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Mangione Episode 1: Christmastime in Altoona

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Today, we're sharing the first episode of a new five-part series, "Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione." In episode one, the manhunt for the alleged shooter of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson comes to...

Transcript

EN

Hi, I'm ABC News Legal Analyst Brian Buckmeyer.

You might remember me as the host of the award-winning podcast, Bad Rapp, the Case Against

Diddy.

And now I'm back with a new true crime podcast from ABC Audio and 2020, called "Burdon

Approve" Luigi Mangione. In December 2024, United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson was fadly shot on a New York City sidewalk. Followed by a federal trial in January, 2027. He's pled not guilty to all charges.

From the very beginning, this case has captivated the country and affected the conversation about healthcare in America. And in this new podcast, I'll go inside it all. From the manhunt to the frenzy Mangione is captured sparked to the different paths of these two men before authorities say they ended up on opposite sides of a loaded gun.

Keep listening now to hear episode 1. If you like it, we're sharing new episodes right here on Mondays for the next four weeks. You can also hear it ad-free by subscribing to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts. Now, here's episode 1, a "Burdon Approve" Luigi Mangione. ESPN Fantasy Football is now the official fantasy game of the NFL.

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You're number one, what is the address of your emergency?

It's December 9th, 2024, in Altuna, Pennsylvania, a small town between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

It's finally in the emergency city.

I'm a manager at playing for a McDonald's out here on the Boulevard. A McDonald's manager says there's a guy eating a hash brown and stake McMuffin in the corner of her restaurant. He's sitting by the bathroom wearing a tan beany and a blue medical mask. I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of, that he looks like

the CEO's shooter from New York. The CEO's shooter from New York, the one whose face has been all over the news for five days ever since he allegedly shot and killed an executive in Midtown Manhattan. She says she's not sure it's him, but she's calling it in anyway because she says customers keep bringing it up to her.

So, there's just really upset and they're coming to me and I was like, well, I can't approach them, you know? No, of course not. At the side of the column, I'm down a little bit, and I'm in size, it's kind of worth to tell if there's eyes and the eyes, brows, I'm like, I don't know what to do here

guy. You're fine, you're fine. Less than five minutes into the column, the operator tells the manager that police officers have been notified. Two patrolmen are on their way to the Plank Road McDonald's.

Just keep an eye on him if he leaves, just give it the call back and let us know, okay?

Already, we'll do, alright, thank you. Bye, bye, bye. When Patrolman Joseph Debtwiler gets the call to respond to the McDonald's, he's also skeptical. There's someone snacking on a McDonald's sandwich and Debtwiler's small town.

He thinks, no way, this guy's the CEO's shooter. In fact, he is so sure he says he makes a bet with his supervisor. If it really turns out to be the guy wanted from murder in New York, I'll buy a hogey at your favorite sandwich shop. That's my colleague, Aaron Katarsky, chief investigative correspondent and ABC News.

He's been following this case closely from the very beginning. In state court, he heard officers testify about the McDonald's call. Officer Debtwiler, a veteran on the force, said he spent the morning driving around Al tuna with rookie com, Tyler Frye. Debtwiler was training Frye in traffic stops when they got the call.

They arrived at the McDonald's around 929 AM. It was decked out for the holidays. The Christmas tree painted on the window, matched the golden arches. There was Christmas music playing in the background.

We reviewed body camera footage from when the officers first walk in and if you listen closely,

you can hear that Christmas music. As the officers walk inside, you can see touch screens for a self-checkout, garland decorating the registers and signs for $5 meal deals. The officers head past the registers and booths straight to the back corner of the restaurant.

The area by the restroom where there's a lone individual with a mask against ...

tile wall.

There's a brown McDonald's bag and a napkin on the table in front of him.

Debtwiler asked the customer to pull down his mask.

The man pulls down his mask and leaves it just under his chin. He's looking up at Debtwiler from the metal restaurant chair as he fills with the mask loop around his ear. And he testified that almost immediately, he recognized him as the individual, wanted for the murder of Brian Thompson in New York City.

