On Dec. 4, 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered outside of the Hilton Midtown hotel at 6:45 a.m. EST in New York City. The news sent shock waves through the nation, with speculation running wild due to the surreal circumstances surrounding the case. There was very limited information released to the public, but from what we did know, social media was having a field day. 

Thompson, who made countless enemies in his time with UnitedHealthcare, was shot on a busy sidewalk in the heart of Manhattan. His assailant should have been apprehended immediately, but the shooter fled the scene on foot. Despite this, a five-day long manhunt ensued. 

Social media became obsessed with the case due to the movie-like theatrics of it. Tweets were going viral about guns found in CitiBike baskets (which the assailant was rumored to have used as his getaway) and memes were being uploaded to different social media platforms based on one obvious fact; he is drop-dead gorgeous. As the clues unraveled, the appreciation for the unnamed murderer became more and more widespread. 

Monopoly money was found in an abandoned backpack in Central Park three days after the shooting, and was believed to be a commentary on the American healthcare system. The man can be seen lowering his mask to talk to the barista in CCTV footage minutes before the shooting. His flirtatious grin was then broadcast to the entire internet. 

The man being championed as America’s vigilante hero was identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. Once the internet learned the alleged murderer’s identity, things got really interesting. 

Mangione may be the most recent example of an alleged criminal catching the eyes of the public, but he is far from the first to do so. From Ted Bundy to The Night Stalker, the public’s fascination—and even attraction—to murderers is something we have seen for centuries. 

With cases like Bundy’s, fans even went so far as to try to discredit the victims’ and survivors’ stories, all in an attempt to prove his innocence. Fans wrote love letters to Richard Ramirez, the murderer behind the moniker of The Night Stalker. Many people couldn’t fathom that an attractive, seemingly ordinary man could be behind such violent acts. 

Today, these men still have admirers. Yet it is much more socially acceptable to be a supporter of Luigi Mangione. Whether you are viewing Mangione as a vigilante harbinger for the cause of taking down the healthcare industry or you simply find him attractive, publicly stating your positive opinions on the matter will not garner you much opposition. 

Following the announcement of Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona County, Pennsylvania, people were shocked by the history of the young man’s life. Mangione graduated as the valedictorian of an elite private school in Maryland and later attended an Ivy League University. He studied computer science and came from one of the most affluent families in Maryland. Things went south for him following a hiking accident in 2023 which left him with chronic pain and screws in his spine. This injury sparked a downward spiral that created a murderer. 

Countless Americans harbor grievances with the healthcare industry. According to Dazed, “after Thompson’s murder, social media was flooded with stories of Americans frustrated with UnitedHealthcare, accusing the corporation of prioritising profit over lives by denying medical claims and leaving patients burdened with debt.” 

While many people view Mangione in a positive light because of the attention he has brought to the issues within the healthcare industry, for a majority of the public, his messaging falls short in comparison to the conversation surrounding his looks. 

Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University whose research focuses primarily on how social media impacts young women. Alaimo also covered Mangione’s case for TIME Magazine and discussed the ways the internet completely missed the point Mangione was trying to make. Instead of taking this moment to have a real and honest conversation about the healthcare disparities within the United States, the internet has turned Mangione into another trending topic, destined to be forgotten upon the next breaking news cycle. 

“The suspect very quickly became something of a cult hero on social media, and I do think that a big part of that was because he is white and he is perceived by many people to be an attractive young man,” Alaimo said. “I think that a suspect who looked different from Mangione, and who came from a different social class, might have gotten a very different treatment.” 

When cases such as this one arise in the media, it is not uncommon to hear about the “Halo Effect.” This phenomenon occurs when people make judgements of others based on a cognitive bias surrounding a single trait—in this instance, it’s Mangione’s physical appearance.

When it comes to cases where an objectively attractive or privileged individual is accused of a crime, it is harder for people to accept they are guilty or even blame them for what they did. In the general public’s eyes, a well-educated and conventionally attractive white man wouldn’t normally do something like this, which makes Mangione that much more intriguing. 

He is an enigma. 

“How people fare in our society is, unfortunately, very much grounded in how people perceive their attractiveness,” Alaimo said. For Mangione specifically, his looks may have saved him. While he hasn’t yet been convicted, his support is widespread. The thousands of protestors, petitions and the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised on his behalf certainly speak volumes about the amount of love the public holds for an alleged murderer. Convicted or not, his fans are not going down without a fight. 

Safia Sami Ali, a national news journalist for NewsNation has covered Mangione’s case multiple times. To her, the bias is clear. “We like to label and judge certain people based on who they are, where they come from and what they look like. So, of course, Luigi Mangione being a young, presumably wealthy, educated white male…that definitely helped in making him seem like more of a, you know, quote unquote, Robinhood hero, man of the people sort of a thing.” 

Our internal biases often go unchecked until we are forced to confront them. We judge people everyday. We make assumptions based on a whole number of factors and traits within anyone and everyone that we come across in life. Whether or not these assumptions are ill-intentioned, they exist nonetheless. 

Murders happen every day in America, but few manage to make waves in the media at such a large scale. It is undoubtedly due to our biases, perceptions and judgements that Luigi Mangione became the figurehead for a cause. 

“It’s like out of a movie, the way that, you know, obviously the alleged crime and then the manhunt, and then finding him [took place]. And then, you know, all the breadcrumbs that he left behind in terms of why he allegedly did it,” Ali said. “There was so much public attention to what he, you know, allegedly did because of what it stood for, and a lot of people found it to be justified.” 

Whether or not we are able to “forgive” murder is something each person has the right to do. We can decide where we draw the line with human behavior. It is up to the court of law, however, to draw that line from a legal standpoint. 

Ultimately, if Mangione did commit the crime he is accused of, he will most likely be imprisoned for the rest of his life. Despite this possibility, fans continue to sport merch with his face on it, champion the slogan left on bullet casings at the crime scene (Deny, Defend, Depose), attend court dates and petition government officials to “free Luigi.” 

It may be a moral failing of our generation to say that we find the good in an alleged murderer. Yet, thankfully, we still wonder how a man can take the life of another human being with no mercy. 

Or it may be a sign that we are finally waking up to the harsh reality that not everything is so black-and-white. Sometimes, things in this world are much more complicated.

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Hi! I’m Hannah Planey, A Magazine’s editor-in-chief. My staff and I are committed to bringing you the most important and entertaining news from the realms of fashion, beauty and culture. We are full-time students and hard-working journalists. While we get support from the student media fee and earned revenue such as advertising, both of those continue to decline. Your generous gift of any amount will help enhance our student experience as we grow into working professionals. Please go here to donate to A Magazine.