RedHanded - Luigi Mangione - Part One: “Deny, Defend, Depose” | #431

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Our 2026 listener survey is here – if you have 5 minutes to help inform the next year of RedHanded, we'd love to know your thoughts! https://forms.gle/jNhKVqtdyqoyF3ey9--Three words, written on bullet casings, instantly changed the New York City shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson from a senseless inner-city attack, into one of the most polarising, unique and culturally important events in modern memory.In part one of our coverage of the Luigi Mangione story, we run through the entire breakneck timeline of those first five days: the nationwide manhunt, the growing cultural phenomenon, and the arrest, which unmasked the killer and his manifesto for the first time. And then, the madness that followed: when detached, meme-led internet thirst met one of the most febrile political discussions in the modern US.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / InstagramSources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

I'm Hannah. I'm Sarah. I'm Surruti. And welcome to red-handed and to 2026 in the year of our Lord Anno Domini. Mm-hmm. Maybe things are better. Happy new year. Wow. Mm-hmm.

2026. Boom. Mm-hmm. We are recording this in advance, so I'm not going to sit here. and play a little game where I ask you how you're Christmas and your New Year's.

Let's just be honest with the people. But when you're listening to this or watching it because some of you have been saying you're shocked when you come across

our videos on YouTube we are putting up basically all of our episodes now as fully recorded videos on YouTube so go check those out a new year treat which is what we have for you

right now as you're listening to this I'm in South Africa So I'm in summer and suck it. But by December 4th, New York, city and state, freezing. This is why I've never quite understood why people go to New York for Christmas. Big tree. Yes, big tree, but also black ice everywhere.

I think home alone has a lot to answer for, if I'm honest. Ain't that the truth? But to be honest, I went to New York once for Christmas. Oh, me too. Lovely. Just fall over a lot on the pavements. But that's, you know, could be classified as a me problem, but whatever. Yeah, I went there and my friends were like, surprise, we're taking you ice skating.

And I was like, I can't fucking ice skate to save my life. And I really hate to be like, oh, I can't do this thing. I like the idea of just being like, I can try and I can do anything. But I have tried ice skating multiple times before that. And it was a catastrophic failure, as it was that day. But, you know, it's the thought that counts. Thanks, ladies. I love you.

It's really hard. It's so fucking hard. Anyway, in early December, 6.45 in the morning is the gloaming. A weak winter sun, barely illuminating the sky. And in Midtown Manhattan, surrounded by towering thousand-foot skyscrapers, it may well have been midnight. And it's then that Brian Thompson steps out of the Marriott Hotel on West 54th Street

in a crisp, tailored blue suit. It's the first day of the United Health Group Annual Investors Conference, which is taking place at the Midtown Hilton, just around the corner. As the CEO of the world's largest private health insurance company, Thompson commands a lot of respect in his industry, but he's also got his critics

he's been making headlines recently and not for a good reason lawsuits and government investigations about his company conduct have landed him in hot water and over the past few weeks he's been receiving threats Thompson usually travelled with security I would too fine with him but on this dark morning For this three-minute walk between Manhattan hotels, surrounded by thousands of fellow commuters, he travels alone.

He's got a stacked schedule ahead. He's due at a breakfast meeting, and later he's billed as the keynote speaker. But soon, the entire event will be called off. Because, as Thompson nears the hotel's revolving doors, a man approaches him from behind and stops. It's rush hour in the dead center of a city of nine million people. But among this cacophony, the man pulls out a gun and fires. The bullet rips through Thompson's calf, and he stumbles into the side of the building. The Hilton doorman ducks and sprints out of the line of fire.

A woman standing nearby drops her coffee and screams, but the shooter's not done. He slowly, precisely moves towards Thompson With his gun outstretched The gun jams, giving Thompson An excruciating extra few seconds As the gunman fiddles with the mechanism But soon another shot hits Thompson in the back This time from just a few metres away

The mars shooter then ducks between cars And crosses the street, breaking into a jog He gets on an e-bike and rides off into the city. Thompson's blood pours out onto the pavement. This is New York, so a police car is just a few blocks away. And there were plenty of witnesses around to call them. So, just three minutes after the shots were fired, investigators were at the scene.

Near Thompson's body, they found three spent cartridge cases and what they found written on those shell cases instantly turned this crime into one of the most polarising, unique and culturally impactful murder in decades. Written in Black Marker, there were three words. Deny, defend, depose.

A take on a slogan used by critics of the healthcare industry. It describes the systematic way companies like United Healthcare avoid paying claims. Instantly, it was obvious that Brian Thompson was killed for what he represented. It was a premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack. Whoever did this was making a statement. And it worked. Instantly, the country was obsessed with this mystery vigilante. American healthcare is the most expensive in the entire world.

