Social media support for accused killers Luigi Mangione, Elias Rodriguez an 'exceptionally bad sign': expert
"That people who commit murder are receiving any meaningful amount of public support, seemingly because the victims are seen by the murder's supporters as belonging to the political opposition, is an exceptionally bad sign for our society," Nicholas Creel, Georgia College and State University ethics professor, told Fox News Digital. "Democracy requires people to be committed to certain values, such as the peaceable resolution of our differences. Without that, we're at risk for a far wider breakdown in the rule of law, the kind where mass atrocities can easily arise."
Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, is accused of killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young engaged couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening outside the Capital Jewish Museum.
Mangione, 26, is charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and a slew of other state and federal charges in both New York and Pennsylvania for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old married father of two, on a sidewalk in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024.
Hinton, 38, is charged with aggravated murder after he allegedly "intentionally" struck retired Hamilton County Deputy Larry Henderson, who was directing traffic near the University of Cincinnati during a graduation ceremony, with a vehicle around 1 p.m. on May 2. He allegedly killed the officer a day after Cincinnati police fatally shot his son during a foot pursuit, according to police.
Experts who spoke with Fox News Digital also noted social media support for 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who shot at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, before being fatally shot by responding officers.
"Now that we're seeing these other murders get the same kind of attention [as Brian Thompson's], it does seem to be a pattern that is fairly new in terms of the reaction to this," Creel told Fox News Digital regarding support for Mangione and Rodriguez specifically. "So when you get this larger and larger portion of the population that's willing to … sanction that sort of behavior, you become very much ripe for a sort of authoritarian takeover, the kind that can start to lead to mass atrocities."
He added that the most recent killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim represent a "very destructive sort of behavior to society."
"When we look at how does a country become a democracy and remain one – because that's never a guarantee – what we tend to see is there's certain values society has to hold, and one of those is the idea of not resorting to violence," Creel said.
He and his colleague, Ania Rynarzewska, an assistant professor of marketing, have conducted research showing that people feel more empowered when their radical beliefs and ideas get support online.
"Our research has found so far that before [Thompson's murder], people felt powerless. So they felt like their voice didn't matter," Rynarzewska said. "And after the incident and after people started voicing their opinion on social media … they felt more empowered to speak. They felt like their voices were in the majority, so they no longer have to suppress it."
In all three cases, authorities allege that the suspects had political or personal motives behind their respective alleged actions, and all three men are receiving support, both monetary and nonfinancial, from radical social media users.
A preliminary investigation in the Rodriguez case shows the suspect was allegedly observed pacing back and forth outside the museum before he approached a group of four people leaving the building, including the two victims, and began shooting, D.C. authorities said.
He then entered the museum, where he was detained by event security. While in custody, he yelled, "Free, free Palestine!"
Mangione similarly shouted a message after his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
"It's completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and its lived experience," Mangione shouted outside a courthouse in Hollidaysburg days after his arrest.
Paul Mauro, former NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital that Mangione, Rodriguez, Hinton and Crooks represent "a very specialized class of violent losers."
"At some point, everybody's been down in their luck," Mauro said. "But … when you are in and around 30 years old, and you are still clinging to these adolescent beliefs about the world and how you are on the side of the righteous because you are a member of a particular internet forum, and you're willing to … extinguish the lives of others … you're going to take away loved ones from families. Well, I'm sorry, but you guys are in a class by yourselves."
He added that law enforcement professionals have seen such activity by young radicals "developing" since about 2020.
Mauro also said officials should be following the money that U.S. colleges and universities are receiving from nongovernment organizations and whether any of that funding comes from U.S. adversaries, such as Iran.
The former NYPD inspector noted that Rodriguez, Mangione, Crooks and, to an extent, Hinton are all relatively young men who had "their whole lives ahead of them" before allegedly hunting down people they believed to be their political or personal "opponents."
"They weaponize these college kids who are susceptible and naive and who have never really been scuffed up by the real world," Mauro said. "And in many cases, they don't want to be. They don't really want to go out and get jobs and do all the stuff that we did. … And they stay in this hyperprogressive bubble thinking that they're on the side of the righteous. And then what happens is they manage to survive."
Creel and Rynarzewska similarly noted that young people who are lonely or isolated tend to find a sense of community in people who share radical views online.
"From a bigger societal perspective, that's where we really see the destructive influence on … youth," Creel said. "When you're young, you're developing your sense of the world. You're coming to figure out, when you come of age, what's acceptable, what's not. That's when norms are being developed, your values take hold. And so, because of that, when you see these far more fringe-type positions of people supporting violence – murder, even – that becomes one of those things that then you think is normalized."
Mangione and Hinton have pleaded not guilty to their respective crimes. Fox News Digital has reached out to their attorneys for comment.
