The day following the arrest of a person of interest in the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, new details are emerging about the suspect’s identity and lifestyle before he was thrust into the national spotlight.
On Monday morning, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was arrested on firearm charges by the Altoona, Pennsylvania, Police Department at a McDonald’s after an employee recognized him from photos posted online. He was later charged in New York for the killing of Thompson and other charges, per The Associated Press.
Arraigned and ordered held without bail during a brief court hearing, Mangione asked if he could “answer that at a future date” in response to whether or not he would need a public defender. He will eventually be sent to New York to face charges connected to Thompsons death, the AP added.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday night in a press conference that Mangione matched descriptions of the potential suspect they were searching for. He possessed a firearm and suppressor consistent with the one used in the murder of Thompson, as well as clothing and fake I.D.s that also matched those used surrounding the crime.
“Additionally, officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” Tisch said. “Help from the public played a large role in apprehending Mangione.
“Images that we shared with the public were spread far and wide and the tips we received led to the recovery of crucial evidence. We should never underestimate the power of the public to be our eyes and our ears in these investigations.”
As NYPD officers continue to investigate the suspect further, here is what the public knows so far about Luigi Mangione:
He comes from a prominent Maryland family
Raised in Maryland, Mangione’s family owns multiple country clubs along with health care facilities and real estate companies in the Baltimore area, according to CBS News.
His cousin, Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates in Baltimore County, posted on X a statement from the family regarding their relative’s arrest:
“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
“We are devastated by this news.”
He was an Ivy League graduate
Mangione’s LinkedIn profile shows he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in engineering focused on computer and information science.
He apparently excelled in his academics. “The commencement program for the University of Pennsylvania’s class of 2020 lists Mr. Mangione as a member of the school’s chapter of Eta Kappa Nu, an academic honor society for students in electrical and computer engineering that was founded in 1904,” per The New York Times. “The society is selective, inviting only the top quarter of the junior class and top third of the senior class in those majors for membership.”
Those who knew him described him along the lines of a typical university guy.
Alejandro Romero, who went to college with him and was in Discord groups (a social platform where people share content), told NBC News he used to play Among Us, a game where “crewmates” try to weed out the “imposters” whose role is to kill crewmates without being detected, with Mangione and was shocked by the news of Luigi’s arrest.
“I just found it extremely ironic that, you know, we were in this game and there could actually be a true killer among us,” Romero said.
“As soon as his photo and name popped up on X, my friend texted me asking if I knew him, and then either I was calling some 10 friends or they were calling me,” he added. “I didn’t speak to anybody today who wasn’t already aware of what had happened. I feel like people are unsure how to label him. I’m personally struggling to understand how this all fits.”
Set up for success at a young age, his LinkedIn profile also shows Mangione was valedictorian of his 2016 class at Gilman School, an all-boy private school in Baltimore.
Freddie Leatherbury, a former Gilman classmate of Mangione, told The New York Times that Mangione played soccer and ran track and field or cross-country in high school.
“Those are both such disciplined sports. It says a lot about who he was as a student,” Leatherbury said. “He was very smart, a pretty big math guy, really well read and quite well liked to be honest. I don’t have any bad memories of him. He had a very healthy social circle.”
He read the ‘Unabomber Manifesto’
In January, Mangione posted on the book review platform, Goodreads, that he had read Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber’s book, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” giving it a four star review, The New York Times reported.
“It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,” his review read. “But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.”
He also shared a quote by the Indian philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti on his Goodreads profile, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
The New York Times added that he also had books on his profile regarding health and the human body, one being “Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery.”
According to ABC News, Mangione’s Goodreads account is a part of the law enforcement investigation.
His last address was in Honolulu
In 2022, Mangione moved to Hawaii where he reportedly lived for around six months in a co-living co-working space, per CNN. A friend of his at the time, RJ Martin, told CNN that Mangione was working remotely at the time, enjoyed going on hikes and doing yoga and even held book clubs.
“While residents sometimes discussed capitalism and the health care system, ‘it wasn’t like he had an ax to grind or he was even upset or angry about a particular issue,’” Martin said, adding that Mangione never seemed to talk about violence.
“Soon after Mangione moved to Hawaii, Martin said, Mangione did a surf lesson and ended up ‘in bed for about a week’ with back pain. ‘It was really traumatic and difficult, you know, when you’re in your early 20s and you can’t, you know, do some basic things.’”
Martin’s last correspondence with Mangione was earlier this year explaining that he has surgery on his back, sending Martin an X-ray of his back which Martin said, “looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine.”
The X-ray photo is one of three photos in the background of his X profile. It is not yet known if his surgery had any connection with UnitedHealthcare or any other health insurance.
CNN added that Reddit comments from an account that has been deleted, posted in July 2023 that is presumed — not proven — to be posted by Mangione said, “My back and hips locked up after the accident,” and that “intermittent numbness has become constant” and “I’m terrified of the implications.”
Apparently after his surgery, his family members where struggling to get ahold of Mangione and were turning to friends in hopes of learning of his whereabouts.