The top 10 Crime and Justice Stories of the Year - #7 THE CEO KILLER - LUIGI MANGIONE AND THE ASSASSINATION THAT DIVIDED AMERICA

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media, Good morning, I'm read Carter. Wednesday, December seventeenth, twenty twenty five. December fourth, twenty twenty four, six forty six am, Midtown, Manhattan. A man in a black jacket and surgical mask approaches United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson from behind. Thompson is walking alone toward the Hilton Hotel Annual Investor Conference starting in an hour. Bang bang bang. Thompson stumbles falls. The shooter flees on an electric bicycle through Central Park, disappears into the city. Police find spent shell casings on the sidewalk. Three words etched into the brass deny delay depose, reference to the insurance industry's playbook for rejecting claims. Five day manhunt. Every news network covering the search. Surveillance photos were least distinctive eyebrows. A man who smiled at a hostile worker America's Most Wanted December ninth. McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

1:09 A customer recognizes the suspect from the news calls nine to one one. Police arrive find Luigi Mangone eating breakfast backpack with a three D printed gun, fake ID. A notebook full of writings about parasites in the healthcare system. Luigi Nicholas Mangione twenty six years old, valedictorian of Baltimore's elite Gilman School, University of Pennsylvania, graduate with bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science, grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, a young man who had everything. Now he's facing the death penalty. And here's what makes this case number seven on our countdown. America couldn't decide whether to condemn him or celebrate him. Millions called him a hero, a revolutionary, a vigilante who did what the system wouldn't.

2:02 His legal defense fund topped one point three million dollars in donations. Merchandise flooded online stores, street art appeared in Seattle a mural in his honor. Fellow inmates chanted free Luigi from their cells. Brian Thompson was fifty years old, husband, father of two sons, shot in the back on his way to work. I'm reed Carter today. The CEO killer, the assassination that became a national debate, the terrorism charges that got thrown out, the death penalty that's still on the table, and the suppression hearing happening right now that could determine whether Luigi Manjone face his trial with the most damning evidence against him. This is celebrity trials. Let me paint the picture of December fourth, twenty twenty four.

2:53 Brian Thompson fifty years old, CEO of United Healthcare since twenty twenty one, Minnesota Nate University of Iowa graduate, worked his way up through the company for twenty years. Total compensation ten point two million dollars last year, Married to Paulette, father of two sons, living in Maple Grove, Minnesota, though recent reports indicated he and his wife had been living in separate homes. Thompson flew to New York for United Health Group's annual investor conference at the Hilton Hotel. Standard corporate event, shareholders, analysts, executives discussing earnings, projections and growth strategies. Six forty six am. Thompson walking alone on sixth Avenue.

3:35 No security detail, just a man heading to work. The shooter had been waiting. Surveillance footage showed him arriving five minutes earlier, positioned outside the hotel entrance. Black hooded jacket, backpack, surgical mask covering half his face. Thompson approached, The shooter stepped forward, raised a pistol, fired multiple shots, at least one to the back, one to the right calf. Thompson collapsed on the sidewalk. The shooter fled on foot, then grabbed an electric bicycle, rode north through Central Park. Last scene heading out of the park, then vanished. Thompson was transported to Mount Sinai West Hospital, pronounced dead. The investigation began immediately. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney called it a premeditated, pre planned, targeted attack. The shooter knew where Thompson would be, knew what time he'd arrive, waited for him specifically. But what caught everyone's attention were those shell casings. Deny, Delay depose words from a book called Delay, Deny, Defend about insurance company tactics for avoiding payouts. The shooter was making a statement. The man hunt became a national obsession.

4:48 NYPD released surveillance photos the shooter pulling down his mask briefly in a hostel, smiling at the front desk worker. Those distinctive eyebrows, brown hair, young, clean cut tips poured in. The FBI joined the investigation. A ten thousand dollars reward offered, then increased. Everyone was looking for the man who'd executed a healthcare CEO in broad daylight. Five days December ninth, Altuna, Pennsylvania, two hundred eighty miles west of Manhattan. A McDonald's on East Plank Road, a customer eating breakfast noticed a man matching the photos, black jacket, surgical mask, tan beanie, distinctive eyebrows.

5:33 She was really upset and frantic, the manager later told nine one one dispatchers. Trying to be non discreet while scoping him out, the manager called nine one one, I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York. Altuna police responded. Officer Joseph Dettweiler arrived first. Later admitted he responded without lights or sirens because I didn't think it was going to be him. His lieutenant even joked if he caught the New York shooter, he'd buy him a hogie. Debt Weiler approached the man asked him to lower his mask. I knew it was him immediately. Debtwiler later testified the man presented a new Jersey driver's license bearing the name Mark Rosario, same fake id used to book a room at a Manhattan hostel days before the shooting.

