Luigi Mangione was found in Pennsylvania on December 10, 2024 and was charged for the murder of CEO UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson. This news came as a shock and quickly spread on national news and across social media platforms. To say that people’s reactions were mixed is an understatement. Some questioned if the police actually had the right man and others demanded Luigi be set free. Leading to the big question everyone is debating: Is Luigi Mangione a hero or an assassin?
Luigi Mangione, born and raised in Maryland, a valedictorian of his class in an all boys high school and graduated from an Ivy League college. Regardless of what his life seemed like on the outside, we slowly kept discovering more and more about Luigi’s possible motives.. We found out that Luigi had sustained a back injury due to surfing when he was living in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2022. Mangione expressed on reddit in 2023, when he had spinal surgery, that he was “taking zero pain meds.” But the surgery happened after “1.5 years of failed conservative treatment” in which Luigi also stated on reddit in February 2024. This soon became the one big motive that stood out to the public and police, it was believed that Luigi felt anger towards the healthcare industry.
When this main piece of information was unraveled, more and more people came out and expressed their same situation on social media, reporting that UnitedHealthcare had declined treatments of their loved ones. Many more people were saying that UnitedHealthcare had caused their family members to die. Many thought Luigi Magione was a hero because many felt they could relate to Mangione not being able to access the appropriate healthcare. On the other hand, some part of the public felt pity for the wife and children that Brian Thompson left behind, making Luigi look like an assassin that deserves to be behind bars.
The debate is ongoing, many are still showing support to Luigi Mangione demanding he should be set free. But do you think Luigi did the right thing or is he the crooked criminal people out make him to be?