Luigi Mangione, whom police arrested and identified Monday as a “strong person of interest” in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday, was employed as a head counselor for Stanford’s pre-collegiate studies program between May and September of 2019, a University spokesperson confirmed to The Daily.
Thompson’s fatal shooting outside of a hotel in midtown Manhattan last week triggered a high-profile manhunt to identify his assailant based on surveillance footage. The murder also drew mocking and celebratory reactions from social media users, who have vented frustration with the American healthcare insurance industry.
“We believe we have a strong person of interest,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, referring to Mangione at a press conference Monday.
Authorities said that Mangione, who was carrying fraudulent IDs and a firearm, was arrested on charges unrelated to the case. Police also said they recovered a document that expressed Mangione’s motivations and “ill will” toward corporations.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mangione “designed lesson plans and taught artificial intelligence to gifted high school students” and “led a 7-member residential staff” during the summer studies program at Stanford. The program offers academic courses to high school students from around the world, both on the Stanford campus and online.
The Daily reviewed a Stanford Pre-College Studies spreadsheet from 2019 that listed Mangione as a Head Counselor living in the Kappa Alpha house.
Mangione shared photos from the summer of 2019 on Facebook and Instagram that showed him posing with fellow counselors at various campus locations, including Lake Lagunita. The Facebook album was captioned “KAotic summers only,” referring to the Kappa Alpha house. Both Facebook and Instagram deleted his profiles Monday.
A 26-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Mangione received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer and information science. He was born and raised in Maryland, graduated as valedictorian from the private all-boys school Gilman and appeared to belong to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity chapter at UPenn.
The news of Mangione’s arrest sparked extensive online investigation of his past, with users locating his high school valedictorian speech and social media profiles.
Online commentators have noted that he wrote a positive review of the Unabomber’s manifesto on Goodreads and praised him as a “political revolutionary.” On X, Mangione followed various public figures, including Sam Harris, Joe Rogan and Stanford Medicine Professor Andrew Huberman, whom he retweeted in June.
The words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” were written on bullet shell casings found at the scene of the shooting. Investigators have linked these messages to denied insurance claims, a major theme in accusations of greed against insurance companies.
Thompson’s wife told NBC that her husband had previously received threats, possibly related to medical coverage.
This story is breaking and will be updated.