6:24 Officers asked more questions. The man was visibly shaken when asked if he'd recently visited New York City. Then the backpack search officers found a three D printed pistol, a suppressor, a loaded glock magazine with six nine millimeter rounds, a notebook filled with handwritten entries, a slip of paper with escape routes written down keep momentum, FBI, slower overnight break c a M continuity bus to pen station change hat, and a three page handwritten note references to Paris sites in the healthcare system, criticism of corporate profits over patient care, according to prosecutors, entries about wanting to whack a health insurance executive. Luigi Mangoni was taken into custody. The manhunt was over, but as Mangione was led into the Blair County Courthouse, he shouted to the cameras, this is completely out of touch. It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience. America started paying attention.

7:29 Who was this man and why did his words resonate with so many people? Make it make sense. Luigi Nicholas Mangione was born May sixth, nineteen ninety eight, Baltimore, Maryland, into a family that had built an empire. His grandfather, Nicholas Mangioni, was a first generation Italian American who started with nothing bags of flour from a local church to survive, built a real estate empire, bought the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City in nineteen seventy eight, founded Lorian Health Services, an assisted living company. The family eventually owned country clubs, a conservative radio station, nursing homes across Maryland. The Mangiones are prominent. Their name is on the Aquatic Center at Loyola University, on the High Risk Obstetrics Unit at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. They've donated over a million dollars to local hospitals. Luigi's cousin, Nino Mangione, serves as a Republican in the Maryland House of Delegates. Luigi was the Golden Child attended Gilman School starting in sixth grade, one of Baltimore's most elite private schools. Tuition now over thirty seven thousand dollars a year. Cal Ripkin Junior's kids went there, the children of Maryland's wealthiest families. Luigi didn't just attend, he excelled, graduated as valedictorian in twenty sixteen. His graduateation

9:00 speech praised his classmate's incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things. A former classmate told reporters quite honestly, he had everything going for him. Then the University of Pennsylvania Ivy League, Luigi graduated cum laude in twenty twenty with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in computer science. His coursework included artificial intelligence. He founded Penn's first game development club, interned at Foraxis Games, the studio behind Civilization six, served as a counselor for Stanford's AI summer program for gifted high school students. Smart, charming, connected, wealthy, every advantage imaginable. But something was wrong. Luigi suffered from chronic back pain, a condition called spondlalis thesis, where a bone slips out of alignment and presses on the vertebrae below Common among weightlifters and hymnists, it started interfering with his life during college. He also dealt with brain fog, suspected connection to lyme disease he contracted at age thirteen, difficulty concentrating, feeling drained, memory problems. He posted on Reddit about how brutal it was to have such a life halting issue, said people around him didn't understand his symptoms.

10:23 After graduation, Luigi worked remotely as a data engineer for Truecar. Moved to Hawaii in January twenty twenty two lived at surf Break, a co living space for remote workers in Honolulu. His back pain worsened there. Surfing made it worse, Hiking made it worse. The founder of surf Break, R. J. Martin, said Luigi's pain kept him from enjoying life as a twenty something. He knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn't possible. Martin told reporters, my heart just breaks. Luigi eventually got spinal surgery. By his own account on Reddit, it went well. Surgery was painful for the first couple days, but I was shocked that by day seven I was on literally zero pain meds, he wrote in August twenty twenty three. Way less of a big deal than I had anticipated, But something changed.

11:17 In February twenty twenty four, Luigi told friends he was going backpacking for a while, traveled solo through Asia, Japan, Thailand. By June twenty twenty four, he stopped posting on social media. His family reached out to friends trying to find him. Nobody knew where he was. November eighteenth, twenty twenty four, his mother reported him missing to San Francisco police. The family hadn't heard from him since July. She believed he was still in San Francisco, still working for Truecar. Two weeks later, Brian Thompson was dead. Here's what investigators found in Luigi's online footprint. He'd been following right wing and libertarian influencers Joe Rogan fitness gurus promoting gym memberships over antidepressants, self improvement content with a masculinity focus, and he'd written a review on Goodreads praising the writings of Ted Kaczinski called him a political revolutionary, wrote that it's easy to thoughtlessly write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies, from valedictorian to accused assassin, from privileged Ivy League graduate to man facing the death penalty. What happened to Luigi Mangoni in those months he disappeared? The notebook found in his backpack may hold answers, but whether the jury ever sees it depends on what happens in the courtroom.

