Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - SICKOS: CEO 'ASSASSIN' LUIGI MANGIONE SCORES $500,000 & GIFTS FROM GHOULISH FANS

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Luigi Mangione’s first public comments since pleading not guilty to murder comes in the form of an open letter shared on a new website dedicated to his legal defense. His legal  team says the website — luigimangioneinfo.com — was created to ”share case updates, “dispel information” and publish letters from Mangione while he’s incarcerated.  He writes “I am overwhelmed by — and grateful for — everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support.”   Mangione’s legal team explain why the website was necessary. On the homepage they write.... “Due to the extraordinary volume of inquiries and outpouring of support, this site was created and is maintained by Luigi Mangione’s New York legal defense team to provide answers to frequently asked questions, accurate information about his cases, and dispel misinformation. “The intent is to share factual information regarding the unprecedented, multiple prosecutions against him.”  On the FAQ page of the website,  the defense teams ask that supporters limit the number of  items they send. Its pointed out that quote “Luigi is allowed to receive photos via Shutterfly and FreePrints in accordance with mail procedures”.  It contines “Luigi appreciates the photos that are sent and kindly asks that people send no more than five photos at a time. In his public statement , Mangione writes “While it is impossible for me to reply to most letters, please know that I read every one that I receive. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to write. I look forward to hearing more in the future.”   Luigi Mangione’s new website includes a link  to a GiveSendGo crowdfunding website. Supporters have been making donations in order to help pay Mangione’s legal fees. The inital goal , $5000,000, was reached quickly, and now the goal is $1,000,000.  JOINING NANCY GRACE TODAY:  Darryl Cohen  - Former Assistant District Attorney, Former Assistant State Attorney, Defense Attorney, at Cohen, Cooper, Estep, & Allen, LLC; Facebook: 'Darryl B Cohen,' X: @DarrylBCohenDr. Chloe Carmichael - Clinical Psychologist, Author of ‘Nervous Energy: Harness The Power of Your Anxiety;' X: @DrChloeTom Smith - Former NYPD Detective for 30 years - Narcotics, Robbery Squad, Gang Investigations; Co-Host  GOLD SHIELDS Podcast; FB & Instagram: @thegoldshieldshowDr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University)Anna Schecter - CBS News, Senior Coordinating Producer for the Crime & Public Safety Beat; X: @annaschecter; Instagram: @anna.schecter.zigler; FB: @AnnaSchecterJackie Howard - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Sickos. The so-called CEO assassin, Luigi Mangione, gets a half a million dollars donations for his defense. Sick letters sent to him in jail, even gifts from ghoulish fans. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. What's next for Luigi Mangione? The suspected CEO killer awaits trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn amid a flurry of fan mail and a legal fund boasting almost half a million dollars.

That's right. Yesterday it was almost half a million dollars. It topped out at about $470,000, $480,000. But since then, more donations have been pouring in. Who are these people that are funding Luigi Mangione's defense? Don't they know that his parents are millionaires, if not billionaires? Their bank account basically ceded by the hard, back-breaking work of his grandparents. That aside, this is where the case starts. Listen. For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video,

followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence, DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses, and so much more to tighten the net. We deployed drones, canine units, and scuba divers. We leveraged the domain awareness system, Argus cameras, and conducted aviation canvases. And our detectives also went door to door, interviewing potential witnesses and doing doing the good old fashioned police work that our investigators are famous for. Thousands and thousands of police man hours all to catch Luigi Mangione because of this. There you see the video with the victim walking forward, Mangione walking up directly behind him and pulling the trigger. The victim, a father of two little boys, now sent us to life without daddy, him. Now, based on a new

documentary, we're learning about his background, the victim's background, very modest, very humble background who works his way up the corporate ladder only to be gunned down on the sidewalk. And there's really no doubt that the shooter is Mangione. Let's see the shot of him at a local hostel where he smiles and flirts with the clerk. It's a full on face shot. Straight out to Anna Schechter joining us, CBS News senior coordinating producer for crime and public safety beat. Anna, thank you for being with us. I'm stunned that Mangione has somehow raised a half a million dollars in donations. Is that true? It is true.

