For most of his life, before he was thrust to the center of one of the biggest true crime stories in America, Luigi Mangione appeared to live a comfortable — some might even say privileged — life.
Prior to Dec. 4, the Mangione name was mostly held in high regard — associated with a large, wealthy Italian family. Its patriarch, Nicholas Mangione Sr., comes from a humble background. He and his wife, Mary, grew what little they had into a multi-million-dollar real estate empire, one that today includes senior living facilities, and two golf courses, one of which is attached to a resort.
"My understanding is Nick Mangione Sr. made a joke about barely having two nickels to rub together when he got his start, when he came in and entered the business world," recalled Thomas Maronick, an attorney in Maryland who at one point worked on a Mangione-owned talk radio station and remains an acquaintance of the family's.
In the half-century since Mangione Sr.'s start, the family name grew both in prominence and size. Luigi Nicholas Mangione, one of more than 30 grandchildren to Mangione Sr., was given the middle name of his grandfather. And his upbringing was surrounded by wealth — and opportunity.
Mangione attended the all-boys Gilman School, one of the most elite college preparatory schools in the Baltimore region where high school tuition today runs just shy of $40,000 per year. Graduating as high school valedictorian in 2016, he matriculated to the University of Pennsylvania, where according to a LinkedIn profile with his name, he received two engineering degrees and served as president of a video game development club.
After leaving the Ivy League institution in 2020, he became a data engineer and began a steady climb up the corporate ladder.
But not long after, things appeared to deteriorate.
Social media posts from accounts linked to his name reveal that Mangione faced chronic back pain, and in 2023, he underwent spinal surgery. An x-ray image posted to his social media page appeared to show screws implanted in his lower back, and Reddit posts sourced to him referenced a condition called spondylolisthesis, a defect that occurs when a fracture causes a vertebra to slip out of alignment.
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Though Mangione appeared to benefit from the back procedure he received — praising it repeatedly on social media — he, nonetheless, continued to struggle. His social media pages, long filled with his opinions on everything from books to politics, laid dormant. Friends and family said he fell out of touch.
In mid-November, his mother even filed a missing persons report in San Francisco — something law enforcement officials said later helped them to identify Mangione in their investigation into UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's murder.
When Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9, his family name plastered across the news caught the attention of longtime acquaintances.
"When I saw the name Mangione, I said that that can't be the same family that I have been on a radio station for 20 years," Maronick said. "I couldn't believe it. This is a family of means. This is a family of wealth, family that's so esteemed and generous It's just the last person, last family, and suspect hard to believe."
After his arrest, information about the alleged assassin's motive started to come to light: anger towards the U.S. healthcare system and those who kept it operational. Inscribed on bullet casings found at the scene of the crime were the words "delay," "deny" and "defend" — a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.
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According to court documents and law enforcement sources, police found Mangione with a written document that read in part: "I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming."
Nino Mangione, cousin to the alleged assassin and a Republican state delegate in Maryland, said in a statement his family was "shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."
"We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news," the statement added.
Maronick, the family acquaintance, said he believes Mangione's alleged attack will serve as a stain on the family's legacy, but noted that he hopes their history of philanthropy will feature in conversations, too.
"I think certainly there will be a mention in Wikipedia entries about this," Maronick said. "But as somebody who's not a member of the family, but obviously had a connection with them, I just hope that their legacy is about the good things that they've done, which are very many, and the focus is on that and not about the specifics here. I think they're two separate things. So obviously history will decide that we'll see how things go."
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Mangione initially fought extradition from Pennsylvania, where he was apprehended, to New York. He faces more serious charges in New York, including murder in the first degree as an act of terrorism. Officials have more recently noted, however, that Mangione may waive his extradition rights and be transferred to New York as soon as Thursday.
Mangione is scheduled to appear in court in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Thursday morning.