Yet no industrial power has so many people going without basic health care because they can't afford it. Could this killer have been wronged by this system? Someone with a fatal condition who'd been denied coverage and had nothing to lose. Someone whose medical bills had overwhelmed them and saw no way out. Or maybe someone who'd watched a loved one die suffocated by endless layers of red tape or someone who had a tooth pulled and then got addicted to Oxycontin. On purpose, orchestrated by the Sacklers, we have an episode about it. Perhaps the shooter could have been any one of those people.

But the man who ended up being at the centre of this case was nothing like that. Instead, he was a wealthy Ivy League-educated social butterfly with everything to lose. And had no clear link to United Health Care. This was 100% ideological. Even before the killer was identified, he was being venerated online. Money flooded in from donors across the world to pay his legal fees. But then, he was caught. and it turned out his family were loaded.

Oh, and also, he wasn't bad looking. Yeah, that's the centre really, I think. Oh, yeah, we will get on to that more probably next week because this is a two-parter if we haven't mentioned that, we probably did. Yeah, I think, a bit swarthy for me. I'm not a big fan of a hairy man, but I see why people were obsessed. Subsequently, the entire world screeched to a halt

and everybody lost their minds. The cultural circus around this case is truly like nothing we've ever seen. Never in anyone's recent memory has a murderer become so widely admired. And not just that. Meme to the gods, lusted over, painted in murals around the world,

and immortalised in countless TikTok songs. We have a lot to cover. So yes, join us this week and next week where we'll be concluding our two-parter, as I mentioned. on Luigi Manjoni. I wonder if kind of how we look back now being like, Ted Bundy was not that fit, in 50 years are people going to look back at Luigi be like, what was wrong with everyone?

Yeah. Do you think? Yeah. I mean, I don't want people to be like, oh, you're just saying that. I am like not. He's got a good body. Oh, I think he's fit. He would absolutely get it.

And yeah, much like Ted Bundy, the dead behind the eyes thing. So, yes, I think people still think her Bundy is attractive, though. I think it's gone full circle to back where the Bundy is somebody people find attractive. Well, you fancy Jeffrey Dahmer, so what do you know? What do I know? Exactly. So, yes, we've got a lot to cover. Let's get on with it. So in this episode first, we will run through the entire timeline, the manhunt, the arrest, and the first rumblings of the cultural phenomenon.

We'll also take a quickish dive into US healthcare, and then we'll find out. everything there is to know about our prep school pub explaining how we went from a privileged charming high achiever to walking up to Brian Thompson in one of the busiest and most surveilled cities in the world and shooting him point blank with a homemade firearm but for now we have a trail to pick up let's get back to New York the 4th of December these days every major city is absolutely riddled with CCTV. But even by that measure, New York is something else. After 9-11, the city put a ton of money into expanding surveillance. Police now have access to an unbelievable network of personal and private cameras. So, as Thompson was taken

to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he would soon pass away, investigators set to work analyzing surveillance images. And that's harder than it sounds. Officers have to be able to be able to had to manually scan tens of thousands of hours of security footage. They were looking out into the endless crowds for any hint of the gunman. His clothes, shape, movements, all from incredibly grainy footage. They followed the trail in both directions. The killer's journey to the scene of the crime. And more urgently, his escape.

They pieced it together, bit by bit, over days. But because that's messy and we're very nice, we're going to put it all into a neat little straight line for you. Thank the baby Jesus. Yes. So bear in mind what we're telling you didn't come out for. Quite a while after the shooting actually happened, but this is the chronological order of what happened,

leading up to the incident. Police discovered that the man arrived in New York on the 24th of November 2024, 10 days before Brian Thompson was shot. Just after 10 p.m., he arrived at New York's Port Authority, stepping off a Greyhound bus that had come from Atlanta, Georgia. He took a cab straight to the Hilton, just to scope it out, it seems. He then took another cab to the H.I. New York City hostel on the Upper West Side.

He checked in with a fake ID, which said he was New Jersey resident, Mark Rosario. On CCTV, as he approached the desk of the hostel, his hood was up, and he had a face mask covering his mouth and nose. But then, he pulled his mask down. Now, in all the footage the police had discovered up to this point, his face had been mostly covered. This was the first time the police and the world saw the alleged gunman's face. This was the second point at which the case changed.

