Luigi Mangione, 26, was detained in Altoona, Pennsylvania Monday, Dec. 9, and eventually arrested and charged in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione was picked up five days after Thompson was killed outside the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City early in the morning on Dec. 4. At first, he was just detained and labeled a person of interest in Thompson’s killing, but he was arrested on a firearms charge in Altoona. (Mangione did not enter a plea during his one court appearance yesterday in Pennsylvania.)
He was later charged in New York on one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm.
On Tuesday, Dec. 10, Mangione appeared in court in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania for an extradition hearing. During the hearing, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released a statement saying it would seek a governor’s warrant to secure Mangione’s extradition. Meanwhile, Mangione’s lawyer Thomas Dickey said that his client was “contesting” the extradition. A decision has yet to be made, though a judge did deny Mangione bail.
Details about Mangione are still emerging, but here’s everything we know so far about the person of interest, as well as Thompson’s death.
Authorities have described Thompson’s killing as a “preplanned, targeted attack.” The shooting occurred at around 6:45 a.m. when the suspect fired several bullets at Thompson, striking him in his back and leg. Three live rounds and three fired shell casings were recovered from the scene by police. The 50-year-old was pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital.
Immediately after the shooting, authorities said the suspect fled the scene, first on foot, then on a bicycle, and quickly left New York City via bus (surveillance cameras caught him entering the Port Authority Bus Terminal but not leaving it). Police officers also recovered a backpack — reportedly stuffed with Monopoly money — in Central Park that they said belonged to the shooter. During the manhunt, police shared a handful of photos of the suspected shooter culled from surveillance footage. These included images of the shooter in a Starbucks, as well as a taxi cab, though in both of those images, his face was covered. Images of the shooter without a face mask were captured at the Manhattan hostel where he was reportedly saying.
It was these images that appeared to lead to Mangione’s identification in Altoona. At a press conference on Monday, Dec. 9, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione was recognized by a McDonald’s employee, who then called the police.
When the officers arrived on the scene, Tisch continued, they questioned Mangione, whom they said was “acting suspiciously.” The police found that Mangione was “carrying multiple fraudulent IDs” — including a fake New Jersey ID that matched the one the suspect allegedly used to check into his New York City hostel. Tisch also said officers recovered a face mask similar to one worn by the suspect, as well as a gun and a suppressor “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder.”
At the press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said they believed Mangione was carrying was a “ghost gun.” These are firearms that are made out of parts and DIY kits bought online, and then assembled at home, rendering them untraceable.
In charging documents from Mangione’s firearms case in Pennsylvania obtained by Rolling Stone, police officers described the gun found on Mangione as a “black 3D-printed pistol” with a silencer that was “also 3D printed.” The cops’ affidavit also said: “The pistol had a metal slide and a plastic handle with a metal threaded barrel. The pistol had one loaded Glock magazine with six nine-millimeter full metal jacket rounds. There was also one loose nine-millimeter hollow point round.”
Lastly, Mangione had a handwritten manifesto that Tisch said spoke to his “motivation and mindset.”
At the press conference, Kenny shared a few biographical details about Mangione, saying he was born and raised in Maryland, had ties to San Francisco and recently lived in Honolulu. Since then, more information has emerged about a young man from a well-to-do Baltimore family who appeared to suffer from debilitating back pain and suddenly disappeared about six months ago.
As The New York Times reported, Mangione’s family has long been influential throughout Maryland. They own two country clubs, as well as a nursing home company, which Mangione’s father, Louis, eventually took over. The family also owns a conservative-leaning talk radio station, WCBM, while one of Mangione’s cousins, Nino, is a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
Mangione attended the Gilman School, a private all-boys institution in Maryland, where he wrestled and graduated in 2016 as valedictorian. Mangione’s budding interest in computer science, took him to the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in computer science, minored in mathematics, and also earned a master’s degree in engineering. He was also invited to join Eta Kappa Nu, an exclusive academic honor society only open to the top engineering students at Penn.
After graduating in 2020, Mangione took internships at several tech companies and briefly worked as a software engineer at TrueCar, an automobile pricing and review site (a company spokesperson confirmed to Rolling Stone that Mangione had not worked there since 2023).
In 2022, Mangione moved to Honolulu, settling in at a “co-living” space for remote workers known as Surfbreak. Speaking to The Times, Surfbreak founder R.J. Martin described the place as “a community of givers,” and called Mangione “an ideal member.” But Martin said he and others at Surfbreak were well aware that Mangione was suffering from serious back issues, too. “His spine was kind of misaligned,” Martin said. “He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve.”
Martin said he did not think Mangione was taking painkillers, nor did Mangione tend to complain about his issues. But he was reportedly upfront about how inhibitive the pain was. “He knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible,” Martin said. “I remember him telling me that, and my heart just breaks.”
After his first stint at Surfbreak, Mangione reportedly traveled back and forth between Hawaii and the East Coast. During his trips back east, Mangione reportedly saw doctors, and in the summer of 2023, he may have undergone a back operation. Martin said that in Aug. 2023 he texted Mangione to see how he was doing, and in return received “pictures of his back surgery.”
