The Manhunt, the Manifesto and the Murder Charge

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Daily – "The 5-Day Manhunt for a C.E.O. Killer"

Episode Release Date: December 10, 2024

Introduction In this gripping episode of The Daily by The New York Times, hosts Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise delve into the harrowing five-day manhunt for Luigi Mangioni, the suspect accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. The episode examines not only the unfolding investigation but also the broader societal frustrations with the American healthcare system that may have fueled this tragic event.

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1. The Incident: A Targeted Attack The episode opens with a detailed recounting of the morning of the murder:

• Time and Setting: [00:26] On December 3rd, at 6:45 a.m., Brian Thompson was leaving his hotel in midtown Manhattan to attend an investor conference.

• The Attack: [00:50] As Thompson approached his destination, a hooded and masked gunman emerged, brandishing a gun with a silencer. The assailant fired repeatedly in what appeared to be a deliberate, targeted assassination.

• Immediate Aftermath: [01:37] Surveillance videos captured the shocking event, leaving the city in disbelief. Maria Kramer describes the scene as "something that you would watch on a TV show or in a movie" ([01:55]) and notes the almost cinematic quality of the "In Cold Blood" assassination.

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2. The Public Reaction: Frustration with Healthcare Companies The murder ignited widespread public outrage, particularly towards insurance companies:

• Ease of Escape: [02:17] The killer evaded immediate capture by fleeing through an alley, hijacking an e-bike, and merging into the crowded Central Park.

• Evidence and Speculation: [02:26] As the investigation unfolded, police found a backpack containing a jacket and Monopoly money ([02:26]), leading to speculations about the motive behind targeting Thompson.

• Connection to Healthcare Contempt: [02:49] Shell casings discovered at the scene bore the words "deny," "defend," and "depose," echoing sentiments from a book critical of the insurance industry ([03:28]).

• Community Voices: Dion Searcy highlights the universal struggles Americans face with the healthcare system ([03:53]), while personal stories from Maria Kramer and others illustrate the dire consequences of insurance denials ([04:02] - [05:49]).

  "Every person in America has had a brush with the healthcare system that has not been, you know, excellent." – Dion Searcy ([03:53])

  "When your kid is hurting or dying, when you are hurting or dying, I mean, you're teed up for some pretty charged emotions." – Dion Searcy ([05:06])

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3. The Manhunt: Intensive Police Efforts Following the assassination, authorities launched a comprehensive search:

• Citywide Search Tactics: [02:26] Police deployed across Central Park, searched numerous hotel rooms, and utilized drones to track the suspect.

• Surveillance Release: [02:41] NYPD released surveillance photos of the suspect staying at a New York hostel without a mask, aiding public recognition.

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4. The Arrest: Culmination of the Five-Day Hunt Five days into the investigation, significant progress was made:

• Break in the Case: [07:03–10:51] Maria Kramer reports that an employee at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized Luigi Mangioni from NYPD surveillance photos. Upon contacting authorities, officers observed Mangioni behaving suspiciously, leading to his arrest.

  "They find a man sitting at a table, looking at a laptop and wearing a blue medical mask. And when an officer asks him to pull down his mask and asks if he's been to New York recently, the man becomes quiet and starts to shake." – Maria Kramer ([10:04])

• Evidence Collected: A firearm with a suppressor consistent with the murder weapon and fake identification cards were found on Mangioni, solidifying his status as the prime suspect.

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5. Suspect Profile: Who is Luigi Mangioni? Investigations into Mangioni’s background revealed a perplexing contrast between his outwardly successful life and the heinous act he allegedly committed:

• Early Life and Education: [12:03] Luigi Mangioni, age 26, hailed from a privileged background in Maryland. He excelled academically, graduating as valedictorian from the Gilman School in Baltimore and later earning degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

• Career and Lifestyle: Employed in the tech industry, Mangioni lived in cities like San Francisco and Honolulu, maintaining an active online presence that suggested he was well-read and intellectually engaged.

• Criminal Record: Aside from a minor trespassing citation in Honolulu, Mangioni had no prior criminal history ([12:03]).

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6. Motivations: A Manifesto of Anger Towards Healthcare The discovery of Mangioni’s handwritten manifesto provided chilling insights into his motives:

• Content of the Manifesto: [13:57–14:40] In a three-page document, Mangioni takes responsibility for the murder, condemning UnitedHealthcare for its "immense profit" and labeling them as "parasites." He expresses regret for the ensuing trauma but justifies his actions as necessary.

