Everything we know about CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione

Here is everything we know about Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Luigi Mangione has been arrested in connection with the brazen killing of health insurance chief executive Brian Thompson.

The 26-year-old was taken into custody while eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday morning, ending an intense manhunt following the cold-blooded execution-style shooting last Wednesday.

Mr Mangione has been named as a “person of interest” in the 50-year-old’s killing.

At the time of his arrest he was allegedly carrying a two-and-a-half page handwritten manifesto, a 9mm ghost gun, a silencer, a US passport and four fake IDs with names used during his time in New York.

Here is everything we know about him.

Luigi Mangione. Picture: Supplied

Mr Mangione is originally from Towson, Maryland, a wealthy community in Baltimore’s northern suburbs.

He is from a prominent family in Maryland. The Mangiones own several country clubs as well as healthcare facilities, real estate companies and a radio station.

His late grandfather, Nicholas Mangione Sr., who died in 2008, was a self-made real estate developer, according to The Baltimore Banner. His grandmother Mary died aged 92 in March last year from Parkinson’s disease.

The couple established the Mangione Family Foundation, which provides philanthropic support and resources to non-profit organisations in Baltimore.

They were long-time benefactors of Loyola University Maryland, and the Mangione Pool at Loyola’s Fitness and Aquatic Centre bears the family name.

Mr Mangione delivering the 2016 valedictory at The Gilman School. Picture: X

Mr Mangione is the cousin of Maryland Republican state politician Nino Mangione.

He attended the exclusive all-boys Baltimore prep school The Gilman School, where tuition costs up to $US40,000 ($62,000) per year, and was the valedictorian in 2016.

In his speech, he talked of “coming up with new ideas and “challenging the world”, and the need for “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things”.

In an interview with the Baltimore Fishbowl at the time, he said he planned to seek a degree in artificial intelligence.

He did a stint as a user interface (UI) programming intern at Firaxis Games from May 2016 to August 2017, where he “fixed over 300 UI bugs (25 per cent of UI bug count)” while working on the Civilization VI team, according to his LinkedIn.

After graduation he went on to study computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), Computer and Information Science in 2020.

The 26-year-old was arrested on Monday. Picture Facebook

He also completed a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE), Computer and Information Science at the Ivy League institution.

His LinkedIn suggests after graduating he worked as a software engineer at TrueCar, a car company based in California.

His Facebook account, which did not have any recent postings, says he is the co-founder of AppRoar Studios, which describes itself as “an app development start-up founded to provide the simplest and most engaging gaming experience”.

Police say his most recent home address was listed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

He is registered to vote at his family’s address in Cockeysville, Baltimore, and is unaffiliated with a political party, state records show.

Sources told the NY Post Mr Mangione hated the medical community because of how it treated a sick relative. Online obituaries show he lost a grandmother in 2013 and grandfather in 2017.

Mr Mangione is the suspected shooter of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. Picture: Fox News

The Mangione family own Lorien Health Systems, a nursing home chain, and he volunteered there for several months in 2014 while still in high school, his LinkedIn shows.

In his handwritten manifesto, Mr Mangione allegedly wrote, “These parasites had it coming. I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”

New York Police Department chief of detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters the document suggested he had “ill will towards corporate America”.

Reports have also suggested Mr Mangione suffered complications from back surgery.

He posted frequently on his X account, @PepMangione, until around May this year. His profile header included a photo of an X-ray which appeared to show lumbar spinal fusion surgery.

His GoodReads profile, where he once left a positive review of the 1995 manifesto of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, showed that in 2022 he read two books about chronic back pain.

More info:

Back injury happened when he was surfing in Hawaii.

Surgery didn’t go great.

Moved to Japan.

His contact with family stopped about a year ago. Recently the family reached out to his friends from high school asking if they had info on him.

So he’s been pretty…

— Jack Mac (@JackMacCFB) December 9, 2024

He appears to be an avid reader with 295 books listed.

The last quote he liked on the site was from The Lorax by Dr Seuss, “Unless someone you like cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

According to Jack Mac, a blogger with Barstool Sports, high school friends of Mr Mangione repeatedly mentioned back surgery that “changed everything” for him and he went “absolutely crazy”.

“Back injury happened when he was surfing in Hawaii,” Mac wrote on X.

“Surgery didn’t go great. Moved to Japan. His contact with family stopped about a year ago. Recently the family reached out to his friends from high school asking if they had info on him. So he’s been pretty aloof for awhile. This checks out with his IG tagged photos as there were a lot of posts from family through 2023, none recently.”

Screenshots shared by X user Armand Domalewski appear to show an unidentified friend attempting to contact Mr Mangione on the app earlier this year.

seems like the shooter had some sort of mental breakdown about 6 months ago and totally vanished pic.twitter.com/GD066M6Rqs

— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) December 9, 2024

“Hey man I need you to call me,” one message dated September 7 read.

“I don’t know if you are okay or just in a super-isolated place and have no service. But I haven’t heard from you in months. Your [sic] made commitments to me for my wedding and if you can’t honour them I need to know so I can plan accordingly.”

Another message on October 30 said, “Hey, are you OK? Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you.”

A third post on November 26 said, “Thinking of you and prayers everyday in your name. Know you are missed and loved.”

The messages no longer appear in a search on X, suggesting the original poster may have set their account to private or deleted the posts, and Mr Mangione’s own account was suspended on Monday.

Before he stopped posting on X, he often interacted with, reshared and commented on content from the online right.

In one bizarre post in April this year replying to a prominent right-wing account, Mr Mangione called for a ban on “fleshlights” and “custom pornstar pocket p*****s” to address Japan’s falling birthrates.

“Modern Japanese urban environment is an evolutionary mismatch for the human animal,” he wrote. “The solution to falling [birthrates] isn’t immigration. It’s cultural. Encourage natural human interaction, sex, physical fitness and spirituality.”

In January, he shared his thoughts on a poll which found 13 per cent of respondents believed rape was a worse crime than homicide.

“Utilitarian Ethics vs. Virtue Ethics,” he wrote.

“Utilitarian: The action is good if the consequences are good. Virtue: The action is good if it’s what a virtuous person would do. Poll results indicate respondents’ moral frameworks. Homicide: worse consequences. Rape: worse virtues.”

Mangione also subscribed to anti-capitalist and climate-change causes, according to law-enforcement sources, citing online activity gleaned by authorities.

— with NY Post

Originally published as Everything we know about CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione