Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, now has a verified social media account on X (formerly Twitter), with over 370,000 followers as of Tuesday.
His account had briefly been deleted following his arrest, but after being reinstated, Mangione’s profile received the official blue check mark, which now appears in his bio. His bio also reads “M.S.E. and B.S.E. in Computer Science @ Penn” and mentions that he joined X in April 2016.
This move followed a controversy when Elon Musk responded to an X user who posted a screenshot of the suspended account, saying, “This happened without my knowledge. Looking into it.” The account was quickly restored.
Mangione, a former Ivy League student, was arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with the fatal shooting of Thompson, 50, last Wednesday. Police found a gun, a silencer, four fake IDs, and a manifesto on him. Mangione held strong resentment against the US healthcare system, particularly after the deaths of his grandparents, as reported by New York Post. He had worked in an assisted-living facility in 2014 and was known to subscribe to anti-capitalist and climate-change causes.
A member of a wealthy Maryland family with political ties, Mangione was charged with murder following the killing. He was identified by an individual at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, who recognised him from media reports. During his extradition hearing, Mangione shouted at the waiting media, calling their questions “an insult to the intelligence of the American people and the lived experience.”
According to reports, Mangione’s LinkedIn suggests he is a data engineer at a car company based in California, although he lists his current residence as Honolulu, Hawaii.
