Much has happened in the week since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot in cold blood on a New York City sidewalk. A nameless suspect, caught on video, was finally arrested after employees at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania turned him in. Luigi Mangione is now in police custody. Mangione’s alleged actions were evil, and the reactions of support for him have been nearly as disturbing.
Mangione, 26, is alleged to have pulled the trigger and shot an unsuspecting and innocent man to death. To a segment of the population, he has become a folk hero. If Thompson represented the healthcare industry at large, Mangione represented disgruntled and debt-laden patients. For some, that scenario makes Mangione’s alleged actions right. Excusing murder is alarming enough, but on top of the rationalization of cold-blooded killing is an element of attraction to Mangione.
Health insurance is a sore subject for most Americans. Because of that, there’s almost an unspoken approval to view Mangione as “not that bad.” His social media profile, photos and videos from his past, and even mugshot show a young man with an attractive face and build. That has turned into a very public wave of hybristophilia, which is sexual attraction to criminals. Jimmy Kimmel joked about members of his staff expressing their admiration for and attraction to Mangione. At the Daily Mail, author Clara Gaspar wrote about the “hot assassin” and described Mangione as a “smouldering Italian American.” For a brief while, Etsy even had pro-Mangione merchandise. The company has since removed all of it.
None of this is new. Ted Bundy was a notorious serial killer who confessed to murdering at least 30 women and girls during his reign of terror. Despite his monstrous acts, including necrophilia, he received love letters, marriage proposals, and intense fascination from some women. He was seen as handsome, charming, and confident even though he took the lives of many young females over the years. In 2019, Netflix released a four-part series called Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. That spawned new interest and even new admiration for a man who was the embodiment of evil, and Bundy is not the only killer who has received positive attention.
There is simply no excuse for this kind of response. Frankly, it adds another level to the horror. Taking the life of another human being is not more acceptable if the murderer is objectively attractive. If Mangione were physically unappealing, these same individuals might look at him with more disdain, which, in itself, is a deep sickness.
I don’t know why some are magnetically drawn to murderers. If anything, Mangione’s brokenness and distance from family and friends show an unstable person who desperately wants to cause harm. The same women who think he’s cute could easily have been a target. Someone so mentally unhinged he murdered an innocent man in cold blood is not to be trusted by anyone. Apparently, this kind of obvious statement needs to be said.
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The majority of Americans had not heard of Thompson until news of his death. He deserved so much more than having his life cut short by a crazed stranger. He also deserves more than to be the subject of derision when it was he, and not Mangione, who was the victim on Dec. 4. Those making light of the situation should be ashamed of themselves, but I doubt they’re capable of that.
Our social media-obsessed culture has quick access to information and commentary that other generations did not. However, the internet has also obscured what is right and wrong, incentivizing users to base morality merely on what we see. To some, Luigi Mangione is a sympathetic figure. To others, his appearance clouds all judgment. In reality, Mangione’s alleged crime makes him as ugly as any human can get.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a contributing freelance columnist at the Freemen News-Letter.