On December 4, 2024, CEO of UnitedHealthcare company, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed outside the entrance of a New York Hilton hotel. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, is only 26 years old and sparked a massive debate online about corporate America and the healthcare industry.
Mangione allegedly suffered from a spinal condition known as spondylolisthesis, a condition in which a vertebra slips forward in the back onto the bone below it. According to a Reddit post made in July 2023 by an account titled “Mister_Cactus”, Mangione had gone surfing, aggravating his back and causing him more pain. This account, though not confirmed to be him, is rumored to have many events aligned with the events that Mangione experienced, in roughly the same time frame.
After the original posts, the account posted later in 2023 suggesting that he underwent spinal fusion surgery. He continued to report improvements in pain throughout the next month, posting that he was able to sit, walk, and stand.
Officials recovered a three page handwritten document in a spiral notebook, recovered from his backpack in Altoona, Pennsylvania. In this document he complains about the healthcare industry, which also checks out with reports made by Gurwinder Bhogal, a British freelance writer who spoke with Mangione from April to June. Mangione envied the U.K.’s healthcare system and stated this to Bhogal, who didn’t think much of it at the time. In what seems to be a manifesto, he included to-do lists as well as notes justifying his actions.
Mangione also is said to have had an obsession with the “Unabomber,” Ted Kaczynski. On January 31, 2024, he wrote an Amazon review of the unabomber’s manifesto, writing, “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive,” creating a discussion on how long Mangione had truly been planning this.
Sometime in early November, his mother had reported him missing to the San Francisco police department roughly two weeks before the shooting, though she had not spoken to him since July 1.
On November 24, Mangione allegedly arrived in New York City on a bus that originated in Atlanta, though officials are unsure where he got on. He stayed in a New York hostel using a fake ID prior to December 4. On December 4, Mangione made his way to the hotel in which Thompson was set to speak at a conference, and allegedly shot him around 6:45 AM. Mangione left the scene on foot, and then took an electric bike into Central Park.
On December 9, Mangione was seen in Altoona, Pennsylvania by a McDonald’s employee at around 9:15 AM. He was charged in Pennsylvania for carrying a firearm without a license, tampering with records or identification, possessing instruments of crime, and false identification to law enforcement. New York filed a murder charge later that night.
When he was confronted in Altoona, he was carrying the 3D-printed gun in which he is said to have used for the murder. This firearm matches the three shell casings that were found at the crime scene in Midtown Manhattan, said the New York Police Department commissioner. The three 9mm shell casings have the words, “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” one word per bullet. His fingerprints also align with those found with items near the scene of the crime, such as a discarded Starbucks water bottle, which he was said to have visited before he committed the crime.
At an extradition proceeding that occurred on December 10, he was denied bail and is contesting his extradition to Manhattan (An extradition is simply the sending back of someone to the country or state where they’ve been accused of a crime). Dickey argued that the state of New York did not provide the defense with the official second-degree murder charges in the given documents and now the defense has 14 days to request a writ of habeas corpus (permits that Mangione be brought before a judge or court to challenge his custody).
A defense attorney for Mangione, Thomas Dickey, claimed that Mangione will plead not guilty to the Pennsylvania charges and he anticipates he will also plead not guilty to his charges in New York, despite being charged on December 10 in Pennsylvania and New York.
As a result of all this debate, users on social media have taken this opportunity to speculate, even claiming that Mangione wanted to be caught and actually anticipated it. Some are even finding very thought-out correlations between the number “286”. Here is what they’ve noticed: The alleged shooter has 286 posts on X (formerly known as Twitter), his Twitter header contains a Pokémon which has a pokedex number of #0286, a bible verse also relates to the current situation, with the verse being Proverbs 28:6, which says, “Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse (NIV),” National Insurance awareness day is also June 28, which in most nations, is written 28/6. Even with all these theories though, conspiracy theorists are struggling to figure out the meaning of this number.
This murder has shocked people all over the nation, and the alleged shooter is gaining immense support simply for being viewed as attractive. What was his motive, and is Luigi truly the shooter?