  "These parasites had it coming. I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done." – Luigi Mangioni ([13:57])

• Ideological Influences: Mangioni had admired Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, praising him not as a "lunatic" but as an "extreme political revolutionary" ([15:32]), suggesting ideological alignment against corporate America.

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7. Legal Proceedings: Charges and Future Steps Following his arrest, Mangioni faced multiple charges:

• Initial Charges in Pennsylvania: [17:04] Mangioni was charged with carrying a gun without a license, forgery, and false identification.

• Extradition to New York: [17:54] Prosecutors are deliberating whether to pursue murder charges in New York, where Mangioni is formally accused of killing Brian Thompson.

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8. Public Perception and Broader Implications The case transcends a mere criminal investigation, reflecting deep-seated frustrations with the U.S. healthcare system:

• Symbolism vs. Reality: Maria Kramer ponders whether Mangioni will be seen solely as a villain or also as a symbol of the public's rage against systemic healthcare issues ([18:43–20:19]).

  "He represents this avaricious industry, but he's also a person who was murdered in cold blood and his killer in the minds of the police, in the minds of investigators, in the minds of prosecutors and his family and friends, he needs to be brought to justice." – Maria Kramer ([18:43])

• Social Media Reaction: Mangioni’s social media presence post-arrest, including a trending hashtag and significant follower count, indicates a complex public response that blends condemnation with inadvertent support.

  "An X account belonging to Mangione gained more than 200,000 followers after his arrest and the hashtag Freeluigi was trending across the platform." ([20:31])

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Conclusion This episode of The Daily masterfully intertwines the narrative of a violent crime with the underlying societal tensions surrounding the American healthcare system. Through detailed reporting and poignant personal stories, Bárbaru and Tavernise shed light on how systemic frustrations can manifest in extreme actions, prompting listeners to reflect on the broader implications for society and the healthcare industry.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Every person in America has had a brush with the healthcare system that has not been, you know, excellent." – Dion Searcy ([03:53])
• "These parasites had it coming. I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done." – Luigi Mangioni ([13:57])
• "He represents this avaricious industry, but he's also a person who was murdered in cold blood..." – Maria Kramer ([18:43])

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Attribution: All quotes and attributions are based on the transcript provided for the episode "The 5-Day Manhunt for a C.E.O. Killer" from The Daily podcast by The New York Times.

Transcript

[Sponsor Voice]

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[Michael Barrow]

I'm Michael Barrow. This is the Daily Today, the five day manhunt for the killer of a healthcare CEO. What we know about the suspect now in custody and what the case has revealed about many Americans contempt for insurance companies. It's Tuesday, December 10th. On Wednesday morning of last week, the Chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, left his hotel in midtown Manhattan for his company's investor conference a few blocks away. It was 6:45 in the morning, still mostly dark out. And as Thompson neared his destination, a hooded and masked gunman emerged from behind a parked car, took out a gun with a silencer and began to fire at him over and over in what's clearly a targeted attack.

[Maria Kramer]

Chilling new details tonight following what police.

[Sponsor Voice]

Say was the premeditated murder of the CEO of United Healthcare on the busy streets of midtown Manhattan early today.

[Michael Barrow]

Surveillance videos of all of this, which emerged a few hours later, shocked the city.

[Maria Kramer]

It was so surreal. It's something that you would watch on a TV show or in a movie. This like In Cold Blood assassination two blocks away from my house. What I heard was that he ran up 6th Avenue and into the park. And so, you know, that would be like right here.

[Michael Barrow]

And just as shocking was how effortlessly Thompson's killer got away.

[Maria Kramer]

According to the nypd, the shooter took off through an alley, grabbing an E bike and riding it into Central park, which at that time was filled with morning runners and walkers.

[Michael Barrow]

By the end of the day, a massive citywide manhunt was underway. Cops literally fan out across Central Park. Hotel rooms are being searched. Drones are put in the air.

[Maria Kramer]

New this morning, NYPD releasing surveillance photos of the suspected gunman at a New York hostel without a mask.

