Social media customers, primarily younger girls, are fawning over Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan on Dec. 4 in what authorities described as a premeditated assault.
“Luigi Mangione allegedly performed the fastidiously premeditated and focused execution of Brian Thompson to incite nationwide debates,” James Dennehy, assistant director accountable for the FBI’s New York area workplace, mentioned Thursday in an announcement after Mangione’s extradition to New York. “This alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier perspective in direction of humanity — deeming homicide an acceptable recourse to satiate private grievances.”
Mangione is charged with first-degree homicide in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and a slew of different state and federal prices in each New York and Pennsylvania, for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a married father of two from Minnesota.
Mangione allegedly shot Thompson exterior the Manhattan resort the place UnitedHealthcare’s annual shareholder convention was being held, in an act prosecutors consider was meant to ship a message to the well being care insurance coverage trade primarily based on a manifesto discovered on the suspect when he was arrested days later in Pennsylvania.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER: DEATH PENALTY ON THE TABLE FOR SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE, WHO FACES FEDERAL CHARGES
Luigi Mangione is escorted from an NYPD helicopter in New York Metropolis on Thursday. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox Information Digital)
For the reason that assault and Mangione’s arrest, social media has erupted with optimistic posts concerning the homicide suspect.
A TikTok video of an artist sketching Mangione’s face over Alexander Hamilton’s face on a $10 invoice to the sound of reports anchors speaking concerning the phrases “deny,” “defend” and “depose” — the identical phrases discovered on shell casings on the crime scene — has greater than one million views and 234,000 likes.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE INDICTED IN NEW YORK
The CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s father or mother firm mourned the killing of Brian Thompson and implored individuals to see that trade executives try their finest with a flawed system. (AP Photograph/UnitedHealth Group)
“‘Give me liberty or give me demise’ was the [original] ‘deny defend depose,'” one commenter wrote.
A video montage of clips from Mangione’s Thursday extradition from Pennsylvania to New York, surrounded by NYPD officers escorting him off a airplane, has gone viral with greater than 2 million views.
SUSPECTED UNITEDHEALTHCARE ASSASSIN LUIGI MANGIONE’S PLAN TO ‘WACK’ CEO REVEALED IN JOURNAL ENTRIES: AFFIDAVIT
Luigi Mangione is escorted from an NYPD helicopter in New York Metropolis on Thursday. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox Information Digital)
“[T]hey performing like he is el chapo or one thing,” one person commented on the video, with one other evaluating the clip to “Gotham Metropolis.”
Different video montages of Mangione’s perp stroll, with lots of of 1000’s of views, play alongside to songs by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Pink Floyd.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT HAS OUTBURST OUTSIDE PENNSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE
Luigi Mangione is escorted from an NYPD helicopter in New York Metropolis on Thursday. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox Information Digital)
“Hes being transferred from jail wanting hotter… contemporary shave, a fade, and contemporary curls omg,” one person captioned a video of Mangione being escorted to New York.
“He really got here out wanting higher,” one other person commented.
“I actually hope, when he will get out of this, his mates did not lose an excessive amount of of the candy, caring Luigi that they had earlier than this,” one person wrote in response to a video of Mangione. “I hope he will get the help he must recover from how traumatic this has been.”
From left: Adam Giesseman of Piqua, Ohio; Ashlyn Adami of South Bend, Indiana; and Ethan Merrill of South Bend, Indiana, protest exterior the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, after a listening to for Luigi Mangione on Thursday. (Gary M. Baranec)
A number of specialists in psychology and social media defined the obsession with Mangione on TikTok and different social media platforms to Fox Information Digital.
Rachel Goldberg, LMFT, PMH-C of Rachel Goldberg Remedy in Los Angeles, pointed to “three fundamental causes” behind the Mangione obsession.
COULD UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE FACE DEATH PENALTY?
Luigi Mangione shouts whereas officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition listening to at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 10. (David Dee Delgado for Fox Information Digital)
“First, he comes throughout as a comparatively ‘regular’ man — somebody you may need interacted with in your life with out pondering twice, and even had nice interactions with,” Goldberg mentioned. “Second, there’s nonetheless a whole lot of thriller surrounding the state of affairs. We don’t totally perceive what prompted him to behave — whether or not it was tied to psychological sickness, frustration over his again points, or that mixed with different components. Lastly, this case has given individuals a platform to precise their dissatisfaction with the medical insurance system.”
“Many individuals carry that frustration silently, however this example has created a way of camaraderie, permitting them to overtly vent about it,” she continued.