Up to now, this shadowy shooter, was thought to be an outsider, a battered old-timer with an axe to grind. But this man, he was young, fresh-faced, and looked like he didn't have a care in the world. He didn't look like a vigilante on a deadly mission of purpose. He was smiling and seemed positively chill. On his 10th morning in the Big Apple, the 4th of December, he left his son. hostel at 5.30 a.m. and rode to Midtown on an e-bike. He's outside the Hilton at 541am and caught on camera in various places walking up and down 54th Street. Then he steps into a Starbucks. He stands by the counter for a few minutes, buys a water bottle and a granola bar and then heads back out. At about

6.30 a.m., he's seen walking past the exact spot where Thompson will be shot. making a phone call. Then, police said, it appeared that the suspect was lying in wait for at least five minutes. At 6.44 a.m. Thompson is seen walking towards the Hilton. A minute later, he's shot to death. The shooter puts his gun back on his jacket. He slips between cars and jogs across the street, ducking into an alley.

He's next picked up by CCTV, riding an eby, out from that same alleyway. He rides the five blocks north to Central Park. He disappears into the 800-acre park and for a while, the trail is lost. It was about this same time, 6.48 a.m., that police arrived at Brian Johnson's dying body. As police continued combing through the city's CCTV footage,

they looked at what else they had. A fake New Jersey ID, fingerprints from the water bottle and granola, Bar rapper which had both been left at the scene, and five fairly decent images of the suspect's face. Police talked to Thompson's family, friends and colleagues, and went through his social media accounts. Thompson's wife told police that he talked a lot about threats in recent weeks. She'd guessed they were to do with rejected insurance claims, but she said she didn't know any more. In Central Park, police used dogs and drones and even sent divers in scuba gear,

into the lakes, and eventually they found a backpack behind a pile of leaves. Inside was a Tommy Hilfiger jacket, and another strange discovery, with another cryptic clue. A stack of monopoly money. And soon enough, hundreds of eyes on thousands of hours of CCTV eventually picked up the gunman's trail. He was spotted riding out of the park at 6.55 a.m. on to West 85th Street. Two minutes later, he's seen without the bike. The police never found it. They assumed that it must have been stolen shortly after it was left. The figure heads up the road a little on foot, and at 704 a.m. he hails a cab. The interior dash cam captures his

masked face. At 7.30 a.m. he's seen near George Washington Bridge, way up in the north of Manhattan. He's seen walking into the bus station there. But then he ducks down the stairs into the subway. He takes the A-train to Penn Station, and then he really was gone. By the time investigators had pieced together this semi-comprehensive timeline that we just talked you through. It had been days since the shooting, by which point the killer could have been literally anywhere in the country. The five clearest pictures were released to the public to aid with the manhunt.

The city also offered a $10,000 reward to anyone with information that could lead to an arrest. And the appeal included the theory that the mystery gunman was probably either an affected patient or a disgruntled whistleblowing ex-employee. Tips flooded into the NYPD in their thousands, but it was just dead-end after dead-end. Brian Thompson was mourned by his wife Paulette and his two children. Flags were lowered to half-mast at United Health Care Headquarters. But online, a very different narrative was already percolating. That particular victim and those three words, delay, defend, depose, written in marker on the bullet casings were all anyone needed.

Theories blossomed on X, TikTok, Reddit and Instagram. When United Health Group posted a tribute to Brian Thompson, just hours after the shooting, it got 46,000 emoji responses and 41,000 of those were cry-loughing. Another thing that happened within hours of the shooting, and still with no suspect arrested, was a fundraiser that started to cover the shooter's legal fees. Fundraisers for criminals are banned on regular crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe,

but Christian crowdfunding platform give-send-go let it slide. donations flooded in from people across the country why the answer was in the comments whoever this person was had taken on one of the most powerful influential institutions out there one that a lot of people had problems with and if that person was caught those institutions

would do everything in their power to make sure that he was made an example of So, money was raised to make sure that the suspect would get a fair trial. The campaign raised $110,000 in a week, mostly from donations around the $30 mark. Comments came from healthcare workers, people who'd lost loved ones, people whose claims were denied. One person donated $1,000 and wrote, For my mother, a victim of the insurance industry, RIP.

And to the shooter, it said, thank you for your sacrifice. May others follow in your footsteps of bravery and justice. Very quickly, it stopped being about the events of December 4th, and a furious and urgent conversation about health care was being had across the country. Then, five days after the shooting, police got a call from a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Just before 9am, an elderly patron, saw a man in the corner, eating a hash brown,

who he could swear looked just like the fugitive from the news. There was something about the way this man moved and how he darted his eyes around the place that rang a bell. The suspect was sitting alone at a small table in a dark jacket, wearing a brown beanie. He was reading on his laptop, occasionally lowering a face mask to eat his breakfast. The elderly witness leaned over to tell his friend, and this conversation was overheard by a McDonald's employee, who looked over and knew that they were right.

