The Free Press
One minute. That’s how long it took the first donation to hit the legal support fund for Luigi Mangione after the Department of Justice said it is seeking the death penalty in his case.
Mangione is charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street last December. But his fans, who follow every move in his case on the internet, consider the 26-year-old a progressive folk hero who is waging a righteous war against a corrupt capitalist system. One hour after the death penalty news was announced on April 1, more than 400 fans had donated over $12,000 to the GiveSendGo for Mangione’s legal defense fund.
“Absolutely appalled and disgusted that the Dept of ‘Justice’ are seeking the death penalty,” wrote the first anonymous user to comment on the news that Attorney General Pam Bondi is pursuing the death penalty against Mangione. Rallying behind Mangione with a $10 donation, the user said: “Your strength, dignity, and courage are an inspiration, and we are behind you. We will never stop fighting. Sorry I can’t give more today but I will continue to donate as and when I can. Until you are free.”
Minutes later, dozens of people—with usernames such as “PAM BONDI SUCKS” and “F P Bondi”—had given money to the fund, which has so far reaped a total of $780,000 since it first launched on December 9. According to the fundraiser, all money goes to “Tom Dickey Law Offices, P.C.” referring to the attorney who is defending the alleged murderer on gun charges in Pennsylvania. Mangione is also facing charges at the federal level and in New York State.
Though most donors contributed $30 or less, their notes were full of outrage. Some posted heart emojis in green—a reference to the character Luigi in the Super Mario Bros. video game, who wears the color—which has become a symbol of the Mangione movement.
One donor identified themselves as “Billie” and stated that they work in healthcare, where they’re “watching people die every single day because of ‘insurance.’ ” Of Magione’s potential fate, they wrote: “Unbelievable. . . the death penalty??!!!”
Yet another supporter sent a $200 donation along with the note: “I’m outraged by the DOJ’s decision to seek the death penalty in this case.” They added: “It just shows how outrageous the Trump DOJ is.”
In a development that shows just how deeply the anger against America’s health insurance industry runs, a retired Los Angeles attorney recently submitted paperwork to start a ballot initiative allowing citizens to hold insurers civilly liable for denying critical coverage. “People are tired of carriers, of insurance companies, denying them health care," Paul Eisner, the attorney behind the push, said of the “Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act.”
Meanwhile, a Discord group where Mangione fans congregate to organize rallies and strategize fundraising efforts in secret was in mourning. One user, “ecoguccisuits1447,” shared a screenshot of a breaking news update from the Associated Press—Attorney General Pam Bondi directs prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione—along with the note, “guys is this real.”
Many gave reports of emotional distress, with two stating they are “crying,” and another saying they are “so sick.” One simply said: “I can’t breathe.”
But some users noted a potential upside to the news. “What’s also comforting is that donations are coming in hot,” said one member of the group. They noted that donations were pouring into the defense fund, with one even coming in at $1,027—a nod to the “27 for Luigi” campaign, which aims to hit the fundraising goal of $1 million by the time Mangione turns 27 on May 6.
One user, called “letthemeatmuffins,” shared a form letter, urging members to blast it out to elected representatives and take a stand against Bondi’s “dangerous precedent.”
“The alleged crime—the killing of a CEO—while serious, does not inherently rise to the level that should justify the death penalty.” the letter states. “It raises the troubling implication that a CEO’s life is being treated as more valuable than the lives of ordinary working-class Americans who have been victims of similar or worse violence without comparable prosecutorial zeal.”
Mangione’s defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo echoed those thoughts in a statement which argued that the Department of Justice had “moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric” in seeking the death penalty.
“While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi. By doing this, they are defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry that continues to terrorize the American people,” added Friedman Agnifilo, who is leading the defense against Mangione’s New York charges. “Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life.”
Still, it wasn’t long before commenters started to speculate that the threat of the death penalty could galvanize the pro-Mangione movement. Surely, one user said, other Americans will be just as outraged at the Department of Justice’s “blatant fucking overreach.”
“It’s actually so stupid,” posted a user called “Camus.” “They’re going to turn him into a martyr and make people even more angry.”
Yet another agreed: “This only makes us stronger, tougher, more passionate.”
Luigi Mangione is not the first alleged bourgeois terrorist to be feted as a rock star. More than 50 years ago, Ulrike Meinhof threw her life away for the thrill of political violence. On the latest episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake unpacks the Luigi Mangione moment and the unsettling phenomenon of turning killers into icons.