Dr. Holly Schiff, a licensed medical psychologist, advised Fox Information Digital that “[s]omeone who turns into well-known for a scandalous or controversial cause is alluring.”
On this courtroom sketch, Luigi Mangione sits between his protection attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and her husband Marc Agnifilo, throughout his federal courtroom listening to in New York Metropolis on Thursday. (Jane Rosenberg)
“Social media thrives on engagement and a sensational story like this generates likes, feedback and shares. There’s a sense of pleasure or thrill from following and being a ‘half’ of a dramatic or perhaps controversial and taboo topic,” Schiff defined.
Social media may also “create a way of groupthink the place individuals will begin to undertake the identical opinions or behaviors of others simply to slot in.”
“If there’s a sure viewpoint, on this case, admiration for Luigi Mangione, turns into widespread, it begins to select up steam and turn into a bigger motion,” Schiff mentioned. “Social media makes this unfold like wildfire and occur far more rapidly. There is no such thing as a vital pondering or consciousness of the implications as this occurs. Groupthink occurs when a gaggle of individuals make an irrational or dysfunctional choice as a consequence of a need for concord or conformity, and this could result in so-called unhealthy selections.”
The suspected gunman in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s homicide, believed to be Luigi Mangione, is seen flirting with a hostel worker on surveillance footage earlier than the Dec. 4 taking pictures in New York. (NYPD)
If Mangione “had been perceived as much less enticing, the general public’s response to his crime could be harsher,” she continued.
“Society tends to guage much less enticing people extra negatively, particularly with regards to felony investigations,” Schiff mentioned. “There’s a cognitive bias known as the halo impact, the place our impression of an individual is predicated on a single trait. In Luigi’s case, individuals are making assumptions about his total character primarily based solely on his bodily look and appears. If he’s thought-about conventionally enticing, it makes it simpler for some individuals to gloss over their actions, or within the excessive model we’re seeing right here, romanticize his actions.”
There may be additionally a basic fascination among the many public with the “unhealthy boy” or “outlaw” kind, in addition to true crime as a literary and movie style, “which has desensitized us to homicide circumstances and felony investigations and in some circumstances even normalizes true crime.”
Luigi Mangione is pictured in a Fb picture. (Luigi Mangione/Fb)
London-based music trade knowledgeable and Forbes 30 below 30 lister Nikki Camilleri famous that the general public’s glorification of a homicide suspect runs “deeper than fairly privilege,” the phenomenon of conventionally enticing individuals receiving preferential therapy.
UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER SUSPECT COULD SEE MOST SERIOUS CHARGE DOWNGRADED: DEFENSE ATTORNEY
“Counter-culture and an anti-establishment sentiment has resurged extra prominently within the latest previous and what Luigi represents is that this development,” Camilleri mentioned, including that Mangione is “a teen who, within the eyes of many, has gone in opposition to ‘the person’ and acted on a resentment many really feel in direction of main well being care corporations and related massive institutions.”
A courtroom sketch depicts Luigi Mangione’s look in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9. (Dave Klug)
“It is a modern-day anti-establishment protest if you’ll — taking place on social media and with Luigi because the face of it,” she defined. Comparable “crazes” are seen with boy bands, artists and influencers, “which all stem from the psychological associations individuals make with the celebs,” Camilleri mentioned.
Michael Petegorsky, chief technique officer at psychedelic medication supplier Mindbloom, mentioned he has “seen firsthand how psychological well being struggles usually manifest in surprising methods, together with collective behaviors like these we’re seeing round Luigi Mangione.”
Petegorsky pointed to frustrations with the well being care insurance coverage trade as a part of the general public’s infatuation with the homicide suspect.
Luigi Mangione is led into an NYPD automobile following his extradition listening to at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. (David Dee Delgado for Fox Information Digital)
“The obsession with Mangione highlights the extent of the damaged psychological well being care system within the U.S., the place thousands and thousands are struggling with out entry to ample care,” Petegorsky mentioned. “When fundamental psychological well being wants go unmet, individuals might gravitate towards sensationalized tales or irrational groupthink as an outlet for his or her frustration, curiosity, and even an unconscious try and course of deeper societal points.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Whereas officers haven’t commented on an official motive, the general public has speculated that the suspect had sturdy grievances with the well being care insurance coverage trade.
The 26-year-old Mangione is initially from Maryland and has lately lived in California and Hawaii. He graduated valedictorian from the Gilman College, a non-public, all-boys highschool in Baltimore, in 2016. Mangione went on to obtain his bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in pc science from the College of Pennsylvania in 2020.
