Handsome, Ivy League educated, from a wealthy family. Oh, and did I mention the rippling abs?
On paper, Luigi Mangione is the kind of man any sane young man could dream of.
There’s one pretty big problem, though: The fiery Italian-American is now accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, in New York last Wednesday.
I admit, I was enthralled as soon as the first CCTV footage of Mangione was made public just hours after the murder.
Several cameras captured him apparently carrying out his meticulously planned operation: approaching Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel, carrying out the hit, and disappearing on an electric bicycle.
It was like a scene from a Christopher Nolan thriller: cinematic, chilling, and darkly compelling.
But then came details that only increased the intrigue. The clearest photos of Mangione emerged from the hostel where he was believed to be staying, allegedly lowering his mask to flirt with a lucky woman at the front desk. As one user on
When Mangione was named a “person of interest” in the case Monday night, the Internet exploded.
Amateur sleuths and admirers pored over his online presence and discovered tantalizing details: thought-provoking reviews of books on health, philosophy, and psychedelics; clever tweets; and an Instagram gallery filled with topless photos flaunting a physique straight out of a Calvin Klein campaign. Not to mention that he is the heir to a resort fortune and the brother of a prominent doctor.
Those who checked Mangione’s Spotify profile discovered that he is a fan of Charli XCX, the Essex-born singer beloved by Generation Z who went viral this summer for her best-selling album Brat.
As soon as Mangione was named a “person of interest,” social media exploded
The frenzy did not stop on social media. On the online marketplace Etsy, there are already more than 100 different items for sale with Mangione’s name or image.
A tote bag with photographs of the alleged shooter and the lyrics of a Britney Spears song: ‘Mom, I’m in love with a criminal.’ T-shirts and sweatshirts with the motto #FreeLuigi. A mock Time magazine cover featuring Mangione as Person of the Year with the tagline “Healthcare revolutionary, leading the charge to transform global health.”
But let’s not get carried away. Because no matter how chiseled his abs are or how smart he is, Luigi Mangione is a man accused of murder, and if he’s guilty, he deserves our condemnation. His alleged victim was not only the CEO of a controversial insurance company, but also a husband and father of two young children. His death is a devastating tragedy for them.
In these pages, in September, I wrote about the worrying number of young women on TikTok who now say they would rather face a grizzly bear in a forest than a man they don’t know: so deep-rooted is their fear of violent masculinity.
So it might seem like a strange (and worrying) contradiction that so many women (and some men) my age have “fallen in love” with this alleged killer.
But this is not the first time the Internet has turned a potentially dangerous individual into a sex symbol. Many have pointed out the similarity between Mangione and Daniel Khalife, 23, the former British Army soldier who was convicted this year of spying for Iran after triggering a nationwide manhunt when he escaped from HMP Wandsworth.
He also had movie star good looks and became an unlikely heartthrob overnight when his mugshot was shared on social media. ‘Luigi Mangione is the sequel to Daniel Khalife,’ wrote one user.
Then there’s the ‘world’s sexiest criminal’, Jeremy Meeks, who became a viral sensation in 2014 when his mugshot was posted online. Despite his two-year sentence for firearm possession, the American’s sharp cheekbones and blue eyes earned him a modeling contract while he was still behind bars and when he got out, he dated Topshop heiress Chloe Green. with whom he has a child.
Some were equally drawn to the Menendez brothers (who killed their mother and father), the subjects of a recent lavish Netflix drama.
However, when it comes to killers who look like Fred West, I’m afraid we’re not so generous.
But perhaps the Internet’s obsession with Mangione’s appearance is a distraction from the fact that, even excluding his striking appearance from the equation, his worldview clearly resonates with many young people across the political spectrum.
Those on the left have hailed the University of Pennsylvania graduate as a kind of anti-capitalist folk hero.
After all, the suspect appears to have been motivated by hatred of America’s rapacious health insurance industry, which routinely denies coverage to patients who have paid their premiums, pushing some families into bankruptcy as they must finance treatment out of your own pocket.
Some of Mangione’s supporters revere him not despite his alleged crime, but because of it. As someone on X wrote: “He took action against a private health insurance company… In this house, Luigi Mangione is a hero!”
However, when new details about his digital footprint emerged yesterday, it became clear that his political views are more complex than that, and he suddenly became a favorite of X’s most right-wing enclaves as well.
The 26-year-old was skeptical of “woke” culture, followed several “libertarian” figures online, and a supposed “manifesto” claimed to admire Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, who attacked academics, businessmen, and civilians with bombs between 1978 and 1995. , his GoodReads profile (a website where users review books) shows a fascination with psychedelic drugs and advice on treating back pain.
This is not the first time the Internet has turned a potentially dangerous individual like Mangione into a sex symbol.
Author: Clara Gaspar
These interests appear to have taken root when Mangione, who lived for a time in Hawaii at a surf camp, distanced himself from friends and family after suffering a surfing accident and was said to be taking alternative measures to manage his pain.
An x-ray Mangione shared on social media showed four pins in his spine. An American journalist who spoke to those who knew him said: “What keeps coming up is a back surgery that ‘changed everything’ for him and he went ‘absolutely crazy’.”
In fact, a friend who lived with Mangione in Hawaii, RJ Martin, explained that he had suffered from a condition called spondylolisthesis, in which a spinal vertebra slips out of place. The injury was so severe and debilitating that Mangione was unable to have sexual intercourse, he said.
‘He knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition was not possible. I remember him saying that to me and my heart breaks.
So instead of a popular antihero or a ‘fiery killer,’ it seems Mangione may have been just another victim of sorts, of a healthcare system that is failing many other Americans.
One thing’s for sure: the internet’s fixation on Mangione – whether it’s his politics, his pain, his jaw or his abs – shows how ‘meme culture’ is now shaping our perception of even the darkest stories.