Luigi Mangione’s prison cell has been unveiled, showing where the alleged CEO assassin spends his time eating alone and avoiding contact with other prisoners.
The stark white room only has essential items: a bed, sink, and toilet. Other inmates have criticized the conditions under which 26-year-old Mangione is confined.
Mangione was arrested on Monday for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson after a five-day manhunt.
He is currently detained in what used to be known as one of the most challenging correctional facilities in the US, as described by a former prisoner of SCI Huntingdon in Pennsylvania.
One shocking image in the facility shows what Mangione’s isolated cell may well look like.
The four brick walls of the cell are painted a clinical white color, with a metal toilet and sink attached.
Then on the opposite side of the tiny space, there is a single, solid bed block with just a mattress on top which looks to be incredibly uncomfortable for anyone that sleeps on it.
Mangione also has a desk and tiny stool to give him a space to write things down.
There are also no windows in the space, with just flickers of a white bulb to light up his cell.
The 26-year-old is being kept in a single, 15x6ft cell but is not currently in solitary confinement, according to the press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Maria A Bivens.
The alleged CEO killer is not yet interacting with other inmates, taking all the meals he has – at 6:15, 10:40 and 5:15PM – in his isolated cell.
The press secretary added to USA TODAY that Mangione will “eventually get out of cell time” as “all inmates are afforded time outside of their cells, even if they are a higher custody level”.
Mangione is already renowned as being the alleged CEO assassin in the prison, with inmates heard shouting “Free Luigi!” in disturbing support of the suspect.
On Wednesday, as NewsNation reporter Alex Caprariello was reporting from outside the jail, inmates could be heard screaming at him from inside.
One was heard yelling, “Luigi’s conditions suck,” while another shouted, “Free Luigi.”
But the overwhelming support for Mangione from inmates is seen as a massive security concern for the prison, according to prison consultant Justin Paperny.
He told CNN that Mangione must learn to like his own company in his little cell because he won’t be around prisoners for a while as the facility can’t risk it.
Mangione could only spend a mere few weeks at the prison in his cell as prosecutors push to have him brought back to New York.
SCI Huntington is the oldest operating state prison in the state which has held some of the country’s worst criminals.
It was once a maximum-security prison but now operates as a security facility.
The terrifying site has 14 housing units and employs around 660 full-time workers.
Inmates are also employed there, as they work shifts in its warehouse, print shop, sign shop, garment shop and a soap and detergent shop, the state says.
As cops continue to scramble to piece together Brian Thompson’s murder, suspect Mangione’s mom is said to have spoken with the FBI the night before her son was arrested, law enforcement sources claim.
Members of the Joint Violent Crimes Task Force reportedly questioned Kathleen Mangione on Sunday evening after receiving a tip from San Francisco police.
The tip, from four days prior, was about a missing person’s report the family had filed with the department in November, the sources said.
Cops tipped off the feds after recognizing Mangione’s face in surveillance images shared by the NYPD after CEO Thompson was killed last week.
But the 26-year-old’s mom wasn’t fully confident that it was her son in the images.
Mangione was taken into custody the next morning after he was recognized in a Pennyslvania McDonald’s.
This was before the feds could notify the NYPD of the exchange, sources claim.
Kathleen reported him missing to San Franscisco police on November 18, adding that she hadn’t spoken to him since July 1 and was unaware of where he was, according to the report.
Mangione had reportedly vanished for months after fleeing the US to go on a solo trip in Asia.
The alleged assassin’s family have been left in the dark over the murder investigation, their lawyer has claimed.
The Mangione family attorney released a very brief statement on behalf of the college graduate’s loved ones who claim they are only finding out about the case through the papers.
David B. Irwin told TMZ that the family don’t “know all the facts” yet and are only aware of the public information.
He also released a short statement from the family regarding Mangione which said: “We wish him the best.”
They also added that they still “love” him.
It is unclear if the 26-year-old has been in contact with anyone since he was detained.
Since the suspect’s arrest, over a thousand donations have poured in on an online fundraiser to help Mangione’s legal defense with him becoming something like a folk hero.
One person has even had a tattoo based on the security camera image released by the NYPD from the attack.
Social media comments have also gushed about his good looks while donors have written on the GiveSendGo fundraiser that it was a “justifiable homicide”
“Denying healthcare coverage to people is murder, but no one gets charged with that crime,” one wrote.
Former NYPD detective sergeant Felipe Rodriguez has slammed the glorification of Mangione and his horrific crime.
“They’ve made him a martyr for all the troubles people have had with their own insurance companies,” he said.
“I mean, who hasn’t had run-ins with their insurance? But he’s a stone-cold killer.”
The NYPD’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism said the killing of Thompson could set off a “contagion.”
Rebecca Weiner said the murder “is already being reflected in this torrent of online vitriol that we’ve been in the midst of since last Wednesday and the lionization of the alleged perpetrator of the murder as a hero.”
Who is Luigi Mangione?
LUIGI 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 and graduated as the valedictorian from the private all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore.
He had no prior criminal history and was said to have been a model student, soccer player, and all-around athlete at high school.
One former student from the Gilman School told The U.S. Sun that 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.”
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 State Delegate Nino Mangione.