[Michael Barrow]

Eventually, small pieces of evidence emerge, a major discovery. Police sources say they found a backpack believed to be the shooters. No gun was found inside. What was found? A jacket and Monopoly money. And as speculation begins about why exactly this CEO was targeted, the question naturally arises. Was this about healthcare? And the police reveal a single piece of evidence that suggests perhaps it was. Law enforcement found shell casings at the crime scene with the words deny, defend and depose written on them.

[Sponsor Voice]

Those words are strikingly similar to a.

[Michael Barrow]

Title of a book that condemns the insurance business. Suddenly, it looks like this murder and this missing suspect have tapped into something much bigger.

[Dion Searcy]

I mean, every person in America has had a brush with the healthcare system that has not been, you know, excellent. Right.

[Michael Barrow]

I spoke with my colleague Dion Searcy, who writes about wealth and power in New York.

[Dion Searcy]

I got brought into this story last week, the day after the shooting, when I had noticed a lot of posts on social media, strangely in support of the shooter. You know, some of the posts were very pointed and direct and just full of malice for the victim, which is something that we don't usually see. So I just started going through tweets and going through all the networks and collecting just this kind of outrage over the healthcare system.

[Maria Kramer]

Let me just start off this video by saying I do not condone violence by any means. But let's talk about what happened today with the United Healthcare CEO.

[Michael Barrow]

Six months before my mom died, her health insurance let her know that all of the things that she had been prescribed and insured for for the last 10, 15 years of her life were no longer going to be covered.

[Dion Searcy]

There was some real anger that this.

[Maria Kramer]

Unleashed sitting in the emergency room with my one year old baby. She needed to be transferred to New York City so she could have emergency brain surgery. And instead, instead we sat in the hospital for three days because United Healthcare refused to approve the transfer via ambulance.

[Dion Searcy]

You know, moms who couldn't get an ambulance ride covered.

[Maria Kramer]

So my United Healthcare story is that when my son needed a special type of bed because of his disability, they denied us that. Today is a beautifully ironic day for UnitedHealthcare to deny my injections for my cancer treatments.

[Dion Searcy]

There's no shortage of really painful experiences. And I think why emotions are so heightened is because you interact with health insurance companies at obviously some of the worst moments of your life. When your kid is hurting or dying, when you are hurting or dying, I mean, you're teed up for some pretty charged emotions.

[Maria Kramer]

You know, maybe violence is not the way, but have you read any of the comments on those videos reporting this story? People are calloused.

[Sponsor Voice]

People do not care because the health.

[Maria Kramer]

Insurance companies do not care about their lives.

[Michael Barrow]

Plenty of people are not celebrating what happened here. They're just seeing it as a chance to vent. Yeah. To fume about it.

[Dion Searcy]

Yeah, for sure. You know, medical debt is insane right now in America. And here's a guy who found a path, you know, to do something about it in the Worst possible way.

[Michael Barrow]

And then on Monday morning, five days into this manhunt and this growing expression of fury at the US Healthcare system, there's a major development in the story.

[Maria Kramer]

So I came this morning to the Shack just to get a sense of the buzz. I wasn't expecting that there would be a break in the case, so I.

[Michael Barrow]

Called my colleague, police reporter Maria Kramer, who works out of a small press room inside the nypd, called the Shack.

[Maria Kramer]

So I went upstairs, confirmed some tantalizing details, like they'd found Monopoly money in the backpack and that the K9 units that are good at detecting guns had been deployed up close to where the Greyhound depot was. So, you know, we were just going to do sort of a small update. And then just as we were doing all that, boom, it just very quickly developed that a man was taken into custody in Pennsylvania.

[Michael Barrow]

After the break, everything we now know about the suspension. We'll be right back.

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[Michael Barrow]

This is a fast moving story. So I just want to acknowledge when we're talking to you, it's 5:45 or so on Monday night. And I want you to tell us based on what you know now, how this suspect was caught and how this manhunt came to what looks like its end. And then we'll get to what we're learning about who the suspect is and what truly motivated him. But let's just start with how he gets caught.

[Maria Kramer]

So what we learn from our police sources and from a news conference where the police address the media.

[Michael Barrow]

Good afternoon everyone. Earlier this morning in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

[Maria Kramer]

Members On Monday morning at 9:14 at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the suspect.

[Michael Barrow]

Was in a McDonald's and was recognized by an employee.