12:43 Right now, we'll be right back with the terrorism charges that got thrown out, the attorney general who ordered the death penalty before the indictment, and the suppression hearing that could determine Luigi Mangoni's fate. The charges against Luigi Mangone came fast and furious. December ninth, twenty twenty four. Pennsylvania charges carrying a gun without a license, forgery, false identification, possessing instruments of crime. Same day, Manhattan charges second degree murder, three counts of illegal weapons, possession, forgery. December seventeenth, twenty twenty four, Manhattan d A. Alvin Bragg indicted Mangione on eleven state charges, including the big ones, first degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, second degree murder as a crime of terrorism. The terrorism charges raised eyebrows. This wasn't a mass shooting, wasn't a bomb at a public event? One man shot one specific target. How is that terrorism? Bragg's argument Mangione intended to so terror. The shooting happened on a busy Manhattan sidewalk during morning rush hour at an investor conference attended by healthcare executives. The inscribed shell casing sent a message. The manifesto criticized the entire industry. He

14:14 wasn't just killing Brian Thompson, he was intimidating everyone in healthcare. December nineteenth, twenty twenty four, federal charges dropped interstate stalking murder using a firearm equipped with a suppressor, and that's when things got serious. Federal murder charges are death penalty eligible. April first, twenty twenty five, Attorney General Pam Bondi made the announcement, Luigi Manjone's murder of Brian Thompson, an innocent man and father of two young children, was a premeditated, cold blooded assassination that shocked America. After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Here's the problem. Bondi made that announcement before Manjoni was even formally in dted on federal charges, before a grand jury had voted, before trial she followed it with Instagram posts and TV appearances. Manjone's defense team pounced, called the death penalty decision based on politics, not merit, said Bondai statements tainted the grand jury process, said the highly choreographed perp walk where Mangione was paraded up a Manhattan pier by armed officers violated his rights. President Trump weighed in two told Fox News in September, he shot someone in the back as clear as you're looking at me or I'm looking at you, he shot. He looked like a pure assassin.

15:38 The defense argued all of this created fatal prejudice, filed motions to dismiss charges, to bar the death penalty, to suppress evidence. Federal prosecutors responded in a one hundred and twenty one page filing in November pre trial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect. But September sixteenth, twenty twenty five, brought a major victory for the defense. Judge Gregory Carrow, presiding over the New York State case, dismissed both terrorism charges, first degree murder in furtherance of terrorism gone, second degree murder as a crime of terrorism gone. His reasoning there was no evidence presented of a desire to terrorize the public, inspire widespread fear, engage in a broader campaign of violence, or to conspire with organized terrorist groups.

16:29 The judge acknowledged the crime was an ordinary street crime, but wrote that prosecutors appeared to conflate an ideological belief with the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population. Mangioni's defense team pointed to his own writings. The notebook reportedly said bombs equals terrorism and referenced recklessly endangering countless employees. In other words, Mangioni himself rejected tactics that would harm innocent bystanders. He targeted one specific person. The terrorism dismissal triggered cheers outside the courthouse, crowds of supporters who'd been gathering at every hearing, signs reading free Luigi Chance echoing through the plaza. But here's what remains. Second degree murder in New York still carries twenty five years to life if convicted, and the federal case still carries the death penalty, And right now in a Manhattan courtroom, the most critical phase of the pre trial battle is playing out. The suppression hearing started December first, twenty twenty five. Mangioni's attorneys are trying to exclude the gun and the notebook from trial, the most damning evidence against him. Their argument police searched his backpack illegally without a warrant. Body camera footage played in court showed Altoona officers debating among themselves. One supervisor was heard saying they probably needed a warrant to continue searching,

18:00 but they kept searching anyway. Found the gun, found the notebook, found everything. Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnafilo argued any items recovered should be excluded as fruit of an illegal search. She also argued Mangione's statements to police should be suppressed because officers questioned him for twenty minutes before reading his miranda rights. Body camera footage showed Mangione telling an officer he didn't want to talk, but police kept asking questions and he kept answering. The hearing continues this week. If the judge rules the evidence was obtained illegally, prosecutors lose the gun that allegedly killed Thompson. They lose the notebook that allegedly shows motive. They lose the statements connecting Mangoni to the crime. Without that evidence, the case becomes much harder to prove your tax dollars at work. Here's what nobody expected. America made Luigi Mangione a celebrity within hours of his arrest. Merchandise appeared online, t shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, slogans like in this house, Luigi Mangone is a hero.