It's half a million dollars. And the organizers of this Give, Send, Go website state their goal is a million dollars. And his own legal defense team, these are well-respected lawyers, former prosecutors in New York City. They created a website that hyperlinks out to this fundraising website. I have never seen this in 20 years of covering crime and public safety. Never seen anything like this. Well, neither have I. But aside from his half a million dollars donations for his defense fund, in last days a bombshell in court listen that's where our friends at fox nine straight back to Anna Schechter. What happened in court?

Well, he pleaded not guilty despite the DNA evidence, the surveillance video placing him at a Starbucks right before and right there in frontona, Pennsylvania. He had a ghost gun, the same gun, a gun that matched the pellets that were left on the ground that he wrote, allegedly, delay, deny, and depose in a seeming message, cryptic message to the health insurance industry. So just so much, a mountain of evidence against him, but he's pleading not guilty to 11 counts in New York state counts and four counts in federal court. One of them could carry the death penalty. Let's hear him pleading not guilty one more time. For those of you just joining us, the so-called CEO assassin pleading not guilty in court. Let's hear it for ourselves. That from our friends at Fox nine, you know, I like watching the demeanor of people in court.

Do they know what they're doing? Do they understand what's going on? Are they lucid? I see in court right there, an attempt much like was used with the Menendez brothers where he's all prepped out and his defense attorneys are fawning all over him. He knows to lean forward to the microphone and in a clear voice say not guilty. This among speculation that he may actually plead an insanity defense. But moving forward, let's hear what else the defense attorney says in court. I hope you're sitting down. He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I've ever seen in my career. There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles that, frankly, I had no idea was in their arsenal. And to have all of these, the press there, the media there, it was like perfectly choreographed.

And what was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference? That video from our friends at Fox 5 and Fox 9. You are hearing the defense attorney, Karen Agnefellow, the husband Agnefellow is representing Sean Combs, AKA Diddy. She is whining in court that quote, her client was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I've ever seen in my career. Speaking of the perp walk, let's take a look at it ourselves. Oh, my stars that from the Des Moines register. Did you hear what he was saying? Anna Schechter.

Can I can I see it one more time? I just want to see it while I hear Anna explain. Did you hear what he was saying? He is saying that everybody else is completely out of touch, that the insurance industry is completely out of touch, that it's an insult to the intelligence of the American people and the quote lived experience, the lived experience. Now that video from our friends at Des Moines Register, the lived experience, this coming from a guy who's bankrolled by mommy and daddy who were bankrolled by grandma and grandpa. And he's talking about

our regular people's lived experience. This guy who's living in a high rise in Honolulu, looking out at the sunset, him that surfs all day, that guy. This was his first hearing in Pennsylvania. The first time that we saw him after he was arrested and he was acting erratically. He was shouting, this is an insult to the American people and their lived experience. And he, in his own mind and in his own writings that were found on his person when he was arrested in Pennsylvania, he had this this seemingly delusion of grandeur that he alone could pick this CEO off. And the words he used were, these parasites had it coming, according to our law enforcement sources and the documents that CBS News has seen. So this erratic behavior linked up with that grandiosity. We'll see. It seemed to me like, don't forget, Karen Agnifillo told CNN before she was retained as his counsel that he might plead, use an insanity plea. So

that was kind of a message. Maybe we can infer that we are going to see this. But then, like you said, when he pleaded not guilty in New York State Court, he leaned into the microphone. He had control of himself. He was wearing a button-down shirt and that maroon sweater, kind of looking put together. He did do some erratic things in the courtroom, like raise his eyebrows in sort of an aggressive way and look directly at members of the press. So it's interesting. There's erratic behavior coupled with seemingly this sort of preppy, put-together veneer that

we've seen. It's just a very, very bizarre set of circumstances that we're watching. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last hours, Luigi Mangione in a court of law for an arraignment and Daryl Cohen, a fancy word for bringing the defendant in court

