Luigi Mangione, 26 years old, had everything to shine: impressive degrees, a well-off family, and a future that looked like a red carpet. But this young Italian-American prodigy chose to swap startups and Silicon Valley pitches for a Breaking Bad-style mafia intrigue. The accusation? The murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. A story that, between a burlesque escape and anti-system claims, smells of gunpowder… and McDonald’s cheese.
A McMurder Mystery
When you imagine a fugitive wanted by all of Pennsylvania, you don’t necessarily think of a guy hiding in a McDonald’s, devouring a McChicken as if nothing happened. Yet that’s where Mangione was caught, a bag of fries in one hand, a 3D-printed gun in the other. The perfect culprit for an episode of Cops, except Mangione has a little extra: a three-page manifesto, scribbled with the rage of a sociology student who just discovered Marx. All wrapped in an anti-private health ideology as explosive as a milkshake dropped on the floor.
From Harvard to the Hilton Hotel: a rapid descent
A little genius raised in a golden bubble, Luigi Mangione seemed destined for a future worthy of Forbes covers. Wealthy family? Check. Degree from the University of Pennsylvania? Check. But after a back surgery apparently more painful than a philosophy class at 8 a.m., Luigi couldn’t stomach the American healthcare system. A small grudge? No, a visceral hatred. Result: last Wednesday, the young man allegedly coldly shot Brian Thompson in front of a Hilton hotel, leaving behind a dead CEO and an America in shock. And as if that wasn’t enough, he fled… on a bicycle. Yes, on a bicycle. Eco-friendly, but not discreet.
The Robin Hood in Prada
On social media, Mangione became an instant rockstar. In a few hours, his X account went from 45,000 to 180,000 followers. Some see him as a modern-day Robin Hood, a masked hero against the evil insurers. Others? Well, they call him a "middle-class psychopath with an existential crisis." His cryptic posts, mixing low-grade poetry and anti-capitalist rants, add an almost mystical aura to the character. Add to that a Marvel hero’s square jaw, and you get the perfect cocktail to divide public opinion.
Silent but loud
The killer detail, literally? The words "delay" and "deny" engraved on the shells found at the crime scene. Mangione doesn’t do subtlety. It’s as if Al Capone started writing haikus on his bootleg whiskey bottles. But again, Luigi plays the paradox: a brilliant engineer, he attacks a system he accuses of destroying his life, while using high-tech weapons worthy of a James Bond. It’s as if he watched too many movies before taking action.
A trial between tragedy and stand-up
Luigi Mangione’s trial promises to be an open-air circus. Imagine the debates: a prosecutor praising the merits of big corporations, a defense lawyer quoting Rousseau, and, in the middle, Mangione tweeting from his cell. More than a judgment, it will be a mirror held up to America. And let’s be honest: we’ll mostly see a young man with a tragic trajectory, who, failing to fix the system, preferred to take it down… bullet by bullet.
In the meantime, Luigi is in prison. Insurers are trembling. And we mostly wonder if McDonald’s took advantage of this unexpected publicity to boost its nugget sales.
