Luigi Mangione has admitted before a federal court in New York that he shot and killed Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in the street as he was leaving the company’s annual investor conference in December 2024. Mangione, a 28-year-old engineer, has pleaded guilty to two charges that could result in life imprisonment: stalking resulting in death and stalking through the use of communication media or interstate travel, resulting in death.
“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione stated almost without flinching before federal judge Margaret M. Garnett. “I understood that my actions would make him fear for his life or suffer bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.” Sentencing is scheduled for December 18 while he still has a trial pending next month in a New York state court for the same incident.
During his statements before the court, Mangione described the attack on Thompson as a personal vendetta against the powerful and complex healthcare industry after suffering back pain for years. He explained that he obtained a gun made with a 3D printer to end Thompson’s life.
Five days later, the police arrested Mangione, then 26, at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after being recognized by a restaurant employee. Mangione holds an Engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Despite shocking part of American society by committing a cold-blooded murder in broad daylight on a Manhattan street – in front of the Hilton Midtown hotel – Mangione almost immediately developed an unusual legion of supporters, who interpreted the murder as a symbolic attack against a private health insurance system widely perceived as abusive to patients. That public sympathy translated into t-shirts, donations for his defense, and support on social media.
In federal court, he faces two stalking charges related to following the victim. For these, he could receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Additionally, New York state justice accuses him of murder, a crime that also carries the same maximum penalty.
The trial is scheduled to begin on September 8 with jury selection. However, his lawyers will try to prevent it from proceeding. The defense argues that, after the guilty plea reached in the federal case, their client cannot be tried again for the same facts.
His case is undoubtedly exceptional, the story of a smart boy from a well-connected middle-class family in his native Baltimore, graduated from prestigious schools and always with good grades. His friends describe him as an intelligent and considerate young man. But something was not quite right. The chronic back pain he suffered, worsened by a surfing accident, was affecting him more than it should.
Surprisingly, in July 2023 he underwent surgery that went well. He himself shared on social media that he had entered a stage where he did not need painkillers. That opened the doors to the trip to Asia he made months before returning to the United States, with the idea firmly in mind to end the life of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
Mangione was in a sort of spiritual retreat in Japan and then spent time in Thailand and India. There he met other American travelers to whom he expressed his frustration with the state of the healthcare system in the United States and the very high cost of insurance. He could not believe it when they explained the cost of an X-ray in Thailand compared to a house.
Days before returning to New York, he wrote in his diary what constitutes a full declaration of intent. “I finally feel sure of what I am going to do”, he wrote. “I have no doubt that it is right or justified.” Now, not yet 30 years old, he faces a whole life deprived of freedom.
