InstagramThe scion of a prominent Maryland family who graduated top of his class at a top private school before graduating from an Ivy League college, Luigi Mangione seems to have everything going well for him, according to friends.
They were stunned by the arrest of this 26-year-old man for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot dead last week in New York City. Mr Mangione will plead not guilty, his lawyer said.
According to a legal report seen by American media, Mr. Mangione is said to have been motivated by anger at the health insurance companies he called “parasitic”.
He spent time in a diving community in Hawaii, but left because of debilitating back pain, those who remember him said. However, it is unclear how much his health problems shaped his views on the medical industry.
He was arrested Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and was allegedly in possession of a gun, ammunition, fake IDs and cash.
Mr Mangione also had a handwritten note expressing “bad desire” for corporate America and including passages such as “obviously, these insects have arrived”, according to police.
Detectives say the words “deny”, “protect” and “demolish” were written on shell casings found at the scene of Mr Thompson’s murder.
Critics of health care insurance call these the “three D’s of insurance” – tactics used by companies to deny patients’ payment requests.
Mr. Mangione comes from a well-known family in the Baltimore area known for businesses including clubs, nursing homes and a radio station, according to local media.
The suspect’s grandparents, Nicholas and Mary Mangione, were real estate developers who bought Turf Valley Country Club in 1978 and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley in 1986.
Shortly after Mr. Mangione was indicted, his cousin, Republican Congressman Nino Mangione, released a statement saying the family was shocked and distraught.
“We pray for Brian Thompson’s family and ask for prayers for all involved”, the statement read.
Thomas Maronick, a lawyer who knows family members, told the BBC of his shock at the charges.
“You wouldn’t think that someone who is lucky or comes from a family that is known for doing so much in the community would do something like this.”
Mr. Mangione attended a private, all-boys school in Baltimore, called the Gilman School, where he was valedictorian, an award usually given to the most academically accomplished student in the class.
Speaking to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, one of his classmates said Mr Mangione had “no enemies” and was “respected for a reason”.
Mr. Mangione went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in computer science, according to the school, and founded a video game development club.
A friend who attended an Ivy League college at the same time as Mr. Mangione described him as “a normal person” and “a brilliant person”.
Mr. Mangione was employed as a data engineer for TrueCar, a digital website that sells new and used cars, according to his social media profiles. A spokesperson for the company told the BBC that he has not worked there since 2023.
He also spent time at a surf club in Hawaii called Surfbreak. Sarah Nehemiah, who knew him at the time, told CBS that he left because of a back injury that had gotten worse from surfing and hiking.
Department of MoralsFriends told American media that he had undergone back surgery. A background image on X’s account believed to be Mr Mangione’s shows an x-ray of a spine with hardware on it.
His flatmate, RJ Martin, told the BBC that although Mr Mangione “never complained”, his back pain sometimes “prevented” him from doing “many normal things” such as surfing or playing volleyball.
Mr Martin – who eventually lost contact with Mr Mangione – said he believed his former friend “would never have thought of harming another person”.
“There’s no making sense of it,” he added.
A person matching his name and photo had an account on Goodreads, a user-generated book review site, where he read two books about back pain in 2022, one of which was called Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry.
He also gave four stars to a document called Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski – also known as the Unabomber manifesto.
Starting in 1978, Kaczynski carried out a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured dozens of others, until his arrest in 1996.
In his review, Mr Mangione acknowledged that Kaczynski was a violent person, but also described him as a political reformer.
According to local media reports, Mr Mangione’s mother reported him missing last month to authorities in San Francisco, saying she had not heard from her son since July.
Acquired by CBS NewsSource link
