By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) – An X-ray image appears to show screws and plates inserted in a lower back. Social media commentary praises the Unabomber and criticizes the use of smartphones by children.
Such posts by a 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, Kenny said.
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.
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.
Stanford University said a person by the same name was employed as a head counselor under the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies program between May and September of 2019.
ONLINE PRESENCE
A Facebook profile for a Luigi Mangione identifies him as being from Towson, Maryland. 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.
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 programs, 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 Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s book “Industrial Society and Its Future” as “prescient” about modern society.
Calling Kaczynski an “extreme political revolutionary,” the poster quotes another online commentator’s observation of the Unabomber that “when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive.” The post also criticized fossil fuel companies, saying “violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defense.”
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Additional reporting by Nathan Frandino, Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Donna Bryson and Richard Chang)
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