Luigi Mangione’s mother reported him missing weeks before he was charged in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione was arrested on Monday while eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after he was recognized from images circulated by the NYPD last week. He allegedly possessed a ghost gun, a suppressor, “multiple fraudulent IDs,” and a handwritten 262-word manifesto that slammed the health-care system, authorities said.
New York prosecutors filed murder charges against the 26-year-old suspect hours after he faced gun-crime charges in Pennsylvania on Monday.
Mangione’s family says they were “devastated” by his arrest. They have revealed the 26-year-old alleged gunman spiralled after undergoing “traumatic” back surgery, reports the New York Post.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the family said in a statement shared by his cousin Nino Mangione, a Baltimore County Republican delegate, on his X account late Monday.
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news,” the Mangione family said.
The family said they couldn’t comment on any news reports about Mangione, who was arrested after a five-day manhunt.
Mangione is a University of Pennsylvania grad. He comes from a powerful Maryland family that was previously centred on late patriarch Nicholas Mangiano, a first-generation American who built a real estate empire in the state, including country clubs and media.
Nicholas, Luigi’s grandfather, died in 2008, aged 83, after suffering a stroke. He was the owner of Turf Valley Resort, a full-service resort and conference centre, with a 220-room hotel, a pro shop, a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, a full-service European spa, an 85-seat amphitheatre and a fitness centre. He also owned Hayfields Country Club and radio station WCBM-AM.
Nicholas was born in Baltimore’s Little Italy to a poor family but worked his way up from nothing, reports the Daily Mail. He had 10 children, including Luigi’s father, Louis. He and wife, Mary, lived in a $1.9-million mansion on their country club property.
Luigi’s grandmother, Mary Mangione, died in 2023 at age 92, was active in community affairs, including service as a trustee with the Baltimore Opera Company, on a county tourism board and with groups such as the American Citizens for Italian Matters, according to an obituary from Loyola University.
Luigi’s sister, Luciana Mangione, who is a talented visual artist shared a picture of her and her brother smiling on a beach in an Instagram post on Monday evening. “Praying for you,” she wrote in the now unavailable post.
His mother, Kathleen Zannino Mangione, owns a boutique travel company. At present, Kathleen is in the midst of a medical residency at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas after graduating from Vanderbilt medical school. His sister MariaSanta Mangione is also a respected doctor.
The family has an extensive background in the medical field as repeated donors to hospitals and nursing homes. They have also run their own charitable foundation, Mangione Family Foundation, which had net assets of $4.4M as of its 2022 filing.
For decades, the Mangione family has supported the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), donating more than $1 million to the hospital. Because of the family’s dedicated support, the hospital went on to name its high-risk obstetrics unit after them.
In addition to funding GBMC, the family has also shared their philanthropy efforts with other top-name medical facilities, including the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The suspect’s own health has been poor, according to family and friends. He suffered from chronic back pain and underwent major surgery for it in 2023, but in the months afterward, he lost touch with friends and family, an acquaintance told The New York Times.
One of his former classmates at the Gilman School in Baltimore told the New York Times that Mangione’s peers received a message forwarded from the family because they were trying to find him. The classmate, Aaron Cranston, said the message indicated Mangione hadn’t been in touch with relatives since undergoing back surgery several months prior.
Mangione’s mother, Kathleen, reported him missing to San Francisco police on Nov. 18, a source told the San Francisco Standard.
Luigi Mangione hasn’t made any statements since his arrest, say Pennsylvania law enforcement officials. He was reported to police by a McDonald’s employee who recognized him from photos released by the New York Police Department.
Local cops approached him while he was eating at the restaurant. He gave them a fake New Jersey ID — believed to be the same one he used when checking into a Manhattan hostel before the killing, reports the Post.
After he was taken into custody police discovered a ghost gun with a silencer on him and other items such as written manifesto claiming, “these parasites had it coming … I do apologize for any strife and trauma but it had to be done.”
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