Everything we know about Luigi Mangione from his social media accounts

Luigi Mangione has taken headlines by storm after becoming the key suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

However, he's accidentally become the internet's crush in the process, with sleuths sifting through his social media accounts for clues, information about his life, or potential motives leading up to the incident in New York last week.

New York Times reported that a manifesto he was found with upon his arrest “criticized healthcare companies for putting profits above care".

As he was led into court for his extradition trial, Mangione yelled at cameras as he wrestled with officers: "It's completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience."

Now, those with a keen interest in his story have tracked down multiple social media accounts and posts that give a closer look into his life before he became a key talking point.

Here's what we know...

Luigi Mangione loved to read

A GoodReads account under Mangione's name and photograph which had been open for some time included reviews of 52 books, including 13 longer opinions of his thoughts.

“How to break up with your phone” and “Building the ultimate male body” were just some of the books he'd rated on the account.

Most notably, the 26-year-old reviewed the manifesto of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski - also known as the Unabomber - earlier this year.

"When all other forms of communications fail, violence is necessary to survive", he wrote. "You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it's not terrorism, it's war and revolution."

He gave Dr Seuss’s The Lorax five stars.

He dropped hints about living with 'back pain'

A number of people claiming to be friends of Luigi Mangione have spoken out about an alleged spinal surgery in 2023 that left him with chronic pain.

While the claims haven't been confirmed by police, there are a number of pieces of evidence online suggesting this could be accurate.

Firstly, there are two books on his Good Reads reading list associated with similar health issues - 'Back Mechanic' by Dr Stuart McGill and 'Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery' by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin.

A now-deleted Reddit account under the username 'Mister_Cactus' which appears to check out with the details of Mangione has been posting since 2016 about about struggling with 'chronic back pain, numbness and restless sleep'.

“I slipped on a piece of paper and my right glute locked and right leg shut down for a week", the account wrote, after noting a surfing accident had aggravated his back.

He continued: "Yea I had L5/S1 spinal fusion 6 months ago after 1.5 years of failed conservative treatment. Within 7 days of the fusion I was on zero pain meds.

"That's probably faster than most folks, but my point is just that your body isn't supposed to be in pain and need meds."

A Reddit spokesperson said the platform’s policy is to suspend accounts that may be related to suspects in high-profile criminal investigations.

A number of photos taken from Mangione's social media accounts of a spinal X-ray have also been shared widely online.

Luigi Mangione travelled a lot - and posted about it

While his Instagram account has been deleted by the platform, Luigi Mangione would regularly post from his travels, and kept a palm tree and backpack emoji in his bio.

Some of his posts included from Big Island, Hawaii, where he joked in the caption that he was "pretty sure this was the volcano where they filmed The Incredibles".

Other photos see him diving underwater, getting up close with lizards, at the beach with friends, and travelling in Puerto Rico and Cabo San Lucas, as well as San Diego.

A friend of Mangione told CNN that he led a book club at his fraternity, and enjoyed hiking and yoga.

He had no filter on X

Luigi Mangione's X account is one of the only remaining social media accounts belonging to the murder suspect, and in the space of just a few days, he's gained over 400,000 followers.

His header image contains photos of Pokemon characters, as well as the above mentioned spinal surgery X-ray.

While many of his posts offered thought-provoking takes on hard-hitting topics, he was also partial to a joke on the app.

"Such blatant chatgpt lmfao", he responded to a post detailing the lives of Inuit people.

He also reposted a paper he wrote at 15 years old, titled "How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome".

His first posts on the platform were a number of spam tweets, each individually numbered. His account has been verified by the platform since his arrest.

He was well-liked among his social circle

Outside of his own posts about group trips with friends, a number of people claiming to be friends with Luigi Mangione have spoken out since his arrest about "missing" the 26-year-old, posting content of them together in happier times.

One of the posts going viral is that of Tracy Moel, who has shared a TikTok video of the duo out shopping for mochi, laughing together in the supermarket.

She wrote: "Luigi Mangione is probably the most google keyword today. But before all of this, for a while, it was also the only name whose facetime calls I would pick up. He was one of my absolute best, closest, most trusted friends. He was also the only person who, at 1am on a work day, in this video, agreed to go to the store with drunk me, to look for mochi ice cream."

Moel later updated her post to say that while their other friends suggested she didn't associate with him, she didn't want to "deny he ever existed."

“I can tell you that this is one of the last people you think would do something like this", another friend, Freddie Leatherbury, told WBAL 11 News.

The viral YouTube account circulating never belonged to Luigi Mangione

YouTube

A YouTube account under the name 'PepMengione' (the same name used on Luigi Mangione's X account) popped up shortly after his arrest, with a pre-scheduled video titled 'The Truth'.

It featured a countdown timer, which read 'If you see this video, I'm already under arrest'. When the clock hits zero, another message flashed up on screen, reading: 'All is scheduled, be patient. Bye for now.'

However, YouTube have confirmed that the video was a hoax made by someone who had updated all aspects of their account to pretend to be Luigi Mangione.

Sarah Colvin-Rowley with YouTube told DailyMail.com: 'We terminated the channel in question for violating our policies covering impersonation, which prohibit content intended to impersonate another person on YouTube.'

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