19:07 The hashtag free Luigi spread across social media, shared over fifty thousand times on ex alone. Street art appeared in cities across the country. A billboard in Riverside County, California, a mural in Seattle, graffiti celebrating the man who killed a healthcare executive. His fellow inmates at the Pennsylvania prison where he was first held shouted free Luigi from their cells during a live News Nation broadcast. Crowds gathered outside every courthouse appearance, mostly young women, some holding signs, some just wanting to see him. February fourteenth, twenty twenty five, Valentine's Day, Mangion issued his first public statement since his arrest.

19:52 I am overwhelmed by and grateful for everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support powerfully. This support has transcended political, racial, and even class divisions. His legal defense fund surpassed one million dollars on his twenty seventh birthday in May. Now it's over one point three million dollars. The fund spokesperson called Mangione a hero and compared Thompson's killing to the death of Osama bin Laden as the most celebrated since Mangione became a sex symbol. After his December twenty third, twenty twenty four court appearance, the burgundy sweater he wore sold out at Nordstrom. Social media nicknamed it Mangione Marino. After his February twenty twenty five appearance, photos of his shackled ankles in brown loafers went viral. Google searches for Luigi mangione ankles spiked five hundred percent. Ryan Murphy, creator of the Netflix anthology Monster, expressed interest in making a season about him. A Chinese retailer listed products featuring AI generated images of Mangione modeling shirts, and through it all, people kept donating to his defense, kept writing him letters. His attorneys say he receives anywhere from ten to one hundred fifteen letters per day from around the country. Around the world. Why, Because America hates its health care system. United Healthcare denied more than thirty

21:23 two percent of claims in twenty twenty two. The company's profits rose to sixteen billion dollars Under Thompson's leadership. A Senate panel documented insurers refusing to pay for care of elderly patients recovering from falls and strokes. Thompson himself was named in a class action lawsuit accusing executives of insider trading. None of that justifies murder, but it explains why millions of Americans looked at Luigi Mangone and saw something other than a killer. They saw someone who did what they fantasized about, who struck back against a system they believe is designed to deny them care while executives collect millions. Manhattan da Alvin Bragg addressed the phenomenon directly celebrating murder is abhorrent. I sit across the table from families who've had a loved one killed, and to think of people celebrating that is beyond comprehension to me. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was blunter after Mangoni's arrest. In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this. He is no hero, But the polls told a more complicated story. A December twenty twenty four survey found sixty one percent of respondents had a negative view of Mangione, but among younger Americans, the numbers shifted dramatically.

22:44 Many viewed MANGIONI far more favorably than Thompson or United Healthcare. Here's what I keep coming back to. Brian Thompson was a human being, A father who went to his son's soccer games, who took them golfing, whose wife discot described him as incredibly loving, generous, talented, a man who had received death threats before the shooting, who told his wife there were some people that had been threatening him. He was shot in the back walking to work. His family held a private funeral in Minnesota on December ninth, the same day his alleged killer was arrested. While America debated whether Mangione was a hero, the Thompson family buried a husband and father. Murder isn't activism, Its terrorism in its purest form, using violence to advance a political message. Whether a judge agrees that's the legal definition, doesn't change the moral reality. But murder also doesn't happen in a vacuum, and the fact that millions of Americans saw this killing and felt something other than horror, that tells us something about the country we're living in that Celebrity trials for Wednesday, December seventeenth, twenty twenty five. Luigi Manjo number seven on our countdown of the top legal stories of the year.

24:04 December fourth, twenty twenty four, Brian Thompson shot and killed outside a Manhattan hotel. Bullet casings inscribed, deny, delay, depose. December ninth, twenty twenty four, Luigi Mangioni arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald's three D printed gun in his backpack, notebook full of writings about healthcare parasites, fake ID matching the one used at a New York hostel. September sixteenth, twenty twenty five, Terrorism charges dismissed. Judge ruled the evidence didn't meet the legal threshold. April first, twenty twenty five, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty before Manjone was even indicted. December twenty twenty five, suppression hearing ongoing defense trying to exclude the gun and notebook, arguing police searched illegally. If they win, the prosecution's case falls apart. Luigi Monjone turned twenty seven in prison, receives hundreds of letters from supporters, has a one point three million dollar legal defense fund. Became a folk hero to millions frustrated with the healthcare system. Brian Thompson was fifty years old, father of two, shot in the back walking to work. Should be celebrating Christmas with his family this year Tomorrow. Number six on our countdown. Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist assassinated at a Utah rally in September. The

25:37 killing that intensified political divisions instead of transcending them, and the question of why one political murder became a rallying cry while another became a celebration. Someone has to say the victim's name. Brian Thompson, fifty years old, husband, father, human being. I'm read Carter, see you tomorrow. This is celebrity trials.