It’s believed that Mangione underwent a spinal fusion operation. In the procedure, screws and rods are used to connect bones in the spine to address misalignments and prevent movements that can cause pain. The banner photo of Mangione’s Twitter account includes an X-ray image of one such reinforced spine.
Martin’s communications with Mangione became more scattershot after that (though Mangione did return to Hawaii in late 2023, which is when he received a $100 fine and citation for failing to observe a sign at a scenic spot on Oahu). Martin said he texted Mangione in May and June of this year, but Mangione did not respond.
Martin wasn’t the only person to lose touch with Mangione, who appeared to cut off communication with friends and family about six months ago. After his name was released yesterday, social media users uncovered a string of messages ostensibly from a friend trying to contact Mangione via Twitter: “You made commitments to me for my wedding and if you can’t honor them I need to know so I can plan accordingly,” he wrote in one (the posts have since been deleted).
Aaron Cranston, a high school friend, told The Times that earlier this year he was forwarded a message from Mangione’s family, who were trying to track him down. The family reportedly said they had not heard from Mangione in several months after his surgery and did not know where he was.
According to The San Francisco Standard, Mangione’s mother, Kathleen Mangione, reported her son missing to the San Francisco Police Department on Nov. 18.
The release of Mangione’s name revealed several social media accounts that share his name, as well as some matching biographical details. (For instance, a Twitter account for a Luigi Mangione includes his college credentials, “M.S.E. and B.S.E. in Computer Science @ Penn.”)
Many of his accounts featured the usual fare, like photos from his travels, and with friends and family, as well as posts about weightlifting, physical fitness, self-improvement, science, and tech. He frequently retweeted or responded to popular figures in those spheres, like Andrew Huberman, Tim Urban, Tim Ferriss, and Michael Pollan. (Mangione’s post could veer into the bizarre, like an April post that surfaced in which he claimed falling population rates in Japan were due not to immigration but a decline in things like spirituality and human connectivity and a proliferation of things like sex toys.)
It also appears Mangione was an active Reddit user, and a survey of his posts reveals more information about his struggles with back pain (via Forbes and The New York Times). Under the username “Mister_Cactus,” Mangione frequently posted on a subreddit for spondylolisthesis — a condition that occurs when a bone in the spine slips out of place and presses down on the vertebra below it (via the Cleveland Clinic).
On Reddit, Mangione reportedly posted about how how the minor back pain he’d experienced during his life had grown worse after a surfing trip in 2022, followed by a fall a few weeks later. “When my spondy went bad on me last year (23M) it was completely devastating as a young athletic person,” Mangione allegedly wrote in one post. “Seemingly all I could read on the internet was that I was destined to chronic pain and a desk job for the rest of my life.”
Other posts corroborated the belief that Mangione underwent a spinal fusion surgery in July 2023. A post not long after suggested the operation had been a huge success: “The surgery wasn’t nearly as scary as I made it out to be in my head, and I knew it was the right decision within a week,” he said, adding he no longer needed pain medication and could sit, stand, and walk without any problems.
Despite posting frequently about his medical journey, it does not appear that Mangione ever made any statements about health insurance companies. The only relevant post in that regard appeared to be one on a subreddit for people dealing with irritable bowel syndrome, with Mangione saying he had a test covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield. (Mangione’s suspected Reddit account has since been suspended, with a spokesperson for the site saying its policy is to suspend accounts that may be related to criminal investigations.)
Mangione also appeared to be very active on Goodreads, where he logged sci-fi and pop science books, as well as texts on addressing and overcoming back pain. But arguably, the most striking book logged on that Goodreads account was Industrial Society and Its Future — otherwise known as the manifesto of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.
“It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless [sic] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out,” Mangione wrote in his review back in January.
(It should be noted that, following his detainment yesterday, a mysterious YouTube account appeared using Mangione’s name. The account shared a short clip that included the text, “If you see this, I’m already under arrest,” and promised “All is scheduled, be patient.” This account, however, was quickly debunked as phony and suspended. A YouTube spokesperson told Newsweek, “The channel’s metadata was updated following widespread reporting of Luigi Mangione’s arrest, including updates made to the channel name and handle.”)
According to early reports, Mangione had a handwritten manifesto on him that criticized healthcare companies and the ways they prioritize profits over patient care.
Speaking on the manifesto at the press conference Monday, Kenny said the document remains in the possession of Altoona police as part of their investigation. He added: “Just from briefly speaking with them, we don’t think that there’s any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document. But it does seem that he has some ill will towards corporate America.”
The Times later obtained an internal NYPD report on the manifesto, which noted that Mangione “appeared to view the targeted killing of the company’s highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and ‘power games,’ asserting in his note he is the ’first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
While the full contents of the document haven’t been released yet, some quotes have emerged via police officials. One provided CNN with two quotes: “These parasites had it coming” and “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”
And according to The Times, another part of the document reads: “To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone.” The document also reportedly decries health insurance companies that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.”
Those contents certainly to appear to line up with one of the most striking pieces of evidence to come out of the crime scene: Bullet casings engraved with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” a possible allusion to terms used by health insurance companies to avoid paying claims.
This story was updated 12/10/24 @ 10:22 a.m. ET with more details about Mangione. This story was updated again at 3:41 p.m. ET with details about Mangione’s reported Reddit posts and the gun he had on him when he was arrested.
From Rolling Stone US
