The suspect arrested in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, Luigi Mangione, from Towson, Md. Cops revealed he harbored anti-capitalist views and had been influenced by the writings of the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, even sharing online quotes from him.
In a manifesto, Mangione allegedly expressed disdain for the medical community, writing, "These parasites had it coming," according to sources. While Mangione has not yet been charged in Thompson's killing, he was arrested on Monday while at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pa. This came after a manhunt for the individual responsible for the cold-blooded shooting of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel the previous week.
Brian Thompson Killer Arrested
The former prep-school valedictorian was found in possession of a ghost gun equipped with a silencer and loaded with 9mm bullets. Authorities also found a U.S. passport, four counterfeit IDs under aliases he used while living in New York City, along with the manifesto, according to sources.
The manifesto, spanning two and a half-handwritten pages, echoed the same anti-establishment sentiments found in the quotes
Mangione had shared on his Goodreads account, which were drawn from Ted Kaczynski, the notorious "Unabomber" who terrorized the country for nearly 20 years by planting lethal bombs before his capture in 1996, according to sources.
"Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness,'' Kaczynski wrote at one point in a quote liked by Mangione.
"Science fiction It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.''
Sources indicated that the manifesto claimed the suspect acted alone.
Killer Acted Alone
According to sources, Mangione's disdain for the medical community was deeply personal, stemming from how a sick relative was treated. Online obituaries show that he lost his grandmother in 2013 and grandfather in 2017.
His LinkedIn profile reveals that he worked for several months at an assisted-living facility for seniors in 2014 while still in high school.
It is unclear whether Mangione has spoken to the police yet.
Law enforcement sources also noted that Mangione supported anti-capitalist and climate-change movements, based on his online activity.
Mangione was the valedictorian of his 2016 class at the Gilman School in Baltimore, where he also played soccer, according to various online sources. The prestigious all-boys school has an annual tuition close to $40,000.
In an interview with the Baltimore Fishbowl, Mangione mentioned that he intended to pursue a degree in artificial intelligence, specializing in computer science and cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania.
He graduated cum laude from the Ivy League university in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) in Computer and Information Science, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His LinkedIn also suggests that Mangione works as a data engineer for a California-based car company, though he lists his current residence as Honolulu, Hawaii.
Mangione's Facebook account, which has no recent activity, lists him as the co-founder of AppRoar Studios, a startup focused on creating simple and engaging gaming experiences through app development.
At the University of Pennsylvania, Mangione was featured in a student publication for founding a student-run video game development club. The club has since evolved into the University of Pennsylvania Game Research and Development Environment.