The man tells the officers his name is Mark. Mark, what? He hands him a driver's license. It says he's Mark Rosario from Maplewood, New Jersey.

Please call the ID into dispatch and establish it's a fake.

And this man isn't Mark Rosario from Maplewood, New Jersey. But you already knew that, didn't you? The man sitting up against that subway tile wall is identified by authorities, as Luigi Mangione. The man accused of fatally shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City

sidewalk just five days earlier. Police and prosecutors say Mangione is their guy. He faces charges in both New York State and federal court. Mangione says he's innocent.

People have all kinds of opinions about this alleged killer.

Is he a cold-blooded murderer or a hero, vigilante?

But we're going to start at the very beginning of this story, before there was talk of heroes or villains, for this case through the spotlight onto America's broken healthcare industry, before most people knew the names Brian Thompson or Luigi Mangione. We're going back to when this was just about finding a gunman who vanished in the middle of Manhattan.

From ABC Audio and 2020, I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an attorney in ABC News legal analyst. And this is Birton of Proof, Luigi Mangione. Episode one, Christmas time in Altuna. It was the morning of December 4, 2024. Preparations were underway for the annual Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center.

Millions of tourists were streaming in from around the country and the world.

Just a few blocks away, United Health Group, the parent company of United Healthcare,

which is the biggest health insurer in the country, was holding an investor's conference at the Midtown Manhattan Hilton. Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare, was in town from Minnesota to attend. Meanwhile, please say, a man at a youth hostel on the upper west side of Manhattan was getting ready to commit murder.

And by the way, what you're about to hear is based on law enforcement sequence of events. After examining hours of surveillance footage and leapfrogging from camera to camera across New York City, they say they've pieced together the whereabouts of this man on this day in 2024. Here's Aaron Katersky again.

It's about 530 in the morning, before dawn. surveillance footage shows that the man leaves the hostel, gets an e-bike, and rides downtown. He arrives at a Hilton hotel's North entrance 11 minutes later. He's at West 54th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. He's seen walking seemingly talking on a cell phone.

He goes to Starbucks where he buys a water and a granola bar. A kind bar, please say, to be specific, the details matter here. And then eventually, he circles around back toward the Hilton hotel. And there is where police say he was lying in wait for his target. He allegedly lingers outside, masked, wearing a black-hitted jacket and a distinctive gray backpack.

What happens next will be captured on surveillance cameras, release the public, and played all over the news. At 644 AM, Brian Thompson comes out of the hotel where he was staying, wearing a crisp blue suit. He crosses 6th Avenue toward the Hilton where he set to present in about an hour.

Why is he leaving so early?

We don't know.

Maria Cramer reports on crime and the NYPD for the New York Times and covered this case

from the start.

He's all by himself, does not seem to be aware that he's a terrible danger.

Up to this point, the mass man has been ignoring everyone passing by him on the street. But it's at that moment that he accepts on Brian Thompson, crosses a street, steps out from behind a car, pulls up a weapon. He aims at Brian Thompson's back as a CEO is walking away from him and fires. The gun seems to jam, but the shooter appears to clear the malfunctions.

In total, he fires at his victim three times, from about 10 or 12 feet away. He's striking him in the calf and striking him in the back.

And Brian Thompson barely has time to whirl around to see what's happened when he collapses

on the sidewalk crumbling against a wall nearby. It's still early in the morning. There are only a few people out on the street.

When in his surveillance footage, you can see one woman on the sidewalk.

She sees the shooting and bolts unharmed. The gunman, however, just seems very calm, very composed, and he walks towards Brian Thompson, who is now dying and bleeding on the sidewalk, and appears to fire his gun again, and then he runs across the street. It was a reason assassination style killing.

And this happened on an avenue of fancy hotels and banks, right in the heart of New York City, right by radio city music hall, and Rockefeller Center, right by Broadway's glitzy theaters, and fifth avenue's designer stores, like Gucci, Coach, and Chanel. Now it's a race against the clock for emergency personnel to respond to the scene, for the police to investigate, and for the shooter to not get away.

