March—the merry month of postmortem outings—came in like a lion with news that murder victims Gianni Versace and Matthew Shepard both had HIV. In Vulgar Favors, a just-out tell-all of Andrew Cunanan’s serial-killing spree, Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth revealed that an autopsy confirmed well-worn whispers that the Italian fashion designer had the virus. While tales of the rich and famous taking their “secret” to the grave are nothing new, the tabloids trashed it up big-time. But a seemingly polite silence greeted Shepard’s diagnosis, which was reported in the March Vanity Fair by Melanie Thernstrom. The gay Wyoming student likely never knew he had the virus, according to friends and family, and tested positive only after his brutal bashing landed him in the hospital in a coma. Stay tuned to see if the politeness will prevail in the media’s coverage of the murder trials.
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Two Peas in a POZ
May 1, 1999
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