UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered, and the police released grainy security camera footage showing the killer's half-covered face. He became a poster boy, at that moment, for killing the CEO of a health insurance company. A hero who had avenged the broken healthcare system. But , when he was finally arrested, and it turned out to be a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate called Luigi Mangione from a powerful family in Baltimore, the folk hero had a face.
Health insurance companies are often the villain in many stories in the US. When the ammunition casings in Mangione's possession had “deny,” “depose,” and “defend” engraved on them, the fandom his "good looks" had created elevated him into a hero. The digital cult of Mangione was rising.
On being arrested, his fans came to his defence. When he was shown before the Pennsylvania court and his name was released, the internet decided to conduct its own investigation—not into the murder, but to reveal every detail of the "good-looking" killer.
Some time in December 2024, theNYPD Newsreleased a few photos of Mangione dressed in an orange jumpsuit. The response was bizarre: most comments focused on his striking Italian good looks. Nobody cared that he was an accused. One user tweeted his photo with a "Parental Advisory Explicit Content" logo, while another wrote, "Did you guys… make him hotter?" Pretty privilege is a thing, after all.
His orange prison jumpsuit was even compared to Saint Laurent's runway collections.
Online sleuths started going through his social profiles. Reddit threads discussed his Goodreads favourites and reviews. But they also realised that their hero against capitalism was not so heroic after all. One user on Reddit wrote, "He was unfortunately retweeting Peter Thiel and Tucker Carlson-related posts on Twitter."
But still, his die-hard fans were not giving up. Fan accounts mushroomed all over, and crowdfunding pages were raising money for him, but according to reports, campaigns supporting him were pulled down by GoFundMe.
Online stores started selling merchandise printed with his face on them, including T-shirts that read “Free Luigi!” and “But, Daddy, I Love Him.”
Last January, he had a pre-trial hearing in New York, and of course, the internet lost it. Mangione showed up in loafers, no socks, shackled ankles on full display. Comments exploded. One read, “Yoooo, the ankle cuffs with loafers? That’s the summer look.”
A page called Luigi Mangione Legal Defence Information was also established, according to which people can contribute to his legal defence team. The target goal is USD $1,500,000, and at the time of publishing USD $1,432,163 had been raised. The donations were accompanied by comments such as, "If LM [Luigi Mangione] had been accused of having ties to Epstein, he’d be free right now. No reward, no cops searching under freezing water, no state and feds fighting over him. They went this hard to persecute him because of who he’s accused of killing. Like MJ said: 'All I want to say is that they don't really care about us.'"
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
