Luigi Mangione arrived back in New York City on Thursday just as damning new evidence emerged against him.
Detectives allege that the accused CEO assassin wrote in his journal as far back as August that he wished to murder a health insurance executive, with him supposedly settling on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson after months of research.
“The target is insurance,” he wrote in August, according to the New York Post. He allegedly added that UnitedHealthcare “checks every box” for the sort of target he sought.
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Mangione allegedly wrote an entry on Oct. 22 that alluded to an investor conference coming up “in six weeks” where he hoped to “wack” the CEO of one of the companies in attendance.
Authorities say Mangione made good on his wish, claiming he is the suspect who unloaded three bullets into the back of Thompson, 50, as the executive walked to the New York Midtown to give a speech to investors on the morning of Dec. 4.
The 26-year-old Mangione received a president’s welcome when he touched down in New York City on Thursday. He was met by a horde of officers—some donning rifles and helmets—from the NYPD and FBI, who made sure he was paraded in front of news cameras before he was transported to a local detention center.
Mangione had previously been held at a facility in Pennsylvania, but his attorney there failed to convince a judge he shouldn’t be extradited to New York. Cops say he was recognized at a McDonald’s in the state and was arrested after he was found to be in the possession of a ghost gun and false IDs that tied him to Thompson’s Midtown Manhattan murder.
Now adding to the trove of evidence against Mangione are his journal entries, which were unsealed Thursday. In one writing, cops say he seemingly admitted to the crime and commented on how easy it was to use a 3-D printer to create his alleged murder weapon.
“I wasn’t working with anyone,” the Ivy League graduate allegedly wrote. “This was fairly trivial: Some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience.”
He allegedly added: “P.S. you can check serial numbers to verify this is all self-funded. My own ATM withdrawals.”
