Jornal Do Brasilia - 'Normal guy' turned killer over US insurance industry grievances

Luigi Mangione, 28, was thrust into the spotlight in 2024 after gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a father of two, in broad daylight in Manhattan.

The case laid bare deep frustration and anger with America's privatized medical system that Mangione said failed him after a back injury.

Speculation about Mangione's motives exploded after his dramatic capture in Pennsylvania after a tipster spotted him at a McDonald's.

Mangione has amassed an army of ardent fans and followers who lavish him with prison mail and donations to his defense fund.

His critics, led by US President Donald Trump, have called for him to face severe punishment.

A photo on one of his social media accounts included an X-ray of an apparently injured spine.

While no explicit political affiliation has emerged, an apparent manifesto found on Mangione after his arrest contained anti-corporate sentiments.

It targeted the health insurance industry, referring to it as a "greed-fueled cartel" that "extracts human life force for money."

According to Mangione's LinkedIn profile, he had been employed as a data engineer at TrueCar, a California-based online auto marketplace, a role he left in 2023.

Although he had been living in Hawaii ahead of the killing, he originally hails from Towson, Maryland, near Baltimore. He comes from a prominent and wealthy Italian-American family.

The family owns local businesses, including the Hayfields Country Club.

- 'Cowards and predators' -

A gifted student, Mangione graduated at the top of his high school class in 2016. In an interview with his local paper at the time, he praised his teachers for fostering a passion for learning beyond grades and encouraging intellectual curiosity.

A former student who knew Mangione at the Gilman School told AFP the suspect struck him as "a normal guy, nice kid."

"There was nothing about him that was off, at least from my perception," they said, asking that their name not be used.

"Seemed to just be smiling, and kind of seemed like he was a smart kid. Ended up being valedictorian, which confirmed that," the former student said.

Mangione went on to attend the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, where he completed both a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science by 2020, according to a university spokesperson.

While at Penn, Mangione helped lead a group of 60 undergraduates who collaborated on video game projects, according to online archives.

On Instagram, Mangione shared snapshots of his travels in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. He also posted shirtless photos flaunting a six-pack and appeared in celebratory posts with fellow members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

However, it is on X (formerly Twitter) that users have scoured Mangione's posts for potential motives. His header photo showed an X-ray of a spine with bolts.

Finding a coherent political ideology has also proved elusive, though he had written a review of Ted Kaczynski's manifesto on the online site Goodreads, calling it "prescient."

Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, carried out a string of bombings in the United States from 1978 to 1995, a campaign he said was aimed at halting the advance of modern society and technology.

Mangione called Kaczynski "rightfully imprisoned," while also saying "'violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators."

Mangione has also linked approvingly to posts criticizing secularism as a harmful consequence of Christianity's decline.

He previously wrote, "Horror vacui (nature abhors a vacuum)." He subsequently posted an essay he wrote in high school titled "How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome."

Mangione, who reportedly acts as something of an "ambassador" to new arrivals in his cell block, now faces life imprisonment for his crimes at sentencing in December.

A. Martins--JDB