Luigi Mangione’s face is now familiar worldwide, following his arrest for allegedly killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in Manhattan. But new details on the life and background of the Ivy League-educated 26-year-old are still emerging by the hour.
Mangione, in custody in Pennsylvania following a five-day manhunt and facing a second-degree murder charge in New York, [struggled with police and yelled out](https://www.startribune.com/luigi-mangione-charged-uhc-ceo-shot/601193083) as he entered an extradition hearing on Tuesday.
Those who knew Mangione are now trying to reconcile the friendly computer science major with the suspect who allegedly shot and killed Thompson and was arrested carrying a short manifesto criticizing health insurance companies for putting profits above care and specifically singling out UnitedHealthcare, according to the New York Times and CNN.
Mangione was born in 1998 to Louis and Kathleen Mangione, and was part of a well-known family in Maryland that owned a wide range of businesses. Luigi’s grandfather, Nick Mangione Sr., and his wife purchased a golf course and country club in Howard County in the 1970s. It included a 220-room hotel, a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and an 85-seat amphitheater, according to the Washington Post. They had five daughters and five sons, including Luigi’s father Louis.
They later bought another country club and a radio station in the 1980s. Mangione Sr. died in 2008, but his children have continued to run the family businesses.
Thomas J. Maronick Jr., a lawyer and radio host who knew Mangione Sr., praised the family, describing them as “incredibly generous.” He said they were generous with charities.
Maronick Jr. said he was shocked that Luigi Mangione has been named as the shooter. “Given the family, and how generous and supportive of charity they are, and the esteem their name carries in Maryland, it’s the last person you’d expect,” he said.
Former classmates at the Gilman School, an all-boys, $37,000 a year private school in Baltimore, told the New York Times that Luigi Mangione was intelligent. They said he made mobile apps before college, and participated in clubs including model U.N. and robotics.