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The 26-year-old golf club heir charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive officer in an ambush outside a Manhattan hotel in December has touted receiving support that has “transcended political, racial and even class divisions” in a rare public statement.
“I am overwhelmed by – and grateful for – everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support,” Luigi Mangione said in a statement posted to a website launched on Friday by his defense team.
He added: “Powerfully, this support has transcended political, racial and even class divisions, as mail has flooded [the jail] from across the country, and around the globe.”
The website was created “due to the extraordinary volume of inquiries and outpouring of support”, according to Mangione’s lawyers, and it will be used “to share factual information” regarding the charges against him.
The Ivy League graduate is charged in three separate jurisdictions with offenses related to the 4 December killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. In New York, Mangione is charged with three counts of murder as well as allegations that he killed Thompson “in furtherance of terrorism”, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Federal prosecutors separately charged Mangione in the killing with a four-count indictment that could bring the death penalty if he is convicted.
Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania days after Thompson’s slaying and transferred back to New York. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
Mangione’s comments on the website mark the first he has made since he yelled to reporters that coverage of the event had been “an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience”.
The suspect, who is being held at the Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center while awaiting trial, has been fighting the charges as much in the court of public opinion as in the courtroom. Amid the public, many have come to see him as a handsome vigilante.
Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, has sharply criticized people who have suggested Mangione is a hero or justified in allegedly killing Thompson, whose survivors include his widow and their two high school-aged children.
Shapiro said some reactions have been “deeply disturbing as some have looked to celebrate instead of condemning this killer”.
“In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice,” Shapiro said. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this: he is no hero.”
A poll published in late December by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago concluded that most Americans believe the national health insurance industry’s profits – aided greatly by routine denials of coverage – shared some responsibility for Thompson’s slaying. But the survey found about 80% of Americans believed Thompson’s killer had either “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of responsibility for the murder.
Nonetheless, people who are sympathetic to Mangione had raised more than $425,000 for his legal defense as of Saturday. His legal team has said it intends to accept those donations, which are being raised on the GiveSendGo platform.
