ALTOONA, Pa. — While the motive behind the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has not been released by officials, the public has been speculating that the suspect, Luigi Mangione, had strong grievances with both the health care industry and capitalism in general.
Authorities arrested Mangione, 26, in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday, after he allegedly presented local police with a fake ID and appeared to start shaking when they asked if he had been in New York recently. Authorities also found a handwritten manifesto condemning the health care industry, specifically mentioning UnitedHealthcare.
Curtis Sliwa, founder of New York City’s Guardian Angels, told Fox News Digital that “in every era, there are people who go out, take the law into their own hands, and they become heroes.” Sliwa believes that the anger regarding the health care industry that has surfaced from Thompson’s murder is misplaced.
Nicholas Creel, associate professor of Business Law and Ethics at Georgia College & State University, told Fox News Digital that “America is currently in a period of rising populist sentiment, one where anger at elites, particularly wealthy corporate executives, is increasingly common.”
Dr. Rachel D. Miller, LMFT, founder of Hold the Vision Therapy in Chicago, told Fox News Digital that she is seeing the impacts of capitalism inequality in her practice and with her clients every day. Bill Knack, founder and president of First Responder Protective Services, which delivers executive protection for high-profile leaders and dignitaries across the country, said that this rhetoric “leads to a slow burn of anger that turns into action.”
Mangione, a private-high-school and Ivy League-educated young professional from the Baltimore area, is charged with multiple counts in both Pennsylvania and New York, where he is facing a murder charge. Since his arrest, internet sleuths have been digging through Mangione’s vast and documented social media presence, with many users praising the murder suspect for allegedly killing Thompson.
A professor at Mangione’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, took to TikTok and Instagram to voice praise for the suspect that she has since retracted. Even a former Washington Post and New York Times reporter, Taylor Lorenz, told Piers Morgan that she and “so many other Americans” felt “joy” upon hearing the news of Thompson’s death.
Mangione’s social media profiles also reveal a fascination with the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and his writings. Mangione wrote a review for a book by Kaczynski, saying that it’s “easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies.”
