Given the overwhelming media and public attention, it stands to reason that new information regarding Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will keep coming to light throughout this year.
On Monday, Jan. 6, TMZ Investigates releases Luigi Mangione: The Mind of a Killer. This documentary is marketed by the media outlet as addressing the questions of how “a man with so much privilege [could] turn into an assassin… and why” he allegedly chose the UnitedHealthcare CEO as his target.
Although the trailer for the documentary screams sensationalism at its finest – one man overconfidently declares that “Luigi had a dark side, possibly stemming from mental illness” – the TMZ Investigates team seems to have uncovered a few facts that had yet to become public knowledge or reported by any other publication. In particular, TMZ spoke with two of Mangione’s travel companions, with whom he vacationed in Thailand.
Insights from Mangione’s trip to Asia
Paul and Max are two German nationals who traveled for one and a half weeks with Luigi Mangione in Thailand. The trip took place at the end of March, about six months before the day Brian Thompson was shot on his way to an investors’ meeting.
When asked by the interviewer if, considering the events of Dec. 4, the suspected killer had done anything during the trip that could be perceived as odd, the pair revealed that the day they were supposed to go to the beach as a group, Mangione chose to go to a shooting range instead. He later revealed to his travel friends that the experience had been quite expensive.
Equally expensive – even more so, perhaps – was Mangione’s decision to purchase 400 copies of Jash Dholani’s Hit Reverse: New Ideas From Old Books, which costs $25 in paperback from Amazon. Supposing Mangione bought 400 paperback versions – and not the $30 hardcover – this would mean he would have spent 10 thousand dollars on the purchase. According to Max and Paul, Mangione’s excuse for having spent such an insane amount on the same book by a relatively unknown author was that he merely “wanted to support this guy” and “give him feedback.”
For an author whose “next goal is to write a bestseller,” as per Dholani’s Amazon biography, such a seemingly charitable action must have caught their eye. Indeed, getting Dholani to notice and talk to him may well have been Mangione’s intention. True to the part of himself that’s a valedictorian and an Ivy League graduate, who’s also ostensibly well-read, Mangione made a paper copy of the book and added handwritten annotations. Later, in May, he traveled to Mumbai to meet with the author.
By asking a blatantly leading question, the TMZ interviewer attempted to get Paul and Max to label their friend as “arrogant.” However, from what I have gathered after repeatedly covering Mangione and his alleged crime since early December, while the 26-year-old certainly appears to have unyielding convictions, one would be closer to hitting the mark by calling him opinionated rather than arrogant. As an individual with strong beliefs, Mangione might have wanted to discuss them with someone with comparably strong opinions – as one can tell from the tone and content of Dholani’s X posts.
In the lead-up to his alleged crime, his interest in conversing with Dholani might have been a means to cement his motivations that one can interpret as having to do with a deep-seated frustration with the human collateral of corporate greed. The fact that Mangione spent thousands of dollars on hundreds of copies of the same book speaks to the financial recklessness of a man who has very concrete, tunnel-vision priorities. Plus, Mangione loved traveling and did so despite his back problems, which could have been his last knowing taste of freedom.
But this is all pure speculation. At the end of the day, what remains true and unchanging is that Luigi Mangione still is, and will continue to be for now, innocent until proven in the court of law that he is not.