and reading the charges out loud from the indictment against him with his lawyer present. And the defendant pleads guilty or not guilty. And if he can't bring himself to speak like Brian Koberger, the lawyer will enter a plea for him. If nobody speaks, the judge will automatically enter a not guilty plea. That's all an arraignment is, right? Nancy, that's exactly what it is. It's only a way of the court saying when you plead not guilty, you're going to be set for trial at some point in the future. And pleading not guilty doesn't mean he won't enter a plea at some point, probably in my view, to some sort of psychiatric problem, not guilty by reason of insanity of some sort. of the healthcare industry exhibited in the manifesto who has the wherewithal to gather all the parts and create a ghost gun, which takes, oh gosh, around a hundred hours to

create a ghost gun. You 3d print it at home and track the victim all across the country, writing in his notes, in his notebook, how he tracked him down and that the gathering, the conference would be the perfect opportunity. There's the ghost gun, perfect opportunity. It's like, it's like a jackal and a gazelle. He waited for the victim to leave the hotel and finally be alone on an early morning walk to a breakfast at a convention, stalked him, lay in wait for over an hour after having watched him, encased him, then pounced and shot him. That's the guy you're telling me that under the old

McNaughton rule didn't know right from wrong at the time of the incident? Really? What I'm saying to you is, really, he was brought up not privileged, but overprivileged. I'm at the top of the heap. Now I can look down and he becomes part of his own cult. Everything he did shows that he had been overprivileged. He decided that he needed to see everything in the world his way because it wasn't right. Okay, you're actually hurting my ears. My ears are bleeding. Tom Smith joining me right now, former NYPD detective. He knows the crime scene like the back of his hand.

Now star of Gold Shields podcast. Tom, thank you for being with us. You hear Daryl Cohen, veteran defense attorney, teeing it up, the affluenza defense used by Ethan Couch when he mowed down a whole group of people on the side of the road. That I was just too rich to understand what I was doing. Affluent, affluenza. That's a crock of BS right there. I would have to agree because here's what's going to happen. You know, the premeditation is going to be the compelling factor in this with him pleading an insanity plea or whatever he may do in the future. The planning that had to go into this, the integral parts that he put into this, making the gun, tracking him, you know, laying in wait, knowing his schedule and then shooting him in cold blood.

The escape route where he was going was all planned out. Playing in wait, knowing his schedule, and then shooting him in cold blood, the escape route, where he was going was all planned out. So to all of a sudden say he snapped and something along his mental capacity changed his normal way of thinking is not going to work in my mind. Now, could he do it? Sure he can. But I don't think that's going to work too well. This morning at 646 a.m., patrol officers from Midtown North Precinct responded to a 911 call of a person shot.

It appears the suspect was lying in wait for several minutes. The suspect approached from behind and fired several rounds. The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot. In the last hours, the so-called CEO assassin in court pleading not guilty. This is more of what his defense attorney had to say. Listen. He's a young man and he is being treated like a human ping pong ball between two warring jurisdictions here. And they are literally treating him like he is like some sort of political fodder, like some sort of spectacle.

That's my friends at Fox 9. Let me understand Anna Schechter again. I'm going to bring in the rest of the panel in just a moment. She, the defense attorney, is arguing that he, her client, Luigi Mangione, is being treated like a human ping pong. Well, if he didn't want to be extradited from Pennsylvania back to New York, he shouldn't have committed a crime there to get arrested and in New York to get extradited. That's why he's a ping pong, right? He's facing these charges in New York first because the murder occurred in New York, but the murder occurred in New York. But there are additional charges in Pennsylvania.

So if he didn't want to be extradited, he should have thought about that before he committed all the crimes. That's right. He's facing 11 counts in New York. So this is the biggest case. And two of them are terrorism related. Remember after 9-11, new statutes were put in place and investigators used those, first degree murder and second degree murder related to terrorism. prison. And then the feds got involved. The FBI was involved. He crossed state lines in order to do this. And then he took a bus from Atlanta to New York City in order to carry this out. Then he again crossed state lines into Pennsylvania. So immediately the U.S.

