Did Luigi Mangione really shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO for this reason?

Luigi Mangione allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as an act of vengeance for breaching a contract with his mother, who suffered greatly after being diagnosed with severe neuropathy.

An alleged manifesto by Mangione, shared by true crime podcast Hidden True Crime, claims that the killing was a deliberate act of retribution.

Producer Lauren Matthias, known for the podcast and YouTube channel she co-hosts with her psychologist husband Dr. John Matthias, disclosed the unverified document on their platform.

Lauren told DailyMail.com: ‘It seems to have originated on a Substack and we put it out there because people like hearing things in real time.

‘We also thought that if it is a fake somebody would quickly tell us. But nobody has come forward to do that.’

If the document is proved to be genuine, it raises the question of why Mangione, who comes from a wealthy Maryland family, thought his parents would not be able to afford the procedures.  

In the episode, reviewed by DailyMail.com, Matthias reads from the document at length. In it Mangione, 26, compares himself to Gladiator’s Maximus Decimus Meridius as he reveals how his rage ‘surged’ as he witnessed his mother’s suffering in the face of UnitedHealthcare’s repeated delays and denials.

According to the alleged manifesto, Kathleen Mangione, 60, was diagnosed with neuropathy – a nerve condition that causes a range of symptoms from tingling, numbness, burning sensations to pain – when she was just 41 years old, a diagnosis that came after a decade of pain and discomfort.

The document states, ‘She said it started ten years before that with burning sensations in her feet and occasional sharp stabbing pains. At first, the pain would last a few moments then fade to tingling and nothing a few days later. 

‘The first time the pain came she ignored it. Then it came a couple times a year and she ignored it. Then every couple months, then every couple times a month, then a couple times a week. 

‘At that point, by the time the tingling faded to numbness, the pain would start, and the discomfort was constant. At that point even going from the couch to the kitchen to make her own lunch became a major endeavor.’

Mangione was arrested at a Pennsylvania, McDonald’s Monday, when customers and members of staff recognized him as the subject of the manhunt that began when Thompson was gunned down in midtown Manhattan last Wednesday.

Bullets with the words ‘delay’, ‘deny’, and ‘depose’ were found at the scene – an apparent reference to insurance companies’ tactics to avoid paying out claimants and close to the title of Jay Feinman’s 2010 book Delay, Deny, Defend about insurance company’s attempts to resist payouts.

Reading the document purporting to be Mangione’s justification for the killing,  Matthias shared the University of Pennsylvania graduate’s account of his mother’s journey through the medical system.

At first, medics dismissed her problem as psychosomatic, telling her that she needed to relax, de-stress and sleep more, Mangione allegedly wrote.

A second doctor is said to have told her she had a compressed nerve in her spine and needed back surgery which would have cost $180,000 with a recovery of six months minimum before walking again and 12 months to full potential recovery.

Eventually, a third doctor performed a nerve conduction study, electromyography, MRI and blood tests – with each test costing between $800 to $1,200.

Mangione stated that his mother, ‘hit her $6,000 deductible of her UnitedHealthcare plan in October. Then the doctor went on vacation and my mother wasn’t able to resume tests until January when her deductible reset. 

‘The tests showed severe neuropathy. The $180,000 surgery would have had no effect,’ the document read.

A series of medical interventions followed with little benefit as, according to this alleged manifesto, Mangione watched his mother’s health decline as she battled pain so severe, he would hear her ‘shrieking’ in the night.

According to the document, Mangione wrote, ‘Back then I thought there was nothing I could do. The high co-pays make consistent treatment impossible, new treatments were denied as not necessary medically, the old treatments didn’t work and still put us out for thousands of dollars. 

‘UnitedHealthcare limited specialist consultations to twice a year then they refused to cover advanced imaging which the specialist required for an appointment.

‘Prior authorizations took weeks and months. UnitedHealthcare constantly changed their claim filing procedure. They said my mother’s doctor needed to fax his notes then UnitedHealthcare said they did not save faxed patients’ correspondence and required a hard copy of the doctor’s typed notes to be mailed then they said they never received the notes.

‘They were unable to approve the claim until they had received and filed the notes. They promised coverage and broke their word to my mother.

‘With every delay, my anger surged with every denial I wanted to throw the doctor through the glass wall of their hospital waiting room, but it wasn’t them. 

‘It wasn’t the doctors, the receptionists, administrators, pharmacists, imaging technicians or anyone we ever met. What it was it was UnitedHealthcare.’

In Mangione’s alleged summary, UnitedHealthcare, ‘think because [their conduct] is legal no-one can punish them.’

He wrote, ‘We entered into an agreement for healthcare with a legally binding contract that promised care commensurate with our insurance payments and medical needs. Then UnitedHealthcare changed the rules to suit their own profits.’

Mangione goes on to reference his own ‘chronic back pain’ – a result of a surgery following a surfing accident – saying that now it is his own pain which ‘wakes me in the night, screaming in pain.’

In his closing sentence, Mangione writes: ‘UnitedHealthcare…violated their contract with my mother, with me, and tens of millions of other Americans. This threat to my own health, my family’s health and the health of this country’s people requires me to respond with an act of war.’

But speaking to DailyMail.com Lauren Matthias said: ‘We haven’t been able to verify the document.

‘The lines don’t match those reported to have come from the handwritten manifesto found in his backpack, so if it is genuine it’s clearly another document.’

It has not previously been reported that Mangione’s mother is suffering any ill health and DailyMail.com has not been able to verify that, but Mangione’s own struggles with spinal injury have been documented.