Luigi Nicholas Mangione, suspect in CEO killing, known as academic star, scion of prominent Maryland family

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, suspected in last week's fatal shooting of health insurance executive Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan, was a smart, friendly, athletic student and the valedictorian of his 2016 graduating class at an all-boys Baltimore prep school, a former classmate said Monday.

Mangione, 26, "had everything going for him," said the Gilman School classmate, Freddie Leatherbury.

"He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to do this, based on everything I’d know about him in high school," Leatherbury said after the news of Mangione’s arrest broke Monday.

Mangione, whose LinkedIn page says he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, comes from a prominent Maryland family. He is a cousin of Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, the lawmaker’s family confirmed on Monday. His grandfather Nick Mangione Sr. grew up poor in Baltimore’s Little Italy and became a millionaire real estate developer and philanthropist.

In his high school valedictory, Luigi Nicholas Mangione praised his classmates for their "inventive, pioneering mentality" and thanked graduates’ families and teachers for their support.

"Our imagination draws from your inspiration, and our courage largely depends on your encouragement in the classroom, on the field, and on the stage," he said in the 2016 graduation ceremony remarks that had been posted to the school's website.

Mangione went on to earn undergraduate and master’s degrees in computer and information sciences in 2020 at the University of Pennsylvania, according to his LinkedIn page. He was inducted into Penn’s Eta Kappa Nu honor society in 2018 for excellence in electrical and computer engineering, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the Ivy League school’s student media organization.

While at Penn, Mangione founded the UPenn Game Research and Development Environment (UPGRADE), a club for students to work together on video game development.

"In high school, I started playing a lot of independent games and stuff like that," Mangione told The Daily Pennsylvanian in 2017. "In my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I learned [on my own] how to program, and that’s why I’m a computer science major now. That’s how I got into it. I just really wanted to make games."

Mangione’s last job appears to be as a data engineer for TrueCar, a California-based auto sales website. His LinkedIn page says Mangione has worked at the company since November 2020. A TrueCar spokesman told Newsday that Mangione has not been with the company since 2023.

When he was taken into custody Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny at a news conference in Manhattan, Mangione had a three-page document that voiced "ill will" toward corporate America, but did not include threats aimed at specific people or companies.

Late Monday, Manhattan prosecutors filed murder as well as other charges against Mangione.

Mangione's social media posts suggest he belonged to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. The posts also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, the New Jersey shore, and other destinations.

Mangione did not have a criminal record in New York or any other state, NYPD officials said.

Gilman School sent an email to parents and alumni about Mangione’s arrest, saying it did not have any information other than what has been reported in the media.

"This is deeply disturbing news on top of an already awful situation," the email said. "Our hearts go out to everyone affected."

With AP