Suspected Murderer of Health Insurance CEO Found and Charged

Luigi Mangione has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare ceo Brian Thompson after a five-day manhunt.

Thompson was on his way to the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan for an annual investors conference last Wednesday when a man shot him in the back and calf. Thompson later died of his injuries.

Caught: On Monday, Mangione was arrested under a firearms charge at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. His possession of a silencer and gun were “consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” according to police.

The gun, referred to as a “ghost gun” by police, could be assembled at home and did not have a serial number. A fake New Jersey ID and documentation showing he had “some ill will toward corporate America” were also found on his person.

Later that night, Mangione was charged with murder.

Background: In a Manifesto review, Mangione expressed his sympathies for Ted Kaczynski, a notorious domestic terrorist from 1978 to 1998:

It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless[ly] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.

He was a violent individual—rightfully imprisoned—who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy Luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.

Other details:

• The words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” were engraved on each of the bullets used to shoot Thompson. This closely resembles a book written by Jay Feinman, Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
• Mangione was interested in psychedelic drugs, which cause hallucinations.
• Mangione recounted how he would sit in class upset because “all the low-hanging fruit has been solved before I was born.”

Thompson’s murder has renewed frustration over the current health-care system in America.

Learn more: To understand what inspires people to commit murder, read “Bath Salts Do Not Turn People Into Flesh-Eating Zombies.”