Mangione following his arrest on December 9, 2024 An editor has nominated the above file for discussion of its purpose and/or potential deletion. You are welcome to participate in the discussion and help reach a consensus.
Since his arrest, Mangione has received support online, with some celebrating him as a folk hero.[10][11] Opinion polls found that a majority of American adult respondents held a negative view toward Mangione, with younger and left-leaning respondents more likely to support him.[12][13] The support Mangione has generated has been connected to negative views of the health insurance industry and harmful claim denial practices.[14][15] The case has spurred growing calls for health insurance reform.[16]
Mangione belongs to an upper-class Baltimore-area family of Italian descent.[19] His paternal grandfather, Nicholas Mangione, was born to poor Sicilian immigrant parents in the Little Italy neighborhood of Baltimore;[19] he had 10 children (five sons and five daughters) and 37 grandchildren,[17][23] one of whom (a cousin of Luigi) is Nino Mangione, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.[24] After Nicholas Mangione's death, his children took over his businesses;[24] Luigi's father, Louis, now runs the Mangione Family Enterprises.[25] The family also owns Hayfields Country Club, Turf Valley Resort, Lorien Health Services, the WCBM radio station, as well as the Mangione Family Foundation.[17][23]
Mangione began to work remotely in November 2020[31] as a data engineer for TrueCar, a car retailing website company headquartered in Santa Monica, California.[32] His employment there ended at some point during 2023, according to the company. His last known residence was in Honolulu, Hawaii.[33]
The gunman was masked and had come to New York via a bus from Atlanta.[36][37] The words "delay", "deny", and "depose" were written on the spent cases and an ejected cartridge.[38][39][40] The three words are similar to the phrase "delay, deny, defend", a well-known phrase in the insurance industry alluding to insurance companies' efforts to not pay out claims.[41] The suspect possibly left the city, being seen at a bus terminal afterward.[42] Anger erupted on social media platforms at Thompson, UnitedHealth,[43] and the health insurance system generally, with many praising the killing.[44]
Arrest
On December 9, 2024, local police arrested Mangione at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responding to a call from an employee made in response to a customer who recognized Mangione from images of Thompson's alleged killer released by the New York City Police Department (NYPD).[45][46][47] Altoona is about 280 miles (450 km) west of New York City.[20] The police reported that he was "visibly shaken" when they asked him if he had recently visited New York City.[48]
Upon searching Mangione, police said they found a similar 3D-printed gun and 3D-printed suppressor to the weapons used in the shooting and a fake driver's license from New Jersey with the name "Mark Rosario", the same name used by the alleged shooter to check into a Manhattan hostel.[3][20][49][50] Shell casings found at the crime scene reportedly matched the gun.[51] The police also said that, when they arrested Mangione, they found a 262-word handwritten document partly about the American healthcare system, which was characterized as a manifesto by multiple media outlets.[52][53] Mangione had no prior criminal record.[54]
State and federal charges
Mangione was charged in Blair County, Pennsylvania, with carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities, and possessing "instruments of crime" on December 9, 2024.[55] He was arraigned at around 6 p.m. at Blair County Courthouse on firearms charges, questioned by the NYPD,[56] and denied bail.[55][57][58] As he was led into the courthouse, Mangione shouted to the gathered cameras: "That's completely out of touch and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience."[59]
In a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of New York concerning the unsealing of the Complaint charging Mangione, they state "The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty."[9]
On December 23, Mangione was arraigned in the New York Supreme Court and pleaded not guilty to his state charges.[5]
Defense
Mangione's Pennsylvania attorney Thomas Dickey said that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges against him.[21][66] Mangione hired Karen Friedman Agnifilo, former prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and former legal analyst with CNN, as his New York case defense attorney on December 13.[67] Ten days later, Mangione was flown to New York after waiving his right to an extradition hearing.[68]
On December 13, the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe removed a fundraiser created by Mangione's supporters to cover his legal costs. The site's Terms of Service prohibits fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes, and it was removed;[69] a GiveSendGo fundraiser has remained live, and, by December 24, 2024, it had raised more than US$200,000.[70]
