Months earlier than United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to dying on a Manhattan sidewalk, suspect Luigi Mangione went darkish and family members desperately tried to search out him.
They reached out to former classmates and posted pleas on social media for any phrase on his whereabouts. Rumors about his disappearance started circulating amongst his former classmates.
After months of silence and rising fear from his household and pals, Mangione lastly resurfaced Monday when he was captured by police in Pennsylvania because the suspect in Thompson’s killing. Authorities mentioned he was carrying a backpack containing a ghost gun, faux IDs, and a pocket book and different writings detailing his grievances with the well being care system.
Until he disappeared, the high-achieving younger man from a outstanding Baltimore household had led what many would take into account a charmed life, ending as valedictorian at an elite Maryland highschool and touring the world after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.
Friends and household described Mangione, who’s being held with out bail in a Pennsylvania correctional facility, as a sort and clever pc science graduate who loved touring and studying.
“He was the type of individual that you’d know was going to do nice issues,” mentioned his pal R.J. Martin, proprietor of Surfbreak, a co-living area in Honolulu, the place Mangione lived for six months in 2022.
“It’s simply completely heartbreaking to assume that he may have been an murderer, and heartbreaking to know that his life is basically eternally over or altered in unimaginable methods.”
After a dayslong manhunt, Mangione, 26, was charged in New York on Monday with one depend of homicide, three counts of legal possession of a weapon and one depend of possession of a solid instrument.
He was arrested earlier that day in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the place he was discovered consuming at a McDonald’s restaurant and carrying a backpack containing what authorities mentioned was proof connecting him to Thompson’s deadly taking pictures.
Mangione was additionally arraigned in Pennsylvania on two felony costs of forgery and carrying a firearm with out a license, in addition to three misdemeanor costs of tampering with information or identification, possessing devices of crime and offering false identification to legislation enforcement.
Mangione is preventing extradition to New York, and his lawyer, Thomas Dickey, mentioned he has but to see proof linking his consumer to Thompson’s killing. He additionally mentioned Mangione would plead not responsible to the fees in Pennsylvania and New York.
A voracious reader and gamer who left behind a sturdy on-line footprint, Mangione make clear his pursuits and maybe his psychological state in an archived model of his now-deleted Reddit account, the place he first appeared in 2016 underneath the username “Mister_Cactus.”
The account included posts on a subreddit about spondylolisthesis, a situation the place a bone within the backbone slips out of alignment, placing strain on decrease vertebrae and nerves across the backbone.
“Mister_Cactus” wrote on the subreddit in April that his situation “went unhealthy to the purpose the place I felt it daily.”
Reddit posts from final yr level to an damage flare-up after the account holder went browsing. The motion aggravated again ache, which “Mister_Cactus” mentioned he had handled since childhood, based on a submit in July 2023.
Other posts recommend the account holder underwent spinal fusion surgical procedure someday round that date. “Mister_Cactus” informed one other person two weeks earlier than the process, “I hold questioning why I used to be so afraid of it.”
The subsequent month, it appeared “Mister_Cactus” skilled optimistic outcomes from the operation. He wrote that after per week, he “was on actually zero ache meds” and was capable of sit, stroll and stand.
“When my spondy went unhealthy on me final yr (23M) it was utterly devastating as a younger athletic individual,” “Mister_Cactus” wrote in a separate submit in August 2023, referring to himself as a 23-year-old male with spondylolisthesis.
These descriptions are according to data Mangione shared with Martin, his pal in Hawaii. The two final texted about 9 months in the past, when Martin reached out to ask Mangione whether or not he had undergone spinal surgical procedure. Mangione replied with photos exhibiting screws in his again, Martin mentioned.
“You wouldn’t know he’s in ache till afterwards he would possibly say, ‘Oh, sorry. I couldn’t get off the bed for a pair days.’ And that’s type of the start and finish of it,” Martin mentioned.
In early April, “Mister_Cactus” posted a packing listing and ideas he mentioned labored effectively throughout two months he spent touring in Asia. The submit was made on a Reddit group dedicated to minimalist journey and packing just one bag.
“Mister_Cactus” additionally posted feedback in May, providing recommendation within the spondylolisthesis Reddit group about his spinal situation.
