Luigi Mangione, the online version of him, was an Ivy League tech enthusiast who flaunted his tanned, chiseled looks in beach photos and party pictures with blue-blazered frat buddies. He was the valedictorian of a prestigious Baltimore prep school who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at University of Pennsylvania and served as a head counsellor at a pre-college programme at Stanford University.
With his credentials and connections, he could have ended up one day as an entrepreneur or the CEO of one of his family’s thriving businesses.
Police believe Mangione, 26, is the masked shooter who assassinated UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Monday after an employee at a McDonald’s recognised him and called police. Officers said they found him with fake ID, a weapon similar to the one seen in video of the killing and a 262-word manifesto decrying the healthcare industry. The handwritten manifesto begins by appearing to take responsibility for the killing, according to a senior law enforcement official. It notes that as UnitedHealthcare’s market capitalisation has grown, American life expectancy has not.
“To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly I wasn’t working with anyone,” it says. At one point, it says, “These parasites had it coming”, as well as “I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.” An internal police report, obtained by NYT, said Mangione “likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices,” and expressed concern that others might see him as a “martyr and an example to follow.”
Mangione was charged Monday in Manhattan with murder, along with additional counts of forgery and illegal weapons possession. At his arraignment, a judge asked him if he was in contact with his family. “Until recently,” he said.
Mangione was in contact with friends and family until six months ago when he suddenly and inexplicably stopped communicating with them. He had been suffering from a painful back injury, friends said, and then went dark, prompting anxious inquiries from relatives. Those six months will most likely be a focus for investigators as they try to piece together what connection Mangione may have to the killing – and what he was doing in the time no one could find him.
Mangone left behind a long series of postings about self-improvement, healthy eating and technology – and a review of the Unabomber’s manifesto.
Mangione came from a privileged upbringing, part of an influential real estate family in Baltimore. “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the family said. They said they could not comment further as they “only know what we have read in the media,” and they offered their prayers to Thompson’s family.
Mangione attended high school at the Gilman School, where he wrestled and played sports and was the valedictorian of his class in 2016. In a graduation speech, he described his class as “coming up with new ideas and challenging the world around it.” After college, Mangione worked for, or had internships with, several tech companies. His LinkedIn profile said he worked as a software engineer at TrueCar. The company said he had not been an employee since 2023. In recent years, Mangione lived for six months in Honolulu in a “co-living” space called Surfbreak that caters to remote workers.
In Jan, Mangione left a review of a book containing the rambling manifesto of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, on Goodreads. “It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,” he wrote. “But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.” One of his favourite quotes, listed on Goodreads, was “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society,” from philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.
