‘Had to be done’: Luigi Mangione’s full manifesto about insurance CEO’s killing released
What’s purported to be Luigi Mangione’s full manifesto – detailing his decision to fatally shoot CEO Brian Thompson – has been published online.
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The full version of suspected murderer Luigi Mangione’s manifesto – detailing his alleged decision to fatally shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson – has been published online.
A post containing what’s purported to be the document was shared to Substack by user Ken Klippenstein’s newsletter overnight.
The 262-word missive posted by Klippenstein, which has been quoted in part by officials and media outlets since the 26-year-old’s arrest, has not been verified by authorities.
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country,” the alleged manifesto begins.
“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 (computer-aided design), 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 so probably not much info there.”
Mangione purportedly goes on to apologise “for any strife of traumas but it had to be done”, adding “frankly, these parasites had it coming”, according to the document.
While America has “the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world”, he (allegedly) wrote, “we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy”.
While UnitedHealthcare, of which Mr Thompson was the CEO, is “the largest company in the US by market cap” and “has grown and grown”, the document states that Americans’ life expectancy has not.
“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,” it reads.
“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.”
It then refers by surname to prolific filmmaker Michael Moore, whose 2007 documentary SICKO exposed the measures health insurers go to profit off Americans while simultaneously denying them care, and former New York Times reporter Elizabeth Rosenthal, whose book, American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back, was published in 2017.
Both, the manifesto reads, “have illuminated the corruption and greed … decades ago and the problems simply remain”.
“It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play,” he concluded.
“Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
Investigators have not yet declared a definitive motive for Mangione – but have said the manifesto and inscribed casings on the bullets he used to shoot Mr Thompson (“deny, defend, depose”) suggest the killing was a “targeted attack” on both the CEO and health insurance industry as a whole.
According to a New York Police Department internal report, obtained earlier this week by The New York Times, Mangione “appeared to view the targeted killing of the company’s highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and ‘power games’”.
He “likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices,” the report said.
Mangione’s own experience with the health insurance industry also may have contributed, sources claim.
Friends of the alleged killer have detailed the impact his own medical issues – particularly the aftermath of a 2023 back operation – had on his mental and physical wellbeing.
One source told Jack Mac, a staffer at media outlet Barstool Sports, that the surgery “‘changed everything’ for him and he went ‘absolutely crazy’”.
The notebook mentioned by Mangione in his alleged manifesto, two law enforcement officials told The New York Times detailed his plans for the shooting, and described going to a conference and killing an executive.
Mangione wrote that he’d considered killing Mr Thompson with a bomb, but settled on a handgun because it was the only way to ensure no bystanders would be injured.
“What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” one passage written in the notebook read, the officials said.
Authorities in New York are currently working to have Mangione extradited back to Manhattan to face charges of second-degree murder. Mangione, who has contested the extradition, is currently being held in a Pennsylvania prison.
Originally published as ‘Had to be done’: Luigi Mangione’s full manifesto about insurance CEO’s killing released
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