Police Say Luigi Mangione, Suspected Killer of Insurance CEO, Had 'Ill Will Toward Corporate America'
"I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done," the Ivy League graduate reportedly wrote in a manifesto admitting to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. "These parasites had it coming."
Luigi Mangione—the 26-year-old man arrested in Pennsylvania Monday on gun charges and suspected of last week's assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—was carrying a manifesto condemning insurance industry greed, police said after his apprehension.
Mangione, a Maryland native who according to his social media profiles has a master's degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, was apprehended after being recognized in a McDonald's in Altoona,
The New York Timesreported. He has been charged with weapons, forgery, and other crimes and is scheduled to appear before a judge in western Pennsylvania.
New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was in possession of a 9mm handgun—possibly a ghost gun made with numerous parts or a 3D printer—the type used to kill Thompson, as well as a silencer and what he described as an anti-corporate manifesto.
"It does seem he has some ill will toward corporate America," Kenny said.
A police official who said they saw the manifesto toldCNN that Mangione admitted to killing Thompson in the hand-written document, writing that he acted alone and was "self-funded."
"I do apologize for any strife or trauma," the document stated, "but it had to be done. These parasites had it coming."
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch claimed that Mangione was also carrying a fake New Jersey ID matching the one the suspecter killer used to check into a New York City hostel 10 days before Thompson was gunned down in broad daylight in Manhattan with a silencer-equipped gun firing 9mm bullets.
Three bullet casings were inscribed with the words "deny," "defend," and "depose"—a phrase commonly used by critics to describe insurance industry tactics to avoid paying patient claims. UnitedHealth, the nation's biggest private insurer, is notorious for denying more claims than any other insurance company.
Mangione's social media posts run the gamut from praising the opinions of right-wing figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson to leaving positive reviews on Goodreads for books including Dr. Seuss' cautionary environmental tale The Lorax and the manifesto of Theodore Kaczynski—better known as the Unabomber.
"He had the balls to recognize that peaceful protest has gotten us absolutely nowhere and at the end of the day, he's probably right," Mangione controversially opined of Kaczynski, whom he called "an extreme political revolutionary."
"When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive," he asserted.