The Case of Luigi Mangione
Exploring the Internet’s Infatuation with the Murder Suspect
On December 4th, 2024, American news outlets went on a coverage spree over the unexpected shooting of Mr. Brian Thompson, a renowned CEO for the massive health insurance company UnitedHealthcare. The event took place in New York City, and what’s more chilling is how the gunman, who remained unknown for a few days, inscribed the words “Delay,” “Deny” and “Depose” into the cartridges of the bullets used. Various footage released by the police shows different angles of the suspected shooter, smiling in some and wearing a mask in others. Yet, despite all of the mystery regarding this man, it was clear he was trying to send a message.
A few days after the shooting, and after both the NYPD and the FBI released a $50,000 reward for anyone who identified the unknown shooter, a man was arrested and taken into custody as the person of interest in the shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Luigi Mangione. Ironically, he was arrested in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a worker recognized the man from the photos released by the NYPD.
Ever since his arrest, Luigi has become somewhat of an internet messiah. As infamous as he may be, many people have become enthralled by all of the various pieces of information about him that are gradually trickling down. While some consider him a threat to the public, others go as far as to make “thirst-traps” for him, because we live in incredibly confusing times. Reactions online have found that most younger liberal Americans are more likely to support Mangione and have a general distaste for people of similar backgrounds to the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
For some, this may seem like an incredibly odd perspective. After all, why would anyone support a murderer? But to completely understand why so many people have rallied to support Luigi in the past few weeks, one must understand the nuance of the situation and why the internet loves to create heroes out of incredibly controversial characters such as him.
The victim of the crime, Mr. Brian Thompson, was CEO of UnitedHealthcare from 2021 until his passing, and in that time, he had been under fire for various controversial decisions that systematically denied health insurance coverage for very petty reasons. Mr. Thompson’s death has not garnered much sympathy online, particularly among the youth or most of middle-class America.
Amongst all the media coverage of the crime, there are hundreds, even thousands of comments of stories about family members passing away due to their healthcare providers — particularly UnitedHealthcare — not providing coverage for life-altering surgeries or medications. For as long as America has been around, the plight of the American people has always been the incredibly high costs of healthcare, which was even more exemplified by multi-billion-dollar insurance companies such as United.
On the other hand, the perpetrator of the crime, a 26-year-old who graduated from an Ivy League college, has a very different story. After graduating as valedictorian from his high school in 2016, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 before living in a co-surfing community in Hawaii called Surfbreak. Unfortunately, he eventually left the co-living space due to a back injury that worsened over time.
According to various news sources, police also recovered his handwritten note showing his apparent disdain for the American Healthcare system. In it, he wrote the U.S. had the “most expensive healthcare system in the world” and yet “ranks #42 in life expectancy.” Friends, family, and loved ones also all describe Luigi as a very likable character, with some even being surprised that such a violent act would come out of him.
“For many, all the puzzle pieces they’ve gathered are more than enough information for them to form a consensus about the suspected killer and even if the trial doesn’t go in his favor, their stance around Mr. Mangione will remain the same.”
Given most of this information, Luigi seems like a class act, and with the internet being as strange as it is, it wasn’t long before more of Luigi’s social media was leaked, including his LinkedIn, Twitter and even his Goodreads profiles. Soon, the hordes of obsessive internet dwellers would analyze his socials to make their judgments. From BookTok judging his literary taste to checking out his latest tweets before his arrest, this man was the internet’s latest new fixation.
Further deep dives even revealed that he was a “brat,” with a screenshot of him listening to a song from CharliXCX’s most recent album on Spotify circulating on Twitter. As his rise to fame continued, more mutuals dared to speak up about their experiences with Luigi, sharing what little information they knew about him, giving his fans all the more reason to admire him.
For internet veterans, it’s not the first time the general public has become infatuated with a convicted criminal. There are whole pages dedicated specifically to “simping” for criminals, such as @mughsawtys on Instagram, hailing a whopping 1.7 million followers and a verification badge. In Luigi’s case, his fans aren’t just attracted to him because he’s conventionally attractive, but rather it’s the overall public opinion that people have gathered using the bits and pieces of information that they’ve found.
For the past few weeks, people have flocked to the internet to thirst for their favorite criminal, making thirst traps, edits, and an unhealthy amount of “down-bad” comments on various news outlets. Unfortunately, the simping hasn’t only been virtual, with the Daily Mail even reporting that he has received over 54 emails, 87 letters, and 163 commissary deposits. Law enforcement is particularly adding fuel to the fire with how intensely they’ve been treating this single, seemingly harmless man. In an image revealed of Luigi being escorted to federal prison in NYC, there seem to be at least ten or more armed guards surrounding him, which looks straight out of a supervillain scene in a Marvel movie.
Unbeknownst to Luigi, most of the internet has already come to a verdict: not guilty. For many, all the puzzle pieces they’ve gathered are more than enough information for them to form a consensus about the suspected killer, and even if the trial doesn’t go in his favor, their stance on Mr. Mangione will remain the same. Notably, the internet has not always been correct in its judgment of criminals — back in 2013, Reddit detectives falsely identified the wrong perpetrator for the Boston Marathon bombing, resulting in a massive witch hunt that negatively affected the family of the incorrect suspect.
No matter what information is given to the public and whatever internet sleuths gather online, you can never truly tell who a person is unless you’ve met them yourself. It’s almost impossible to say what the actual verdict is, so it’s best to leave this real crime to the professionals who know how to handle it best. At the end of the day, these are real people with real families involved, which is often very easy to forget. Being chronically online has unfortunately desensitized a lot of people to most of the media they consume, and given the inconsequential nature of the internet, where’s the harm in making a few thirst traps for a murder trial suspect?
This infatuation with Luigi Mangione may be entertaining, but it also speaks volumes about the modern American people, where it takes a major crime such as this to unite the public around a controversial issue. From an outsider’s perspective, America may seem very chaotic, and most Americans would probably agree. Luigi’s next appearance in court will be on February 21st, so there’s no telling what the internet’s opinion will be of him by the time he’s charged.