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People Who Knew Murderers Are Sharing "The Moment They Knew Something Was Off," And Wow
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I couldn't tell any of this because I was more afraid of him than confident that my parents could or would do anything. He was my primary babysitter." "From 12 to 18, my brother got in a lot of trouble. He was arrested multiple times for assault. He was in and out of alternative programs like Outward Bound and Boot Camp. Finally, at 17, he was sentenced to 2 years in juvenile detention. He spent a year in and came out to live with a preacher in another nearby town. Eventually, they convinced the parole board he was rehabilitated, and over the objections of our local police, let him off all probation and parole. That preacher introduced him to friends of his, with whom my brother eventually moved in. He also met a girl. They met right before summer started, and he was in love. To her, it was a summer fling. When she broke up with him, partly due to his controlling/abusive behavior, he lost it. He came back home one weekend to meet up with some friends. He also came to see us. Later, my mom would say she knew something was up with him, but that is all hindsight. Sunday night, he went back home. Monday night, he killed his three roommates execution style with a gun he got from a friend who had perpetrated a burglary of our local hardware store. He also stole one of the victim's cars. He then drove eight hours to where his ex was in college. He arrived pretty early Tuesday morning and somehow got into her dorm room. Tuesday morning, he found his ex and shot her in the foot, threatened to kill her, and then locked himself, her, and a few of her dorm mates in a room. A 6-hour hostage standoff with police ensued. Eventually, he stuck his head out the window one too many times, and a police sniper shot him right in the neck. He tried shooting at the cops as they stormed in, but he was dying. He died later in the hospital, and my family became national news for a short time. When did I know? I knew the moment I was six and the bad times began. 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Like a little bigger than 'this math problem is really pissing me off' and a little less than full-on flipping out. But it would seemingly be about nothing. He wouldn't have any pencils or paper, so I don't think he was doing homework when he would do this. Sometimes he would have a book in front of him. But also again, didn't really pay too much attention to him." "One morning, he killed his grandma with a lamp before school. I forgot the reasoning. I think it was something like she caught him sleeping in, and he went ballistic on her. It was extremely sad." —DemiGod9 5."I am the survivor of an attempted family annihilation. I didn't like my stepfather from the moment my mother introduced him. Every time I was around him, I was afraid. Just constant dread. My stomach and chest would tighten, and I'd feel like I couldn't breathe. He had these blue eyes that looked like something you'd see in a taxidermied animal. No life in them." "I didn't tell my mother because I wanted her to be happy, and I was afraid she'd think I was being dramatic and dismiss it if I tried. He started beating us both shortly after moving in. They got married in May of 1996, and he murdered my mother and tried to kill me in January of '98. He's still in prison." —tameyeayam 6."A friend of a friend at college used to hang around and smoke cigarettes with us. He never spoke much, and that always made me feel uncomfortable. A few months back, his grandfather tried to get him sectioned on a psychiatric ward, but they rejected him, stating he wasn't bad enough. Two weeks later, he stabbed his grandmother to death and cut her face off in the middle of the street." —Geocyclic Related: 7."I played Dungeons and Dragons with a guy on deployment for a few months while I was in the Navy. We hung out in the same group of people. I stopped playing because he kept trying to assault all the female characters. 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Something in that moment made me believe he would find me and kill my S.O. Like, you never want to believe someone would kill, but my instincts told me to be afraid. Luckily, it seemed his interest in me died down over time. In 2018, I got a phone call from an old mutual friend. They asked if I had heard about what he did on the news. Of course, I didn't, but I had a bad feeling. He apparently worked at the airport and kept trying to ask a woman out who had a fiancé and a child. She refused him many times. Then he waited outside her home for her fiancé to show up. Once the fiancé drove up, he ran up to the driver's side window and shot him. The fiancé didn't survive. My ex didn't make it far before he was caught by the police and thrown in prison." —tminor787 12."I knew Esteban Santiago [a convicted ISIS sympathizer]. Not intimately familiar, but I worked at the hostel he lived at before he flew to Florida. He was very reserved and talked to himself a lot. 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Anyway, the police were obviously easily able to determine who he really was." A few days later, the local police department released a story stating he was being charged with the murder of a man found dead a couple of months prior. He was strangled to death in his home. While he did become a massive piece of garbage, I never would have suspected he could do anything like that. He hasn't yet been convicted, but from the sounds of it, they have strong evidence against him. —n_obody1969 Responses have been edited for length/clarity. Did you ever know a real-life murderer? When did you think something was off? Tell us in the comments below, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, submit your story in this form here. Do you love all things scary, dark, and creepy? Subscribe to the That Got Dark newsletter to get your weekly dopamine fix of the macabre delivered RIGHT to your inbox! If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website. If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 ( service can be provided in over 140 languages. The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy. If you or anyone you know has information on a missing person case, call local law enforcement first. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (THE-LOST) or visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System site for regional case assistance. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
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