ALTOONA, Pa. – Police arrested a man in a McDonald’s restaurant in the assassination of Minnesota health insurance executive Brian Thompson six day earlier in New York. Arrested was Luigi Mangione, 26, who has family roots in Maryland. An alert employee at the McDonald’s called Altoona police that a customer seemed shifty. Mangione was arrested without resistance. With him in a sack, police said, were:
> An untraceable home-made handgun and silencer like was used to kill Thompson.
> A fake New Jersey driving card that had been used to check into a Manhattan hostel several days before the shooting.
> A three-page manifesto against corporate greed.
If Mangione is the right person, he would have fled the scene quickly to an urban transportation hub several miles up the Hudson River near the George Washington bridge and probably caught a bus. Altoona is 270 miles from New York.
Mangione. Initially held on forgery and illegal gun charges. Awatingg arrival of New York police investigators in Altoona.
At 6;45 a.m. On December 4. As Thompson was walking to a hotel meeting to update UnitedHealthcare investors. Shooter aims at Thompson. First bullet in back. Image: New YOrk City police
Mangione profile
Luigi Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of the late Nick Mangione Sr., a millionaire real estate developer in Baltimore. Members of the Mangione family own the Turf Valley Resort and Hayfields Country Club in Maryland. A cousins is Republican state legislator Nino Mangione. Over the years the Mangione family has donated more than $1 million to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Their properties include a nursing home.
Schooling. Mangione was graduated in 2016 from the private Gilman boys school in Baltimore, whose tuition is $40,000 a year. With the highest grades in his class, he was valedictorian. At the University of Pennsylvania he focused on computer science and mathematics. He belonged to the Eta Kappa Nu honor society for students in electrical and computer engineering students the top quarter of the junior class and top third of the senior class. He graduated with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering in 2020.
Employment. With his technical skills, employment was never a problem. He was chief mentor in the Stanford University pre-college studies program 2019. Among other jobs was a stint at TrueCar, a Santa Monica, California, firm that runs an online marketplace for cars. He left in 2022 and moved to Honolulu. He joined a co-living community for “digital nomads” on the 40th floor of the Surfbreak high-rise. Space ran $2,000 month for shared quarters. From there Mangione had remote customers. He left in 2024.
Spinal issue. Mangione had a major spinal problem, the origins of which are unclear: Congenital? A recent accident? An accident long ago? He underwent surgery apparently in Honolulu. He told a colleague at Surfbreak that he was working to get as healthy as possible in advance of a major operation. His lower vertebrae were misaligned almost a half-inch, which he said pinched a nerve and caused excruciating pain off and on. He showed a friend an x-ray with four large bolts into his spine.
Lifestyle. Mangione had been athletic. He wrestled in high school. He played pickup soccer at Stanford and hiked in the hills around Santa Monica. He surfed in Honolulu until he gave up because of pain. His reading included “Back Mechanic: The Secrets to a Healthy Spine Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You” by pain expert Stuart McGill. He also read up on healthy eating. During this period Mangione switched out his mattress. He confided to a friend that he wasn’t dating because the pain precluded intimacy. He also had given up connections from school and college. One friend who had asked Mangoine to be in his wedding said that he agreed but then went silent. Mangione family members jn Maryland said that no one had bear from him since his surgery.