As soon as the shots were fired, the killer escapes 54th street through an alleyway,

a short alleyway, onto West 50 5th street, and somewhere hops on a bicycle, an e-bike

stashed somewhere nearby. While the killer is fleeing, please call in the shooting over the radio.

"Come on in the mid-town, North's getting an circumference shot fired, possible first shots

having to be American." Police are on the scene by 648 AM. Officers tend to Thompson until an ambulance arrives, eight minutes later. They rush Thompson to a nearby hospital. At the same time, surveillance footage shows the gunmen writing into Central Park just six

blocks away. "In from there, the trail goes cold, because as many cameras as there are covering New York City streets, there are not as many in Central Park, and so his trail goes a bit cold. Until he's seen exiting the park on the bike and pedaling in the upper west side of the map."

"From there, things unfold quickly." By 7 AM, the suspect is seeing ditching the bike, according to Police in its 704, he's in a cab, heading up town, and Police say he was headed to the bus terminal by the George Washington Bridge. By 7-12 AM, Brian Thompson is pronounced dead at Mount Sinai West Hospital.

In a city full of cameras and people and subways, how could someone kill a CEO in the middle of Midtown Manhattan than just disappear? Where could you go? By the time most people are waking up and getting ready to head to work, a national manhunt is underway. The NYPD will work with the FBI and, eventually, members of the small,

but now famous Al tuna Police Department in Pennsylvania. Over the course of the search, officers will deploy drones, K-9 units, and scuba divers. They'll pour over surveillance footage from across Manhattan, those sort through hundreds of tips from the public. All to find one man. This show is supported by Chime. Let's be honest, no one likes paying bank fees. For a long

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Brian Thompson was a 50-year-old corporate executive from Minnesota. In one of the widely circulated pictures of him, he's wearing a light blue

colored shirt under a quarter-sip black sweater. He's got a closely trimmed beard with some specks of gray on his chin. He was a husband and a father of two. Why would someone shoot him on a mid-town street?

The NYPD police commissioner said from the start that it was a deliberate assassination. I want to be clear. At this time, every indication is that this was a pre-meditated, replanted, targeted attack. Thompson wasn't just any CEO. He was an executive at a health insurance company and one of the biggest companies in the United States. The police cycled through lots of potential theories on the shooters motive. Was it a vendetta against Brian Thompson personally? Did he owe people money? Was it a drug thing? An alcohol thing?

The police determined there's none of that. That's chief investigative reporter, Josh Margoan, who was also following this investigation for ABC News.

It looks to them in the earliest hours that this is something having to do with United Healthcare. Now, they didn't know if it was going to be some sort of a grudge against the company by somebody who was an insurance customer

or maybe it was somebody inside the company who had been denied a promotion or a sort of a workplace thing because that happens also. But they felt confident that this was going to be something associated with Brian Thompson or his workplace. And that's because of an early clue, please say they found at the crime scene. At the scene, we were called a three-wife nine-millimeter rounds and three discharged nine-millimeter shell casings. Bullets and shell casings. Here's Eric Tersky again. There were words written in Sharpie on each of them. The lay, the nigh, the pose, one word on each shell casing that had been meticulously handwritten and instantly police believed.

That was meant to send a message. Delay deny, depose, words used by insurance critics to describe how companies avoid paying claims. The words also echo the title of a book Delay deny, defend why insurance companies don't pay claims and what you can do about it. Maria Cramer, the New York Times reporter, says, "Please determine the message on these shell casings seemed like it was left there by a person with an ideology." The police have a sense that the person who has done this has a problem with corporate America specifically the healthcare industry.

This is motivated very much by who Brian Thompson was maybe not as a person, but certainly what he represented as an industry leader. In addition to those shell casings, investigators find a cell phone, a water bottle, and a kindbar wrapper at the scene. They lift DNA and fingerprints, hoping to identify the shooter, but they don't get any hits. They also examine the shooter's demeanor and method.

Could he be a hitman?

Ultimately, they reject that theory.

First of all, they noticed how far away the shooter was from Brian Thompson.

