THE LESSON: DON'T BE AFRAID, BE WARY

Gianni Versace did not make his legend by aping the behavior of others. Yet there was one custom of his peers he might have done better to observe. "Such a high-profile guy," says Bo Dietl, head of a large New York detective agency. "He had to be crazy not to have security." One of Dietl's colleagues disagrees. "What could Versace have done differently?" asks Anthony Pellicano, a Los Angeles security consultant. "I'll tell you what. Nothing. Zero. If someone has the wherewithal, the time, the motivation and the skills to kill you, you are probably dead."

Yet Gavin de Becker, who...

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