The suspect of executing UnitedHealth's top executive, Luigi Mangione, has no criminal record and a person with his name has a presence on social networks where he criticizes Artificial Intelligence. Here we explain what is known about this 26-year-old man accused of murder.
Manhattan police obtained an arrest warrant for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, suspected in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, while carrying a gun, a mask and writings linking him to the incident.
Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possessing a firearm without a license, forgery and providing false identification to police. On Monday night, Manhattan prosecutors charged him with five counts, including murder and illegal possession of a weapon.
Mangione apparently lived a charmed life: He was the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, the valedictorian of his elite prep school in Baltimore, and had degrees from one of the country's top private universities.
Friends who shared an exclusive co-living space on the outskirts of tourist Waikiki in Hawaii, where Mangione, 26, once lived, considered him a “great guy,” and photos on his social media accounts show a young attractive, smiling and fit on beaches and parties.
Now, investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to piece together why Mangione may have deviated from this path to make the violent and radical decision to shoot Thompson dead in a surprise attack on a Manhattan street.
The murder sparked widespread debates about corporate greed, injustice in the health insurance industry, and even inspired folk hero sentiment toward his killer.
This is what is known about Luigi Mangione:
The judicial aspect
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said Tuesday that it will seek an order from the governor to secure Mangione's extradition to Manhattan.
Under state law, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul can issue an arrest warrant demanding Mangione's return to the state.
Mangione screamed and struggled with officers when he arrived at the courthouse. He shouted something that was partly unintelligible, but referred to an “insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
Dressed in orange overalls, he looked straight ahead most of the time, occasionally consulting documents, rocking in his chair or looking toward the gallery.
At one point, he began to speak to respond to the court argument, but was silenced by his attorney, Thomas Dickey.
What do the police say?
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, went to college in Pennsylvania and is believed to have had “ill will toward American corporations” according to a document found on him, said Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the NYPD. .
Mangione has ties to San Francisco, lived in Honolulu until recently and is believed to have acted on his own, Kenny said. He has no known criminal history in New York, Kenny said.
Where did you study?
By name he has been identified as a 2016 outstanding student at the private Gilman School for boys in Baltimore. The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The American newspaper The New York Times reported that Gilman sent an email Monday to alumni in which principal Henry Smyth said: “This is deeply distressing news that adds to an already terrible situation.”
The University of Pennsylvania said a person named Luigi Mangione graduated in 2020 with a master's degree in engineering science, with a concentration in computer and information sciences.
Stanford University said a person with the same name was employed as a senior advisor in the Stanford Pre-College Studies program between May and September 2019.
Where have you worked and what does a former colleague think?
Luigi Mangione worked for TrueCar until 2023, according to a spokesperson for the auto retail site.
A colleague, a software engineer at TrueCar, said Mangione helped him write some particularly difficult code. “There has to be a mistake. The Luigi I know is a super nice guy,” said the former colleague, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid attention on social media.
“All I remember is a very sweet guy. Always willing to help people. Very intelligent,” said the source whose identity is withheld.
What do social networks say?
A Facebook profile for Luigi Mangione identifies him as being from Towson, Maryland. Local media said his family owned a country club and radio station in the Baltimore area and that his cousin was Maryland House of Delegates member Nino Mangione. The lawmaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A banner on the X page for Mangione, who says he lives in Honolulu, includes an X-ray image of what appear to be screws and plates inserted into someone's lower back.
X's posts from two years ago include criticism of artificial intelligence, repeated posts of comments against diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and comments about how smartphones harm children and the harm caused by commercial agriculture .
A 2022 post discusses his high school speech on topics ranging from AI to human immortality. The posts appear to question some of the technologies Mangione seemed to admire in high school.
On Goodreads, a Luigi Mangione praises Unabomber author Ted Kaczynski's book, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” as “prophetic” about modern society.
Calling Kaczynski an “extreme political revolutionary,” the author cites another online commenter's observation about the Unabomber that “when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary for survival.” The message also criticizes fossil fuel companies, saying that “violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defense.”
(With information from Reuters and AP)