Marshals are involved. The FBI is involved. He's facing federal charges that federal first degree murder charge could carry the death penalty. And look at what President Trump talked about with regards to the death penalty, supporting that. So let's see how this plays out. That's really interesting. He's facing those four federal charges. And then in Pennsylvania, he's facing charges involving possession of weapons, ammunition, and also the forgery charge. Anna Schechter, you're exactly right. The reason he's charged in Pennsylvania and Altoona is this. Listen to what he had with him. When police take Luigi Mangione into custody, a search of his backpack turns up what appears to be a gun printed using a 3D

printer, along with a silencer that strongly resembles the gun seen in video footage of the assassination. Officers recover a fake New Jersey ID matching the one used by the killer when he registers at a Manhattan hostel 10 days before the shooting of Brian Thompson, as well as clothing which matches that worn by the shooter. Police also recover a two and a half page manifesto, 262 words handwritten that lays out possible motivations for the attack. To Dr. Chloe Carmichael joining us, renowned clinical psychologist, author of Nervous Energy, Harness the Power of Your Anxiety. Dr. Chloe, thank you for being with us. A nearly 300 word manifesto. Really? And it's completely lucid. It's very well thought out.

How's this guy going to plead insanity? That's a great question, Nancy. And let's also remember that that manifesto was literally addressed to the feds, which suggests that he was quite clearly aware that his actions were going to attract legal attention, which suggests an awareness of right and wrong. He also, in that manifesto, apologizes, quote, for the trauma that I've caused, but it had to be done or something to that effect, which again suggests that he was fully aware that he was inflicting harm. Moreover, he obviously fled the scene and attempted to hide himself, again, suggesting a full awareness of right and wrong, as well as of the legality. Also, the attorney is whining about

comments that have been made by the state. Listen. The second thing I want to make a record of, Your Honor, is I'm very concerned about my client's right to a fair trial in this case. He's being prejudiced by some statements that are being made by government officials. From our friends at Fox 9, Daryl Cohen, what statements is she talking about? When he was arraigned, when the pressers were occurring, when the manhunt was on, when the arrest was made, is that what she's complaining about? Nancy, what she says is not what she means. Smoke, divert, mitigate. Smoke, divert, mitigate.

She's throwing out smoke because she knows she has to. What he did was obvious. How he did it was obvious. And she's trying to set the scene where he was not mentally the way he should have been. That's all we're talking about. Again, don't confuse what she says, how she says it with what she means. We are asking the public for your help. Who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson? The shooter appears to be a light-skinned male. He's wearing a light brown or cream-colored jacket and a very distinctive gray backpack. We're still tracking video. The last we see with him on that bike is in Central Park. In the last hours, the so-called CEO, Luigi Mangione in court pleading not guilty amidst

swirling rumors. He will ultimately change that plea to insanity. Now, there are two choices, not guilty by reason of insanity, which means, yes, I did it, but I was insane when I did it or guilty, but mentally ill, guilty by reason of insanity. So you've got a not guilty by reason of insanity and you've got a guilty by reason of insanity. Those are the choices. But he surely didn't look insane to me in court when he pled not guilty.

Back to the public website. It doesn't just explain Luigi Mangione's point of view. It's legal fees. The beginning of this week, donations topped $475,000. Mangione's lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifillo, told ABC News, Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support. My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Joining us now, Jackie Howard, Crime Stories Senior Producer. Jackie, what is on the website? Luigi Mangione's personal website.

