Luigi Mangione is a "terrorist" whose actions in killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson terrorized some 40 other executives at the company, a New York prosecutor said Wednesday. The executives, some of whom received death threats, were so afraid following Thompson's murder that they hired bodyguards, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote in an evening court filing, which served to counter defense lawyers' efforts to have a state terrorism charge dropped. One dyed her hair and relocated for fear she would be targeted next, Seidemann said, per Business Insider. Others refused to sign their names on denial letters, and some fearful UHC physicians quit their jobs.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate who is charged with shooting Thompson from behind on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Dec. 4 as the CEO walked to an investors' conference, "made crystal clear that his target was the insurance industry," which he viewed as "a deadly greed-fueled cartel," Seidemann wrote. In writings seized by law enforcement, Mangione referred to Thompson as "a greedy bastard that had it coming" and to UnitedHealthcare as "a company that literally extracts human life force for money," adding he hoped Thompson's murder would deal "a real blow to the company financials," the filing reads, per Insider and Courthouse News.
Interestingly, Mangione's writings indicate he avoided using a bomb because, as he wrote according to the filing, "bombs=terrorism," per CNN. Such attacks are "counter-productive" because they lose public support, he allegedly wrote. Seidemann described Mangione as "a revolutionary anarchist" who sought to overthrow the established healthcare system, adding his actions inspired "a broader campaign of threats of violence against UHC employees and other health insurance workers." In a UHC call center recording, heard by the grand jury, an individual said "you are gonna hang" and that Thompson's murder was "just a start," Insider reports.
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