The dark fan base behind CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione

They came in hoodies, they came in masks, shuffling their feet and laughing nervously as they waited for a winner to be announced.

Just days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered on a New York City sidewalk, these young men lined up in Washington Square Park to compete in a look-alike contest for the man wanted for his murder .

It was sparsely attended and viewed as a joke by visitors, said Talia Jane, a journalist who was there.

But it underscores the obsession with a murder suspect that has dominated social media since the Dec. 4 killing and is fueled by a latent anger against America's private health insurers.

“There has been a lot of tinder, a lot of dissatisfaction, a lot of frustration, and [this] “I kind of threw a match at it,” Ms. Jane said.

And it has only grown since the suspect was named as Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League-educated member of a prominent Baltimore family.

In TikTok videos, memes and group chats, a young man accused of shooting a father of two in the back on a New York City sidewalk has been fawned over and praised as something of a folk hero.

This fetishization was remarkably widespread and not limited to radical areas of the Internet or any political affiliation, which worried many observers.

“We don't kill people in cold blood to settle political differences or express a point of view,” said Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, where Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's.

“In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilantism.”

Almost immediately after Mr. Thompson was shot, the Internet began glorifying his alleged killer. On TikTok, people posted videos of the “CEO assassin” walking tour of New York. Playlists dedicated to the suspect appeared for the first time on Spotify.

When Mr. Mangione was arrested, these fans came to his aid. Etsy was flooded with pro-Mangione apparel, while Amazon removed similar products from its site. The McDonald's employee who allegedly reported him has become the target of online hate, while the fast food franchise itself has been bombarded with bad reviews. The Altoona, Pennsylvania, police department that arrested him even received death threats.

Much of this online reaction focused on his appearance, with the internet dubbing him a “hot assassin.”

In fact, Mr. Mangione's conventionally attractive looks, which he flaunted shirtless in social media posts, are now clearly part of the appeal, said cultural critic Blakely Thornton.

Americans are practically “programmed” to trust and empathize with men who look like Mr. Mangione, he said.

“That’s why they are the protagonists in our films, books and stories.”

Public worship for handsome men Accusing people of crime is nothing new – from Ted Bundy to Jeremy Meeks, violent men have developed a cult following. But Professor Tanya Horeck, an expert in digital culture and true crime from Anglia Ruskin University, says social media has given these feelings huge visibility and helped them spread.

The internet has led to “blurring the lines between celebrity and criminality,” she told the BBC, adding that when people see a good-looking person in their feeds, they first think of lust rather than moral criticism.

“The mood around Luigi Mangione is 'thirst,'” she said.

Beyond his looks, much of Mr. Mangione's online appeal is clearly due to his obvious anger against the private healthcare industry and corporate elites in general. US media have reported that Mr Mangione was arrested with a handwritten document saying “these parasites had it under control”.

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a nonprofit extremism research group based in New Jersey, said the hashtag #EatTheRich went viral after the shooting.

Since Mr. Mangione's arrest, variations of “#FreeLuigi” have been posted over 50,000 times on X and have likely received tens of millions of views. And in some ways, the NCRI said, engagement with posts about Mr. Thompson's assassination on platforms like X, Reddit and others exceeded that of the Donald Trump assassination attempt in July.

An analysis of a sample of comments by market research firm OneCliq found that the vast majority – four-fifths – contained criticism of the U.S. health care system.

Mr. Mangione's X account has gained more than 400,000 followers since the shooting.

The shooting also appeared to inspire others to take action against health insurers – wanted posters of other CEOs appeared in New York City. and a woman in Florida was arrested after telling an insurance agent on the phone, “Delay, decline, decline. You are next,” alluding to the words on a bullet casing found at the crime scene.

Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser to the NCRI, called the online response a “watershed moment” and “a catalyst for the normalization of political violence that was once limited to fringe extremists.”

He compared the wave of comments to the online activity following racist mass killings aimed at defending the killers and strengthening their beliefs – only more widespread and taking place on mainstream social media networks.

“The dynamics we are witnessing are eerily similar to activity on platforms like 4chan, 8chan, Discord and other dark corners of the internet where mass shootings are often greeted with glee,” he said.

Tim Weninger, a computer science professor at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in social media and artificial intelligence, said there was evidence that the groundswell was authentic and not caused by bots or government influence operations.

“People are angry with the healthcare industry and are using social media to express their frustration,” he said. “They are expressing their frustration by supporting this suspect.”

Recent research from the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy institute, found that 45% of insured working-age adults were charged for something that they believed should have been free or covered by insurance, and 17% of respondents said that her insurer denied coverage for the care recommended by her doctor.

There is evidence that the shooting has caused at least some self-reflection among health care companies.

“I think we all take a step back and try to understand what is happening to patients and their experiences,” Pfizer Chief Sustainability Officer Caroline Roan said at a conference in New York on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Some of the people who protested against health insurance for years before online criticism of UHC emerged understand some of the darker sentiments, even if they don't support them.

“It is a terrible act of violence and I condemn it in the strongest terms, regardless of the reason,” Jenn Coffey, who has fought for UHC to cover her medical bills, said of Mr. Thompson’s killing. “But I’m not shocked by the reaction.”

Ms. Coffey, 53, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and later developed complex regional pain syndrome, a potentially debilitating neurological disease. When a doctor suggested she try ketamine therapy, her UHC insurance wouldn't cover the procedure, she said. Since then, she has taken part in a protest campaign by the activist group People's Action.

Ms Coffey's illness forced her to give up her job as a paramedic. She said she started a crowdfunding campaign and had to sell most of her belongings to pay for the treatment herself.

“I get some normality. I can sit and paint or enjoy a meal with my family,” due to the treatment, she said. “I can live a life worth living.”

UnitedHealth Group told the BBC it could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.

At the same time, the victim, Brian Thompson, who was 50, was virtually ignored in most online discussions.

“This is incredibly dark [Thompson’s death] “It wasn't reported on as much because the bottom line is that one person died, one person was murdered,” Blakely Thornton said.

“The collective anger is over [the health-care industry] really outweighs what is still a tragedy.”

In his last post on LinkedIn, Mr. Thompson talked about efforts to make health care more affordable – and was criticized in the comments. CBS News, the BBC's U.S. affiliate, obtained a message that UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty sent to employees this week calling Mr. Thompson “one of the good ones.”

“He was certainly one of the smartest guys. I think he was one of the best guys. I'll miss him. And I am incredibly proud to call him my friend,” he wrote.

In the email, the company shared messages from customers, including one who wrote about recovering from cancer and said her treatment was paid for by insurance company benefits.

“I am grateful to UHC and everyone there who is working within a broken system to help as many people as possible,” they wrote, according to the company.

Another message said: “It is so sad that this world is so hateful. I’ve always had great experiences with UHC.”

Ms Coffey, the UHC policyholder and patient, said: “My heart goes out to the family and I cannot imagine what they are struggling with.” [killing]. It’s terrible for me that this is the trigger for this debate.”

“I would have much rather sat down and talked to him.”

With additional reporting from Grace Dean