Oh, there are so many things on there, Nancy. First, we have his writings. He reached out to his so-called fans, writing a letter, telling everyone how much he appreciates them getting in touch with him, asking them to limit what they send, but let his fans know that he reads everything that he gets sent. There's an explanation from his attorneys on why they decided to create this website so that they could counter any misinformation that they say was put out there about their clients. They have a link to the website to raise money. And the original goal was $500,000. And by the beginning of this week, they had already reached three quarters, actually more than three quarters, of their goal, only with $25,000 remaining. This as a documentary, who is Luigi Mangione? Number one, do I care who he is? In a court of law, the state only has to prove who did it and was it in the right jurisdiction. That's it. So who is Luigi Mangione? Listen. Who is Luigi Mangione? Has an actor reading

Mangione's words from a letter he wrote to authorities, comments he left online, and statements he made to his Mr. Cactus Reddit account. Mangione says his initial health issues began when he contracted Lyme disease at 13. Mangione says he started noticing mild cognitive declines at 15, and the symptoms kept getting worse. He recounts the brain fog and memory loss, yet doctors could not diagnose a problem. He discusses his back pain along with bladder and genital pain. Okay, a little too much information, but that said, joining me now, renowned chief medical examiner from Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth, lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, Dr. Kendall Crowns.

Dr. Kendall Crowns, does Lyme disease cause insanity? Lyme disease does cause cognitive issues like memory impairment, kind of brain fog, confusion. But I don't know if it causes insanity like paranoid delusions or anything like that. I've never heard of it causing that type of behavior. Dr. Kendall Crowns, are you suggesting that when he had, according to him, Lyme disease as a little boy. He now has such a bad case of brain fog that he didn't know right from wrong when he allegedly gunned down the health boss. No, I'm not suggesting that I don't know of anything that I've ever read where it says that they become paranoid or delusional and can't figure out what they're doing. So that I'm not aware of. What exactly is Lyme disease, Dr. Kendall-Crowns?

Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia bacteria, which is carried in deer ticks. And the deer tick bites you. It injects the bacteria into your bloodstream. And then you get... So we're blaming the deer tick. For Lyme disease, yes, but not for shooting the health care person. Joining us, Dr. Kendall Crowns, I'm not mocking you. I'm mocking the suggestion that a deer a bite at age 13 has caused brain fog that somehow

excuses him gunning down an unarmed man on a public street, leaving behind two boys, little boys without a dad and a widow. Dr. Crowns now launching a brand new podcast, D.O.A, Dead on Arrival on March 4. Dr. Chloe Carmichael, clinical psychologist and author. Have you ever heard that one? at age 13 and mild, their words, not mine, mild cognitive decline at age 15 is somehow resulting in brain fog that equals insanity under the law. Really? No, Nancy, obviously not. And that would certainly be a smear to people with Lyme disease everywhere to suggest, you know, that, that they have this propensity to just, you know, become deranged killers.

And as to the idea that he had any sort of brain fog, well, it obviously didn't prevent him from, you know, carefully crafting a plan and assembling a ghost gun and tracking this man down with, as he said, a CAD computer assisted, you know, digital things. He was very sophisticated. And then his, I think of anything he's suffering from an acute case, potentially, though I haven't met him or assessed him, of narcissism and grandiosity. You know, when he's spouting off about his lived experience, what that really means is my perspective. And so the fact that he thinks that his perspective is somehow justifies or warrants him, he's saying, oh, that healthcare, that it's costing people's lives. Well, guess what he did? He went and took somebody's life. And he literally, apparently, allegedly wrote words on the bullet. So no, I don't think that this is a case of brain fog. To me, this looks like a case of

narcissism, grandiosity, and psychopathy potentially. I always argue to juries, if you didn't know what you were doing was wrong, why don't you take off running and hide out after you did it? Get rid of the weapon, change clothes, catch public transport to throw off your scent. It goes on and on, the degree of planning, even in the flight. Now, I want you to hear what is said about a potential insanity plea on a brand new documentary, Who is Luigi Mangione? He started reading the writings of the Unabomber. A take I found online that I think is interesting. Violence against those who lead us to destruction is justified as self-defense.

