LAS VEGAS -- The German businessman who owns the houseboat where Andrew Cunanan committed suicide owns a gay bathhouse here that masquerades as a health club and has passed himself off in Las Vegas as a physician known as Doc Ruehl.

Not until after Cunanan's suicide did members of the gay community here learn that the businessman's real name is Torsten Reineck and that he isn't an ear, nose and throat doctor as he claimed to be.

``Nobody knew him as Torsten Reineck,'' says Rick Rodrigues, owner of Bare Essentials, a clothing store. ``He'd introduce himself as `Doc Ruehl.' ''

The news from Miami Beach has only deepened the mystery here surrounding Reineck, a physically imposing man with a black ponytail who liked to show off his Versace shirts and his vintage Excalibur automobile. Reineck showed up in Las Vegas' tightly-knit gay scene only last fall when he opened the Apollo Health Club & Spa.

Among the questions surrounding Reineck: Did he know Cunanan? Did he know fashion designer Gianni Versace?

There are hints that Reineck, 49, knew Cunanan, who committed suicide Wednesday night on Reineck's houseboat on the inland canal in Miami Beach. A Las Vegas TV station Friday night broadcast an interview with a woman in silhouette who said she saw Cunanan at the club. She said she was there sewing the drapes.

A bartender at the Badlands Saloon, which is housed in the same strip mall as the Apollo club, says Cunanan visited the country and western gay bar once alone last July or August. This was two or three months before Reineck opened the Apollo.

The bartender, Jeff Baker, says he remembers Cunanan because Cunanan was arrogant as he sat drinking Bacardi and Cokes, bragging about his expensive clothes, his trips to Europe, his expensive homes. Baker also remembers that Cunanan left no tip.

In the following months, Reineck would frequent the bar and drink soda water and cranberry juice. But Baker says he knows of no connection between Cunanan and Reineck.
FBI officials also say they know of no connection.

Reineck voluntarily visited the FBI's office here Thursday and answered questions for 90 minutes. He denied knowing Cunanan and Versace, says Kevin Caudle, the FBI's spokesman here.

``He said he's a big fan of Versace, but had only met Versace's press secretary'' Caudle says.

Reineck is wanted on fraud charges in Germany, but Caudle says the FBI checked with Interpol authorities, and they did not ask to have Reineck arrested.

Reineck is not an American citizen, but he is authorized to live and work here, say officials with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Gym turned pleasure palace

Reineck burst into Las Vegas' gay community in September as he was opening the Apollo. To local government officials, Reineck billed it as a low-impact gymnasium. But it quickly became known in the gay community as a pleasure palace for men only. Ads for the club say it features 63 dressing rooms, a tanning room, hot and cold Jacuzzis, a large indoor swimming pool and a workout room.

Recent visitors to the club say a punch bowl filled with free condoms greets customers as they enter. Customers can watch gay videos and buy lubricating lotions and sex toys.

An advertisement for Apollo in Night Beat, which bills itself as ``Nevada's Gay Classified Magazine,'' features two naked men kissing.

``It's a sex place, everybody knows that,'' says Dave, standing outside of Angles, a popular gay bar.

Reineck occasionally visited Angles.

``He asked some of my bartenders on dates, but he was turned down every time,'' says David, the manager.

Reineck could not be located Saturday, and his attorney, Christopher Phipps, did not return phone calls.

Employees at the Apollo shooed a reporter out of the club early Saturday morning, saying they could not comment.

People who have known Reineck in Las Vegas say they haven't seen him in several months.

Reineck's friends and foes

Joe Kendall, owner of the Cyber City Cafe, which features pizza, latte and the Internet, says he helped Reineck establish a Web page for the Apollo last year. But when he sent Reineck a bill, he says, Reineck phoned him angrily and refused to pay.

``He gets mad very easily,'' says Kendall, whom Reineck owes $1,895 for the Web site.

Rodrigues, owner of Bare Essentials, says Reineck stiffed several of his friends who provided business services for the Apollo.

``I introduced Doc Ruehl, mistakenly, to a lot of people,'' Rodrigues says, using the name by which he knows Reineck.

Jeff Baker, the Badlands Saloon bartender, says Reineck is getting a bad rap.

``He's good to everybody here,'' says Baker, mentioning that when the bar sponsored a fund-raiser for AIDS and HIV-positive patients, Reineck contributed several hundred dollars. ``He then won the drawing and donated the ticket,'' which further increased his contribution, Baker says. ``He was polite, courteous, easy-going and soft-spoken.''

While known as Doc Ruehl in Las Vegas, Reineck went by his real name when he visited the Cafe Prima Pasta in north Miami Beach several times this year, says the owner, Gerardo Cea. Cea says he remembers Reineck because of his large frame and pony tail.

Cea also says that he's 90 percent sure that Cunanan visited his restaurant one night about four days before Versace was slain.

Cunanan was alone and read a book during dinner, Cea says. Cunanan said he was short of money and could afford only a 10 percent tip, Cea says.

Cafe Prima Pasta is on 71st Street, two or three blocks from the Normandy Plaza Hotel where Cunanan was staying before Versace's murder. Cea says he knows of no tie between Cunanan and Reineck.