the time of the murder he was already on the list of most wanted criminals in the United States. The FBI searched for him, because he had before during a err Versace killing spree through the United States already killed several people. The fashion designer was only his latest victim.

After several days of intensive investigation, some with over 400 officials, he was finally on 23 July on a yacht in the port of Miami discovered. The administrator of the boat saw him and opened the door and then heard a gunshot. Cunanan had killed himself.

Alleged murderer killed someone else


And now comes the ex-mobster in the game. It was claimed at the time of the murder Versace would not be in Miami, but in Zurich: So would Cunanan, knowingly or unknowingly, another shot. Who should have been is unknown. And Gianni Versace would still live, his family and the Mafia would protect him. As evidence of the witness sees a job he got in 1997 by the then "Finance" of Trovato branch of the 'Ndrangheta. The mission: Steal the ashes of Gianni Versace from the former burial ground in Moltrasio. For that he should get one billion lire.


But Di Bella balked, demanding to know why so much money should be paid for the ashes of a dead man. The simple explanation, which he gets from the high-ranking Mafioso: Versace would live, you would not want to risk that the ash for a DNA test would be used. Finally, the dead man was not Versace. "Versace's death was staged. When he was allegedly murdered in Miami, he was actually in Zurich. We should get rid of the ashes, so the DNA can not be reconciled," he is quoted in the book.

This did not end. Versace's ashes were too well-protected and the family decided in addition a reburial of the family on the lake property on Lake Como, Villa Fontanelle.

Money laundering, drug trafficking - a Versace Mafiosi?


The question remains, what could be tuned to the claim or why the Mafia was to protect just a fashion designer? According to Bellas Tues Versace was long a matter of "family" and had a lot of debt. In the book are also listed different statements.

Versace used his power boutiques around the world to cover mafia business. He was dependent on the drug procurement of the 'Ndrangheta. And he washed at least in the years 1983 to 1984 money for the Mafia. In addition, the successful designers have as a trader for the stolen art works of the "family" acts of rich friends and they "give". Versace had enough of them to. Elton John to his fans counted just like Princess Diana. Could prove Versace, despite several tax audits of the company, nothing. However, was the origin of some works of art and antiques from his unexplained possession and they were confiscated.

The death of a prominent fashion designer was always room for speculation: So then-boyfriend has repeatedly stated, he does not believe in an affair between the callboy and Versace as a motive. For the investigators in the U.S., the studies were then completed with the death of the alleged murderer. A circumstance, to welcome the family also seemed Versace.

Di Bella can prove really not his statements. At least the ashes of the fashion designer still exists, it is in an urn in the family grave. A DNA test would thus be possible.

 

[á la Balenciaga]

i remember an article a long time ago posted here on vogue italia, their photographers and a bunch of other italian fashion houses all linked to the mafia

well, didn't roberto cavalli get some heat from inviting members of the mafia to his shows in milan?

 

[Label Basher]

WTF.

If Gianni is still alive then so is Elvis. God why can't people just move on.

 

[JacquelineJane]

I do not understand why anybody would like to know what happened and who did what...what diffcerence would it make? It will just feed the curiousity of some people. The truth behind such events will never be known or if some of us know it (as I think I do) nobody would evber believe them, cause often people do not believe what is in front of their eyes or what sounds logical...I spoke to an insider who is close to the family and i was never curious to know anything, I just heard a version of all this that sounded pretty believable...I do not want cookies, but I do not think it would be apprporiate to discuss such matters here and who knows what the conciquences might be...

But it is human nature to be curious. There is nothing wrong with asking questions and there is nothing wrong with wanting answers to questions, it is a part of our nature, it is perfectly normal. What is so bad about wanting to seek out truth?

Having said this, the whole Gianni-is-alive conspiracy is a joke. Is anyone buying what this supposed insider is selling?