Luigi Mangione, the man arrested over the death of insurance CEO Brian Thompson.
Luigi Mangione, the man arrested over the death of insurance CEO Brian Thompson.
The suspect being questioned in connection with the murder of American insurance boss Brian Thompson was an Ivy League student who thought the Unabomber was an “extreme political revolutionary”.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was eating in McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morningwhen a staff member recognised him and tipped off the authorities.
The six-day manhunt for the New York assassin culminated in Mangione being found with the three-page manifesto, a ghost gun - a homemade firearm - and a silencer. He also had his passport and the fake ID the suspect used to check in at a hostel on the Upper West Side.
He was wearing clothing which matched the suspect and his manifesto showed he had “ill will towards corporate America” and is said to have listed grievances with the healthcare industry and railed against “parasites”.
Luigi Mangione, the man arrested over the death of insurance CEO Brian Thompson.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione is believed to be “our person of interest”.
The suspect now faces gun charges in Pennsylvania and the authorities will work on getting him to New York to face further charges, New York Police Department chief of detectives Joseph Kenny said. Mangione has not yet been charged.
A high-achieving mathematical whizz from Maryland, Mangione appears to have long wanted to make his mark on the world.
In one social media post, he said he used to get “bummed out” in maths class because “all the low-hanging fruit has been solved before I was born”.
He added that he was now grateful for his “21st century education” and he would focus on issues including “evolutionary psychology, primitive neuroscience, and information networks”.
Alleged New York CEO shooter Luigi Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
After becoming valedictorian of his 2016 high school class at Gilman School in Baltimore, which costs around US$40,000 ($68,000) a year, Mangione went on to study computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most prestigious universities in America.
He then went on to work as a data engineer for TrueCar living in California and later Honolulu, Hawaii, according to his LinkedIn.
The Unabomber and the manifesto
According to his Goodreads account, Mangione was sympathetic towards Ted Kaczyski, the Unabomber, who he described as a “mathematical prodigy”.
In his review of Industrial Society and Its Future, the Unabomber Manifesto, he wrote: “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 characterised as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”
Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski , AKA The Unabomber, seen after his 1996 arrest. Photo / FBI
Mangione went on to share an online take he said was “interesting” which read: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.”
CNN reports that Mangione’s own manifesto railed against “corporate America”.
“I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” a police source who had seen the document told the channel.
This handout image of the wanted man went viral. Photo / NYPD
Elsewhere online, Mangione went on to criticise fossil fuel companies, adding: “They have zero qualms about burning down the planet for a buck, so why should we have any qualms about burning them down to survive?
“We’re animals just like everything else on this planet, except we’ve forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlords when any other animal would recognise the threat and fight to the death for their survival. ‘Violence never solved anything’ is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.’”
Mangione’s social media accounts are filled with comments about the state of society and mental health.
In one post on X, formerly Twitter, he shared an analysis on the declining birth rate in Japan, criticising sex toys and maid cafes where “lonely salarymen pay young girls to dress as anime characters and perform anime dances for them”.
Mangione also reposted comments about a book titled The Anxious Generation and the impact of “seasonal and circadian rhythms” on mental health.
