The Curious Case of Luigi Mangione. Plus...

It’s Wednesday, December 11. I’m River Page and this is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Why does Pete Hegseth keep talking about “warfighters”? How should Jay Bhattacharya reform the NIH? And much more.

But first: The strangely normal suspect in the United Healthcare CEO murder case.

The manhunt that followed the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week turned us all into amateur sleuths. But police finally apprehended 26-year-old Luigi Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday after a customer recognized him. They found in his possession a 3D-printed gun and a short, handwritten manifesto that indicated “ill will toward corporate America,” according to police. As soon as Mangione’s name was released, seemingly everyone, myself included, dug into his online footprint: His Goodreads, his Instagram, his X accounts.

The picture that emerged confounded the preexisting theories about Thompson’s killer and his motive: that the shooter was a left-wing vigilante, or an underdog victim of the healthcare-industrial complex. Reality, it seems, is not so clear-cut.

To start, he’s a rich kid whose wealthy family owns, among other things, an assisted living facility. He attended Gilman, a tony, all-boys private school in Baltimore—and, like his victim, Mangione was valedictorian of his class. Later, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became a frat boy and earned two degrees in computer science.

The rich kid to left-wing extremist pipeline is well-established—the well-heeled radicals of the Weather Underground are a prominent historical example—but there’s no evidence to suggest that Mangione was either a campus radical or a basement-dwelling loner.

A former University of Pennsylvania student, who worked with Mangione in 2018 when both were teaching assistants for an introductory-level computer science class, told The Free Press that he was shocked by Mangione’s arrest. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the student said he never heard Mangione talk about politics, and described him as “a very popular guy.”

“He was pretty normal,” the gunman’s former colleague said. “Very friendly, a nice guy who got along with everybody, and a good TA.”

“Normal” also describes Mangione’s social media presence. On X he reposted figures like health and wellness podcaster Andrew Huberman and tech writer Tim Urban; the most left-wing figure he seems to have followed on X is probably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Instagram pictures show the photogenic accused assassin shirtless and jacked, hiking and hanging out on the beach with friends. In other words, he’s a normie. Or at least that’s how he comes across online.

His Goodreads account runs the gamut from standard college freshman reading list fare (Huxley’s Brave New World, for example) to pop psychology, self-help, and books on chronic back pain (more on that in a second). The only suspicious read is Industrial Society and Its Future, otherwise known as the Unabomber Manifesto, to which Luigi gave four stars. Much has been made of this—although let’s be honest, if he were truly inspired by Ted Kaczynski, wouldn’t he have given the book five stars?

In a weird coincidence, our editorial assistant Josh Code worked with Mangione as a counselor at a summer camp for gifted students in 2019. He described him to me as a good-looking guy with whom he had only positive interactions. “He was more hassle-free and conscientious than some of the other leaders,” said Josh.

So far as red flags go, the most significant seems to be Mangione’s missing year. He apparently had back surgery in 2023, after which he appears to have changed. (On his now-suspended Twitter account, there was an X-ray of a back—presumably his—with four screws in it. According to The Baltimore Banner, it became a “time of turbulence, isolation, and pain, both physical and psychological.” Since that summer, friends say that Luigi dropped off the map, refusing to reply to messages. He bailed on a friend’s wedding, and he went to Japan sometime in February of this year, where he had dinner with Obara Jun, a top Japanese professional poker player. In the weeks before the shooting, his mother reported him missing in San Francisco. Given that Mangione’s last address was in Hawaii, police told The San Francisco Standard it wasn’t clear if Luigi had been in the city or if his mother had any reason to believe he might be.

These facts have led only to more speculation: Did his back surgery turn Mangione against the healthcare industry and insurance companies? Did he experience some kind of psychological breakdown sometime after his surgery?

Tuesday brought two more clues. As he was led to his extradition hearing yesterday, Mangione yelled to reporters: “This is completely unjust and an insult to the intelligence of the American people. This is lived experience.”

And then, a reporter published on Substack what he claims to be the suspect’s manifesto. It is short and to the point: After noting that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system but ranks roughly 42nd in life expectancy, he writes: “The reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit.” He concluded, “Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

He never mentions his back pain but focuses on the more universal problem of the American healthcare system. In its own weird way, his little manifesto only reinforced the image of the alleged shooter as rich, intelligent, well-educated, and well-mannered.

Later on Tuesday, Mangione’s lawyer said he planned to plead not guilty, “at least to the charges in Pennsylvania,” which include forgery and weapons offenses.

None of this has hurt Mangione’s status as a hero for a disturbingly large number of people. In the immediate aftermath of Brian Thompson’s murder, the then-unnamed killer was celebrated online, as Kat Rosenfield reported last week. Now that his identity has been revealed, this dark schadenfreude has entered a new phase. People can no longer imagine that the shooter is a working-class hero avenging a sick child, or a communist revolutionary. And so the hero worship has taken a hornier tone. The accused shooter might not be the leftist people wanted, but he’s toned, tanned, and ready to kill a shared enemy—a swarthy, photogenic Chad willing to do the sort of grisly things blue-haired leftists can only post about.

This category—up to and including the blue hair—includes Julia Alekseyeva, a professor at Mangione’s alma mater. She posted a TikTok saying she’s “never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” as “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” the revolutionary anthem from the musical Les Misérables, played in the background.

Just one of the very weird responses to the weirdly normal-seeming man in custody suspected of murdering a CEO.

Hegseth’s Heroes

Last week, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to be secretary of defense, appeared to be in trouble. Republican senators were voicing their doubts amid a flurry of accusations over his treatment of women and his alleged mismanagement of two veterans’ charities. Trump reportedly spoke to Florida governor Ron DeSantis about replacing Hegseth. But the veteran and Fox & Friends host dug in. Trump reiterated his support, and this week Hegseth went back to the Hill to press his case.

