Meet Luigi Mangione: Suspect in UnitedHealth CEO Shooting and His Troubled Past
Luigi Mangione, a former data engineer who is 26 years old, has been arrested in relation to the shocking murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. Once a valedictorian at the prestigious Gilman School in Baltimore and a graduate of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, Mangione was a bright star in the tech world. But his recent actions shocked the nation, bringing on a public outcry and lots of attention.
Mangione's life went berserk as he was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania after an eagle-eyed McDonald's employee reportedly recognized him. Mangione was found carrying a crude pistol and a manifesto expressing hatred against the health care industry and corporate greed. According to reports, the attacker acted alone and managed his own finances for this heinous crime. The manifesto showed similarities with that of infamous Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski whom Mangione had idolized for his anti-capitalistic views. This connection to the Unabomber’s ideology has raised further alarm.
Before his arrest, Mangione was a rising figure in the tech world. After earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, he worked at TrueCar, advancing quickly in his career. His background in data engineering and his involvement in founding a video-game development club at Penn indicated a promising future. Though, his views on social media reflect a drastic shift in recent years, mainly because he grew more critical of the health insurance industry.
This intersection of personal grievances, corporate influence, and mental health points out the tragic actions by Mangione. His manifesto indicated his frustration with how insurance companies limited access to treatments needed to treat back pain through surgery. This sense of injustice towards the system with his technical expertise was all he needed to be drawn down this dark path.
