MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Some of what we know about Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the CEO of United Healthcare last week on a Manhattan sidewalk.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
He is a member of a prominent Maryland family. Mangione graduated top of his class from an elite prep school and received two degrees from an Ivy League school. He also reportedly suffered a major back injury and underwent surgery a couple of years ago. Investigators and some extremism researchers have been sifting through this picture to see whether there's evidence of a clear ideology behind the killing.
MARTIN: NPR's Odette Yousef covers domestic extremism and she's here with us now to tell us more. Good morning, Odette.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So you've looked at some of Mangione's social media, and you've spoken with others who have, as well. What did you learn?
YOUSEF: Well, he appeared to keep several accounts on sites, including X, Facebook and Goodreads. And there are a few things that raise questions. On his Goodreads account, for example, he posted an excerpt from the writings of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. So we might wonder how that may relate to a trajectory toward political violence. Also, one of the pictures on his X account banner is an x-ray of a spine with four large screws inserted in what looks like a major surgery. Now, we don't know for certain that this is his x-ray but there are reports that he may have sustained this injury in a surfing accident in Hawaii. But all told, Michel, his digital footprint really doesn't clarify much because it cut off in the spring. Here's Jared Holt of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
JARED HOLT: And six months is a long time for somebody to radicalize further, for them to fly off the rails, maybe have a mental health crisis. I mean, we could speculate on 100 different things. But there's a big, big gap in what happened in those six months.
MARTIN: Odette, you know, according to the police, he was found with a handwritten note. NPR has not obtained a copy, but other news outlets say they have and they've printed it or portions of it. From what you've seen, does it fill in some of those gaps?
YOUSEF: Well, from what's been shared by other reporting, this short note conveys a deep anger toward the healthcare industry and a feeling that someone had to do something about it. But other than that, no. You know, if some of this ties back to a possible injury that he had and perhaps what he ran into while trying to get care, it doesn't make any of those connections. Now that he's in custody, I imagine we're going to learn much more. But there is another part of this that's troubling - and that part is the valorization that we're seeing of the suspect within some of the mainstream public.
MARTIN: Can you say more about that? What does that look like?
YOUSEF: So this killing, you know, seemed to tap into the feeling that seemingly most Americans have had at one time or another of frustration and helplessness with the healthcare industry. What really struck me though is that I have typically seen people who commit mass violence or political violence praised, even venerated as martyrs in really kind of dark corners of the extremist world, you know, within online communities that emulate mass shooters, for instance, or in violent white supremacist spaces. So seeing a much wider and mainstream public call this suspect a quote, "hero," is troubling. And for extremist analysts that I spoke to, you know, this really speaks to how Americans have, over time, become more open minded toward political violence.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Odette Yousef. Odette, thank you.
YOUSEF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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