In the summer of 2024, Mangione stopped posting on social media.[75] On November 18, 2024, his mother reported him missing to the San Francisco Police Department, saying the family had not heard from him since July of that year,[76] shortly after a trip to East and Southeast Asia.[72] Mangione's mother contacted the San Francisco Police Department because she believed that Mangione lived in San Francisco and still worked for TrueCar, which had an office there.[77]
Views
Handwritten letter
Upon Mangione's arrest, police said they found in his possession a 262-word handwritten document, which some media outlets characterized as a "manifesto", that, according to NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch, spoke to Mangione's "motivation and mindset".[78][79][80]
Ken Klippenstein is the only journalist to publish what was alleged to be the entire document police said was found on Mangione:[81][82][83][84]
To the Feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.[85]
However, the Complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office states "The Feds Letter also stated: 'P.S. you can check serial numbers to verify this is all self-funded. My own ATM withdrawals.'"[86] which is not shown in the document that was released by Klippenstein.[81]
According to Business Insider, Mangione's since-deleted social media posts supported the idea that "his worldview was influenced by reactionary right-wing thinkers".[96]Time magazine said it could not discern whether his political views were left- or right-wing.[54]The Spectator wrote that his worldview "wasn't pinned to a standard left-right axis".[89]Jacobin stated that he held "a hodgepodge of views and political beliefs that don't neatly map onto any one category on the political spectrum".[99]
Mangione posted a Goodreads review of Ted Kaczynski's Industrial Society and Its Future,[87] describing Kaczynski as "rightfully imprisoned" and being critical of his use of violence against innocent individuals. The review was quoted as writing, "Clearly written by a mathematics prodigy. Reads like a series of lemmas on the question of 21st century quality of life", and "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 [...] but it's simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out." The review, which gave the manifesto four out of five stars, also contained a quote that the reviewer claimed to have found online. The quote contained the lines "'Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators" and "when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive".[100][101][88]
Robert Evans described Mangione as being associated with a loosely-defined online subculture called the "gray tribe" or the "rationalist movement", whose members he described as "self-consciously intellectual and open-minded, [and] preoccupied with learning how to overcome their own mental biases. They're deliberately eclectic in their information diet, invoking esoteric ideas from many different fields, [and are] often systems thinkers, who take pride in attributing social problems not to individual evil but to complex interplays of incentives and institutions".[92]
After Mangione's arrest, he received support and praise on social media[107] and over 460,000 followers after his identification on Twitter.[48] According to the Network Contagion Research Institute, variations of "#FreeLuigi" have been shared over 50,000 times on Twitter after his arrest.[103] Groups of people gathered outside the Blair County Courthouse and Manhattan Criminal Court to show their support for Mangione during his December court hearings.[108][109] The support Mangione has generated has been connected to the public's often negative view of the health insurance industry and what many consider to be unfair claim denial practices that inflict harm.[110][111][112][113] The case has spurred growing calls for health insurance reform.[16] A December 2024 NORC at the University of Chicago poll found that a majority of American adults believe that health insurance company denials for health care coverage and/or profits made by those companies share a moderate amount or a great deal of responsibility for Thompson's death.[114][115]
"Deny Defend Depose" graffiti in New York City
Street art, graffiti, and signs in support of Mangione appeared on buildings, streets, highways, and other places.[116][117][118] A billboard with the words "Free Luigi" was seen in Riverside County, California,[119] and a mural portraying Mangione as the Nintendo character Luigi was seen in Seattle.[120] Images and memes of Mangione depicted as a Roman Catholic saint have circulated online.[121][122] Items and merchandise in support of Mangione were posted on Etsy, Amazon, and other e-commerce sites before being removed.[123][124][125] Some merchandise were reportedly the subject of copyright and DMCA takedown requests from an entity purporting to be UnitedHealth Group Inc.[126] Other social media users linked Mangione's jail commissary account soliciting donations for "snacks, sodas, an iPad, etc."[127]The Independent reported that, during his time in custody in Pennsylvania, Mangione had received over 100 pieces of mail.[128]
