Luigi Mangione ‘Had Everything Going for Him’ Before Murder Arrest: ‘It’s Unfathomable’

The young man strode confidently across the stage to the podium. Luigi Mangione, the valedictorian of Baltimore’s elite, all-boys Gilman School, went on in his 2016 graduation speech — which is still on YouTube — to praise his class for “challenging the world.”

“He was the nicest kid — humble, unassuming and easy to approach,” classmate Freddie Leatherbury says. “The person that I knew eight years ago, and the person that he has allegedly become today, could not be more different.”

Police believe Mangione is the person responsible for gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City street on December 4. After a five-day manhunt, Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania. “This is completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people,” the 26-year-old angrily shouted at reporters as cops dragged him into a Pennsylvania courtroom the next day. (He pleaded not guilty on gun charges in that state, and at press time, his lawyer said Mangione was planning to do the same to the murder charge in New York.)

The arrest, along with an alleged manifesto declaring his murderous intentions, left his loved ones reeling as the country struggled to reconcile the making of a murderer from the kindhearted scion of a wealthy family. “It’s unfathomable,” says his friend RJ Martin. “He had everything going for him.”

PRIVILEGED UPBRINGING

Those close to Mangione expressed similar sentiments. By all accounts, the video game enthusiast — who had already developed his own app while attending the $35,000-a-year high school and had graduated at the top of his class with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania — was an upstanding citizen. “Our family is shocked and devastated,” the Mangiones, who are prominent in Baltimore for their real estate empire, said in a statement posted by his cousin, Maryland State Delegate Nino Mangione. Friends, acquaintances and even women who connected with him on dating apps have overwhelmingly described the handsome young man as “nice,” “sweet” and “trustworthy.” A former colleague told CNN, “I’m flabbergasted. I never got the impression he would self-destruct.” Mangione’s middle-school teacher Liz Sesler-Beckman echoes many who knew him: “I just can’t imagine what drove him to this.”

A few friends were aware he was suffering. Martin, who was his roommate in Honolulu for about six months in 2022, reveals that Mangione suffered from debilitating back pain. “He knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible,” Martin told The New York Times. “My heart just breaks.”

In posts attributed to Mangione on Reddit, he also complained about other health issues, including Lyme disease, which brought on a “cognitive decline,” irritable bowel syndrome and “brain fog.” But he also mentioned he had successful back surgery in 2023, around which time the NYPD has learned he had an accident that landed him in an emergency room. In recent months, he’d distanced himself from friends, and his mother reportedly filed a missing persons report on November 18.

CHILLING NEW DETAILS

While his friend Martin insists Mangione never discussed insurance, cops found a handwritten 262-word document they described as a “manifesto” on him that allegedly reveals why he did it in his own words. “I wasn’t working with anyone. I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” he reportedly wrote. “The U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world, yet we rank roughly No. 42 in life expectancy.” The note goes on to condemn UnitedHealthcare and other companies who “abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

Mangione, who was arrested after a McDonald’s employee called a tip line, was also found with a to-do list, in which he allegedly wrote he’d considered using a bomb but didn’t want to “risk innocents.” He was also carrying fake IDs and a 3D-printed gun. Authorities say they found Mangione’s fingerprints on a water bottle and energy bar wrapper purchased by the gunman, along with shell casings matching the gun with the words deny, defend and depose on them, possibly referring to “deny, delay, defend,” a phrase often used to describe the insurance industry’s handlings of claims. That detail, along with the manifesto, sparked some sympathy among Americans disillusioned with the healthcare industry.

Some have donated thousands for his legal defense, while others argue murder is never justified. (Thompson, a father of two, was laid to rest in his Minnesota hometown on December 9). Despite his alleged writings, Mangione is not taking credit. “We’ve seen no evidence,” his lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told GMA on December 11. “That’s one of the many reasons why we’re challenging the extradition [to New York], so we can see some evidence and more detailed information about the charges.”

Regardless of what happens next, Mangione’s life will never be the same. “He was a bright kid with a bright future,” says another Gilman classmate. “He’s the last person I expected to be involved in something like this.”