The Mangione is a prominent Maryland family. The family is involved in developing real estate and even has a history of contributing millions of dollars to health care. Luigi’s grandfather, Nick Mangione Sr., immigrated from Italy and would say he “didn’t have two nickels to rub together…yet I still became a millionaire.”
Luigi is also related to Nino Mangione, a Maryland lawmaker. The family released a statement that read, “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson, and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
According to the New York Post, Luigi Mangione was raised just outside Baltimore in Towson. There, his family owns two sprawling country clubs, a local radio station, and a nursing home. This is on top of all the real estate holdings that the family also reportedly owns.
Other than a social media post stating that they are shocked, the family has remained relatively quiet. It’s currently unknown whether or not Luigi Mangione’s family is paying for his legal fund, but Yahoo News states a fundraiser has raised over $27,000 for his legal needs.
The first positive forensic matches were recently found. Prints that matched Luigi Mangione were found at the scene. Authorities are continuing to dig to find more evidence to support the charges against Luigi Mangione.
Despite the fingerprint matches, Luigi’s attorney, Tom Dickey, maintains that his client isn’t guilty. He went on to say, “If you’re an American and you believe in the American criminal justice system, you have to presume him to be innocent.”
When he was arrested, Luigi had a bag with him that contained a lot of suspicious pieces of evidence that law enforcement had begun to comb through. One of which was a notebook that detailed his plans. In it, he wrote that he would “wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention.”
Mangione was likely referring to the annual UnitedHealthcare investor's conference at the Hilton in Manhattan. The notebook went on further to have to-do lists and justifications for the alleged crime. He also allegedly wrote, “It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents.”
Mangione's Goodreads account shows he read books about back pain and gave a positive review to the Unabomber manifesto. Mangione was also said to have “deep conversations” (according to CBS News) with a community book club which discussed the manifesto from the Unabomber.
An alleged review of Industrial Society and Its Future by Mangione states, “It’s impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.” The review included a “take” that read: “These companies don’t care about you, or your kids, or your grandkids. They have zero qualms about burning down the planet for a buck.”
According to Mangione’s LinkedIn account, he attended Stanford University in California, where he was a head counselor for a pre-collegiate studies program during the summer of 2019.
He also went to the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, a claim that was later confirmed to be true by a Penn spokesperson. There, he received a Master of Science in engineering with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics.
When Mangione was arrested, a 3D-printed ghost gun was found on his person, as well as a fake ID and a silencer. A ghost gun is a homemade firearm that, in this case, was made by a 3D printer. Because it can be assembled at home, guns like this are considered one of the fastest-growing safety problems in America.
He also had a 3-page written document that showed anger toward the insurance industry. In it, he allegedly expresses grievances at the insurance agency saying corporations for abusing the US for immense profit. News stations report that the document said that corporations are “mafiosa [that] have gotten too powerful” and that others had shown a light on corruption, but he is “the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
In response to the charges, Luigi Mangione’s team of attorneys have begun to fight the extradition to New York. The team claims that Pennsylvania didn’t provide the proper paperwork. However, the governor of New York and the District Attorney of Manhattan want him extradited as soon as possible.
To accomplish this, New York is working on a Governor’s warrant. This is a warrant that executes authority of another state in the United States. In this case, it would be to have Luigi Mangione delivered to New York. However, the state has a 30-day deadline to get it done. Otherwise, extradition could be a weeks-long process.
Before going to the University of Stanford in California and the University of Pennsylvania, Mangione attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. This is an all-boys independent school located in Roland Park in Baltimore, Maryland.
This is an elite institution where tuition for a high school student is more than $37,000 per year for high schoolers. While at Gilman, he was the valedictorian of his graduating class in 2016. During his graduation speech, he described his class as “coming up with new ideas and challenging the world around it.”
Luigi Mangione kept busy at the University of Pennsylvania. One of the things he did was founding and leading UPenn’s UPGRADE. This is a student-run video game development club. It was the first of its kind at the time. It was a group of 60 students who would gather and collaborate weekly to develop games.
One of the games the group worked on was “Animancer.” It was an ambitious project. It was a semi-open-world roleplaying game. The concept was a main character that could transform into supernatural beasts.
After college, Luigi Mangione moved to Hawaii to experience different cultures. There, he was involved in a surfing community. One of his friends, who was interviewed by CBS News, stated that he was very social. The only time he wasn’t social was when he was in pain.
Before they were taken down, Mangione’s socials showed that he posted about debilitating pain that was caused by a spine misalignment. His friend is quoted as saying that the “pain was always weighing on him.”
Business Insider published alleged handwritten notes from Luigi Mangione that describe his experience with spondylolisthesis. This is a condition where the spine vertebra slips out of place. If it slips too far, it can press on nerves and cause severe pain.
In 2022, he described “near constant burning/twitching in both ankles/calves.” On Reddit, Luigi Mangione wrote about back pain that had been plaguing him on and off for a year. In 2023, he underwent spinal fusion surgery, and at first, it seemed to help. However, by June 2023, he was calling doctors “basically worthless.”
Before the attack, Mangione fell out of touch with friends and family. He kept in touch with the surfing group he’d been a part of in Hawaii until around Jun or July. One of Mangione’s friends commented, saying he just went “radio silent.”
One user on X tagged Mangione, asking, “Hey, are you ok? Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently, your family is looking for you.” This was posted on October 30. Then, in November, Mangione’s mother reported her son missing in San Francisco.
After the event, there was a five-day manhunt that ended with the capture of Luigi Mangione on December 9. Law enforcement claims that Mangione allegedly went from Pittsburgh to New York and, finally, to a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Police received a tip from a McDonald’s employee saying that she noticed a customer who resembled the fugitive. Up until this point, Luigi Mangione was able to avoid capture due to his phone being in a signal-blocking bag.
When questioned by law enforcement, Mangione was allegedly shaking and shocked by the allegations. Police state that he was nervous, which is much different from what the public has seen in videos and heard from testimonies.
Altoona police officers stated during a news conference that Mangione was “cooperative with us, didn’t really give us too many issues. Once we found out his identity, we took it from there.” Despite the evidence, Mangione and his legal team have asserted that he pleads not guilty.
Just before Mangione entered the courtroom, he had an outburst. During this, he could be heard saying, “clearly out of touch, and it’s an insult to the intelligence of the American people.” Later, while exiting the courtroom, he had much less to say.
Reporters state that Mangione seemed calm in the courtroom. They noted specifically that he “did not seem shaken” and that he looked around those in the courtroom, muttering to himself as if he were counting how many people were there. Other reporters who were in the room said that he was smiling.