Mangione has been noted for his perceived physical attractiveness,[129][130] and Kara Alaimo, writing for Time, stated that he has become "somewhat of an online sex symbol".[54] After Mangione's Manhattan courtroom appearance on December 23, Maison Margiela trended on Twitter and Threads after social media users misidentified the brand of the burgundy sweater that Mangione was wearing. Users later determined that he was wearing a "washable Merino crewneck sweater" from Nordstrom, which social media users nicknamed 'Mangione Merino',[131] quickly selling out.[132][133] A criminal justice professor, speaking about Mangione's online popularity, told Women's Wear Daily that "What we see with Mangione is he has quickly become a folk hero and a fashion folk hero."[132]
Perp walk
After being transported from Pennsylvania to New York on December 19, Mangione received a highly publicized perp walk, escorted by a large number of heavily armed law enforcement officials and Mayor of New York CityEric Adams.[134]Stanford Law School professor Robert Weisberg said that "The FBI and NYDA could have transported Mangione discreetly, but they opted for a public show", and some legal experts stated that the perp walk was a "blatant and unnecessary attempt at self-promotion". Policy director for the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School Jorge Camacho said that, "in a case like Mangione's, where the suspect has garnered some sympathy and applause from people frustrated with greedy health-care insurance companies, the tactic can backfire".[135][136]
Some social media users shared memes and compared Mangione's perp walk to the arrest of Jesus, scenes from the Superman movies, and Renaissance paintings.[137] On December 23 during Mangione's New York court hearing where he pled not guilty to the state charges, his defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said that Mangione might not receive a fair trial due to publicity from law enforcement presentations of him, blaming Mayor of New York City Eric Adams for the "unnecessary" and "utterly political" perp walk. She added, "The mayor should know more than anyone about the presumption of innocence", suggesting Adams was attempting to distract from the charges he himself is facing.[138][139]
Opinion polls
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted from December 15 to 17 surveying 1,553 U.S. adult citizens found that 43% of American citizens had a "somewhat unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" view of Mangione, while 21% had a "somewhat favorable" or "very favorable" view of him. 37% were unsure. Mangione received the most support from citizens aged 18–29, who viewed him favorably by a 39%–29% margin, and very liberal citizens, who viewed him favorably by a 47%–31% margin. Mangione was viewed least favorably by citizens aged 65 and older (65%–5% unfavorable) and very conservative citizens (62%–8% unfavorable).[12]
The Center for Strategic Politics ran an online poll with 455 American adults on December 11 and found that "61% of respondents said they have a strong or somewhat negative perception of Mangione", 19% had a positive or somewhat positive view, and 21% did not know. Opinions on Mangione vary "dramatically" by age, with respondents under 45 holding a more positive view of him than those over 45. Additionally, they indicated that men were more likely to support Mangione than women, and Black and Hispanic respondents were more likely to support him than White respondents.[13] The poll also found that young Americans view Mangione "far more favorably" than they viewed Thompson and UnitedHealthcare.[140][141]
A poll of 6,000 U.S. adults was conducted by CloudResearch on December 19, utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). The poll found that roughly one in four respondents were sympathetic to Mangione.[142]
^ abcdThe state of New York defines first- and second-degree murder differently than most states. Usually, premeditated murder is first-degree; in New York, it is second-degree, with first-degree being reserved for a premeditated murder with one of a list of aggravating factors. The only possibly applicable one in Mangione's case is murder committed as an act of terrorism. See Murder in New York law.
^ abc"CNN News Central: Luigi Mangione Indicted in Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO". CNN Transcripts (transcript). CNN. December 17, 2024. Retrieved December 19, 2024. Let me say a bit more about the charges. They include one count of murder in the first degree as a killing and furtherance of terrorism, two counts of murder in the second degree. One charge of the killing was done as an act of terrorism and the second pertaining to the fact that the killing was intentional.
^U.S. v. Mangione, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York (United States District Court Southern District of New York December 18, 2024).
^ abDee, Katherine (December 9, 2024). "Inside the mind of Luigi Mangione". The Spectator World. Retrieved December 10, 2024. Mangione's dissatisfaction had a different inflection. He gravitated toward "traditionalism", a term gaining traction in certain media spaces as shorthand for a certain right-tinged longing: for older aesthetics, more formal courtship rituals, seemingly more authentic ways of life. Thinkpieces abound about this niche of right-coded thought, which seeks permanence and depth beyond what the digital present seems to offer.