Detectors were saying to us that if this had been somebody who was really a trained assassin, he wouldn't have fired from 10 to 12 feet away. He would have fired from 5 or 7 feet away. He also not to be gruesome about it, but he took off before he made sure that his victim was dead. And trained assassins would not do that, but you see in the movies, they're going to make sure that they put the final kill shot into the victim. And that didn't happen.

Also, Josh points out, according to experts, the killer was too sloppy to be a hired hitman. There were too many things left to the scene. Things that could have been traced back to him, a hired assassin wouldn't do that. Authorities also look for clues in the grainy CCTV footage of the shooting. The murder weapon looks to authorities like a really rare gun.

So they look at recent sales of this type of gun and spot a sale at a Connecticut gun store.

But that lead doesn't go anywhere either.

As the days go on, police turn to the public to help identify the killer. The day after the shooting, they start releasing photos of the gunman from around the city. When encouraging New Yorkers to go about their daily lives and their daily business, but to be alert, we put the picture out, you're putting the picture out. We want people to take a look if they see anything suspicious, if they hear anything suspicious. We asked them to call 911 and reach out to our detectives.

There are two pictures from the Starbucks in Midtown, taken right before the shooting. The man with his hood over his head, that distinctive grey backpack over his shoulders, and a mask across his face. There's another two pictures of the suspect getting into a cab. He's distinct eyes and thick eyebrows are visible above his medical mask. And then there are two photos from the hostel where he was allegedly staying for a few days before the shooting.

He's still got his hood on in these pictures, but you can see his whole face, a young face, square jaw, neutral and one, smiling in the other. This moment, when he was checking into the hostel, is the only time we see him unguarded.

The only time he took his mask down according to police.

Some people online speculate he was smiling because he had been flirting with the clerk behind the hostel counter. Others think he was just obliging her and checking his ID. When the photos are released, people on the internet take notice. They say, he's a little easier on the eyes. They compare him to Jake Gillin-Hall and Zain Mallick.

Oh my god, he's fit. He's fit. He's fit. Cool everybody back in. Right now he's attractive.

He's attractive. He's attractive. Some people online seem to revel, not just in the suspect's handsomeness, but in the murder itself. Let's see what the comments have to say.

The hospital in that work did he really need to go to the ER?

It's not covered. Why did he try urging care sending prior authorization denied claims collections and prayers to his family? My condolences are out of nowhere. Well, you better raise everybody's medical debt or give us universal healthcare. You are not finding this motherf***er promise you that f***.

Instead of helping law enforcement hunt for the shooter, some people seem to be rooting for him to get away. Have this whole community on social media and on the internet that's out there saying, they don't want the suspect caught. They're this explosion of sarcasm they're talking about.

He went that way. He went that way. There are people who are saying, I'll hide the guy. I'm him. I'm gonna, you know, help him on the run.

The autonomic Donalds eventually got swept up in all of this. It was flooded with one star yelp reviews about employees talking too much. One person wrote, more like, "Nark Donalds." While things unfold online on the ground, officers continue their sprawling search for the suspect.

And my PD deploys an army to Manhattan. They have cops all over the crime scene. Any area around the crime scene going door to door talking to people. Trying to get video. You have cops by the hostel where he stayed.

You have cops up town. Around the area where he comes out of the park and he's seen on the bike. You have scuba divers, in central park. Diving, looking for the bike, maybe he dipped it into the lake. You have drones overhead trying to see what they can tell.

Is there something over the park? Is there something on the street?

Two days after the shooting, they find something by the central park ban shell. A gray backpack. It looks like the one the shooter is wearing in the surveillance footage from outside the hilton. In that backpack, included a Tommy hill figure jacket

Monopoly money.

And the play money to detectives seemed like some kind of message the killer was trying to send.

Literally toying with investigators, play money. There's no helpful evidence. Nothing tying anyone to the crime. Just the monopoly money. Like something straight out of a Batman comic,

with the riddler leaving a stack of play money behind. Police are also trying to figure out where the suspect might have fled. They only learned later that he did not leave from the George Washington Bridge uptown bus terminal. That he actually went back downtown on the subway to Penn Station about seven miles away. Penn Station is one of the busiest places in New York.

