Luigi Mangione’s winding path from respected Ivy League student to alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was pieced together by friends and family.
The 26-year-old suspect – who was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday – went “absolutely crazy” after painful back surgery and explored psychedelic treatment for his chronic pain, it was revealed.
Friends said Mangione disappeared from the radar when “everything changed” after a surfing accident.
“I remember him saying he had a back problem and he hoped to get stronger in Hawaii,” former roommate RJ Martin told CNN.
The experience was “really traumatic and difficult” for him, the roommate said, adding that Mangione sent him X-rays of his spine.
“It looked horrible, just giant screws going into his spine,” Martin said.
Mangione suddenly went ‘radio silent’ during recovery. He looked for alternative forms of pain relief, including psychedelics and magic mushrooms.
His family was so concerned about him that he was reported missing on November 18. according to The New York Post.
Luigi Mangione was behind bars Monday night awaiting extradition to New York for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
Mangione (second from left) stayed with a surfers’ collective while living in Hawaii before ‘everything changed’ after a surfing accident
The Mangione family said they were “shocked and devastated” in a statement released Monday evening.
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and ask people to pray for everyone involved,” the statement said.
Mangione was charged with murder late Monday by NYC officials following his capture in Pennsylvania, where he remains jailed on firearms charges.
The alleged killer provided police with a fake ID when he was approached at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. When police asked him if he had been to New York recently, he “became quiet and started shaking.”
In his backpack, police found a 3D-printed gun and a 3D-printed silencer. Mangione also had a passport and $10,000 in cash, $2,000 of which was in foreign currency.
Although his motive remains unclear, there appear to be indications that the alleged killer may have self-medicated.
On
On January 25 this year he added to his Goodreads a book called ‘Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide’ and ‘Mushrooms of Hawai’i: An Identification Guide’.
Mangione arrived at court Monday evening after being arrested by Altoona police
The alleged killer was pictured in his prison cell
He also included a book titled “How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics.”
Jack Mac, an employee at Barstool Sports, said high school friends of the alleged shooter claim he was “crazy” after he was injured.
“Spoke to a source who had a lot of friends who went to high school with Luigi Mangione,” he wrote. ‘What keeps coming up is a back operation that “changed everything” for him and he went “absolutely crazy”.’
‘Back injury occurred while he was surfing in Hawaii. The operation did not go well. Moved to Japan. His contact with family stopped about a year ago. Recently, the family contacted his friends from high school asking if they had any information about him.”
The suspected shooter reportedly referred to UnitedHealthcare in the handwritten document found on him.
Mangione named the company worth $515.93 billion in his manifesto, noting the size of the company and how much money it makes, a senior law enforcement official who saw the document told The New York Times.
Luke Goldstein, a writer at the independent political magazine The Prospect, said a mutual friend went to high school with Mangione and was on the wrestling team with him.
“She says he was the class valedictorian. He had back surgery a few months ago and is missing. No one had heard from him,” Goldstein wrote on X.
Mangione spent time in Hawaii, where he hoped to recover from back surgery
An X-ray appeared to show Mangione’s surgery
Mangione was seen wearing a face covering in his first photo after his arrest
Mangione was valedictorian of his 2016 class at the Gilman School in Baltimore, where tuition is $40,000 a year. He then graduated with honors from the Ivy League school of the University of Pennsylvania.
A colleague told CNN they were “stunned” by the news of his arrest.
‘I never had the impression that he would destroy himself’ the person told the network.
Another friend of Mangione’s, Boston-based designer Daniel Collins, approached X in recent months in a last-ditch effort to contact him, saying that “no one has heard from you in months.”
“Hey man, I need you to call me,” Collins wrote to Mangione on September 7 of this year. “I don’t know if you’re doing well or if you’re just in a super isolated place with no service. But I haven’t heard from you in months.
“You made commitments to me for my wedding and if you can’t keep them, I need to know so I can plan accordingly.”
On October 30, another friend with the X username TheRealMandusa wrote, “Hey, you okay? No one has heard from you in months and apparently your family is looking for you.’
On November 26, a third X user named P. wrote: “I think of you and pray in your name every day. Please know that you are missed and loved.”
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range on December 5
Mangione was spotted on a surveillance camera in a hostel in New York
The former Ivy League student researched psychedelics as an alternative treatment
Reported claims from school friends about a back injury match the trail Mangione left on social media.
One friend, Carolina Leon, tagged Mangione in an Instagram post about her birthday trip to Hawaii in December 2022. Another, Stephen Rasinar, tagged Mangione in a post about a two-week trip to the Pacific archipelago – suggesting he was there with friends in recent years.
His profile photo on X contains an apparent x-ray of metal pins in a spine.
Emergency physician Dr. Kashif Pirzada wrote on X that the photo “looks like lumbar spine fusion surgery.”
Mangione had an account on the book review site Goodreads.com and listed books on dealing with back pain.
One is titled “Back in Control: A Spine Surgeon’s Roadmap to Overcoming Chronic Pain.” Another is “Crooked: Outsmarting the Back Pain Industry and On the Road to Recovery.”
But most intriguing is a review he wrote of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski’s manifesto.
“He was a violent individual – rightly imprisoned – who mutilated innocent people,” Mangione wrote. “While these actions are often characterized as those of a crazed Luddite, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”
“When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary for survival,” he added.