I mostly read this to better understand how American Crime Story seasons were developed from nonfiction tomes for screen. Maureen Orth's is a great reporter whose research aptitude is as solid as her interview skills. Given that Vulgar Favors was written 21 years ago, the contemporary queer reader might be jarred by Orth's incomprehension of kink practices and her arguments that queer culture is a breeding ground for bad social hygiene. While her judgement is not infrequently clouded by this sort of titillation, Orth's book is important in its assembling of queer community voices, from Cunanan's friends to LGBTQ activists and writers like Achy Obejas. It's clear in reading Vulgar Favors that Ryan Murphy & Co. prioritized the murdered, the murderer, and gay male culture at the turn of the millennium; the origin text is far more inclusive, densely peppered with (at times, gossipy) anecdote after anecdote.

Vulgar Favors is worth the read to better understand the tension between queer community and law enforcement ca. the advent of the triple cocktails. Cunanan was able to skirt across the U.S. undetained because LGBTQ communities had no community-based alternatives to approaching homophobic police forces that could out and humiliate them; so the men who encountered Cunanan, reasonably, kept stiff upper lips. It's also curious how critical coverage of Cunanan's spree within LGBTQ community was often written off my LGBTQ advocacy organizations as homophobic, despite the orientation of the reporters. A few times, I had to ponder how we would act if something like this happened again; I'd like to think we're better connected as queer people now, in 2021, to keep one another safe.