Who is Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the Thompson CEO murder?

Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Photo from X/PepMangione

Thompson, who oversaw the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group, was assassinated in a daylight attack on a Midtown Manhattan street on Dec. 4. Five days later, Mangione was arrested and charged with murder over the "targeted" shooting of Thompson, according to The Independent, following a sighting at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. An employee recognized him and alerted the authorities.

Police arrested Mangione while he was carrying false identification, a weapon similar to that seen in the killing’s surveillance video, and a manifesto criticizing the healthcare industry.

According to The New York Times, Mangione, 26, boasts an impressive academic background. He was the valedictorian at Gilman School in Baltimore, Maryland, before earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He also served as a head counselor at a Stanford University pre-college program.

In his high school graduation speech, Mangione thanked the parents in attendance for sending him and his classmates to the school, which he described as "far from a small financial investment." Tuition is currently US$37,690 per year for high schoolers.

As news of Mangione’s arrest made headlines, CNN reported that his former classmates struggled to believe the allegations. They remembered him as a gregarious, ambitious individual who was deeply interested in technology and its potential to change the world. His involvement in social and academic activities during school and university was seen as a sign of a promising future.

A former classmate of his, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN via phone: "If I opened my yearbook and was asked, ‘Who are your favorite people in your class?’ He would have been like in the top 10 or 15."

"He’s a great guy," the man said. "He was just somebody who... I mean, his brain was just like next level."

The Mangione family is influential in Baltimore through their real estate and healthcare businesses and is well-respected in the community for having a long-standing positive impact. His grandfather Nick Mangione Sr. and grandmother Mary C. Mangione purchased the Turf Valley country club in Ellicott City, Maryland, in the 1970s and developed the golf course community.

In the 1980s, the family purchased Hayfields Country Club in Maryland’s Hunt Valley. It also founded the nursing home company Lorien Health Services, with Mangione’s father Louis becoming an owner. The family also owned the radio station WCBM and has other real estate holdings. A cousin of Luigi, Nino Mangione, is an elected member of the Maryland House of Delegates.

However, Mangione withdrew from regular contact with friends and family about six months ago, which coincided with a painful back injury. In July, one man tagged a social media account that appeared to belong to Mangione and said he hadn’t heard from him in months.

"You made commitments to me for my wedding and if you can’t honor them I need to know so I can plan accordingly," the man wrote in a now-deleted post.

His family expressed in a statement that they were "shocked and devastated" by the arrest and extended their "prayers to the family of Brian Thompson."

Mangione left behind a long series of postings about self-improvement, healthy eating, technology, and a review of the Unabomber’s manifesto.

Bullet casings left at the scene, scrawled with words like "deny" and "delay," left authorities and the public wondering if the shooting was payback for healthcare insurers rejecting claims. A link was made between the words and a book by legal expert Jay Feinman, titled "Delay, Defend, Deny: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims, and What You Can Do About It," which discusses the insurance industry’s allegedly unethical practice of delaying and denying legitimate claims.

Additionally, in the three-page statement that Mangione was carrying when he was arrested, he described the killing as a "symbolic takedown," according to an internal police report obtained by The New York Times. The screed described the killing as a direct challenge to the healthcare industry’s "alleged corruption and ‘power games.’" Police investigators said in their report that the suspect "likely views himself as a hero of sorts" who had decided to take action.