You've got trains going to watch the city, Boston, Philadelphia. But in the early days of the manhunt, investigators think if they can figure out where the gunman came from, they can figure out where he went. So they say they rewind surveillance footage all the way back to ten days before the shooting. And when they do that, they see the gunman arriving in New York through the port authority bus terminal.

His greyhound bus originated in Atlanta.

The first thing he did when he arrived, according to police, was go straight to the Hilton to "case the joint."

So, law enforcement fans out all along the bus route, starting in Atlanta. They sent for least to every single jurisdiction along the way, 13 stops coming up to New York.

And they wanted to find out that anybody see him, when did he get on, when did he get off to the same thing to anybody?

From that search, the police tell ABC News privately, they had two possible persons of interest. They didn't end up arresting either of those people. Turns out, the police really weren't any closer to catching the shooter than they had been. No arrest is made, the manhunt continues. The NYPD offers a $10,000 reward, then the FBI joins in and offers a $50,000 reward.

Hundreds of tips come in, but they're no help. One day passes, two days, three, four, five, still no arrest. Over the weekend, Saturday night live, hooks fun at the reactions to the shooting.

The guy was murdered and cold blood, and the two main reactions were, yeah, well, healthcare stinks.

And also, girl, that's shooter hot. And folks fun at the ongoing search for the shooter. Josh Margoellan says that after five or six days pass in a search like this, please fear that the hunt might not end until the suspect makes a mistake, or they get a lucky break. Well, on the sixth day, they do get a lucky break.

That call for the McDonald's, and I'll tune up Pennsylvania. The Hulu Original Series, Furious, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. There are three victims we know of. The suspect is female, white, late 20th. Female, serial killer is killed for power, control.

I believe there's a deeper motivation here.

You have no idea who you're telling us, and you're gonna end up dead. I've been waiting for you. Watch the Hulu Original Series, Furious, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus, for one of the subscribers, from supply. Sophistication, class, restraint, dignity.

None of these words have anything to do with Super Troopers 3. One, two, three, go! Woo hoo hoo! Or in the house! You guys are too drunk already!

Now, infant. No new info on the guy who did it. Oh, so couldn't have been a woman. Sex is. You ever see Oceans 8?

Enough. Super Troopers 3. We outplay only infant, rated up under 17, not admitted without fit. In a sunny California in summer, one family's home is unusually quiet. When detectives walked into that house, they said that it was like time just stood still.

It's 2010, and the mixed day family is nowhere to be found. Inside the home, no clear answer where the family could have gone. Husband, wife, and two children all gone, like, puff disappeared. Search for the mixed days, quickly captures the nation. But for years, the search for answers only brings more questions.

Who's ever heard of an entire family going missing?

A family of four doesn't just drop off the face of the earth with no contact. Is this a family on the run? Or is the truth far more sinister? From ABC Audio in 2020, this is what happened to the mixed days. Coming August 11th, wherever you get your podcast,

or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes,

Early access to new episodes, and so much more.

Five days after the murder, Officer Debtwiler and Officer Fry are in the Altoona McDonald's.

They're beginning to question the customer that the manager called about.

The one we now know is Luigi Mangione. To officers at the time, Mangione wasn't Mangione. He was just a man at a fast food restaurant eating his breakfast. A man who allegedly handed over a fake license when officers asked for his ID. You heard a brief body camera recording earlier in the episode,

but the rest of the hour-long encounter hasn't been released to the public yet. But lucky for us, Aaron Katersky wasn't caught for a pre-trial hearing, where attorneys played and replayed the body camera video in its entirety, over and over and over again.

Every angle from every officer that came to the McDonald's

in response to this man sitting in the corner eating his breakfast. After the man handed over the Mark Rosario ID,

Officer Debtwiler testified that something crucial happened,

something that sort of sealed a deal on the officer's suspicion. There's a question that Debtwiler asks the man which is have you ever been in New York. And at that point, the man falls silent and doesn't really answer the question. Court records say Mangione begins to shake. Watching the video in court, Aaron didn't quite see it that way.