So the worker called 911. In minutes, local police surrounded the restaurant. They walked in and asked the mystery Hash Browneater if he'd been to New York recently. The man started. to shake. Police quietly handcuffed him and led him out. And in his backpack, they found the following. A fake New Jersey license, with the name Mark Rosario, matching the one that had been used by the assailant at H.I. Hostel. Also, $10,000 in cash, including $2,000 in equivalent foreign currency.

A bunch of Faraday bags, which are basically pouches that can be used to block signals from electronic devices. And then the three most damning items of all. A gun, a three-page handwritten manifesto, and a US passport with the suspect's real name. Luigi Mangione. But first, let's deal with the things rather than the person. Let's kick off with the gun. It was what's called a ghost gun which means that it doesn't have a serial number. All guns in the States are legally required to have a serial number so that they can be traced back to the manufacturer, dealer and buyer.

But most ghost guns are assembled at home from parts. And it's illegal in the US to build a gun for personal use. But in reality, until 2022 working ghost gun kits were available legally online without background checks or verification. But now, just like in a gun shop, background checks happen, and the weapons parts have to have serial numbers.

But Mangione's one was unregistered. The plans for it had been downloaded from the internet and printed with a 3D printer, as had a homemade silencer. Whether it was printed by the shooter or picked up on the dark web, we still don't know. but based on his life leading up to the shooting which we will get into next week we would be surprised if Luigi Mangione had a 3D printer to hand

with the gun was a loaded Glock magazine with six nine millimetre rounds and they matched the shell casings found by Thompson's body now for the most revealing bit the latter now as manifesters go this one is actually mercifully brief. Just 262 words. And it starts with the words, to the feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. He tells them that he worked alone and that it had been fairly trivial to pull off. The letter states that it had only required some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, meaning computer-aided design, and a lot of patience. He also

recommends that investigators check out his spiral-bound notebook, which would illuminate the gist of it, referring to his big plan. But he does explain himself briefly in the letter too. He says, quote, I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. He pulls the statistic that the US has the number one most expensive health care system in the world, yet we rank roughly number 42 in life expectancy. At the time of writing this is actually fallen to number 55. He says that these parasites, by which he means the American healthcare industry, continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them

to get away with it. And lastly, he ends by saying, it's not an issue of awareness at this point. but clearly power games at play. Evidently, I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty. And that's basically it. In less than 300 words, Mangioni had made it clear. This was a shot to the heart of corporate America itself. So just before we meet the man behind the Mangioni manifesto,

let's quickly familiarize ourselves with exactly what he was railing against. He's right that the US spends the most on health care of any country, by far. In 2024, it spent over $5.4 trillion with a T dollars. That's almost $15,000 per capita. The next two on the list, Switzerland and Norway, are under $10,000 per capita. That is a significant jump. especially since those two countries both have universal health care and both are considered to have amongst the best healthcare systems in the world.

The US not only ranks very poorly in terms of life expectancy and outcomes, it also ranks extraordinarily low in access and equity. The US actually has some of the best medical facilities, doctors and institutions in the world. Those who can afford it, fantastic care is available. But most people, the vast majority of people, are kept from it. We're not going to say that private healthcare can't work. God knows, our universal model isn't quite fighting the fight. But what is clear in the US is the formula of good, healthy competition, driving great results is completely DOA.

So, for the non-Americans, and for anyone who's still confused, here's a very quick breakdown of how it works today. US healthcare is fully privatised. It's the only developed country without some form of universal system. As a fairly recently, there have been some subsidies to help out. For example, Medicare is for older or disabled people, and Medicaid is for low-income or unemployed people, and there's also some help for veterans too. But the criteria are extremely tight, and this is far from a reliable safety net.

For most people, health insurance is tied to your job. But even if you're covered through your employer, you can still be expected to pay every month out of your salary to get that coverage. And if you ever have cause to use it, you'll probably have to pay a hefty chunk before the insurance kicks in and contribute a percentage of the rest. The point is that for a lot of people, even when it's working as intended,

getting sick can often mean a huge bill for the majority of Americans. And the other point is, unless you're very well off, it rarely seems to work as intended. Public satisfaction in the US healthcare system is at a 24-year low. And that's because

it's an absolutely unbelievable bureaucratic cluster fuck that makes our bonkers beyond broken system look semi-functional. Thousands upon thousands of insurance claims are denied in the US in error. But that's not all. For the full story, let's get back to those words written on Luigi's bullet casings in black marker. Deny, delay and depose.