The charm offensive appears to be working.

Senator Lindsey Graham said yesterday that Hegseth is “much better off” in his nomination fight. And Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who had previously sounded unconvinced of Hegseth’s fitness for office, said she has had “encouraging conversations” with Hegseth as she “support[s] Pete through this process.”

Central to Hegseth’s pitch to run the Pentagon is a promise to be a secretary of defense for “warfighters.” An affinity with “warfighters” has been part of Hegseth’s public persona for a while, notes former Marine Elliot Ackerman in his op-ed for The Free Press today. It was the basis for Hegseth’s push to pardon several soldiers convicted of war crimes during Trump’s first term. And Elliot thinks this rhetoric is a cynical ploy designed to appeal to people who have not themselves served in the military—and one that suggests Hegseth is more interested in fighting an internal cultural war than concentrating on the serious threats America faces.

Read Elliot Ackerman’s full take: “Why Does Pete Hegseth Keep Talking About ‘Warfighters’?”

How to Fix the NIH

Trump recently named Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. During the pandemic, Bhattacharya was a brave outsider who dissented from the conventional wisdom of the public health establishment on how to handle Covid. For daring to disagree, he was dismissed and disparaged—including by the top brass at the NIH. That’s why we welcomed his appointment as “poetic justice” in a recent Free Press editorial.

But now Bhattacharya—who just taught his final class at Stanford before starting his new job—must actually fix the broken agency with which he was once at odds. Where should he start? Joseph Marine, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, offers his suggestions in an op-ed today. Read Joseph’s recommendations for “How to Fix the NIH.”

• In his final column for The New York Times yesterday, the oft-mistaken but never in doubt economist Paul Krugman blamed America’s “collapse of trust in elites” on Elon Musk and “angry billionaires.” So close! From his prediction that a Trump presidency would cause a recession to his frequent defense of Bidenomics despite its proven failures, we admire Krugman for his ability to so often get it wrong—failing ever upward throughout his 25-year tenure at the Times. As we say a tearful goodbye to Krugman, one line from HBO’s Girls echoes in our ears: “Thanks for the hot tip, Paul Krugman. . . . If I need a tip about what to talk about at a dinner party in 2005, I’ll call you—on your flip phone.”

• A UK Member of Parliament spoke out against a proposed ban on first cousin marriage yesterday. Independent MP Iqbal Mohamed urged his fellow MPs to respect “cultural differences” and noted that between 35 to 50 percent of sub-Saharan African populations either “prefer or accept” cousin marriages. I grew up in Texas, one of 25 U.S. states where first cousin marriages are completely banned. Like most states in the South, Texas doesn’t respect the “cultural differences” that Mohamed so bravely defends, regardless of what movies like Deliverance and Texas Chain Saw Massacre might have taught you.

• Parents of an autistic 17-year-old boy are suing Character.ai, alleging the company’s AI software drove their son to self-harm and suggested he kill his family. The Texan teenager had been speaking with several of Character.ai’s many AI avatars based on video game and pop culture characters—one of whom told him that his parents “don’t deserve to have kids.” The complaint added to a chorus of parents furious with unregulated AI chatbots, including one Florida mom who recently accused Character.ai of playing a role in the suicide of her 14-year-old son.

• Senator Mitch McConnell fell during a Senate Republican lunch Tuesday, suffering a “minor cut” and sprained wrist. This comes after a previous fall last year that left him with a concussion and fractured rib as well as two bizarre incidents where the senator appeared to “freeze” on camera. The 82-year-old has stepped down as majority leader but told reporters earlier this year he has no plans to retire before the end of his Senate term in 2026.

• On Monday, Google announced the release of a new quantum chip that it says indicates the existence of multiple universes. The chip took only five minutes to perform an industry benchmark computation that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete—a number that exceeds the age of the universe itself. According to Google, this swift timeframe defies the laws of physics and “lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes.” I’m not even sure septillion is a real word, but why do I feel like this is going to kill us somehow?

• Maple syrup and Tim Hortons may cost more in 2025 if Trump decides to impose the 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports that he is currently promising. But it will all have been worth it for the trolling of our friends to the north. In a Truth Social post, the president-elect called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the “Governor of the Great State of Canada,” after the two dined together Monday evening at Mar-a-Lago. Trudeau’s tariff take is not exactly rosy—he called them “devastating for the Canadian economy.” He has promised to respond in kind if Trump goes through with his tariffs.

• A federal judge in Oregon blocked the merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons yesterday. The two companies argued that the deal, which would have been the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history, was necessary to help them compete with Walmart and Costco. But in her ruling, Judge Adrienne Nelson said that supermarkets do not compete directly with big box stores, and that eliminating head-to-head competition among grocery stores could raise prices for consumers.

• The AP reports that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has fielded calls from Michigan Democrats urging him to run for governor. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, clearly sensing that his political future in the deep-red Hoosier State was limited, moved to the Great Lakes State after losing his 2020 presidential bid. Democrats have been bleeding support in the state for years, as working-class voters have shifted their allegiance to Trump, delivering a victory in the state to him last month. The move makes some sense: Buttigieg, who will be out of a job in a few weeks, is nothing if not ambitious. And governor of Michigan is a logical stepping stone for someone with their eye on the White House. But count me skeptical that a know-it-all son of professors is the answer to the Democratic Party’s Midwestern woes.

River Page is a reporter at The Free Press. Read his recent piece “The Smearing of Gay Republicans,” and follow him on X @river_is_nice.