He thought Mangione was more mellow than panicked, but he does agree, Mangione fell silent. And that seemed to firm up the officer's suspicion that this is exactly who they're looking for. According to court documents, Debtwiler asks Mangione to put his hands on his head

and the officers frisk him before ordering him to sit back down. He's got a black backpack with him.

Officers, at this point, move the backpack away from Mangione.

And then, at around 9.45 in the morning, about 15 minutes into the interaction, the officers establish his real identity.

He says his name, and at first, none of the officers can quite get it.

Luigi, Luigi, Luigi, how do you spell it? And then, Mangione, Mangi what? And then, it's written down by officer fry in a small notebook he'd keep in your back pocket. It's then that officers read Mangione his Miranda warnings.

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court, etc. They place him under arrest, handcuffed, and zip tie his wrist, and in an ironic twist. As Luigi Mangione is being formally placed under arrest,

the speakers above are blaring big crossbees, singing all be home for Christmas. And at that point, it becomes clear that Mangione will not be home for Christmas. Once, please have a name, Luigi Mangione, they run it through their databases, and things accelerate.

Officer search him again and find nothing. And then, his backpack is moved a bit farther away from him, as the officers call supervisors and start to figure out how to handle this guy. At this point, it's not just debt-wiler and fry dealing with Mangione. Lots of officers show up.

Aaron says their position near the restroom. Eventually, they're standing around Mangione, kind of filling in his whole corner where he's seated. And, eventually, there are more than a dozen officers that come to the McDonald's, and participate in one way or another.

A substantial portion, nearly a fifth of the entire Altuna Police Department. Next, body camera footage shows that they search Mangione's backpack. They search him again too, checking his jacket and frisking him, and say the fanceteries. He's wearing multiple layers of clothing.

A big puffy coat, and then a thinner jacket, shirt, under shirt. He's got several pairs of pants on. And one of the officers begins to search the backpack. And as she does, she pulls out a pair of, as she described it, wet gray underwear, and wrapped in that article,

Is a magazine, ammunition.

A loaded gun magazine wrapped in wet underwear.

Plus, please say they found approximately $7,800 in cash in his wallet,

along with some foreign currency, and a passport. They say they search the backpack right that in there, without getting a warrant, to make sure there wasn't a "bomb" or anything in here. For a guy who surrounded by over a dozen cops, getting searched and questioned, Mangione appears to keep a pretty calm demeanor.

He does seem calm, and at one point, as the officers are checking his ID, even as they're arrayed around him, he carries on eating his breakfast, and finishes the sandwich. Wipes his mouth, crumples up the paper, collects his trash, and puts it all in the bag.

Eventually, Mangione gets transported to the Al tuna police precinct,

and brought to an intake area. And let me tell you, as a defense attorney, who seemed to intake process many, many times. In general, it's a pretty miserable scene.

Your pockets get emptied, eventually there's some finger printing photos get taken,

and then you get put in a jail cell. That loud, clanking door closing behind you. But Mangione also went through another layer of search. What's done, the Al tuna police said per their protocol, is effectively a strip search, and so he is made to take off most of the layers of clothing,

and eventually all of it, so they can do a thorough search of his person,

and then they go through item by item in the backpack, and place it all on a table.

And what it gets laid out on the table, please say, is really damning stuff. And those are the items that prosecutors now say, prove the crime. A nine millimeter handgun with a 3D printed receiver, and a homemade silencer. There are other items that prosecutors are quite interested in, including scraps of paper, where it appears Mangione wrote notes to himself.

Prosecutor says some of those notes indicated escape routes where there are crude maps,

drawn where you could get out of Pittsburgh or Columbus or Ohio or something like that.

There's also a note labeled to do list. According to court documents, the alleged to do list included notes to alter his appearance, change hat, shoes, pluck eyebrows, and bust a pen station. It also said, keep momentum, break cam continuity. As if he knew there were cameras following his movements,

and another telling bit of writing, especially to prosecutors, FBI slower overnight. And these were little reminders perhaps to himself, the way prosecutors see it, to try and stay on the run and out of sight as long as possible. There were two other hand-written items that were police,

where bombshell pieces of evidence. One, the contents of a red hardcover notebook authority say Mangione used as his diary. The target is insurance. It checks every box was one phrase. There was another phrase he used called the parasitic bean counter convention. The exact language was, what do you do?

