222 Is Luigi Mangione an Assassin or Just Another Patsy?

On December 4, 2024, the week after Thanksgiving and well into the bustling holiday season, Brian Thompson, United Healthcare’s CEO was gunned down right outside of a hotel in Midtown Manhattan – where he was on his way to a shareholder meeting. In the chilling street camera video, you see the shooter loitering as Thompson approaches the hotel, before the suspect shoots the CEO in the back, fires a couple more, and then turns and walks away. In the days that follow, there is a massive manhunt in NYC. NYPD swept the city, even taking to the river, for the shooter and killer of Brian Thompson. Meanwhile, news channels and social media accounts shared the grainy picture of a similarly dressed man checking into a hostel days prior – a white male with a dark hood up over his head and a mask over his face. He’s shown leaning over the counter, his black mask pulled down, smiling at someone across the counter that is not pictured.

Then, on Monday, December 9, a phone call came in from a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, approximately 223 miles away from the crime scene, the caller claiming that someone matching the suspects description was there. The police, responding to the call, arrested 26 year old Luigi Mangione. Found on him during the arrest was the gun, the silencer, and a three page note detailing his plan to kill Mr. Thompson. But… something about Luigi’s thick eyebrows seems out of place and doesn’t match with the surveillance video that has many people pause over this seemingly too clean murder investigation. Outcries on reddit are claiming that Luigi is a Patsy, very much like our beloved Lee Harvery Oswald (Justice for Lee!), because how does one just get caught in a McDonalds with the murder weapon and a manifesto in his book bag just 5 days later? Is Luigi just too arrogant to believe he would be caught? Or is he being set up? Let’s get into it.