CEO Killer: Alleged UPenn Alumni Luigi Mangione

5 days after the murder of Brian Thompson, rumors of failed healthcare AI, and the mystery of Central Park Surveillance

Five days after the shocking murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police have their main suspect in custody. Luigi Mangione, 26 years old, was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania after several alleged tips from patrons, including rumors that his own father aided in the investigation. On Monday, December 9, 2024, the day Mr Thompson would be laid to rest in a private ceremony, Mangione and his ample education have made headlines with more details on what will likely be considered a crime of assassination.

Brian Thompson, 50 years old, was murdered at 6:45 am on the streets of midtown Manhattan. He exited the front doors of a Hilton hotel, making his way to an annual investors meeting for UnitedHealth Group. Thompson was shot with a handgun that is assumed to have been equipped with a silencer. His killer took the fatal shot to his back, and a few more after Thompson fell to the ground. Three bullets, inscribed with the words “Deny, Defend, Depose.”

Tracing the hours after the murder is an impressive unfolding of highly developed plans that included a researched understanding of New York City’s Central Park, and its void of surveillance cameras. It is believed that whoever killed Brian Thompson dropped evidence in Central Park and quickly made their way to Penn Station, hopping on a bus and leaving town.

According to early police investigation, the killer stayed in a hostel on the Upper West side and used fake ID’s to secure a reservation. From there, the killer took a CitiBike through the city, covering their head and face. CitiBikes are traceable.

THE INTERNET MAKES MEMES
In the five days between murder and custody, the internet was on fire with memes, Tweets, and opinions on what seemed to be an apathetic reaction from the general population. Stories of denied insurance claims and cold-hearted jokes about Brian Thompson needing to get approval for a gunshot wound seemed to be everywhere.

In a society still reeling from a tense election, the timing to riot seems fertile. Although, not great for morale. America seems to currently be operating with an air of fear, in both upper and lower class. On one end of the spectrum, we have loads of people wondering if they can afford a Christmas tree, groceries, rent payments. And on the other end, the fear of retaliation for being wealthy, the idea of cyber attacks on banks, the volatility of the stock market. Who feels safe?

LUIGI MANGIONE
It was immediately apparent that whoever executed this crime was full of audacity and intellect. This never appeared to be a random crime, knowing how to dodge and weave the countless cameras in Manhattan requires patience and memory.

Upon his arrest, Mangione had a document in possession, which reportedly denounced the health-care industry. CNN quoted his essay, including “these parasites had it coming” and “I don’t want to cause any trauma, but it had to be done.”

Being smart is one thing, what Mangione has to offer is more than that. Impressive even. According to reports, Mangione was a graduate of UPenn. The New York Post reported Mangione as the valedictorian of his 2016 high school graduating class at the Gilman School in Baltimore, a prep school with a tuition of nearly $40,000 a year. In high school, he was on the soccer team and even spent time working at a nursing home.

Mangione seemed to be a student in perpetual high standing with no past criminal record, with the exception of a 2023 trespassing offense in Hawaii.

The Post also notes Mangione’s Goodreads account, specifically quotes he likes ranging from Socrates to Bruce Lee — to anti-establishment Kaczynski, the “Unabomber’’ who terrorized the country for nearly two decades by dispatching deadly bombs before he was caught in 1996.

“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness,’’ Kaczynski wrote in a quote liked by Mangione.

“Science fiction It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual’s internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.’’

REMEMBERING BRIAN THOMPSON
Thompson, a husband and father of two sons, lived in a Minneapolis suburb. Thompson had been withUnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.

UnitedHealthcare provides coverage for more than 49 million Americans and brought in more than $281 billion in revenue last year. It is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs. They are also rumored to have the largest rates of coverage denial across all insurance platforms.

In Thompson’s time as CEO, he helped to launch an AI system to track and decide how American’s are approved or denied their insurance claims. There were allegedly many flaws in UnitedHealthcare’s AI, leaving crowds of people with hefty medical bills outside of their budgets.

According to Futurism.com, the algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and UHC knew it.