Luigi Mangione's ‘manifesto' reveals reason for targeting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, failed plot for mass casualty event: court docs

Yahoo

2 days ago

The deranged 'manifesto' of Luigi Mangione revealed the image-obsessed accused killer chose to 'wack the CEO' of UnitedHealthcare during an investor conference in New York City to generate 'headlines' — and had previously planned a bombing 'catastrophe,' court documents revealed.
Parts of Mangione's scrawlings in red-spiral notebooks were revealed as part of a filing from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Wednesday, giving insight into the thought process of the 27-year-old who allegedly targeted Brian Thompson, 50, on Dec. 4, 2024, to prove a political point about the health insurance industry which he wrote 'extracts human life force for money.'
'So say you want to rebel against the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel. Do you bomb the HQ? No. Bombs=terrorism,' Mangione wrote in the notebook, which he had in his backpack when he was arrested five days after he allegedly shot the exec in the back on a Midtown street.
Instead, one should 'wack [sic] the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It's targeted and precise and doesn't risk innocents,' Mangione reasoned on Oct. 22, just six weeks before the cold-blooded slaying.
Elsewhere in the manifesto, Mangione wrote that UnitedHealthcare and other insurance providers were justifiable targets because the company 'literally extracts human life force for money.'
The mad screeds further revealed that the University of Pennsylvania graduate had apparently planned a mass-casualty event that could have included a bomb — expressing relief that he had not followed through on the atrocity.
'I'm glad — in a way — that I've procrastinated because it allowed me to learn more about UHC.'
'In MD would've been an unjustified catastrophe that would be perceived mostly as sick, but more importantly unhelpful,' Magione wrote of a potential attack in his native Maryland.
It is not clear what exactly Mangione had planned, but he insinuated that 'innocents' would have been killed.
The reason the 'model prisoner' of his Brooklyn lockup targeted Thompson was 'self-evident,' he wrote.
'The point is made in the news headline Insurance CEO killed at annual investors conference,' Mangione wrote. 'It conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.
'Members of the public can focus on greed, on the event through reasonable acceptable discussion,' he said of the public reception the apparently planned murder would receive.
Mangione was preoccupied with having action be morally palatable and understood by 'normies' — expressing repeated concern for the public response the murder would receive, even going so far as to analyze potential financial fallout for UnitedHealthcare.
'Finally, the hit is a real low blow to the company financials. All those analysts and institutional investors who came to be wooed by insurance execs? That opportunity is snuffed in an instant,' the accused assassin wrote.
In the same batch of writings, Mangione leveled both praise and criticism on the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, whom he believed failed to properly communicate his politics to 'normies.'
'For example, Ted K makes some good points on the future of humanity, but to make his point he indiscriminately mailbombs innocents. Normies categorize him as an insane serial killer, focus on the act/atrocities themselves, and dismiss his ideas,' Magione wrote.
Wednesday's filing also included the note Mangione had on his person when he was arrested by police officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania just days after the vicious slaying.
'To the Feds, I'll keep this short because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial, some elementary social engineering, basic [Computer Aided Design], and a lot of patience,' Magione wrote.
'The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and TODO lists that illuminate the gist of it,' he wrote.
'I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.'
The note further blathered about the state of health care in the United States and the industry's capitalistic motivations.
Prosecutors argue that these mad, narcissistic ramblings stand up their claim that Mangione's murder was an act of terrorism.
'The shooting itself speaks volumes of the defendant's intent. Defendant chose to shoot the CEO of the United States' largest health insurance company in front of the hotel where the company was about to conduct its annual investor conference,' Bragg wrote in the filing.
Mangione's goal in assassinating Thompson was 'to send a message' which was underscored by the messages the accused allegedly left on the bullet casings ,'Deny,' 'Depose,' and 'Delay,' in reference to the book 'An American Sickness,' prosecutors alleged in the filing.
'If ever there were an open and shut case pointing to a defendant's guilt, this case is that case. Simply put, one would be hard pressed to find a case with such overwhelming evidence of guilty as to the identity of the murderer and the premeditated nature of the assassination,' prosecutors wrote in Wednesday's filing.
Lawyers for Mangione filed to have the writings, found in Mangione's backpack when the then fugitive was picked up in a Pennsylvania McDonald's, excluded from the court record on grounds that he was not afforded his constitutional rights at the time of his arrest.
Prosecutors agreed to hold pre-trial hearings on the admissibility of evidence, including the red spiral notebook and statements he made to police officers at the time of the arrest, the filing stated.