Auround the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, New York's business district, in front of which insurer Brian Thompson was killed in cold blood on Wednesday December 4not much remains of the crime scene. Posters from the Crime Stoppers program still hang on poles promising “up to $10,000 reward for information.” » on the homicide, we can read in red letters, above two photos of the suspect, one on a bicycle, the other pointing his gun towards the back of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the main companies insurance companies in the United States. This type of poster is commonly used in the country when the police need the help of the general public to find the perpetrator of a crime.
They will soon be useless. Monday, December 9, the day of the leader's funeral, the authorities announced that they had arrested the man they believe to be in these images. Identified by an employee of the McDonald's where he was eating, Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested in Altoona (Pennsylvania), a small, uneventful town hundreds of kilometers from the Big Apple, in possession of a firearm, a silencer, fake ID cards and a multi-page manifesto in which he criticizes the health system for its greed.
The police officers who arrested him say that he “became silent and started trembling when they asked him if he had been to New York recently. He appeared in a Pennsylvania court Monday evening, handcuffed, with his face closed, for a preliminary hearing while the New York courts formally charged him with murder.
Fan of the writings of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski
American media describe a lively and intellectual young man, interested in psychology, philosophy and artificial intelligence. Coming from a notable family in Maryland, owner of a chain of nursing homes where he volunteered in 2014, he was the valedictorian of his class in a private high school for boys in Baltimore and studied computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. He also lived within a community of “digital nomads” (connected workers-travelers) in Hawaii.
But, lately, the young man showed another side of his personality. In 2024, he demonstrated, on a book site, his support for the writings of the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, a genius mathematician who killed three people between 1978 and 1995 using parcel bombs. On the same platform, he indicated that he suffered from chronic back pain. There is no indication, at this stage, that he was himself a UnitedHealthcare client.
The manhunt had gained momentum in recent days. The New York police had released several photos of the suspect in the hope of getting their hands on him. In one of them, he displays a big smile – seductive, some have said – at the reception of the Manhattan youth hostel where he had slept before the crime. This is what would have led to his identification by the McDonald's employee.
As soon as the identity of the suspect was revealed, certain political figures and activists did not hesitate to exploit the situation. Thus, the Republican senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, relayed to his more than 6 million subscribers of the social network The New York Post who himself cites anonymous police sources describing the suspect “as a supporter of anti-capitalist and climate causes”. And the elected official concluded: “Leftism is a mental illness. » A refrain echoed by the conservative Fox News.
Health insurance under fire
As elsewhere in the country, New Yorkers met near the scene of the tragedy expressed ambivalence about the murder and its alleged perpetrator. For some, the latter evokes the Joker, an anti-system criminal adored by the masses (and sworn enemy of Batman), or Robin Hood. “We are upset about the death of this boss, but what about all the people who lost their lives or whose illnesses worsened because UnitedHealthcare refused to cover them? » asks Carly, a Midtown merchant who prefers not to give her last name.
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Such refusals have caused the company, which is among the largest in the country, to be singled out in the past. Thus, in October, a committee of the American Senate concluded that the company and two of its competitors were increasingly rejecting requests for coverage of care – particularly expensive – linked to falls or cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) of seniors.
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“The death of the CEO is a tragedy, but I hope it will push these companies to review their policies,” says Mike Acevedo, who works in Midtown. He says he spent “hours” on the phone with his insurer to convince him to cover a surgical procedure: “Hell! They always look for justifications for not covering expenses, without worrying about the human consequences. »
Francisca Martinez, an employee in the banking sector, says she is “shocked” by the numerous online messages praising the killer. “This guy is not a hero. Last week, his victim's wife and children woke up without a husband or father. »