[Maria Kramer]

You have an employee who notices a man eating in the restaurant, and that employee recognizes this man as the man that was photographed on various surveillance shots released by the New York Police Department as a person of interest in the shooting of Brian Thompson. He calls 911. He calls the Altoona Police Department.

[Michael Barrow]

Responding officers questioned the suspect who was acting suspiciously and was.

[Maria Kramer]

They find a man sitting at a table, looking at a laptop and wearing a blue medical mask. And when an officer asks him to pull down his mask and asks if he's been to New York recently, the man becomes quiet and starts to shake.

[Michael Barrow]

Upon further investigation, officers recovered a firearm on his person, as well as a suppressor, both consistent with the weapon used in the murder.

[Maria Kramer]

Eventually, they search him and they find a gun. They find a silencer, and they find fake identification cards.

[Michael Barrow]

Also recovered was a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the ID our suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident. Pretty distinct pieces of evidence, especially the gun and the silencer, that suggest this is most likely their guy.

[Maria Kramer]

Exactly. And the gun was a source of much debate online. People were trying to figure out what this gun was. And what it turns out to be is what we call a ghost gun. You know, these are guns that are assembled from parts that have been printed out from a 3D printer. And this gun is capable of firing 9 millimeter rounds, which are the rounds that were found at the crime scene in New York.

[Michael Barrow]

What, Maria, do we begin to learn about this suspect, about who he is, about his biography?

[Maria Kramer]

So what we learn about this man is that his name is Luigi Mangioni. He's 26 years old, and he seems to have come from a life of a lot of privilege. He was born and raised in Maryland. He went to a private school in Baltimore, the Gilman School. He was a wrestler there. He graduated as valedictorian. He goes on to have an Ivy League background, getting his undergrad degree and his graduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. And from there, he starts working in tech, travels a little bit around the country, living in San Francisco and in Honolulu. And he has a pretty interesting online presence. It suggests he's really well read. He's posting about books that he's read on Goodreads. And by all accounts, if you look at his background, he seems accomplished but normal. And according to the police, from what they have learned so far about him, he doesn't have a criminal record. There was one citation for him trespassing in Honolulu at a state park. But other than that, his record is clean, at least according to what we know so far.

[Michael Barrow]

So what are we learning about how he goes from having no criminal record and having this fairly normal existence to allegedly committing murder? What are the police uncovering about any motivations?

[Maria Kramer]

So there's very little that we know about him personally to suggest that he was going to go from valedictorian of his high school class in Upengrad to the alleged killer of an executive in New York. But there are some clues that the police are looking at, and one of the big ones is this three page handwritten manifesto that the police find on Luigi Mangioni when he's arrested.

[Michael Barrow]

Hmm. And what is in that manifesto? As best we know.

[Maria Kramer]

So in this 260 word handwritten manifesto, Luigi Mangioni is appearing to take responsibility for the murder, according to a senior law enforcement official who saw the document. And he notes United Healthcare's market capitalization growing and condemns Companies like UnitedHealthcare that, quote, continue to abuse our country for immense profit. And he also, in a pretty haunting part of the document, he says, quote, these parasites had it coming. And, quote, I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.

[Michael Barrow]

Wow. Do we know if he himself personally had a bad experience with UnitedHealthcare?

[Maria Kramer]

We don't know if he had a personal experience with the insurance company, but we do know that he had been in regular contact with his friends and his family until about six months ago. That's when he. He suddenly stopped communicating with them. And his friends have told us that he had been suffering from a painful back injury at the time. And that's when communication went dark and his relatives and friends began to become very anxious about him. Why hadn't anyone heard from him? The other thing we know is that in the last year, he had been writing many reviews on Goodreads, specifically one about a book that was written by Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who mailed bombs to people that he felt were destroying the world with technology. Technology. Ted Kaczynski killed three people, and he was seen he was a terrorist. But in his review, Mr. Mangione describes him as a mathematics prodigy. And he tells readers not to dismiss the book as the manifesto of a lunatic. He praises him by saying that many of his predictions about modern society turned out to be true, so he was prescient. And he specifically says that while he was a violent individual, rightfully imprisoned for killing and maiming people, these actions and this is a direct quote. While the these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy Luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary. So there's admiration in that of a man who did terribly violent things to.

[Michael Barrow]

Some degree in the name of stopping corporations from hurting the world.

