Trivia: Willem Dafoe was asked to play Donald Kimball in 3 different ways: he thought Bateman was guilty, he didn't think Bateman was guilty, and he wasn't sure if Bateman was guilty. They were all blended together to make the audience not know what Kimball thought of Patrick Bateman.
Trivia: When Bateman in the end of the movie confesses his murders to the answering machine, he mentions murders like a man with a dog and a girl with a nail gun. Those are all murders described very graphically in the book.
Trivia: The infamous scene where Patrick Bateman kills Paul Allen while discussing Huey Lewis and the News was recreated by Huey Lewis himself in the role of Bateman, with "Weird Al" Yankovic being his victim as revenge for parodying his song "I Want a New Drug."
Trivia: Leonardo DiCaprio was originally tapped to play the role of Patrick Bateman, however his agents felt that the role was to twisted and may hurt his image with his younger fans. He ended up passing on the role.
Trivia: Seeing Christian Bale in this is what made Christopher Nolan cast him as Batman.
Answer: The situation is intentionally left vague. The homeless man being murdered wouldn't necessarily make the news in the time (there were over 4000 murders in 1989-90 when the book and movie are set). He and his friends are so alike that they continually mistake each other for others. The prostitutes would likely be loathe to call the police because they might be arrested themselves and he would likely get off with a much better lawyer.
Greg Dwyer