Everything We Know So Far About Luigi Mangione
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who's believed to be responsible for the fatal shooting of the CEO of a healthcare company, has formally been charged with murder. He was spotted at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the deadly shooting.
A clearer picture is starting to emerge of Mangione: A once-promising Ivy League graduate who apparently became incensed by corporate America — to the extent of allegedly committing murder. Here's what we know about Luigi Mangione in the wake of his arrest.
He's accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Thompson was in New York to attend an annual investors meeting. He was ambushed and shot outside the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan at about 6:45 on the morning of December 4th.
An assailant shot him several times and then fled the scene. He was seen riding an e-bike towards Central Park, then getting into a taxi, and following that, the trail went cold. Thompson was pronounced dead about half an hour after the shooting.
The assailant was prepared.
The event was immediate front page news, and while the identity of the gunman was not yet known, investigators were able to put together a detailed timeline of his preparations leading up to the shooting.
He'd checked into a hostel on Manhattan's Upper West Side on November 24th, more than a week before the shooting, and checked out on December 3rd — a day before. Because he paid in cash and had used a fake ID, there were few leads early on.
The public response was mixed.
The killing brought attention not just to Brian Thompson and UnitedHealthcare, but also to the American health insurance system as a whole. Gallows humor flooded the internet in the hours and days after the shooting, with many commentators expressing their belief that the system is broken in many ways.
"Today we mourn the death of Brian Thompson, gunned down — wait, I'm sorry — today we mourn the deaths of 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires," said Anthony Zenkus, a senior lecturer in social work at Columbia University.
The killer left evidence.
The gun used in the killing was not recovered at the scene, but police in New York collected a water bottle, candy wrapper, and phone believed to be connected to the killer. In the following days, they also said they'd found the shooter's backpack, which contained a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and Monopoly money.
The most intriguing evidence, though, came in the form of ammunition casings that were found at the scene — three fired cartridge casings and three unfired.
The evidence pointed to a possible motive.
Three of the cartridge cases had hand-carved messages on them, reading "delay", "deny", and "depose." It was hard not to notice the similarities between this message and "delay, deny, defend," an expression used in the insurance industry to describe the process of denying claims.
This phrase is also the title of a 2010 book by Jay M. Feinman, in which Feinman was critical of the insurance industry as a whole. While the gunman's identity was still not known, this message all but confirmed that this was a revenge killing carried out by someone with a grudge against the health insurance industry.
The search intensified.
While more information continued to leak out over the coming days — including a physical description of the gunman and several still images showing his unmasked face — there were no sightings in the days immediately following the killing.
An initial $10,000 reward offered by the NYPD for information leading to his arrest was bolstered by an additional $50,000 offered by the FBI. It was believed that the gunman had left New York, so border security was stepped up in an effort to keep him in the country.
Luigi Mangione was arrested on Monday, December 9th.
A person at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania — about 280 miles from New York — called police after noticing that a customer resembled the man seen in the suspect photos. Police quickly arrived at the scene and took the man — identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione — into custody.
Mangione had in his possession a 3D-printed gun and silencer, a three-page manifesto, and a fake New Jersey driver's license — allegedly the same one used by the gunman at the hostel in Manhattan.
The manifesto makes Mangione's opinions clear.
Local police in Altoona said that the manifesto is sharply critical of corporate America as a whole, with particular emphasis on UnitedHealthcare specifically. "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," the manifesto allegedly read. "These parasites had it coming."
While there wasn't yet enough evidence to charge Mangione with Brian Thompson's murder, he was taken into custody on various charges related to his weapon and fake ID. He was later charged with murder.
A clearer picture began to emerge.
Mangione is a man who seemed to have it all. He was born into a wealthy Baltimore family, attended a prestigious private school, and was even the valedictorian of his high school's graduating class in 2016.
After graduating, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution in Philadelphia. He graduated in 2020 with a master's and bachelor's degree in computer science, a minor in mathematics, and was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
He knew how to code and worked as a software engineer.
On a University of Pennsylvania blog post, Mangione discusses his experience. He says he learned how to code in high school, which ignited a passion that he parlayed into a computer science major.
Following graduation, he worked as a software engineer for TrueCar, an online car sales company. He moved to Hawaii, where he was able to do his work remotely from a co-working and co-living space.
He had an active social media presence.
