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WASHINGTON: An X-ray image appears to show screws and plates inserted in a lower back. Social media commentary praises the Unabomber and criticises the use of smartphones by children.
Such posts by one Luigi Mangione, the name New York police have announced as the 26-year-old suspect in last week's killing of a health insurance executive in New York, portray an Ivy League graduate who had grown critical of social media and artificial intelligence.
Here is what is known about Mangione:
WHAT POLICE SAY
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, went to college in Pennsylvania and is thought to have had "ill will toward corporate America" based on a document found on him, according to Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York police.
Mangione has ties to San Francisco, lived in Honolulu until recently and is believed to have acted on his own, Kenny said. He has no known criminal record in New York.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
A person with the same name was the 2016 valedictorian of the private, all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore. The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview with his local paper at the time, he praised his teachers for fostering a passion for learning beyond grades and encouraging intellectual curiosity.
A former student who knew Mangione at the Gilman School told AFP the suspect struck him as "a normal guy, nice kid."
"There was nothing about him that was off, at least from my perception," this person said, asking that their name not be used.
"Seemed to just be smiling, and kind of seemed like he was a smart kid. Ended up being valedictorian, which confirmed that," the former student said.
The New York Times reported Gilman sent an email on Monday to alumni in which principal Henry Smyth said, "This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation."
The University of Pennsylvania said a person named Luigi Mangione graduated in 2020 with a master of science in engineering, majoring in computer and information science.
While at Penn, Mangione co-led a group of 60 undergraduates who collaborated on video game projects, as noted in a now-deleted university webpage, archived on the Wayback Machine.
Stanford University said a person by the same name was employed as a head counsellor under the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies programme between May and September of 2019.
WORK
Luigi Mangione worked for TrueCar until 2023, according to a spokesperson for the car retail site.
A fellow software engineer at TrueCar said Mangione helped him write particularly difficult code. "There has to be a mistake. The Luigi I know is a super kind guy," said the former colleague, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid attention on social media. "All I remember is a very sweet guy. Always ready to help people. Very smart."
ONLINE PRESENCE
A Facebook profile for a Luigi Mangione identifies him as being from Towson, Maryland, near Baltimore. Local media said his family owned a country club and radio station in the Baltimore area and his cousin was Maryland House of Delegates member Nino Mangione. The legislator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Instagram, where his following has skyrocketed from hundreds to tens of thousands, Mangione shared snapshots of his travels in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. He also posted shirtless photos flaunting a six-pack and appeared in celebratory posts with fellow members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
A banner on a Mangione's X page, which says he lives in Honolulu, includes an X-ray image of what appears to be screws and plates inserted into someone's lower back.
X posts from two years ago include critiques of artificial intelligence, reposts of commentaries against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, and remarks on how smartphones harm children and the damage caused by commercial agriculture.
A 2022 post discusses his senior high school speech on topics ranging from AI to human immortality. The posts seem to question some of the technology Mangione appeared in awe of in high school.
On Goodreads, a Luigi Mangione praises Ted Kaczynski's book, Industrial Society and Its Future, as "prescient" about modern society.
Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, carried out a string of bombings in the United States from 1978 to 1995, a campaign he said was aimed at halting the advance of modern society and technology.
Mangione called Kaczynski an "extreme political revolutionary" that was "rightfully imprisoned", while also saying "'violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators." He also quoted another online commentator's observation of the Unabomber that "when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive".
The post also criticised fossil fuel companies, saying "violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defence".
According to CNN, handwritten documents recovered when Mangione was arrested included the phrase "these parasites had it coming".
Mangione has also linked approvingly to posts criticising secularism as a harmful consequence of Christianity's decline.
In April, he wrote, "Horror vacui (nature abhors a vacuum)." The following month, he posted an essay he wrote in high school titled How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome.
In another post from April, he speculated that Japan's low birthrate stems from societal disconnection, adding that "fleshlights" and other vaginal-replica sex toys should be banned.
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