Luigi Mangione latest: Top New York attorney tapped by CEO murder suspect as ‘defense fund’ donations mount

Joe Rogan chalked up the country’s mixed reactions to the fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO to the “dirty business” of health insurance.

Rogan and his guests, filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, discussed the December 4 death of Brian Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan street on Tuesday’s episode of the mega-popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

The podcaster and his guests predicted there wouldn’t be much sympathy for the 50-year-old insurance executive due to the state of health insurance in the US.

“I don’t think anybody is going to be crying too hard over” Thompson’s death, Avary said.

“Maybe his family, but that’s about it,” Rogan replied. “It’s a dirty, dirty business. The business of insurance is f***ing gross. It’s gross, especially healthcare insurance.”

Read the full story.

Mangione’s prison menu includes fruit, grits, scrambled eggs and “porcupine meatballs”—a dish made from ground beef and rice—for lunch, according to NewsNation. The menu went viral earlier this week. The outlet reported that the inmates inside the jail have complained about their conditions, including the food at the facility.

December 4: The suspect set off from an Upper West Side hostel before dawn. He was seen on surveillance video walking back and forth at 54th Street and Sixth Avenue, near the Hilton Hotel where the UnitedHealthcare Group was holding its conference. After opening fire, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park before getting into a cab and was later spotted at a bus station. A manhunt ensued.

December 5: Investigators revealed a cryptic message carved onto the shell casings: “delay,” “deny” and “depose.” NYPD also released images of the suspect.

December 6: Police announce they believe the suspect has left New York City, expanding the desperate search. A backpack, thought to belong to the suspect, was found in Central Park and sent in for forensic testing. The now-viral “flirtatious” photo of the suspect speaking to a hostel worker was released.

December 7: NYPD releases another photo of the suspect, this time in the back of a taxi. The FBI also joined the hunt for the suspect, offering a $50,000 reward for information.

December 8: Although no leads on the suspect’s whereabouts were made public, investigators revealed the contents of the backpack included Monopoly money and a Tommy Hilfiger jacket.

December 9: A private service for Brian Thompson was held. Also that day, a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania tipped recognized Mangione from the photos circulated by police. He was arrested in Pennsylvania on gun charges and hours later faced a murder charge in New York.

The fallout from the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brain Thompson has led to a tumble in stock values for major insurance companies.

Thompson was shot and killed by a masked gunman, suspected to be 26-year-old Luigi Mangione a week ago in what is believed to be a targeted attack apparently based in part on grievances with the U.S. health insurance system.

The shocking nature of the shooting has shined a glaring spotlight on the worst parts of health insurance companies’ policies leading to a small anti-health insurance company movement online.

Read the full story.

Police previously thought that the suspect boarded a bus to Pennsylvania, where he was eventually caught on Monday. Cops said they believed the shooter had stopped off at different locations around the state.

But according to the New York Post, that’s no longer the case.

Investigators said they thought the suspect had taken a bus because he was seen on surveillance video at the George Washington Bridge bus station. Now, they think he took the subway from the bus station to Penn Station and bought a train ticket to Pennsylvania before he was caught, CBS News and ABC News reported, citing police sources. 

Kathleen Mangione was contacted by federal investigators the night before her son was arrested and told them he looked like the person in the photos released by the New York City Police Department, according to the NY Post.

The FBI had received a tip from San Francisco police after an official in California said he recognized the man in the pictures and tipped off federal authorities. Members of the Joint Violent Crimes Task Force then spoke to Mangione’s mother about her son, asking her about a missing person’s report her family had filed in November.

According to The Post, the man’s mother wasn’t completely confident that was actually her son in the images.

A poll released on Friday reveals that young Americans are more likely to favor the suspected killer over his alleged victim.

The Center for Strategic Politics reported that out of 455 adults surveyed on December 11, 31 percent of adults under 45 were nearly four times as likely to view Mangione favorably. That’s compared to only 16 percent who saw Brian Thompson favorably.

The New York Police Department issued a bulletin on Tuesday warning that health insurance executives might be at risk after “wanted” posters featuring their images and salaries appeared around Manhattan.

The bulletin comes in the wake of the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.

The NYPD suggested that Luigi Mangione, the 24-year-old man arrested on suspicion of shooting Thompson, may be viewed as a “martyr” by some, and could inspire other attacks.

The bulletin notes that the shooter’s actions could have the “capability to inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence,” which was first reported by ABC News.

Graig Graziosi has the full story.