It remained unclear who it was who finally recognized Luigi Mangione at the McDonald's checkout. According to Joseph Kenny, the police chief of Altoona, Pennsylvania, it was the cashier himself and, according to an FBI spokesman, it was a “regular customer.”
However, both agreed: The fact that the person recognized the alleged “CEO killer” from a single mugshot was nothing short of a miracle. After all, the 26-year-old had committed the almost perfect crime:
The quick perfect crime
Equipped with a fake ID as well as a weapon and a silencer made from a 3D printer, he traveled by bus to New York on November 24th. Every day he drives to the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, where Brian Thompson, head of UnitedHealthcare, America's largest private health insurer, is expected at an investor conference on December 4th.
When Thompson gets out of the limo that morning, Mangione is already there. He calmly shoots the millionaire, reloads, shoots again. He then escapes on a rented electric bike. He disposes of his backpack and murder weapon in Central Park before getting into a taxi and leaving New York just 50 minutes later, again by bus.
During the two weeks that Mangione is in the city, he is meticulous about covering his face and always wears a mask or a thick scarf. The camera only caught him once, when he had to take off his mask when checking into a New York hostel.
This photo of Luigi Mangione released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) ultimately led to his arrest.
The police published the photo of the smiling, strikingly attractive young man and asked for information. It spread like wildfire on the Internet – and probably led to his liability six days later.
Pistol and handwritten manifesto in backpack
Legally, Mangione, like any other suspect, is entitled to the presumption of innocence. But the 26-year-old not only had a pistol and a silencer made in a 3D printer at the McDonald's branch, like those found at the crime scene, but also a handwritten manifesto.
In it, he took stock of the US healthcare system and confessed to the crime: “These parasites don’t deserve it any other way.”
What is known about the perpetrator
The case is so sensational because Luigi Mangione is an unconventional perpetrator. He comes from a wealthy Italian-American business family, was considered a mathematical prodigy and was already valedictorian of his high school.
After completing a master's degree in mechanical engineering at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, Mangion was employed as a research assistant at Stanford University until recently. He worked remotely and lived in Hawaii until the end. Photos on social media show him as a fit, young man on the beach.
Then, six months ago, he suddenly disappeared.
The reason for this may also have been the motive for the murder: Mangione suffered from chronic back pain, like his former roommate New York Times told. The 26-year-old had surgery to correct the misalignment of his lumbar spine at the beginning of the year; On X he posted an X-ray of his back with screws drilled into it.
The X-profile of the alleged “CEO killer” Luigi Mangione.
The pain may have radicalized Mangione. One attempt at surfing, one long hike, and he was tied to bed again for a week, explains the roommate. Mangione even trusted him “that he could no longer be intimate.”
After the operation, the Mangione family lost contact with their son. His only sign of life was book reviews on the website Goodreads: Most of the books he reviewed dealt with the US healthcare system, and Mangione wrote: “It is not a measure of health to fit into a deeply sick society.”
Why many US citizens see Mangione as a hero
The reactions to the murder make it clear how many Americans felt the 26-year-old's heart. While the murdered Thompson leaves behind a widow and two small children, Mangione is being hailed as a hero in hundreds of thousands of comments online.
According to a study by the British medical magazine lancet The profit-oriented business practices of private health insurance companies in the USA are responsible for more than 68,000 deaths every year.
Through a complicated, confidential system, US health insurance only takes effect if customers use pre-arranged services from doctors or hospitals that work with their insurance company.
In another study, 45 percent of Americans surveyed said they had gone into debt for medical services that they believed would be covered by their insurance. UnitedHealthcare is actually the insurance provider with the highest rate of declined payments.
It is a macabre joke that Brian Thompson, bleeding to death, is taken to the nearby emergency room Mt. Sinai Hospital was delivered. The hospital was removed from UnitedHealthcare's list of partner hospitals just this year – Thompson's own company also did not cover the treatment.