It's a variation on delay, deny, defend, the three Ds of insurance. And the famous strategy used to avoid paying out on claims. Delaying or denying legitimate claims to insurance, then vigorous. Figuously defending those decisions, if challenged. According to critics, this approach keeps patients from essential treatments and makes necessary care intentionally difficult to access. These delays, obviously, threaten lives. Even with documents and doctor referrals showing how crucial the treatment is,

coverage can still be denied. And the process to appeal these denied claims is phenomenal. arduous, and the burden of joining all these dots falls entirely on the suffering person and their family. Claims can even be sent to debt collectors who threaten people's homes and savings if the bills aren't paid. Over a third of US households have some form of medical debt. $74 billion was borrowed just last year. Starting a fundraiser like GoFundMe for medical treatment has become so routine that doctors have actually started recommending it off the bat. And it's got so bad the GoFundMe is now technically the fifth largest health insurance company in America.

Fucking hell. With enough to worry and stress about many people with serious or chronic illnesses give up and stop fighting. Leaving them with two options. Pay the bill in full themselves if they can find the cash. or forego vital treatment altogether. This is why people are angry. A huge number of Americans have seen loved ones get sicker and sicker or even die because they were denied care that they were entitled to.

For many people, United Healthcare is public enemy number one. It's earned a reputation as one of the most aggressive insurers in terms of denying claims. With an industry average of about 10 to 15% of claims being denied, United tops the tables with 32% claim denial. That's one in three. And on top of this reputation to deny as much as it possibly can get away with, United has been up to even more no good. In November 2023, a lawsuit was filed by the families of two people,

who died as the result of denied claims. They allege that United use an AI program which the company knew to be faulty to deny elderly patients' coverage. Programs like NH predict are based on cost-saving calculation. They don't take into account doctor advice at all. And they've been shown to have an error rate of 90%. Meaning that elderly people in their third,

thousands are kicked out of care facilities that they both desperately need and are covered for, that they have made monthly palance for. Or because AI Ebeneza Scrooge disagrees with their doctors, the lawsuit also says that the company does all of this, knowing full well the older patients, quote, won't have the knowledge or resources to appeal the mistaken AI decision. And it's this kind of narrative that's really stoking the fire in the US, a company putting in intentional hurdles between sick people and the treatment they need, playing dirty to essentially get paid twice.

And people are worried, because things don't look like they're probably going to get better anytime soon. And that's because, on both sides of the aisle, genuine support for universal health care seems like. Sure, you can point to lobbyists as a big cause for this. But you also can't ignore the fact that support from Americans themselves for universal healthcare is massively divided, with various polls and reports over the years showing that while a majority of Americans favour the general concept of universal coverage, many people oppose a single government-run plan for all citizens. despite the fact that many Americans are dissatisfied with the current healthcare system.

They are also hesitant about government control and the increased taxes associated with a universal model, which are valid concerns look at our system. So it's just very, very complicated. But it's not like there's no in between. I think that as the Norway-Switzerland, Sweden, examples of health care systems, which are much more accessible and much more effective than ours, it does exist. It doesn't have to be what they have in the States, which is murderous, or what we have here, which also not great. I think what I don't particularly understand and never really

have with this debate is if the US are paying more per capita towards healthcare, then the taxes don't need to be increased. The money needs to be redirected. And the reason that is not being communicated to the people is because big farmer don't want it to be. They want it to be called communism. That's what they want. And it's been working for years. Yeah. It's a very, very complicated system. And yes, I agree with you. I think the system here is people want to insist that for a long time, I think this is changing now that the NHS was incredible. And yeah, back in the day, it was. I think now that is absolutely just not the case. I'm experiencing that personally on a daily basis with a lot of people in my life. And ironically, I actually know a lot of people who

live in America or even people like we know who I won't name names, but they're like, I'm going back to America because I cannot even get a GP's appointment here and I have better coverage in the US. My partner has type 1 diabetes. We cannot get a pump. We've been waiting for two fucking years for the NHS to give it to him. They just pushed the appointment again by six months with no explanation as to why. My childhood friend who has type on diabetes moved to the US, married an American lady, got a job in America, and he has all sorts of fucking gadgets that I thought weren't even out of clinical trials yet. And I'm like, fucking hell, you have got the best care you can imagine. But you're completely right. I think people

need to look to models more like the Netherlands or Switzerland or Norway where it is somewhere in between, where we have literally no choice. choice here. Because we were like, what if we just purchase things ourselves? Like, what if we just bought the insulin pump ourselves? And the NHS were like, well, you can't do that. Because we buy it all because we're the negotiator for all of that kind of thing that's purchased. You can't buy it yourself. So we just have to wait for them to get that act together. So I completely empathize with people's fury in the US if they can't access healthcare. Because what is the point of anything? The older I get, the more I see the people in my life struggle with health

