'These parasites had it coming': Suspect in murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO had handwritten manifesto

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested by police in Altoona, PA on firearms charges Monday afternoon, and on Monday night he was charged with second-degree murder in New York in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He had a handwritten manifesto on him when police found him at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.

A senior law enforcement official who saw the document told the New York Times that the writer of the manifesto appeared to take responsibility for the murder of Thompson, and noted that while UnitedHealthcare’s market capitalization has increased, the life expectancy of Americans has not.

"To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone," he wrote, condemning companies that "continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it."

"These parasites had it coming" and "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done" were written in the manifesto, which also mentioned UnitedHealthcare by name and condemned healthcare companies for placing profits over care.

A former roommate of Mangione, RJ Martin, told CNN that he’s "beyond shocked" by the news, adding that when he interviewed Mangione to see if he was a good fit to move in, " I remember he said he had a back issue, and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii," per CNN. Martin said that Mangione took a surf lesson that had left him in bed for about a week and that "it was really traumatic and difficult."

Martin said that Mangione had undergone surgery. "He sent me the X-rays. It looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine. After that, he called me once, I didn’t pick up." Martin told the New York Times that Mangione had moved into their shared space in 2022, and mentioned having back issues and an upcoming major back operation that he was trying to get as healthy as possible for. "His spine was kind of misaligned. He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes he’d be doing well and other times not."

Martin added that Mangione had confided in him that he had no relationship because "he knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible. I remember him telling me that, and my heart just breaks."

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that Mangione's family reported him missing on November 18, possibly from a home in San Francisco.

A former classmate of Mangione’s at Gilman told the Times that he and other peers received a message earlier in 2024 in which Mangione’s family was attempting to track him down. Cranston said the message stated that family members had not heard from Mangione in the months following his back surgery.

Mangione received a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore, a private, all-boys school, graduating as valedictorian in 2016.

Henry P.A. Smyth, Head of School at Gilman, told the Baltimore Fishbowl in a statement, "We recently became aware that the person arrested in connection with the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is a Gilman alumnus, Luigi Mangione, Class of 2016. We do not have any information other than what is being reported in the news." He continued, "This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected," adding, "Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating the boys. Thank you for your understanding."

According to the Baltimore Banner, school officials portrayed Mangione in Gilman’s description of the 2016 graduation ceremonies as inventive and having "incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things."

Mangione's X account includes in its banner photo an x-ray of a back with surgical screws in it. His Goodreads account, a website dedicated to tracking books a user reads, shows multiple books on his reading list about back surgery and back pain, such as "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery." His Goodreads account has since been made private. According to Forbes, another book on Mangione's reading list was "Industrial Society and Its Future," the manifesto written by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that Mangione started Penn’s Game Research and Development Environment (UPGRADE), which aims to "foster creative expression and cultivate career skills for the artists, programmers, and creatives interested in game development in the Penn community." One article in Penn Today about UPGRADE, which featured quotes from Mangione, has been removed from the website.

On Facebook, Mangione was listed as the co-founder of AppRoar Studios, which created "Pivot Plane," a game app.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that a worker at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona spotted Mangione and called the police, who came to question Mangione and said he was "acting suspiciously" and was carrying "multiple fraudulent IDs as well as a US passport." Officers retrieved a firearm and suppressor from Mangione, which were "consistent with the weapon used in the murder," said Tisch. Clothing items were also retrieved that were "consistent with those worn by our wanted individual" and a fraudulent New Jersey ID that matched the ID the suspect used to check into the New York City hostel he stayed at, as well as a hand-written document "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset."

Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said that Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco, and his last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. During questions from reporters, Kenny said that it "seems that [Mangione] had some ill will towards corporate America." Kenny said that preliminary information from Altoona PD showed that the gun obtained was a ghost gun that may have been 3D printed and was capable of firing a 9mm round.

An earlier version of this story said that the manifesto was 262 pages.