Internet Takes Lack of Sympathy Further, Thirsts Over Suspect in Health Insurance CEO Shooting

Social media is swooning over the young man held as a person of interest in the murder of UnitedHealthcare exec last week

Last Wednesday, social media greeted the shocking news about the evidently targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan with morbid mockery, blasting the U.S. insurance industry for profiting off the denial of life-saving medical treatments. The next day, the New York Police Department released two more images of their primary suspect in the shooting — the first to show his entire face — and the internet collectively swooned.

Now law enforcement has detained and identified a person of interest, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, reporting that he was found with multiple fraudulent IDs, a gun with a silencer, and a manifesto. His name is attached to various social media accounts, including pages on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Goodreads, and X (formerly Twitter), giving the public access to a trove of pictures of the suspected killer. The profiles include many more pictures, some of which show Mangione to be muscular and fit, prompting even more thirst from extremely online types who have cheered Thompson’s murder.

“The manhunt has now ended with investigators declaring ‘too hot to convict,’” joked one X user, sharing a photo in which a shirtless Mangione shows off toned abs. “Can’t wait to see Dave Franco play Luigi Mangione in whatever TV series Ryan Murphy is currently creating,” wrote another who posted the same image alongside a headshot of the actor. He was one of many who noted a resemblance between the two men and speculated that the producer of the anthology series American Crime Story would take an interest in the story. Elsewhere, Mangione was nicknamed “Lee Harvey Rizzwald” in a nod to the hearts he’d captured (and President John F. Kennedy’s assassin).

On Instagram, meanwhile, users started posting their own thirst traps and tagging Mangione’s account — deleted or restricted as of Monday afternoon — in unserious attempts to catch his attention and declare their feelings for him. (Or at least boost engagement on their pictures.) “Need him religiously,” declared one person, posting a shirtless mirror selfie alongside photos of Mangione. “Fan cam” video edits of his photos made the rounds as well. Various comments on his Facebook page, which was also locked or deleted on Monday, alluded to the possibility of a prison sentence for Mangione, but more than a few commenters called him “handsome” or “beautiful.”

Reactions to the release of Mangione’s mugshot, released by Pennsylvania police on Monday evening, were similarly breathless. “Looks like he posed for Vogue,” read one X post. A different user wrote, “you’re serving face. this is your mugshot for allegedly assassinating a ceo and you’re serving face???”

Even before people had access to Mangione’s full digital footprint, they were admiring the handful of surveillance images police had circulated of the man they were seeking in connection with the murder of Thompson. As an X user wrote in a post Thursday: “oh no lol this app is about to fall apart.” He had shared a still from a security camera that showed a man in a hoodie and jacket, flashing a smile. The image was captured at a hostel on the Upper West Side where the suspect had allegedly used a fake New Jersey ID to check in. Law enforcement confirmed to CNN that they had interviewed a female employee of the hostel who said she asked him to lower his neck gaiter face mask while flirting with him. (Security video frames from a Starbucks, released by the NYPD on Wednesday, showed a suspect whose lower face was covered by such a mask.)

If the hostel employee was intrigued by this man, then so were many others. Some drew comparisons to Hollywood leading men including Jake Gyllenhaal, whose name began trending on X (“Jake Gyllenhaal get ready to win an Oscar buddy,” wrote one user) and Timothée Chalamet (“This would be a wild ending to the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest saga,” quipped another, referring to a chaotic and un-permitted New York event that brought Chalamet doppelgängers together in late October). Plenty of these admirers were quite direct in their assessment of the suspect’s looks: “bro got assassinated by a cutie patootie,” read a viral X post, with another declaring, “it has now been revealed to the public that the gunman is hot and has a dazzling smile.”

Before and after Mangione’s capture, commentators have linked the suspect’s face with the crime to signal their approval of both. As an unabashed admirer put it on X, “are those pics actually the shooter. pls i hope so america needs a hot assassin.” Similarly, a TikTok user replied to a video appraising the suspect’s “cute” appearance: “he’s a planner, he takes initiative, he always makes sure the jobs done, he takes care of himself, should i continue?” A comment on the same thread with more than 5,000 likes read: “He’s FIIIIINE. And an American hero? Thank you for your service king.” Over the weekend, erotic fan fiction about Thompson’s murderer — occasionally referred to as “The Adjustor” — proliferated on the website Archive of Our Own (AO3) as writers imagined an intimate relationship and/or graphic sex with a fugitive assassin of CEOs.

While it’s impossible as yet to confirm a motive for the slaying, social media has run wild with the idea that it was revenge for UnitedHealthcare’s denial of medical coverage from a patient. This speculation has been fueled by comments from Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, who suggested to the press that he had been receiving threats along those lines — and reports that shell casings at the scene of the shooting were printed with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.” A popular theory holds that this was meant to echo the so-called “three Ds” of corporate insurance practice in managing claims: “delay, deny, defend.”

The surge of online support for Mangione makes for a strange juxtaposition with the FBI’s offer of a $50,000 reward for intel that led to the arrest of the man who shot Thompson. It’s not often you have people publicly offering a possible murderer safe harbor in their own homes as authorities look to bring them in, creating fan art about his act of violence, and proclaiming him a folk hero. It’s a sign, if nothing else, of the anger at inequality and disadvantage that simmers in the American populace today — and sometimes boils over.

Update Dec. 9, 5:38pm ET: This story has been updated to include information about the detainment of Luigi Mangione and public reaction to his social media accounts.

This story was originally published on Dec. 5.