Cocky Cunanan rubbed bar crowd wrong in LV

Karen Zekan

Friday, July 25, 1997 | 10 a.m.

Andrew Cunanan visited a Commercial Center bar about a year ago, and a bartender described him as a "braggart."

"There was nothing outstanding about the guy, other than his attitude," Badlands Saloon bartender Jeff Baker said Thursday. "All he could talk about was his cars, his clothes, his trips. I remember him real well, because anyone with more attitude than me bugs me."

The Badlands is the opposite side of Commercial Center from the Apollo Spa, a gay men's health club operated by Torsten Reineck, who owns the Miami Beach houseboat where Cunanan killed himself.

But the name Cunanan didn't ring any bells with Baker or patrons of the rodeo-themed gay bar when word first surfaced in May that he was wanted for murder.

It wasn't until the FBI came in about a week ago with a page of Cunanan photos. Baker remembered hearing the man introduce himself to others using his alias, DaSilva, and it clicked when he saw the shot of Cunanan in glasses.

"He wasn't the hustler with the body of death they're portraying him to be," Baker said. "He had a few pounds on him. He definitely wasn't thin. He sat with a group at the end of the bar, had on a three-toned brown long-sleeve shirt and glasses. What conversations I had with him, it was as though I was beneath him because I was just a bartender."

Meanwhile, Reineck's bar stool was conspicuously empty Thursday night at the upscale Nicky Blair's restaurant and lounge where Reineck up until Tuesday had been spending a few hours most every night since he moved to town months ago.

"He told me he was going on vacation," said chef Raffaele Marsilio. "He's always a very nice guy, very elegant, beautifully dressed ... and a good tipper."

With exception of a $15,000 gold and diamond Rolex, Reineck's attire at the trendy bar has been exclusively Versace -- $1,500 silk shirts in the boldest of patterns, pleated pants, leather shoes.

He sits just left of the cocktail waitresses' station, closest to the entrance, his low-key but engaging personality as memorable to employees as his rich German accent.

Bacardi and Coke is Reineck's drink -- the same drink Cunanan ordered at the Badlands Saloon a year ago.

Sometimes in Versace, other times dressed down in a pullover and jeans, Reineck donated about $500 during a Badlands fund-raiser last November for Pedregal House, a nonprofit organization that provides group homes for those afflicted with HIV and AIDS.

He stops in every so often at Badlands where the mood is light, country plays on the stereo, a red-decked pool table with cow-patterned legs is always in action, and a sign on the front door beneath a wrangling cowboy image reads: "Home of the Bad Boys."

"Doc's always comes in alone and leaves alone," Baker said. "I feel for him. He's in a bad position. I think he was drug into something he had no control over."

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