On Monday, after a five-day manhunt, police arrested 26-year-old Luigi Mangione and charged him with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. As details about Mangione’s life (and eyebrows) emerge, many are wondering what might have led him to allegedly shoot a health-insurance executive to death at point-blank range. One crucial piece of context is a three-page handwritten manifesto police found on Mangione when he was arrested, which they say indicated “ill will towards corporate America.”
Before Mangione’s arrest, there was at least one indication (aside from Thompson’s job) that the shooting was intended as a statement about the American health-care system: Bullet casings found at the crime scene were inscribed with the words deny, defend, and depose, a riff on a common refrain used to criticize how insurance companies avoid paying claims. The information authorities have revealed about Mangione’s manifesto — not to mention what we have gleaned from his apparent Goodreads account — is even stronger evidence. According to the New York Times, the document Mangione had on him when he was arrested opens with a confession and states that Mangione “wasn’t working with anyone.” He reportedly points out that UnitedHealthcare’s market capitalization has grown while American life expectancy falls and writes about corporations that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.”
Speaking specifically about United, Mangione is said to condemn the company’s corruption and “power games,” noting that he is “the first to face it with such brutal honesty.” The manifesto also reportedly includes lines like “Frankly these parasites had it coming” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.” According to the Times, internal police analysis of the manifesto states that Mangione likely saw the killing as “a symbolic takedown” and that he “likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices.”
Beyond the manifesto, it seems clear Mangione was dealing with some kind of ongoing back issue, if the photo of a screw-studded spine X-ray on the banner of what appears to be his X account is any indication. R.J. Martin, who shared a “co-living” space with Mangione in Hawaii for six months, told the Times that Mangione’s “spine was kind of misaligned,” and “he knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible.” According to Martin, Mangione left Hawaii in 2023 to have back surgery and indicated there had been some complications. “Long story. I have to figure out some spine stuff here,” he texted Martin in August 2023 along with a photo of the X-ray with the screws before the two eventually fell out of touch. Per CNN, a since-deleted Reddit account that matches Mangione’s biographical details also refers to spinal surgery and posts about suffering from Lyme disease and severe brain fog. Notably, Mangione is 26, the age at which young adults are kicked off their parents’ health-insurance plans.
Mangione was brought to an extradition hearing on Tuesday afternoon, where he was filmed yelling to reporters as police brought him into the courthouse. Though the audio is unclear, he can be heard saying the words “completely out of touch” and “insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
Luigi Mangione attempts to yell something as police rush him inside pic.twitter.com/j2BmmQwqQ5
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 10, 2024
Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, yells to the press as he is taken into court for his extradition hearing:
— The Recount (@therecount) December 10, 2024
“…completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people!” pic.twitter.com/wKymRxGvUW
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