For years, Mangione was a frequent poster on various social media platforms, posting pictures of trips with friends and his workout routine. He was also evidently an avid reader, keeping a list of close to 300 books on the book website Goodreads.
While this is all normal behavior, some of the specifics hinted at his motivations. In some of his postings, Mangione discussed various health challenges — and on Goodreads, he showed that he was a fan of the manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber.
His life seemed normal, but then took a turn.
Mangione had an active social life, and various peers and colleagues described him as intelligent, friendly, and outgoing. But sometime in the summer of 2024, things seemed to take a turn for the worse as he stopped posting on social media.
"Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you," read one message addressed to Mangione's account on X. Another message read, "I don't know if you are okay."
He dealt with significant health challenges.
Mangione had a dedicated gym routine and also enjoyed outdoor activities like yoga. After moving to Hawaii, he took up surfing. This didn't end well, according to R.J. Martin, the founder of the co-living space where Mangione was staying.
Some kind of mishap during a surf lesson resulted in Mangione being laid up in bed for about a week. Later on, Mangione told Martin that he'd undergone back surgery. It "looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine," said Martin.
A Reddit account may offer more clues.
A since-deleted Reddit account that can't be confirmed as Mangione's, but nonetheless matches up with many of his personal details, describes a battle with spondylolisthesis, a spinal condition. The user of the account says that they'd been dealing with the condition since childhood, and a recent surfing injury had made things worse.
"My back and hips locked up after the accident," the account wrote. "I'm terrified of the implications." The account also detailed health struggles with Lyme disease and "brain fog."
Slowly, he seems to have become radicalized.
While the Reddit account didn't overtly discuss the health insurance industry, it did note, "It's absolutely brutal to have such a life-halting issue. The people around you probably won't understand your symptoms — they certainly don't for me."
A more overt message came in Mangione's review of the Kaczynski manifesto, which read, "[Kaczynski] was a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary."
He had not been seen as a suspect.
Mangione's alleged role in the killing would appear to be his first brush with the law, as there's no criminal record for anyone matching his name in any of the places where he's lived.
Investigators say that he had not been on their list of suspects, so his arrest came as a complete surprise — and he could have continued his flight from the law had he not been recognized in Altoona.
He allegedly became very nervous when confronted.
When police arrived at the McDonald's and asked Mangione to identify himself, he first handed over the fake New Jersey ID. He was then asked if he had recently been to New York.
After hearing this, he "became quiet and started to shake," according to an affidavit. "He became visibly nervous, kind of shaking at that question, and he didn't really answer it directly, so that statement alone really said a lot," Altoona Deputy Police Chief Derek Swope told reporters.
The evidence found on his person is damning.
Inside Mangione's backpack, police found not just the 3D-printed gun and silencer, but also a loaded magazine with six rounds of 9-millimetre ammunition, a U.S. passport, and $10,000 in cash — with about $2,000 of that in foreign currency.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters that the weapon and silencer were "both consistent with the weapon used in the murder" of Brian Thompson in Manhattan. Police made immediate plans to extradite him to New York to face charges.
He appeared in a Pennsylvania court.
The initial charges levied against Mangione were related to his unlicensed gun and fake ID, and he appeared calm during the hearing despite his handcuffs and wrist shackles.
Several hours later, investigators in New Jersey added additional charges, including murder and gun charges. Mangione is reportedly fighting an extradition to New York, which means prosecutors now have 30 days to get a warrant that would force the extradition. In the meantime, he's been denied bail.
Police say they've gathered more evidence.
In addition to reporting that the gun found in Mangione's backpack matches the shell casings found at the scene of the killing, police also say that Mangione's fingerprints tie him to the crime.
Some of the alleged contents of the notebook found in Mangione's notebook have also been reported on since Mangione's arrest. "What do you do?" a section of the notebook asks rhetorically, continuing, "You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It's targeted, precise and doesn't risk innocents."
Mangione's defense is fiercely fighting extradition.
At his Pennsylvania court appearances, Mangione has been represented by defense lawyer Thomas Dickey. In addition to fighting the extradition attempt, Dickey pushed back at the initial charges of forgery and gun possession.
"You can't rush to judgment in this case, or any case," Dickey said after the hearing. "He's presumed innocent. Let's not forget that."
The Mangione family has responsed.
In a statement, Mangione's family said that while they cannot respond to specifics, they are "shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest," adding, "We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved."
As this story continues to develop, we'll add more information as it becomes apparent.