[Maria Kramer]

Exactly.

[Michael Barrow]

So the working theory here would seem to be that Mangione, over some period of time since he left college, became somebody who identified with these efforts to take on corporate America, perhaps specifically the healthcare industry, out of some belief, allegedly, that, like the Unabomber, he could single handedly hold them to account at this point.

[Maria Kramer]

That is a theory that many people hold. But we really don't know what happened to Luigi Mangione.

[Michael Barrow]

What awaits Mangione now in the legal system, assuming that police in New York line all this evidence up and decide that he is their suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson?

[Maria Kramer]

So just a few minutes ago, Luigi Mangioni arrived at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He was let out of the car by two officers who walked him in, his hands bound behind his back. And there was a huge media presence there. Here he is being brought into a courthouse, not face murder charges, but to face gun charges. He's there for a preliminary arraignment. And then what's going to happen is prosecutors there will decide whether they want to carry out these charges against him in Pennsylvania or if he can be extradited to New York for presumably potentially murder charges for the killing of Brian Thompson.

[Michael Barrow]

So, Maria, stepping back just a little bit, I'm curious at this point how you're thinking about this overall case and the meanings that it's taken on. We spoke earlier today with our colleague Dion Cersei about just how much this case, before there was a named person of interest, before there was an arrest, has become about America's healthcare system and people's frustration with it. And of course, it's a cold blooded murder. Right. And yet it's also become this referendum, it would seem, on a broken healthcare system and populist rage over that. So how are you kind of making sense of all of that as this case now moves into this next phase of the actual criminal justice system?

[Maria Kramer]

You know, and I think that's a really interesting question that I've been thinking about myself, because to the police, to prosecutors, to the detectives who've been looking into this and talking to Brian Thompson's family and colleagues and friends, this is a homicide. This is a murder they have to investigate. This is a murder they have to solve. To many in the public and even some officers that I've spoken with, it's something that underscores the anger and the frustration at a system that they feel they have no control over. And yet it's such a huge part of their lives, their healthcare and how they pay for it. So I wonder, as this case unfolds, will the public's perception of him change as we learn more about what motivated him when he did what he allegedly did, which is kill a man who was heading to a meeting. A father of two and a person who is missed by colleagues, is missed by friends, is a human being. To many, he represents this avaricious industry, but he's also a person who was murdered in cold blood and his killer in the minds of the police, in the minds of investigators, in the minds of, of prosecutors and his family and friends, he needs to be brought to justice. So does this investigation reveal more about him that makes the public think twice about this folk hero status that some have attached to him?

[Michael Barrow]

Oh, Maria, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

[Maria Kramer]

Thank you so much.

[Michael Barrow]

After we spoke with Maria, Mangione was charged with five crimes in Pennsylvania, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, and falsely identifying himself to the authorities. A few hours later, prosecutors in Manhattan charged him with murder on social media. An X account belonging to Mangione gained more than 200,000 followers after his arrest and the hashtag Freeluigi was trending across the platform. We'll be right back.

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[Michael Barrow]

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[Maria Kramer]

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[Dion Searcy]

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[Michael Barrow]

Need to know today. The Times reports that in a major legal defeat, Rupert Murdoch has lost his effort to change his family's trust in a way that would lock in the right wing editorial slant of his media empire, which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch, whose family trust originally gave all four of his children equal control of the empire, had sought to rewrite it to give almost all that power to his eldest son Lachlan, who is far more conservative than his siblings. But a Nevada court resounded rejected that effort, saying that it had been undertaken in bad faith and in a closely watched trial. Daniel Penney, a former Marine who choked a fellow New York City subway rider last year, was acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide. The case came to exemplify New York City's post pandemic struggles. Prosecutors alleged that Penny's actions killed Jordan Neely, who was homeless and had a history of mental illness. Their encounter began after Neely, who is black, began yelling at and frightening fellow subway passengers, prompting Penny, who is white, to put him in a chokehold. Today's episode was produced by Stella Tan, Alex Stern, Lindsey Garrison and Nina Feldman, with help from Luke Vanderblook. It was edited by Paige Cowett and Maria Byrne, contains original music by Diane Wong, elishaba Etube, Pat McCusker and Sophia Landman and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsfurk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Nick Pittman. That's it for the Daily I'm Michael Balbaro. See you tomorrow.

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