From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turn

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City apparently led a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite prep school in Baltimore and with degrees from one of the country’s top private universities.

Friends at an exclusive co-living space on the edge of touristy Waikiki, Hawaii, where 26-year-old Mangione once lived, widely regarded him as a “great guy,” and photos on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man. man on beaches and at parties.

Now investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to figure out why Mangione may have deviated from this path and made the violent and radical decision to shoot him. Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare in a brutal attack on a Manhattan street.

The murder led to widespread discussions about it corporate greed, unfairness in the health insurance industry and even inspired a folk hero’s sentiment toward his killer.

But Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro then sharply refuted that perception Mangione’s arrest on Monday when a customer at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania saw Mangione eating and noticed that he resembled the shooting suspect in security camera photos released by the New York Police Department.

“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Listen to me, he is not a hero,” Shapiro said. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”

Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather, Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978.

The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked access to the property, which public records show is linked to Luigi Mangione’s parents. Reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance.

Nick Mangione, a father of 10, groomed his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 report in the Washington Post. Nick Mangione had 37 grandchildren, including Luigi, according to the grandfather’s obituary.

Luigi Mangione’s grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating the death of Nick Mangione’s wife in 2023. They donated to several charities, including Catholic organizations, colleges and the arts.

One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins ​​is Republican Maryland state lawmaker Nino Mangione, a House spokesperson confirmed.

“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement on social media by Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for everyone involved.”

Mangione, who was valedictorian of his elite prep school in Maryland, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, a university spokesperson told The Associated Press.

He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication.

His social media posts suggest he belonged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. They also show him participating in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends on the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico and other destinations.

The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite preparatory schools. The children of some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent residents, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have attended the school. Alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Governor Fife Symington.

In his farewell speech, Luigi Mangione described the “incredible courage of his classmates to explore the unknown and try new things.”

After high school, Mangione took a software programming internship at Maryland-based video game studio Firaxis, where he fixed bugs in the popular strategy game Civilization 6, according to a LinkedIn profile. Firaxis’ parent company, Take-Two Interactive, said it would not comment on former employees.

He most recently worked at the car-buying website TrueCar, but has not worked there since 2023, the head of the Santa Monica, California-based company confirmed to the AP.

From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a co-living space on the edge of touristy Waikiki in Honolulu.

Like other residents of the shared penthouse that caters to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, spokesperson for owner and founder RJ Martin.

“Luigi was widely regarded as a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign whatsoever that would point to the alleged crimes they say he committed.”

At Surfbreak, Martin discovered that Mangione had had severe back pain since childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, including surfing, Ryan said.

“He went surfing with RJ once, but he couldn’t because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went to a climbing gym together.

Mangione left Surfbreak to have surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, and later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment. An image on a social media account linked to Mangione showed an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into a person’s lower back.

Martin didn’t hear from Mangione six months to a year ago.

An X account linked to Mangione features recent posts about the negative impact of smartphones on children; healthy eating and exercise habits; psychological theories; and a quote from Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti about the dangers of becoming “well-adjusted to a deeply sick society.”

Mangione was likely motivated by his anger at what he called “parasitic” health insurers and a disdain for corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by AP.

He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world and that corporate profits continue to rise while “our life expectancy” is not increasing, according to the bulletin, based on a review of the suspect’s handwritten notes and social media. to inform.

He appeared to view the targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO as a symbolic takedown, claiming in his note that he is the “first to face this with such brutal honesty,” the bulletin said.

Mangione called “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski a “political revolutionary” and may have found inspiration in the man who carried out a series of bombings while railing against modern society and technology, the document said.

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Associated Press reporters Lea Skene in Baltimore; Jen Kelleher in Honolulu; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Michael Kunzelman in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.