Dec 10
Gay Twitter is Crazy Thirsty for Luigi Manigone, Suspect in the Slaying of Insurance CEO
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 7 MIN.
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in custody for the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has gone viral thanks to his looks, and Gay Twitter is leading the charge.
"Mr Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in the back last Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan where UnitedHealthcare, the medical insurance giant he led, was holding an investors' meeting," the BBC detailed.
"Shell casings found at the scene had the words 'delay,' 'deny' and 'depose' written on them," CNBC noted. "The first two of those words are sometimes used to describe the tactics of health insurers, such as Thompson's, to limit the amount of benefits paid out to customers.Police recovered bullet casings engraved with the words "
"US law enforcement arrested Luigi Mangione at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania in connection with the case after a customer identified Mangione from photos released to the media," Australian newspaper the Star Observer reported.
Mangione reportedly had a "ghost gun" – an impossible-to-trace 3D printed weapon – on his person when he was arrested at a McDonald's, as well as a silencer.
When the suspect was identified, his mugshot quickly became a focus of interest, appearing in multiple tweets and even a supportive T-shirt.
Fans scoured the internet to find additional photos of the 26-year-old suspected gunman, and those images quickly became memes of their own.
Conspiracy theories took root just as quickly as internet thirst.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