You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean counter convention. It's targeted, precise, and doesn't risk innocence. And two, a brief letter labeled to the feds. It references failures of the American healthcare system and says, quote, "I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done.

Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming." A judge has since determined that some of the items, please say, if they found in Mangione's backpack, will be in admissible in court. Other items will be allowed. We'll get into all of that in a later episode.

Back to December 2024. The alternative police department has got all of these items, but the murder didn't happen in their jurisdiction. They can't charge Mangione for something he allegedly did in New York. They can, however, charge him for crimes he allegedly committed in Pennsylvania.

And that's exactly what they do. They charge him with forgery, carrying firearms without a license, possessing instruments of a crime, tampering with records, and false identification to authorities. Mangione has pled not guilty to all of those charges.

And they send word back to New York. We think we have your personal interest. That's ABC's Josh Margoan again. The New York police in the middle of a rainstorm

They start racing from Manhattan west on the interstate to get out to Altoona...

Through the morning we start hearing that police think it looks good.

That they're optimistic that this is the person they've been looking for.

The mayor and the police commissioner have a press conference. Midday. A good afternoon. And the mayor says that this is a strong person of interest. Someone and McDonald's employee did something we ask every American to do.

If you see something, say something, or most importantly, do something.

The chief of detective's share is what police knew about their strong person of interest.

A mayor was taken into custody today at Altoona, Pennsylvania this morning. He has been identified as Luigi, Nicholas, Mangione. He's a male 26 years old. He was born and raised in Maryland.

We know he had taught he has taught he's a San Francisco California.

And his last known address was Honolulu Hawaii. Soon, authorities also say there is no indication that Mangione was ever a customer of United healthcare, something the company confirmed.

That's all police knew about Mangione back in the very early days of this case.

But quickly, Luigi Mangione became a household name. And according to journalists and some people who have followed the story closely, a symbol. What happened was that shooting really laid bare this wound in American culture. They feel like this guy is standing up to a system and they're celebrating it. How did a young man who, friends say, was brilliance and funny become the person

prosecutor say he is a cold-blooded killer, someone who planned and pulled off a daring public murder. This kid that I knew from high school is now the most popular profile killer allegedly in the country. It's so surreal. And how did a well-respected corporate executive who largely kept to himself become a victim of what police considered a targeted assassination?

It is unfair that one person, this man who's been murdered, is being held responsible in the public's eyes for the failings of an entire industry and frankly, a system. A murder is a murder. I cannot reconcile that there is such a thing as a just murder. What put these two men on a collision course?

What put them at the heart of a national frenzy, prior bigger than both of them?

Burt in a proof, Luigi Mangeoni, is a production of ABC audio and 2020, hosted by me, Ryan Buckmeier. Produced by Vika Arenson and Audrey Mostick, our lead producer is Camille Peterson, edited by Tracy Samuelson, music by Evan Viola, mixing by Bob Mallory, special things to Katie Dendos, Sasha's Lameon, Michelle Margallis, Tanya Simpson, Aaron Katersky, Josh Margolan, Peter Harlombos, Jared Kovsky, Jake Leferman, and Katie Maldowni.

Josh Cohatt is our director of podcast programming. Amen McNiff is our executive producer. Bistaries unravel and stunning truths are revealed when 2020 investigates. Follow the clues, the evidence, the breaking new details. ABC's 2020 news, true murder mystery.

If you follow true crime in 2020, then you've got to listen to this. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus. Add free, exclusive true crime content, search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple podcasts and start your free trial. Terms apply.

In 2023, a source said me a tip. It tied baseball's biggest star to a vast, illegal sports betting operation. "So hey, hot honey!" But then, someone surprising confessed to me, his best friend. On me, pay me the heart, and you get up and listen to me quarterly.

From 30 for 30 podcasts, this is the betrayal of Showhailotani. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

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