who is Luigi Mangione?
Luigi Mangione Came From Privilege. Then His Spine Gave Out, He Went Off The Grid, And He Got A Gun
Handwritten notes, classmates, and social media posts reveal how Luigi Mangione went from Ivy League student to murder suspect.
·
The Lede
For years before he was accused of killing the CEO of one of America's largest health-insurance companies, Luigi Mangione suffered from debilitating pain that doctors didn't seem able to fix. He detailed the pain in dozens of posts on Reddit between 2018 and 2024. None of them, though, mention UnitedHealthcare or its CEO, Brian Thompson, whom he's now accused of killing. But his posts paint a portrait of someone whose pain and recovery led him to put "my life on hold in my 20s."
Key Details
- In handwritten notes from 2019 reviewed by Business Insider, Mangione wrote that he had spondylolisthesis — severe slippage of parts of the spine due to joint deterioration.
- He underwent surgery in 2023. At first, he appeared jubilant — his pain was gone. But by June this year, he was castigating doctors as "basically worthless" on X.
- The experience appears to represent a significant — and excruciating — engagement with the American healthcare system.
