Is Luigi Mangione Innocent?

Luigi Mangione has a large fan base on the internet. Many people call him a folk hero for his alleged actions in Manhattan. They see him as a real-life Robin Hood, who will help the poor gain equality with the rich. 

His popularity has concerned prosecutors and other authorities. They have seen the rise of anti-capitalist behavior since December 2024. Public sentiment against the 1% has never been more negative. 

With all of these things being true, something had to happen. 

Mangione went from daily headlines to barely a peep about him in the media. Why? It's not because there's no news on him, that has never stopped the media before. Rather, it is because the ruling class became very afraid of his popularity. 

With every new fan, they worried that the working and middle classes would begin to coordinate ways to torture them. Their efforts to vilify Mangione failed, so the best thing to do was remove him from the collective's memory. 

And yet, that didn't work. If anything, all that happened is that many took a closer look at the case against him and began wondering, did he do it? Analyzing the evidence, some have begun advocating that he truly is innocent and that authorities just wanted to bring someone in, even if they got the wrong guy. 

Is Luigi Mangione innocent? And if he is, why was he targeted to take the fall for this crime?

Manhattan Morning Murder

Brian Thompson was the CEO of United Healthcare. He was in Manhattan for the annual investor's meeting. He was staying at the Hilton on West 54th Street in Midtown. 

There was a lot to celebrate during this time. Under his leadership, profits soared from $12 billion to $16 billion, cementing the company's status as the largest insurance group in the United States. 

But there were also controversies. United Healthcare is known for denying claims from their customers and doing everything they can to delay paying out. This led to many customers dying before they could receive the medical care that they needed. 

At 6:45 am on the morning of December 4, 2024, Thompson exited the hotel. Someone shot him three times with a gun that apparently had been fitted with a silencer. 

The shooter then walked over to Thompson and shot him one more time. Then hopped onto a bicycle and went to Central Park. After getting there, the killer dropped a backpack they had been carrying and disappeared. 

Police tried to follow the trail. 

They theorized that the killer came to New York City on a Greyhound bus. The alleged bus route originated in Atlanta, Georgia, but they don't know where the alleged shooter got on the bus. 

Pictures of the shooter were shared across legacy and social media in the hopes that someone would recognize the person. Tips poured in, but nothing that was useful, at least initially.

It was revealed that the bullets were engraved. Three of the bullets had one word on them. Deny, depose, and defend.

Investigators found where the shooter stayed while in the city. They began to look at the HI New York City Hostel on Amsterdam Avenue near 104th Street. 

Clues were difficult to come by. They pieced together that the shooter checked into the hostel on November 24, 2024, he checked out on November 29, 2024. The next day, the shooter once again checked in but this time using an alleged fake ID card from New Jersey. 

How did they track Luigi Mangione down?

Tracking Luigi

More pictures of the suspect were shown. These pictures were taken from the surveillance cameras around the hostel. Once again, the pictures were of the person of interest wearing a mask. 

One theory that circulated about the shooter was that they left the city from a bus terminal in Washington Heights. But that wasn't the case, the suspect actually took the subway, the A train, to Penn Station and left from there.

On December 9, 2024, an employee at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania called the police. She believed that Thompson's killer was in the restaurant. 

Detectives arrived on the scene. Luigi Mangione was sitting in a booth eating his food. They quickly placed him under arrest. After searching his items, they found a 3-D printed gun and an alleged manifesto. 

Sources say that it read in part: “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming...” 

Authorities in Pennsylvania charged him with carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities, and possessing instruments of crime, among other charges. 

He also was charged with a first-degree charge that would brand him a terrorist, two second-degree murder charges, and multiple weapons charges in Manhattan. 

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, a former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney says that District Attorney Allan Bragg overplayed his hand and made a mistake. 

"By complicating a simple case, Mr. Bragg has increased the risk of acquittal on the most serious charge and a hung jury on any charge. Since Mr. Mangione is already being celebrated by some as a folk hero because of his rage against the American health care system, the terrorism charge, which alleges that Mr. Mangione “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government” and “affect the conduct of a unit of government,” almost certainly will turn the case into political theater."

But some say the entire case is already hanging on by a thread. Those critics say that the police and authorities may have arrested the wrong person. 

Is there a chance Luigi Mangione is innocent?

Breaking Down The Evidence

Is it possible that Luigi Mangione killed Brian Thompson out of sheer hatred for the United States healthcare system? Yes. However, the evidence as presented by the prosecution does not add up to him being guilty. 

First, many people on social media have analyzed the pictures that were shared by the police. Many of them were of the shooter masked, making it difficult to say for certain that the facial features matched. 

Still, many have said that the eyebrows are not the same. These people say that it is likely the police found someone who looked just enough like the person in the photos to feel confident in an arrest. 

Next on the evidence list is the gun. While it is undeniable that Mangione had a gun in his backpack, it has not been tied to the Thompson case. In fact, no weapon has been able to be tied to the case at all. 

Further on that point, many people have pointed out that the shooter allegedly left the backpack in Central Park and trashed the hoodie that was worn. Yet, Mangione was identified by wearing the hoodie and had the same backpack in Pennsylvania. This has caused some people to question how the investigation was handled. 

Then there's the travel from the hostel to the Hilton. It is estimated that on bike it would take about 20 minutes to get from one location to the other. However, anyone who has lived in Manhattan knows that is not the case. It would take at least a half an hour with traffic and all of that. In addition to that, Mangione had back surgery for a slipped lumbar spine, which would have made him move slower. 

Which makes the timeline that has been established nearly impossible to pull off. Mangione allegedly left the hostel at 5:34 am and made it to Midtown Hilton by 6:15 am but stopped for coffee in between. 

Also, he knew what time and what door Thompson would be exiting. 

Many believe Luigi Mangione is innocent because the evidence in the case is not adding up. They believe that authorities were pressured by the CEOs to make an arrest as quickly as possible. 

Which they did. In turn, they made Luigi Mangione one of the most popular men in the country and a folk hero.