care issues. The more I've struggled, fucking hell, the surgery I'm having, by the time you're listening to this, I will have had, I would not be able to get if I wasn't getting private insurance through my partner's work, basically. And he only gets as good coverage as he does because it's an American company. And I'm like, so many women wrote to me when I was talking about my struggles with endo. And actually, I had to stop reading the messages because it made me feel so guilty and so terrible because they were like, I've waited two years for a gynecologist appointment. And they're just being fobbed off while they're in agony. So absolutely, if you don't have health, what do you have? Nothing. So I can absolutely understand people's rage. In the US,

it is so complicated, convoluted. There's also state laws, federal laws, like different states want different things. Like, it is an absolute minefield. And yeah, it's also completely inefficient because they're spending more than anybody else. But I think it's like eight percent. of the population has literally no coverage. Yeah. God, it's so depressing. Mm-hmm. And yeah, I think it's also one of those things that

until it really, like, affects you and hits you in the face, it's easy to just be like, for the longest time, I was like, oh, I haven't had GP's appointment in years, I'm absolutely fine. And then when you need it and it's not there, it's like a real rude awakening. Do you remember when I had tonsillitis this time last year? and I was like, can I have a GP's appointment because I think I have tonsillitis? And they were like, call me back in three days. I'll see what I can do. And by this point, I've already Googled it and seen multiple people who have died of getting

sepsis because they had untreated tonsillitis. Thankfully, go to your pharmacist because that seems to be the only thing you can do now in the UK. I know no one's going to believe me when I say this, but I have found the healthcare in South Africa to be vastly superior and much more accessible than here. That is shocking. And if you don't believe me, that's okay. But it's true. The problem, many of, but the biggest of the problems in the US, just like with the five arms dealers that run the world,

three companies control more than 80% of the privatised insurance market, which probably gives us a good explanation of the monopoly market, in Mangione's backpack. So, thanks to this system, United Healthcare Services and products and offerings are worse because they can be. In 2015, a study found that patient costs in hospitals without competition were almost two grand higher than hospitals with four or more competitors. Prices are always rising, quality is always plummeting and everyone loses. apart from people like Brian Thompson. So let's turn to Brian Thompson himself.

Is he a megalomaniacal, fork-tongued villain responsible for millions of avoidable American deaths? Or is he just a man with a job? That's for you to decide. But here's what we know. Brian Thompson was born and raised in Minnesota. He worked as an actuary for years. And only in his 40s made the move over to health care.

In April 2021, he became CEO of United Healthcare, which covers more than 50 million Americans. He earned $1.2 million a year, and his annual bonuses regularly got him another $10 million on top of that. Some people who worked with him believed that he was trying to reform the broken system from inside, trying against the odds to bring a gigantic and sanely complex system into the 21st century. But others say that his 10 euro united only upped the despicable ante. After he joined, the company's profits absolutely skyrocketed.

In 2023, it earned almost $30 billion. And the public lawsuits over AI and unfair practices all also came during Thompson's reign, bringing him sharply into the public eye. And then he was also investigated for insults. cider trading after he sold $15.1 million worth of United Healthcare shares, just weeks before the stock value plummeted. He became a symbol of corporate greed, the man with the ultimate power to dictate who got medical treatment, how much it would cost, and where they were allowed to get it. And it's hard to argue with the idea that the healthcare industry in the US is not

totally corrupt. Its reputation for maximizing profits over human lives seems to be entirely well earned. There's also the fact that people had sat through three presidential elections in which healthcare was barely mentioned in debates, despite it being so obviously a need of change. The American people were left feeling powerless. So, the fact that half the country is cheering on an assassination is not just desensitized bloodlust. A range of feelings had swept across the country since the killing, exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness. Many compared the one life lost to the thousands dying every year as a result of claim denials. Those with spouses, children and relatives whose claims had been denied found it difficult to feel sorry about Thompson's

death. A common sentiment, if we step away from TikTok and X, was less killing him was right and more, I'm not surprised, somebody snapped. All of which reveals the scale of anger that existed in the states, exists in the states, towards this system. And in Mangiani's manifesto was a very straightforward, concise set of grievances, which a lot of people, people identified with. His message didn't just strike a chord. Struck up the whole bloody orchestra. But then, unavoidably, there was the act itself.

