CEO Murder Twist: Suspect’s Best Friend Breaks Silence in Total Shock – You Won’t Believe What Happened

A profile is emerging of the 26-year-old man charged with murder in the deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson, in New York City last week. On Monday, police stated that Luigi Mangione had been detained after being identified at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The Baltimore, Maryland, native was discovered in possession of a “ghost gun,” a largely untraceable firearm, and a three-page handwritten document indicating “motivation and mindset,” officials claimed.

Who is Luigi Mangione?

Mr. Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has connections to San Francisco, California, according to New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. He has no prior offenses in New York, and his former home was in Honolulu, Hawaii, according to authorities. He comes from a well-known Baltimore family and attended the Gilman School, a private, all-boys secondary school in Baltimore, according to school authorities. Mr Mangione was named valedictorian, which is often the student with the highest academic standing in a class. In a statement, the school described the situation as “deeply distressing”. According to Freddie Leatherbury, a former classmate, Mr Mangione hailed from an affluent family, even by the standards of that exclusive school. “Quite honestly, he had everything going for him,” Mr Leatherbury explained.

Mr. Mangione went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science, according to the school, and started a video game production club. Mr Mangione was described as a “super normal” and “smart person” by a friend who attended the Ivy League college with him. According to his social media sites, Mr. Mangione worked as a data engineer for TrueCar, a digital selling platform for new and used cars. A firm spokeswoman informed the BBC that he hadn’t worked there since 2023.

According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Mangione formerly worked as a programming intern for Firaxis, a video game development company. Investigators believe the three-page, handwritten document found on him indicated a motive. According to the authors, the pages indicated “ill will” toward corporate America. A top law enforcement official said, “These parasites had it coming,” and “I apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done”. According to investigators, the phrases “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” were inscribed on shot casings discovered at the scene of Mr Thompson’s death. Critics of healthcare insurers call them the “three Ds of insurance” – techniques firms employ to reject patient payment claims.

Friends told the US media that he had back surgery. The wallpaper image on an X account thought to belong to Mangione depicts an X-ray of a spine with hardware embedded. However, it is unclear how much his personal experience with the healthcare system influenced his opinions. A person with the same name and photo had an account on Goodreads, a user-generated book review site, where he read two books about back pain in 2022, one of which was titled Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry.

He also granted four stars to Theodore Kaczynski’s work, Industrial Society and Its Future, popularly known as the Unabomber Manifesto. Starting in 1978, Kaczynski carried out a terrorist campaign that killed three individuals and injured hundreds more before being caught in 1996.

Mr Mangione noted in his evaluation that Kaczynski was a violent character who killed innocent people. Still, the book should not be discarded as a lunatic’s manifesto but rather as the work of an extreme political revolutionary. His social media pages also indicate that he has recently lost connection with relatives and acquaintances. In an October post on X, someone tagged an account believed to be Mr Mangione’s and wrote: “Hey, are you okay? Nobody has heard from you in months, and your family is seeking you.”

How much do we know about his family?

According to local media, Mr Mangione hails from a well-known Baltimore family with companies that include country clubs, nursing homes, and a radio station. The suspect’s paternal grandparents, Nicholas and Mary Mangione, were real estate entrepreneurs who bought Turf Valley Country Club in 1978 and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley in 1986. Shortly after the suspect was charged, Republican state senator Nino Mangione, thought to be Mr . Mangione’s cousin, issued a statement stating the family was “shocked and devastated. devastated for our prayers to Brian Thompson’s family and ask that people pray for everyone involved,” the statement concluded, signing off as “The Mangione Family.”