After the suspected killer of UnitedHeathcare CEO Brian Thompson was revealed to be Luigi Mangione, a bright young man from a well-to-do family, thousands of pundits rushed to tell us why he did it. I, however, held back, because unlike them I’d actually met Luigi, and I knew all was not what it seemed.
For days after the revelation, my phone buzzed incessantly from journalists asking me for comment. I found it hard to say anything coherent, because my mind was a storm, constantly replaying memories of my interactions with the suspect, trying to find meaning in even our most banal exchanges.
In the days since, I’ve developed some detachment from the situation, and now feel clear-headed enough to offer my full opinion. So here it is.
Luigi first reached out to me via email on April 6 th. He said he was a longtime fan of my work, and had just purchased a $200 founding membership to this blog, which entitled him to a two-hour video-call with me. A month later, on May 5 th, we had our chat.
He was warm and gregarious from the outset, praising my writing and telling me how excited he was to speak with me. He said he was on holiday in Japan, which prompted me to ask him about it. He replied that while he loved many aspects of Japanese culture, such as its sense of honor, he believed Japan was full of “ NPCs” (people who don’t think for themselves). He then told me a story he’d first mentioned in an email: one morning he saw a man having a seizure in the street, so he ran to the nearest police station for help. They followed him back to the man, but refused to cross any street if the stoplight was red — even if the road was empty — as the man was seizing on the ground. Luigi lamented what he called “a lack of free-will” in Japan, by which he meant a lack of agency.