Support has poured in on social media for Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who wrote a document that “speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” CBS News reported. Mangione wrote in the three-page note that the US had “most expensive healthcare system in the world” but lamented that the country “ranks #42 in life expectancy,” according to NYPD sources. According to intelligence officers within the NYPD, Mangione was motivated to kill Thompson as a result of his grievances about UnitedHealthcare and other health insurance companies.
In the document, Mangione referred to corporations as “mafiosa [that] have gotten too powerful,” and added that these companies abuse the US “for immense profit.” He said that while others had previously shone a light on corporations’ “corruption and greed,” he was “the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
‘I can understand why he did what he did’
In a Reddit thread, a user said they “feel sorry” for Mangione and “empathise” with him as their life “was also ruined by spinal fusion and injuries.” “I just don’t understand why his rich family didn’t help him go to a different surgeon or find a better solution for his spine,” they added. “Anyway I can understand why he did what he did. I’m not American but if I was and had a gun I would be tempted too. Don’t worry I don’t plan on anything. But pain and gaslighting from doctors does change you as a person. person. I feel sorry for him experiencing that at 26. He was heading in a good direction in life. My life was great til my injuries at 33. Now I’ve lost everything and stuck in chronic pain. I was hoping he wouldn’t be found in all honesty”.
Many seemed to agree in the comment section, with one user saying, “I have chronic neuropathy too and a lotta empathy for him. He’s very young to have that kind of surgery imo”. “I have MS, CRPS I, ruptured and slipped disks. I absolutely understand his frustration. My SI Joint Fusion was just denied yesterday by United Healthcare. I’m furious. On top of that I’m losing sight in my right eye, left already lost, and they’re playing around to approve IVIG,” one said, while another user wrote, “Thanks for sharing. I had an accident (not spinal) that disabled me at 31, I can’t imagine dealing with it in my 20s. The medical system has caused me ptsd – all the gaslighting, misdiagnoses, etc.” “Luigi Mangione may not be the heartless, cold-blooded killer that Republican pundits label as privileged but deranged. There is a flip side that the American Medical Institute does not want to see or admit. Let’s think about the effect of anaesthesia and the effect of screws placed in a spinal column. Yes, Mangione did kill! And yes, my most precious son committed suicide on June 26 of this year after surgeons placed him under anaesthesia for seven and a half hours, maybe undocumented more, to install screws in his spine. There may be more to crime, medical procedures and criminal intent than the medical industry wants to acknowledge and admit,” one user wrote.
Some condoned the killing, however, with one saying, “I have been suffering with back pain going on for many years. Still, shooting anyone in the back shows that you are nothing but a coward. He is a murderer. Plain and simple”. Another wrote, “Yeah, well, killing people isn’t the answer. There are a lot of things I disagree with, but I’m not going to take someone’s life unless my life is in jeopardy. He had all the resources in the world at his disposal. Privileged beyond belief. United Healthcare will just hire another CEO and he will get his medical treatment if any, in prison.”
Mangione has been charged with murder in last week’s shooting after being arrested on firearms and other charges in Pennsylvania. He was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona amid a manhunt for Thompson’s killer.
