Luigi Mangione's path from valedictorian, engineer, Ivy League grad to murder suspect

A private school valedictorian. An Ivy League graduate. And now a murder suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a murder in Manhattan that's captured the attention of the nation.

Luigi Mangione - law enforcement’s person of interest captured in Pennsylvania - has an impressive resume and Ivy League education, with the kind of affluent and influential family ties that can often pave a path to a successful future. But now Mangione, who was charged in the crime late Monday evening, finds himself at the unlikely center of a murder investigation that has sparked a conversation around health care in the United States and how untraceable 'ghost guns' and silencers can be assembled via a 3-D printer.

“Even early on the class of 2016 was challenging the world around it,” says Mangione in his Gilman School valedictorian speech in Baltimore. “The class of 2016’s inventiveness also stems from its incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”

During his high school speech, Mangione was personable, witty, and confident. The news of his arrest has shocked the leaders of the prestigious schools he attended.

"Luigi Mangione’s suspected involvement in this case is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation," Gilman's Head of School Henry Smyth wrote in a statement. "Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating our students."

Gilman, the private school where tuition can cost nearly $40,000 annually, was one of just many enviable stops in Mangione’s burgeoning career before his latest at the Altoona McDonald’s where he was identified and found with a gun, silencer, mask, and fake identification card that police said were "consistent" with items believed used by Thompson's killer. He also had handwritten papers that expressed "ill will toward corporate America," New York police officials said.

Where that ill will came from hasn't yet been made clear as investigators look into his background.

His late grandfather, Nicholas Mangione Sr., developed real estate and owned country clubs, nursing homes, and a radio station, according to the Baltimore Banner.

His grandmother, Mary Mangione, who died in 2023 at age 92, was active in community affairs including serving as a trustee for the Baltimore Opera Company, on a county tourism board, and with groups such as the American Citizens for Italian Matters, according to an obituary from Loyola University.

Mangione is a cousin of Nino Mangione, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, according to WBAL-TV, which reported that the lawmaker's office confirmed the connection. Nino Mangione didn't return a call for comment from USA TODAY. But he posted a family statement on social media Monday night.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved," the statement read. "We are devastated by this news."

After Gilman, Mangione went on to graduate cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, studying engineering and applied sciences, according to his LinkedIn. His social media posts show him proudly surrounded by his Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brothers at school, as well as hanging out at Instagram-favorite sites in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Some of his online writings show a different side.

“It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless [sic] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,” Mangione wrote in an online review of The Unabomber Manifesto. “He was a violent individual - rightfully imprisoned - who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”

Mangione gave the book four out of five stars in the Feb. 2, 2024, review.

The review shows one of the few cracks in the otherwise charmed life as the scion of a prominent Sicilian-American family. His mother, Kathleen, is a member of the family that also owns a funeral home in the area, according to the news site Baltimore Fishbowl.

Mangione spent a summer at Stanford University working on a pre-collegiate program, according to his LinkedIn. A Stanford spokesperson confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that he was a counselor in the program from May to September 2019.

In 2020, his LinkedIn also says he started working as a data engineer at TrueCar Inc., an auto marketplace website based in Santa Monica, California. Asked about his employment, a TrueCar spokesperson said in an email that he “has not been an employee of our company since 2023.”

Busted for fake ID: How authorities nabbed Luigi Mangione

Mangione's week on the run ended in ignominious conditions at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. A customer spotted him wearing a mask and alerted staff who called 911, state police said.

Altoona police arriving at the McDonald's asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently and when they did he grew quiet and began to shake, according to a criminal complaint filed by police.

The 26-year-old was wearing the signature blue surgical mask the shooter was wearing in New York City surveillance footage and seated at the back of the restaurant using a laptop, the Altoona Police Department complaint claimed.

Police discovered the identification card Mangione produced — for a man named Mark Rosario of New Jersey — was fake, at which point he identified himself, according to the criminal complaint. Law enforcement found a black 3D-printed pistol and silencer in Mangione’s backpack, according to charging documents.

The Altoona McDonald’s was the suspected killer’s latest stop in a several-day trek around Pennsylvania that included stop-overs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, according to state police.

Police officials say Mangione's last known address had been connected to Honolulu, Hawaii.

What led to Thompson's murder, in which an assailant left ammunition that had the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose" written on them, a reference to criticism of the medical insurance industry, isn't yet clear.

The arrest and murder charges came the same day Thompson was buried in Minnesota, according to officials.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Suspected CEO killer was high school valedictorian, Ivy League grad