The account’s closing submit appeared to have been made on May 25, when he shared within the “tedkaczysnki” subreddit a video referred to as “Streaming overdose 2024 , China” exhibiting a collection of video clips of quite a few individuals in varied areas streaming on their cellphones.
On an account that seems to be Mangione’s on the ebook evaluate website Goodreads, he reviewed Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future,” also referred to as “The Unabomber Manifesto,” in January.
“It’s simple to shortly and inconsiderate write this off because the manifesto of a lunatic, with the intention to keep away from going through among the uncomfortable issues it identifies. But it’s merely unattainable to disregard how prescient lots of his predictions about trendy society turned out,” the poster wrote.
Mangione had talked about Kaczynski to Gurwinder Bhogal, a British freelance author and Substack creator who exchanged some 20 messages with Mangione from April by way of June, Bhogal mentioned.
Mangione was a “founding member” of his e-newsletter and expressed a mixture of left-wing and right-wing political beliefs. He additionally vented concerning the excessive value of well being care within the U.S., Bhogal mentioned.
“Overall, the impression I acquired of him, moreover his curiosity and kindness, was a deep concern for the way forward for humanity, and a dedication to enhance himself and the world,” Bhogal wrote in an electronic mail to NBC News.
Bhogal mentioned he and Mangione had “briefly touched on the variations between the UK and US healthcare techniques. Luigi complained about how costly healthcare within the US was, and expressed envy on the UK’s nationalized well being system.”
During their exchanges, Bhogal mentioned Mangione mentioned spending time in Japan and fearful individuals there “don’t actually dwell their lives — a lot of the younger males are hooked on video video games, pornography, and different shallow entertainments.”
“One factor he mentioned was the individuals round him had been on a distinct wavelength, and he was desperate to be part of a group of like-minded individuals,” Bhogal added. “He urged I schedule group video calls as he actually wished to fulfill my different founding members and begin a group primarily based on concepts like rationalism, Stoicism, and efficient altruism.”
In September, Mangione’s telephone quantity disappeared from a WhatsApp group for Penn alumni in Hawaii, based on Raj George, president of the Penn Club of Hawaii. He briefly met Mangione in 2023 throughout a tour of the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu.
Like others, George described Mangione as brilliant and pleasant.
“He was actually excited concerning the membership, eager to see how else he may become involved to attach with different Penn alums,” George mentioned. “Everything was actually nice — there have been no indicators to make us assume in any other case.”
Freddie Leatherbury, considered one of Mangione’s former classmates on the Gilman School in Maryland, mentioned he obtained messages from pals on Oct. 1, asking if he had spoken to Mangione. They had been by no means shut and it had been years because the two crossed paths. Leatherbury mentioned he was dismayed to be taught Mangione was lacking.
“He was a formidable however unassuming child,” Leatherbury remembered. “I didn’t even understand how sensible he was till he was named valedictorian. It type of simply speaks to how humble and passive he was. He simply went about his factor, did it quietly and did it very effectively.”
A cousin of Mangione’s reached out to different Gilman alums asking whether or not they’d had any latest contact with him, based on a former classmate who requested that his identify be withheld out of privateness considerations.
The cousin mentioned Mangione had been lacking for months, had undergone again surgical procedure and the household was determined to search out him. Members of that pal group tried texting and direct-messaging Mangione, however nobody heard again, the previous classmate mentioned.
In mid-November, Mangione’s mom filed a lacking individual report in San Francisco, based on two senior legislation enforcement officers.
Thompson was shot and killed on Dec. 4 outdoors a midtown Manhattan lodge, the place he was scheduled to talk at a convention. His dying prompted a multistate manhunt.
Police in Pennsylvania discovered a fraudulent New Jersey driver’s license for a 26-year-old Maplewood resident named “Mark Rosario” in Mangione’s backpack, based on a picture of the phony ID obtained by NBC New York.
The identical identify was utilized by Thompson’s alleged killer to test in to a New York hostel days earlier than the assault, a number of legislation enforcement sources informed NBC News.
Mangione’s arrest has turned him into an emblem of resistance for these annoyed by the U.S. well being care system and has sparked a renewed fascination with a Pokemon character related to him.
But others warning in opposition to lionizing Mangione.
“I feel the entire thing is an absolute tragedy,” mentioned New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “You have a father, a pal, a household man, who was killed.”