After Luigi Mangione was arrested, a lot of information came out about him. People started wondering why there isn’t as much information available about Thomas Crooks, the person who allegedly wanted to assassinate Donald Trump.
Mangione, a 26-year-old from a well-off family in Baltimore with an Ivy-league education, was thrust into the spotlight following his arrest in Pennsylvania. Details about his family and personal life started to surface rapidly.
His cousin, who is a Maryland state delegate, along with his friends from Hawaii and Baltimore, shared personal stories about him. People on social media also started to investigate his online activities, including the books he had recently read.
But almost five months after Crooks shot Trump’s ear and killed a rally-goer in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, that gunman’s life remains shrouded in mystery.
Crooks’ true motive for firing at Trump remains unclear, as he was a registered Republican with no internet presence or clear signs of previous anti-Trump sentiment.
And even as the Congressional task force on Crooks’ assassination attempt wrapped up its work last week, chairman Rep. Mike Kelly admitted to Meet the Press: ‘There’s so many missing pieces on this one … How could there be so many missing pieces?’
The unanswered questions and mysterious factors led some to draw comparisons between Crooks and Mangione.
Conservative commentator Greg Price led the charge, saying on X just hours after Mangione’s arrest: ‘We now know more about Luigi in five hours than we have learned about Thomas Crooks in 3 months.’
Within hours of the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a trove of information and intimate details of his background had been revealed
Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Donald Trump’s ear in a would-be assassination on July 13, remains a mystery to the public as elected officials probing the shooting say they are being ‘stonewalled’
Price went on to assert that the wall of silence amid the Crooks investigation ‘is one of the many reasons America needs Kash Patel at the FBI.’
He was citing Donald Trump’s nomination of controversial intelligence chief Kash Patel to run the FBI, who has pledged to radically overhaul the Bureau and release a trove of classified documents related to a number of past investigations.
While his public comments that have drawn the most scrutiny involve his pledge to release files from the JFK assassination, this sentiment could see Patel – if approved by the Senate – offer more information over Crooks’ background.
The FBI’s role in the investigation of Crooks’ assassination attempt drew backlash in the weeks after the shooting, including its decision to cremate the gunman’s remains just 10 days later.
The cremation was revealed by Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins, who launched his own investigation into Crooks’ shooting after being frustrated by the probe.
Higgins, appointed to Congress’ bipartisan task force reviewing the assassination attempt, tried to view Crooks’ body on August 5, but said his request ’caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact’.
He wrote in his report at the time that he then learned that the FBI had ‘released the body for cremation 10 days’ after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Higgins says ‘nobody knew’ that the body had been returned to the family, including the county coroner and local enforcement. He writes that the coroner still had ‘legal authority over the body’ when the FBI made this decision and accuses the agency of ‘obstruction’.
The FBI released the body of Crooks only ten days after his assassination attempt on former President Trump, a Louisiana congressman claimed earlier this year
Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana who was appointed to the bipartisan task force reviewing the assassination attempt, tried to view Crooks’ body on August 5 as part of his own personal investigation but said it was ‘gone’
The congressman’s report came amid concerns over how the shooting was allowed to unfold, with Trump barely escaping with his life and a rally attendee being killed in what was one of the greatest security failings in American history.
Since Higgins’ revelations, very little information has been released, culminating in Kelly’s admission last week that the Congressional task force has struggled.
But while attempts to look into Crooks’ background led Kelly’s colleague Rep. Jason Crow, the task force’s ranking member, to claim he was being ‘stonewalled’, information about Mangione was seemingly much easier to come by.
Intimate details of Mangione’s backstory came to light within hours of his arrest, largely due to his prolific online presence in comparison to Crooks’ lack of social media history.
Friends of the suspected killer also revealed soon after his arrest that he went ‘absolutely crazy’ after a painful back surgery and explored psychedelic treatment for his chronic pain, it was revealed.
Friends said Mangione dropped off the radar when ‘everything changed’ after a surfing accident – and it has now been reported he singled out UnitedHealthcare in a ‘manifesto’ he was carrying.
Mangione, allegedly seen in this surveillance image of the killer released by the NYPD, was arrested by cops on Monday after a Pennsylvania McDonald’s worker recognized him
The suspect, seen in his arrest, was allegedly found with a handwritten manifesto, a firearm and silencer in his bag
In stark contrast to the mystery behind Crooks’ motivations, Mangione’s alleged motives could not be clearer as he wrote in a 262-word handwritten document of how Thompson’s company ‘abused our country for immense profit.’
‘These parasites had it coming. I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,’ he allegedly wrote.
A former roommate of Mangione’s has told CNN: ‘I remember he said he had a back issue, and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii.
The experience was ‘really traumatic and difficult’ for him, the roommate said while adding that Mangione sent him X-ray images of his spine. ‘It looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine,’ Martin said.
Mangione suddenly went ‘radio silent’ while recovering. He sought alternative forms of pain management, including psychedelics and magic mushrooms.
The differences between Mangione’s background and the mystery surrounding Thomas Crooks led many to question why authorities struggled so much more when investigating Trump’s shooter.
Juanita Broaddrick, who famously accused former President Bill Clinton of rape in 1978, waded into the controversy on X.
‘They apparently have the man who committed the mu*der of Brian Thompson six days ago and yet… it’s been 5 months since Trump was shot in Butler and we still know nothing about Thomas Crooks,’ she wrote.
‘Wonder why?’
Another X user added: ‘We know Luigi Mangione’s life story pretty much down to how he likes his coffee within hours of the shooting.
‘Let’s do Thomas Crooks now. I’ll wait.’
