INSIDE STORY

Mangione’s Fellow Inmates Crash Live Newscast: ‘Free Luigi!’

Ashleigh Banfield called it “the strangest interview” she’s ever conducted.

Inmates locked up alongside Luigi Mangione turned a live TV news report taking place outside their prison into a bizarre interview on Wednesday night with shouts about conditions inside the facility.

Prisoners at SCI Huntingdon in Pennsylvania—where the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is currently being held—had shouted about Mangione to NewsNation reporter Alex Caprariello earlier in the day as he reported from outside the prison wall. “Luigi’s conditions suck!” one inmate could be heard yelling, along with: “Free Luigi!”

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On Wednesday evening’s Banfield, host Ashleigh Banfield began asking Caprariello about the interaction as he continued to broadcast live from outside the prison. “I can tell you at this very moment, I can look over my left shoulder up at the top of this prison wall, see through a window, and see that your face is right there,” Caprariello said. “They’re watching Banfield at this exact moment as they promised they would.”

The prisoners could then be heard cheering in the distance. “Hi guys! Let me yell them a question,” Banfield said, realizing she could speak to the detainees through the television. “Guys, if you can hear me clearly, do you guys have any sights on Luigi Mangione? Just yell yes or no.”

After a delay, audible shouts of “no” were picked up by the broadcast. Caprariello said he’d realized the prisoners were watching his broadcasts several hours earlier.

“I was reporting outside these prison walls when all of a sudden I heard my name and I couldn’t tell if they were cat calling me or heckling me or even saying my name whatsoever,” Caprariello explained. “And so I started reporting on Luigi Mangione’s prison conditions as I was finding them out, and as soon as the live shot was over, that’s when I turned around and they said the ‘conditions suck.’ And so that was my confirmation: ‘Oh my gosh, they’re watching News Nation at that very moment.’”

“They said earlier today: ‘Tell Ashleigh Banfield that Luigi is watching at 10 o’clock,’” he continued. “I mean, obviously that’s just [hearsay] at this point because they’re not near Luigi in any way as confirmed by the Department of Corrections earlier today.”

“It’s crazy,” Banfield said, adding: “Can I just ask the guys if they can hear me right now to answer yes or no very loud: does Luigi have television in his single cell?” After an awkward 10 second pause, she got her answer.

“Unreal, they said ‘no’ right?” Banfield said, later saying: “This is quite something—this is the strangest interview I’ve ever conducted.”

The host also wanted to get the prisoners’ take on the dinner they’d had that evening: mac and cheese, pasta bean casserole, tomatoes, and broccoli. “So guys was dinner good?” Banfield asked. “Yes or no?”

“Terrible!” came the reply.

Mangione is currently fighting extradition from Pennsylvania to New York. In SCI Huntingdon—Pennsylvania’s oldest operating state prison—Mangione is spending his time in a maximum security cell fitted with a single bunk, a desk, a sink, and a toilet, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Corrections told PennLive.

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Dan Ladden-HallBreaking News Editor

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