The internet’s hive-mind is spinning since Luigi Mangione has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan.
Mangione is young, handsome and privileged, attributes which have raised a series of additional questions as to why he would commited a crime which would undoubtedly have wrecked his life. A valedictorian who went to an expensive private school, he studied at one of America’s best colleges, and became a Stanford tutor. Coming from a wealthy family (the cousin of Republican state lawmaker Nino Mangione), he is pictured healthy and happy, with a grin on his face and showing off an athletic physique, in the many pictures that have taken the media by storm.
Online commentary shows that many hail him as a hero – as someone who took matters into his own hands under a cruel healthcare regime that has disenfranchised millions – and feel that he has been wrongly villainized or even framed, a theory pushed both by the incoherence of his background with the violent act as well as the glaring flaws in his plan, which led to his arrest.
But some of his Goodreads reviews and Twitter likes do suggest a preoccupation with the sickness of American society, and even radicalization.
After fatally shooting the CEO, the suspect was turned in by a McDonald’s worker. He was wearing same clothes as he’d been filmed in, with the murder weapon – a 3D-printed gun – and a manifesto on him, as well as a printed article against healthcare.
Anti-corporate discourse has been thriving in America recently, particularly online – and Mangione seemed to be active in largely liberal online communities
Mangione experienced chronic pain and eventually underwent spinal surgery. He is 26 years old, which is the age American citizens are no longer allowed to be on their parents’ healthcare plan. He complained of not being able to have intimate relations due to the pain. He seems to have been unemployed in 2024 and reports say that he hadn’t been in contact with his family in recent months, as his mother reported him missing in November.
Others say this move suggested that he hoped to be caught, for the sake of his cause, with the knowledge that the case would be heavily sensationalized. Evidence seems compelling.
In any case, he is pleading not guilty. Mangione was denied bail and and may or may not be extradited from Pennsylvania to New York. A preliminary hearing will take place on December 23.
In response, the governor of New York is awaiting the murder indictment ““to be issued any day now, and the second that happens, I’m issuing a warrant for extradition”.
“You cannot assassinate an individual on the streets of New York – not now, not ever”, she said.
Brian Thompson had been receiving threats before he was shot dead in the back by the assailant.
He left behind two sons, to whom he was known as an “incredibly loving” father.
Last year, He was paid a salary of $10.2m as CEO of UnitedHealthcare (Mangione is not insured with United).
A class-action lawsuit filed in May 2024 alleged that he sold $15m of his UnitedHealth Group shares, knowing that the company was reportedly facing an antitrust investigation by the US Department of Justice, reports the BBC. What’s more, the City of Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund initiated a complaint against Mr Thompson and other executives, accusing them of failing to tell investors about the investigation before selling more than $117m in company stock.
In the prominent Italian-American community, Luigi Mangione’s grandfather was a friend of Nancy Pelosi’s – whom Thompson was set to testify against for insider trading.