In Luigi's Spiral Notebook, he had actually written about the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Compared to Luigi's 300-word manifesto, Kaczynski's was a chunky 35,000 words, I believe, all times. I think so. Mangione wrote that Kaczynski made good points about the future of humanity, but Mangione said the message was lost. According to him, the Unabomber was rightfully imprisoned because he mail-bombed innocent people to make his point. Luigi wrote, he becomes a monster, which makes his ideas those of a monster. He crosses the line from revolutionary anarchist to terrorist, the worst thing a person can be. But then again, on his good reads account,

Luigi did give them an Obama's manifesto four out of five stars. Now, if you want to know more about Ted Kaczynski and everything he got up to, his 20-year reign of terror in the US, you can go check out our shorthand on that. But the point is, Mangione intentionally targeted a CEO, a symbol of his grievance. and apart from his and Kaczynski's very different approaches to ideological murder there were a few more things setting these two apart Kaczynski was a societal recluse literally living in a shack in the woods with no running water

Luigi was different Luigi was not a crackpot a hermit or a fringe theorist he was not a desperate man at the end of the road lashing back at a system that had taken everything from him. Didn't even have a clear link to United Healthcare, no wronged relatives or personal struggles. We're going to save his life story for next week, but what was clear from the start was that Luigi Mangione had chosen to give up an extremely promising life in order to spread a message that many shared. And if support was strong before Luigi's face hit the news, afterwards it went

absolutely to the moon, because we cannot avoid it anymore. Luigi, in the opinion of the surety of people, is fit. Like, he's very handsome, and that does help. And add to that, the flirting with the hostel receptionist, his devil-may-care attitude in the courtroom, the facing down, the death penalty without a flicker of fear, the standing up for injustice, and then you've got yourself an anti-capitalist heartthrob, you just have,

Thirst was everywhere, palpable still is. And this is a lot more than your friendly neighbourhood hybristophilia. The cultural impact was frankly extreme. The meme started with soft lulls about his Italian name. But soon TikTok feeds were filled with songwriters singing heartfelt ballads about him. A search of his name on Spotify comes up with pages and pages and pages of songs named Luigi Mangoni. There are endless playlist dedicated to him and mixtapes of songs that people think he'd like.

There was fan fiction, a lot of fan fiction. There were Luigi look-alike competitions where doppelgangers gathered in public places dressed like him. People went to the McDonald's in Altoona where he'd been arrested and danced around it for content. Merchandise spread across the internet, even though Etsy still refuses to stock it.

The fan pages and communities proliferated. The Luigi love even explains, extended to the outfits he wore. In the days after he appeared in court in Manhattan, searches spiked for the jacket and sweater he was wearing. The loafers he wore to court also became a trend and were called the new summer footwear fashion. People got his face tattooed on their bodies and graffitied murals went up all over the world, from Marseille to Rome. And this speaks volumes. These European muralists obviously aren't affected by the US healthcare system. So it was already becoming something more universal, though I think it also speaks to how

infectious US culture is. And secondly, to the failed social contract between young people in particular and states across the world. And someone even wrote a musical. It's based on the fact that Mangione, Sean Diddy Combs, and fraudulent Crypto King Sam Bankman-Fried were all inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Centre at the same time. It had two sold-out runs in San Francisco and came to the fringe in August last year. And to date, the Give Send Go page fundraiser for Luigi's legal costs has raised $1 million.

Though most donations are still about the $20 mark, one supporter donated $50,000 in one go. So why exactly? Did so many people feel comfortable casting a murderer as their hero? Sure. There's the detached, ironic, desensitized and nihilistic attitude that the internet loves to indulge in, and also the Edinburgh Fringe. How many Epstein musicals were at the fringe last year?

How many Prince Andrews musicals? I promise you, I didn't even go and I know there would have been 300. And as aforementioned, Luigi's fit. But then, in a N-O-R-C poll from December 2024, it was found that 61% of American adults believed that healthcare insurance companies bear a great deal of responsibility for the circumstances surrounding Thompson's death

and young people are more likely to go one further. About half of college students in the States say that they view the murder itself of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson as totally or somewhat justified. This is a generation who's grown up not being able to afford health care, housing or education, and has lived with that powerlessness their whole lives. As with, well, everything these days, the most shocking

corners of this fandom have been amplified, laughed at and loudly condemned. It's become so cartoonish that it threatens to misrepresent what's actually happening. The average American view is much more nuanced than all of this would lead you to believe. For every thirsty hashtag free Luigi Fangirl, there are people condemning his actions in the strongest possible terms and there are also a million shades of grey in between. The most common stance seems to be I don't agree, but I understand. And that includes a detached amusement at his memeification, B, the belief that killing Brian Thompson was wrong, but see an enthusiasm to use this moment to fix a very broken system.

Whatever way you slice it, though, everyone already has an opinion, which makes trying Luigi Mangione impartially quite tough. Honestly, as the seconds tick on through my meaningless life, the less I think that Jory Charles should be allowed. Yes, it's just, it's just impossible. I think in the age in which we now live, yes, it is. Not always, but I think it has become impossible. Yeah, I mean, not even just from the point of view of like the amount of information that is out there, like with this case, like, I don't even think we've been saying alleged shooter when we're talking about him even though he hasn't been convicted.