That's from our friends at Investigation Discovery. But that last sentence, destruction is justified as self-defense, that's more along the lines in this case as a cold-blooded shooting equaling jury nullification. To Jackie Howard joining us, Crime Story Senior Producer, Jackie, isn't it true that a legion of, as you call them, fans showed up at the arraignment? If we're talking about jury nullification, which means they know the person committed the act, like an O.J. Simpson, for instance, but they don't care. That's what we're looking at.

Tell me about the people that had shown up at the arraignment, fans, and a lot of them. Nearly two dozen showed up, Nancy, holding signs, chanting free Luigi Mangione. And most of them were women, again, holding signs and just making their presence known. Suspected United Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione breaks his silence for the first time since his arrest, sharing in a statement, I am overwhelmed by and grateful for everyone. Clear photos of his face were what alerted the customers and employees at that McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

That's from our friends at Investigation Discovery. So with all that planning, all that navigating across Manhattan to make his escape. The defense is entertaining an insanity plea, an insanity plea. What based on the Lyme disease caused by deer tick when he was 13 years old. Now this is after he Jackie Howard joining us from crime stories. Jackie, was he valedictorian at high school, at his elite prep school, and then went on to the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania? Do I have that right?

You have that right, Nancy. He was well known for his academic prowess and teachers and students alike bragged on him constantly about his intelligent approach to everything so let me understand to daryl cohen who has launched many an insanity defense the valedictorian that graduated from ivy league school is going to plead insanity based on the Lyme disease at age 13? Nancy, what he is doing, think about this. Go back to days of yesteryear. Bare-fisted, heavyweight fights. This is a fight between the state or the United States government and Luigi Maggioni for either life in prison if he wins

or the death penalty if he loses. Either way, he is going to go down. It's just a question of where the insanity fence and you're not answering. And I think I know why. Guys, regardless of the deer tick issue when he was 13, he doesn't seem insane when he is photographed tickling three girls at once in his Honolulu high rise. Photos have emerged of Mangione's time in Hawaii living the high life. The photos show the accused killer soaking up the sun, dining with friends, and carousing with a pair of beautiful young women. One photo shows Mangione cuddled up on the couch next to a grinning woman, his arm draped behind her. Another snap in a breezeway shows Mangione tickling the two women while they laugh. Okay, there was a tickle victim number three, but that said, in this new documentary, comparisons are drawn between Luigi Mangione and the murder victim. Listen. A new documentary called Who is Luigi Mangione traces the lives of

suspect Mangione and his victim, CEO Brian Thompson, and shows how at one point in their lives, they had a lot in common with both being valedictorian of their high school class. The story of the two men also details the rapid ascent of Thompson, who came from a rather modest home life growing up, while Mangione grew up with expensive private schools where money was never an issue and how their lives intersected on a deadly morning in December. That's right. Mangione growing up with a silver spoon in his mouth. No, a fork and a spoon. Pure silver. Listen. The suspected killer of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson comes from a wealthy, educated, connected Maryland family. His grandfather grew up poor as a first-generation American who built a real estate business that includes country clubs and media investments.

Mangione is the cousin of Republican Maryland House of Delegates member Nino Mangione. His mother, Kathleen Zanino Mangione, owns a travel company. And his sister, Maria Santa Mangione, is a respected doctor, a medical resident at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas after graduating from Vanderbilt Medical School. So he was born in money, more money than any of us can really even imagine. Yet somehow he is representing himself as Robin Hood, taking from the rich, giving to the poor, that Robin Hood, and threw in a premeditated murder into it. Now, legal pundits are claiming that Luigi Mangione will never be convicted because of a jury invalidating the entire state's case jury nullification because they are angry at the health care industry. That aside, I'm concerned about a groupie getting on the jury. Listen to this. The defense team asks that supporters limit the number of items they send.

It's pointed out that, quote, Luigi is allowed to receive photos via Shutterfly and free prints in accordance with mail procedures. It continues, Luigi appreciates the photos that are sent and kindly asks that people send no more than five photos at a time. In his public statement, Mangione writes, while it is impossible for me to reply to most letters, please know that I read every one that I receive. Thank you again to everyone who took time to write. I look forward to hearing more in the future. To Tom Smith joining us, NYPD detective for 30 years, also assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and co-host of Gold Shields podcast. Tom, how do you think that makes law enforcement feel, much less the victim's family, the two little boys and the wife that find out daddy's gun down on the street because he's the CEO of a health care industry player.

