STANDING just steps behind his target, the hooded gunman lifts his weapon with the poise of a professional hitman and fires multiple times.
The CCTV footage of the murder of 50-year-old healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, allegedly by Luigi Mangione, has shocked and captivated the public.
The supposed gunman, 26, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, allegedly with a gun, bullets, multiple fake IDs and a stash of money.
Since then, the world has been fixated on the motivations for such a dark crime, with it claimed Mangione was led by anger at America’s healthcare industry.
And now a document pertaining to be his ‘manifesto’ has been published online, with scores of internet sleuths devouring it and looking for answers.
But amid the chaos, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, criminologist Dr Jennifer Fleetwood warns of “emboldening copycats” by reading too much into a text full of the “cliches” of previous monsters.
She cites the parallels between the so-called manifesto and those of infamous killers like the Unabomber, explaining that they all use topical issues to “excuse horrific and irrational violence”.
“People reading Mangione’s ‘manifesto’ believing they will find what Mangione was really thinking or the real cause won’t get what they want,” Jennifer tells The Sun.
“But believing you can work that out from his writings would be an absolute misreading of it entirely.
“He is not a hero nor an anti-hero, this is just another violent man who thinks his violent rantings deserve our attention, our time and airtime.
“It all reminds me of The Son of Sam murders. There were laws brought in after to prohibit people from profiting off their crimes and gaining notoriety.
“It was feared giving airtime to people like him could encourage other people to commit crimes for a similar kind of horrible internet fame.
“Horrors surround us but we need to be careful and perhaps shouldn’t be rushing to read them or treating them as if they offer some insight into the mind of a killer.”
‘True crime obsession’
Jennifer explains multiple vain killers have released manifestos in the past – ranging from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski to Isla Vista Killer Elliot Rodger.
She argues the writings should not be given any power or acknowledgement and should be treated as “nothing more” than “violent texts” by abusive men.
The criminologist, a senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich who has written multiple books on killers, warns this obsession with criminals is part of an ever-growing trend – and with that come dangers.
“Do violent men deserve our attention or airtime? Most people would say no. But there is a counter-argument that it’s anti-democratic to censor,” Jennifer explains.
“The public believes that they have a right to know and investigate, I think that comes from true crime being normalised.
Who is Luigi Mangione?
MANGIONE, 26, was regarded as a beloved, clever and wealthy man by his family, friends and all who knew him.
He was born and raised in Maryland, where he was valedictorian of his high school graduating class at Gilman School in Baltimore.
He had no prior criminal history and was said to have been a model student, soccer player, and all-round athlete at high school.
One former student from the Gilman School told The U.S. Sun Mangione was “popular” and had a “big circle of friends.”
“We went to the same school but didn’t really have the same friends. I’m really shocked by this whole thing,” the former student, who asked not to be identified, said.
“I think he played soccer, it was an all-boys school, so being a good athlete got you social currency for sure.”
After, Mangione graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied computer and information science, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He also got his masters from the Ivy League school.
Mangione was reportedly a data engineer at a car company in California before moving to Hawaii.
His cousin is also Republican Maryland House of Delegates member Nino Mangione.
“It’s the idea that we, the public, have the capacity to understand, judge and assess on actually quite complicated technical matters.
“That it is our job to decide if a person is guilty or not in the public court. A court of public opinion.
“You get hours and hours of podcasts and online forums, where people revisit evidence trying to find things that the police missed the first time around, when they are not necessarily qualified to do so.
“It’s like with Jay Slater, people were flying out to Tenerife to go and look for him. It was the same with the Salisbury poisonings and Nicola Bulley – people went to ‘investigate’ themselves.”
‘Emboldening copycats’
In the days since the killing, some have backed Mangione’s supposed anti-healthcare cause and also spoken of him favourably, labelling him the “hot assassin”.
It’s not an isolated case. Previously Jeremy Meeks, a former member of violent US gang the Crips, was glorified with the moniker ‘world’s hottest felon’ after his mugshot went viral in 2014.
This happened despite him being a convicted criminal, later found guilty of grand theft auto and firearm possession too, and he was even awarded a modelling contract.
Warning of the dangers of this idealisation of crooks, Jennifer says: “To be frank, labels like ‘hot assassin’ could embolden others to act or encourage copycats.”
Concerningly, there has already been one ‘copycat’ style threat similar to the CEO killing – Briana Boston, 42, in Florida, allegedly told an operator for her healthcare insurer: “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”
The three D words she referenced were reportedly etched on to the casings of bullets fired at Brian Thompson, killing him last week.
Jennifer continues: “We have to be so careful. Even the release of mugshots looks a bit like a freak show or entertainment, not part of the democratic process.”
Twisted playbook
Jennifer argues that many of the ‘manifestos’ written by killers, like the one believed to have been penned by Mangione, all follow a similar playbook.
Mangione was known to hold strong views against the healthcare system and in the text, allegedly written by him, he decrees that CEOs in the industry are “parasites”.
Jennifer says: “The use of the word ‘parasites’ is really common. You see that dehumanisation often being used to justify violence.
“Comparing people to animals is well worn, it’s come up time and time again and often in conflicts and wars. Any animal metaphors are a red flag.”
She describes the ‘Mangione manifesto’ as “really cliche, not well written, and full of tropes over violent men have written in manifestos”.
Among them is the ‘power paradox’, which Jennifer explains was a study about domestic abusers and how they “describe themselves as honest, upstanding men with no choice but to engage in violence”.
They argue this is the only thing I can do as an act righteous vengeance, because I’m so powerless. It’s a really, it’s a really common theme and they conjure it as a form of self-defense. But it’s not
Dr Jennifer Fleetwood
She believes it’s the same for these killers, adding: “They depict themselves as both powerful and powerless, when actually they are not powerless at all really.
“They tend to be white men, who are in a relative position of power and of privilege all things considered.”
Fake ‘underdogs’
Jennifer references the Isla Vista Killings murder Elliot Rodger, who slayed six and injured 14, in a vile shooting, stabbing and car-ramming onslaught in 2014.
As well as Norweigan terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, a Neo-Nazi who killed 69 at a summer camp and another eight after detonating a van bomb.
She says: “Elliot Roger describes himself as an underdog who’s an Incel. The Chads and the Stacys of the world are kicking him down. He’s so powerless.
“But then also he goes and shoots lots and lots of people, which is an act of power. It’s the same thing with Breivik and Tarrant, who spoke about the ‘great replacement theory – that whites would be replaced by non-white people.
“They then argue this is the only thing I can do as an act of righteous vengeance because I’m so powerless. It’s a really common theme and they conjure it as a form of self-defence. But it’s not.”
‘Self-important’
Another unifying point of the manifestos and characters is that in the texts they are often “self-aggrandizing and self-important”, citing themselves as the only solution for a problem and that their actions “will be world-changing”.
Jennifer adds: “A lot of these people see themselves as political activists, like Breivik, they see themselves as heros, anti-heros and saviours. They think they are political activists but they are not.
“They don’t deserve to be taken quite so seriously. It’s telling that politicians don’t tend to graduate into mass violence once they are frustrated with the system.
“There are other reasons why these men are violent and it’s not because politics sucks. Politics sucks for all of us but we don’t express it through violence.”
Dr Jennifer Fleetwood is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Greenwich. Her books Drug Mules: Women In The International Cocaine Trade and What We Talk About When We Talk About Crime are available to buy online.
