Cunanan Visited Here

At 11:30 last night as The Star went to press, Andrew Cunanan was rumored dead by his own hand in Miami.

Andrew Phillip Cunanan, the 27-year-old man charged with three murders across the country and suspected in at least two more, including last week's shooting of the Italian designer Gianni Versace, spent a weekend at an East Hampton Village house in July 1996.

His host agreed to speak with The Star this week on condition of anon y mity. Mr. Cunanan was calling himself Andrew Phillip DeSilva at the time, one of two aliases he has been known to use.

The brief brush with a suspected serial murderer has left the East Hampton man "apprehensive . . . somewhat," he said.

"How many murderers have you known?"

"A Good Guest"

The fugitive came here in the company of an old friend of his host, said the latter. The pair had met in California, where both live, and were on their way back from a month's travel in France when they broke the cross-country trip with a brief East End interlude.

The host recalled that they had taken long walks on the beach, played tennis, and attended private parties in the evenings. "Nothing unusual," he said. Mr. Cunanan, he said, was "a good guest - good manners, articulate, literate."

With other houseguests keeping him busy that weekend and nothing that could have hinted of the events to come, the man said this week that "there wasn't anything remarkable about him." Mr. Cunanan is "remarkable now," though, he added.

Ten Most Wanted

The suspected killer, a white man with brown eyes and dark brown hair, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 160 to 180 pounds, is considered armed and extremely dangerous by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was put on the F.B.I.'s Ten Most Wanted list in June, though it was the July 15 murder of Mr. Versace in Miami Beach that captured the attention of the media and the public.

Mr. Cunanan has been described as a gay gigolo and prostitute, a man from a middle-class background who uses cunning and intelligence to weave intriguing tales about himself, and flamboyant charms to make his way into monied circles.

He is known to frequent gay nightclubs, speaks several languages, has also used "Drew Cunningham" as an alias, and can apparently change his appearance almost at will.

Man Of Many Faces

A series of photos published around the country show him as a man of many different faces. In some he is wearing eyeglasses; in others, none. His East Hampton host recalled him wearing glasses during last summer's visit, and said he resembled some of the photographs that have been circulated, though not all.

The East Hampton man said Mr. Cunanan claimed he was originally from Israel and had attended a prep school in Connecticut; he could not recall which one. In fact, Mr. Cunanan is a Filipino-American who grew up in San Diego and attended schools in California.

"It was clear," the host said, "that he didn't do anything," meaning gainful employment.

In early May, the host got a call from his friend in California, the one who had brought Mr. Cunanan here. The man had been contacted by law enforcement officials, the host said, alerting him to the murders of Jeffrey Trail, David Madson, and Lee Miglin, alleged to be Mr. Cunanan's first three victims, and seeking information about the suspect.

The Californian immediately telephoned his friend in East Hampton. And the East Hampton man called everyone he could remember whose house Mr. Cunanan had visited while here.

He thought it was his duty to call them all, he said this week.

Called Police

He said he felt "not threatened, but a little uneasy, just having known someone like that." He said he was not overly concerned that Mr. Cunanan might return to the East End.

Joe Valiquette, a spokesman for the F.B.I's Manhattan office, said there was "no indication" that the fugitive might head this way.

Upon learning Mr. Cunanan's true identity, his East Hampton host also contacted East Hampton Village police, telling them the murder suspect had been at his house.

He has had no contact with Mr. Cunanan since that weekend. the source said. The F.B.I., however, recently contacted him to ask him what he knew of the alleged killer.

"Sightings"

As is standard procedure, the F.B.I. has distributed wanted posters to local police departments, and both East Hampton Town and Village departments have them in every patrol car. The F.B.I. has contacted the town force, said Capt. Todd Sarris, asking to be notified of any "sightings" or information reported to them.

Though several "sightings" have been called in to local police, none were substantiated.

The town received one from sunbathers at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett, and village police received four over the weekend, including one that placed Mr. Cunanan at the Georgica Getty gas station and another that placed him getting off a train.

Extra Patrols

Village police said they called the F.B.I. to report those sightings, which Chief Glen Stonemetz described as "unconfirmed" and "very unsubstantiated."

Officials with both police departments ventured that because of the intense publicity and the suspect's rather nondescript appearance, the "sightings" will probably continue.

Chief Stonemetz said he did not think there was a likelihood that Mr. Cunanan would surface here, though his patrols are on extra alert. "I think if that were the case the F.B.I. would be concentrating" its investigation here, he said.

LIAAC On Guard

The gay community here, as elsewhere, is on guard, however. The F.B.I.'s Cunanan photographs were reviewed with security personnel hired for Saturday night's Take Off '97, an annual East Hampton fund-raiser for the Long Island Association for AIDS Care. The organization always hires private security for the event, said Jeffrey Reynolds, its spokesman.

"This is something we're very conscious of," said Mr. Reynolds, though Mr. Cunanan had "not been a major topic" in the event's planning.

"Not to discuss it would be a mistake," however, said Mr. Reynolds. The murders, he said, "will be on some of the minds of party-goers," but LIAAC is "trying not to let rumors overshadow an important event."

The F.B.I. has asked anyone with any information about Mr. Cunanan to call either local police or the agency's toll-free hotline: 1-888-FBI-9800.