Not even because of the amount of information, but the thing that really infuriates me. Because I think people can be convinced if they're in a courtroom, the case is put to them properly. I think people can be like, oh, okay, well, I had heard this, but now you're telling me this, okay, for me it's the experts. It's the expert testimony that you can just get experts to say whatever the fuck you want and the jury has no fucking clue who to decide to believe versus like who do you decide. The prosecution's expert or the defense's expert who are both experts and both telling you something completely different. I think, yeah, jury trials have become maybe quite infeasible. But, yeah. This one is going to be particularly challenging. We'll come on to that again next week. But while all this was going on, while all of this fanfare on the internet, everything was happening.

Luigi Mangione was being held without bail in a state prison in Altoona. On the 17th of December, he was brought to a courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. I don't know. Welcome to have a nice Timesville, Pennsylvania. Welcome to your trial. It's just so big. They're like, call it whatever the fuck you want.

Altoona Police had charged him with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery, and providing false identification. And the NYPD indicted Luigi Manjoni on 11 much more serious counts, including murder in the first and second degree, and murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism. He was met with a billion cameras as he was led in. And this moment is kind of our. only glimpse at righteous anger, Luigi.

As guards wrestle him inside, he shouts at the cameras. It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people. From then on, his appearance was reserved, monotone, and emotionless. Probably because his lawyers told him to, shut the fuck up. He briefly resisted extradition to New York, but soon enough he was transferred. And then, a pretty dramatic day. Luigi appeared in Holidaysburg the next morning before being flown to Long Island in a small plane

then helicoptered into Lower Manhattan to appear in court and this was the famous perp walk which could well end up having a huge impact when we do come to trial because as Luigi's supporters will point out it was somewhat overblown Maggi only left the helicopter in an orange jumpsuit with his ankles shackled.

He was surrounded by a dozen guards, mostly holding large assault rifles. Also among the gang was the then mayor of New York, Eric Adams. Which needless to say is more than most murder suspects get. The aim of the outsized police presence,

say Luigi's lawyers, was to frame him from the start as a dangerous lunatic. Leading Luigi's team was Karen Friedman and Phileo, who was experienced on both sides of the courtroom and is best known for prosecuting Harvey Weinstein. There it is. That's why I know her name. Interestingly, her husband was also the lead attorney for Sean Diddy Coombs.

There it is again. Also on the team are experts in the death penalty, white-collar crimes, federal cases and Philadelphia law for the Altoona charges. So yes, as you can see, there's deep knowledge of every corner of this knotty legal. argument sat there on the defences bench. In Manhattan, Karen Friedman, Anglifino set out her stance.

She said that that morning her client was on stage for all to see in the biggest staged perp walk I've ever seen in my career. And it doesn't even help their case, does it? Because all people are going to say when they see that, that's what they do to you when you take on the system. Yeah, I think it was maybe

mishandled. I think it was very poorly handled. So she says also that the stack of charges across the multiple jurisdictions didn't add up and even contradicted each other. And Karen also said that federal and state prosecutors were colluding against Luigi Manjoni. But mostly she said that in the two weeks since the crime had happened, any chance of a fair trial had been completely eliminated. He was supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. But between the perp walk or the political theatre and the 20,

24-hour news cycle debating it endlessly, all of that was out of the window. Friedman Anglifino said plainly, as far as they are concerned, he was not a symbol. He was the defendant in a murder case. But that train has well and truly left the station. Things continue to be two things. Yeah, with a public so intensely polarised, so widely dead set on either his meme-led martyrdom or his callous cowardly act of brutality,

Just how can they find a jury anywhere impartial enough to try him? Meeting the police's dramatic show of strength in Manhattan was an equal and opposite show of support from Luigi protesters. It was a sea of Luigi T-shirts, banners and signs saying free Luigi and health over wealth. So who exactly is the man that commanded so much support? you're going to have to come back next week to find out when we will be bringing you part two of our Luigi series and we promise there is way more to Luigi

than the privileged, charming and well-liked martyr we're going to take a look at the truth behind his idealism the chronic pain that he suffered throughout his life the innermost thoughts he shared in his notebook and including how he decided on his target and how he cut ties with family and friends just after going on an all-important trip around Asia in the months before the shooting. And how all of that curdled into a murderous mission to New York City.

And we'll also dive deeper into the morality of this case. And weigh up the problem of just how the shit to respond responsibly properly in the right way. All of that is waiting for you on the other side of the problem. this week. Good luck you can do it. We will see you then, and continue to have a happy New Year. Goodbye. Bye.