A Killer Who Planned His Own Arrest

This is a man intent on starting a revolution. And he knows damn well he'll have eager followers already.

---

In my Sunday essay about the then-unknown murderer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, I asserted that there was a serious possibility the killer might escape. He was clearly very intelligent, and he could’ve hopped on a plane that night and found a new life in a non-extradition treaty country outside the reach of law enforcement.

Maybe Vladimir Putin would bring him on board to Operation Subvert America. Perhaps Edward Snowden could use a new playmate. Surely Luigi Mangione would select his namesake for their “Mario Kart 64” competitions. I imagine Snowden was more of a Yoshi man. I tended to prefer Princess Peach, myself—perhaps an expression of my own adolescent sexual confusion, or maybe I just thought she was hot.

So here are some questions to ponder tonight as the prosecution of Mangione for allegedly murdering Thompson begins:

Why didn't Mangione discard the murder weapon and his collection of fake IDs, which could be matched to the hostel where he stayed? It seems the sensible thing to do would have been to destroy all of this evidence. Mangione, with his serious education, would have known this.

Why did he literally have a “manifesto” on his person confessing to the crime and making crystal clear his motive of declaring a war against the American healthcare system?

Why did he put himself in such a vulnerable position to be identified and apprehended at a fuckin’ McDonalds? (And bro, making war against healthcare insurance companies and getting busted with an Egg Mcmuffin in your mouth does not exactly send the most coherent critique of who’s to blame for America’s health problems. If you’d decided to eliminate fast-food CEOs, you might have actually accomplished more for America’s health crisis.)

With these questions unanswered, it sure looks like Mangione had intended to let police capture him. This was his plan all along. Reports have emerged that Mangione suffered from chronic back pain as a result of a surfing accident. His friends said he was never the same afterward. One landlord even said that his injury prevented Mangione from dating and/or having sex.

As the aphorism goes: There’s nothing more dangerous in this world than a man with nothing to lose.

And Mangione apparently became that man. It appears that his injuries were so bad that it could have led him to suicide. He probably grappled with what to do to end the pain. I can certainly relate: my PTSD has driven me to such places for years, where the pain is so bad that suicide sounds like relief, and if you’re going to go out, then you might as well punish the ones who were responsible for what happened to you.

Yes, my friends, deeply dark thoughts of all manner emerge when the body and mind writhe in pain. Without my eccentric mix of Jewish, Christian, Hermetic, and 1960s spiritual practices, along with

Sally Shideler

’s support, then I’m not sure I’d have made it through all this.

---

So here’s my new suspicion about what’s going to happen moving forward as Mangione has chosen to use his extremely high level of intelligence not to escape the country, but to inspire and lead a radical, violent, and, in fact, revolutionary movement.

It seems that Mangione’s object at this point is fairly simple: to inspire copycat attacks on healthcare CEOs, as a way to push for systemic reforms and transformations in the industry. He lost faith in the political process to fix these problems, so he made the moral calculation that murdering one man could, in turn, result in exponentially more lives being saved. I'm not saying I endorse this, of course. But you can understand from a utilitarian perspective this could make sense to someone who rejects the 10 Commandments.

Now let me just throw one other curveball into the mix: From the clues on Mangione’s X account and his book selections on GoodReads, there is a very strong possibility that a factor in this murder could have been a use of psychedelics.

Yes, Mr. Psychedelic Zionist here is totally honest with the reality that a major psychedelic experience — particularly at “Heroic Dose” level with psilocybin — could have contributed to Mangione having the courage and the drive and the philosophy to do what he did. A huge dose of psychedelics can result in a sense of fearlessness and a deep change in mentality to take one’s values to the next level. They aren’t a panacea — these substances can very much be used for good or evil.

And the great mystical revelations that come from high levels of spiritual practice can, in fact, lead some people into madness and self-destruction. Some of the ideas can be very scary, which is why, in occult tradition, they are usually revealed in an initiatory structure one at a time, as the adept rises.

---

So welcome to the new era of domestic terrorism. Everyone online soaking in the praise for Mangione can see what’s happening. The glorification of this guy is going to inspire other people to try the same thing—and to then try and top one another. To a generation raised on perpetual gameplay, this will now be the greatest game of all. How many angry Gen-Z youth out there have played a bit too much Hitman or Assassin’s Creed and also love to play around with 3-D printing?

If someone is so depressed that they’re going to kill themselves, why not go out with a literal bang and take out as many CEOs as you can? Go from zero to hero just like that!

Mangione is not going anywhere. This piece of shit is going to be haunting us all the rest of our lives, taunting us all from prison with new missives and fresh directions for his followers.

The theme of the previous article was that justice could be so elusive; that most evil people weren’t really punished. And even though it now looks like Mangione is going to spend the rest of his life imprisoned (no death penalty in New York), there’s no justice. Because this is what he wants. He’ll be a Big Man in prison. He’ll get the respect of other inmates while his intelligence and charisma may get him even farther. And who knows? Maybe the motherfucker will be smart enough to manage an escape attempt or two. That would certainly make for exciting television again. What American doesn’t love a good manhunt?

But certainly Mangione now has a constituency which is eager to hear his revolutionary message. And he will now be able to expound on his ideas for the rest of his life. And eager readers will gobble them up, and criminology analysts will pore through them. I’m certainly going to have to read some of his shit and analyze it from an ideological perspective.

But prepare yourself, my friends. This is only going to get much hotter.