So now Luigi Mangione and his website, which is soliciting money up to a half a million dollars at this time, is saying, don't send me more than five photos at once. It's just disgraceful, and it's a slap in the face to the victim, his family, the children, all the hard work that law enforcement did, because all they're doing is propping him up to be this messiah and this celebrity when all he is is a cold-blooded killer. This goes to, you know, we mentioned this once before, you know, it's like Charles Manson, the Menendez brothers, Richard Ramirez, all of these followers that come out for this cold-blooded killer is just an attempt to taint a jury pool if they go in that direction. That's what I feel.

And the Netflix series is doing the same thing. They're just reaching out and trying to get doubt into anyone's mind into this kid is a celebrity. He's not a murderer. And the prosecution bad, defense good. And hopefully it just doesn't work if people see through this. Apparently Mangione is developing a cult following. Luigi Mangione's cult following says his prosecution is part, quote, of a corporate-backed narrative and that the case against him is unprecedented. In some online posts, Mangione

is praised as a figure of humanitarianism and anti-capitalism. Online posts add that Mangione's prosecution is both unprecedented and a sign of government overreach. Supporters called for a ban on ID's new documentary, Who is Luigi Mangione? Some social media users are using the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to make a statement by urging potential jurors in any future trial of Luigi Mangione to acquit the alleged murderer, even if they think he's guilty. These so-called Gen Z influencers are urging other social media users to become familiar with jury nullification. This is when a jury returns a not guilty verdict, even when they believe the person is guilty.

To the people who are going to end up on that jury for that guy who shot the CEO, they haven't caught him yet. Just remember that if all they have is circumstantial evidence and eyewitness reports, you don't have to make that man guilty. Okay. Talk about a groupie possibly getting on the jury. That was a TikTok user, Neem H. And it's not just them. Listen. This is, this is an attractive. We got to drop the banner to show why. And, and it's, it is deeply troubling that we are celebrating this, this person who's committed cold-blooded murder. Whoa, whoa. That's my friend CNN, Jackie Howard. Did I just hear the anchor say drop the banner so she could get a full-on body shot to see his chest?

That's exactly what you heard, Nancy. Okay, I don't believe it. I want to hear it again. This is an attractive person. We've got to drop the banner to show why. And it is deeply troubling that we are celebrating this person who's committed cold-blooded murder. That's from our friends at CNN. Daryl, I actually think she said drop the banner and you'll see why.

I think there was a lot of crosstalk. Did you hear that? I heard it, Nancy. And what bothers me is she is saying one thing and doing another. By dropping the banner, he is supposed to be endearing to the American public, not as a murderer, not as an assassin, but as a really good guy. So this is troubling to me to steal her words. Mangione's fame is apparently worldwide. Listen.

Increased support for Luigi Mangione and the use of his image is cropping up in unusual places. Some social media posts show the accused killer's likeness being featured on birthday cakes. A German mother surprised her daughter, and in the video, she can be seen laughing as she cuts the cake. Printed on the cake is happy birthday my love sorry I can't be at your party this time. According to the birthday girl the cake was a joke. Even more over the top a bar recently hosting a valentine's day themed love letter event for the accused killer. A birthday cake in Germany with Mangione's face on it to Dr. Kendall Crowns, a renowned chief medical examiner, esteemed lecturer at Burnett School of Medicine. Dr. Kendall Crowns, what did

the victim endure as he bled out on the sidewalk? Do you think he had time to think of his two little boys? Because he's not shot in the head, he has a time to bleed out and it'll take a few minutes. He's conscious. He'll be feeling pain. He'll be having trouble breathing. He'll be coming cold and then slowly passing out and then going into a coma and dying. Hey, you can stick that on your birthday cake, lady. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.