Accused UnitedHealth care CEO shooter Luigi Mangione received his largest defense fund donation yet from a mystery donor with a cryptic message.
Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, 50, on December 4 outside of the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan while the CEO made his way to an investor conference.
He has been fiercely backed by a slew of fans who have praised Mangione for his alleged actions that day and started a GiveSendGo pages to raise money for his legal defense.
Allegations of Mangione’s involvement in sex tapes have seemingly fueled a surge in donations to his defense fund from devoted fans, and the fundraiser has reached over $720,000.
The fundraiser received its largest donation yet of $36,500 from an anonymous donor who left an enigmatic message on Saturday.
‘What intrigues me about this case is how unified folks’ responses are regardless of strata,’ the mystery donor said.
‘In Corporate America, for instance, there has been widespread doubt of potential prosecutorial mishandling and overcharging.
‘I’ve also been surprised at the almost ubiquitous nature of support towards the suspect that I would expect to be quite bifurcated in this type of litigation. Quite exceptional.’
Accused UnitedHealth care CEO shooter Luigi Mangione received his largest defense fund donation yet from a mystery donor
Other have left comments under their donations, sending him well-wishes and expressing their shock over the sex tape allegations.
Mangione allegedly recorded over 20 highly stylized sex tapes before his arrest for the fatal shooting.
The accused killer has denied he is the young man seen on a bathroom sex tape reportedly being offered for half a million dollars on the dark web.
‘Hopefully everyone realizes these are fake and not Luigi,’ Mangione’s lawyer Karen Agnifilo told DailyMail.com on Monday.
It comes after sex tape broker Kevin Blatt told The US Sun he had seen a sex video featuring Mangione in his parents’ bathroom. Blatt claimed the alleged killer made the video for a Grindr user who was now trying to sell it for $500,000.
Blatt even shared blurry screenshots he claims show a shirtless Mangione, 26, performing for the Grindr user.
‘The video I have seen is not high production stuff – it’s pretty seedy, solo stuff that looks like he recorded it in a bathroom at his parents’ house and in a bedroom and then sent to a man he met on Grindr in 2020,’ Blatt told The US Sun.
Blatt said Mangione was using an alias on the hooking up app and met at least one man on it.
Allegations of Mangione’s involvement in sex tapes have seemingly fueled a surge in donations to his defense fund from devoted fans
He has been fiercely backed by a slew of fans who have praised Mangione for his alleged actions
Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson (pictured), 50, on December 4 outside of the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan
‘But the phone number the videos were sent from has a Maryland area code, which is where he is from, and you can actually match up his parents’ bathroom from real estate listings of their house,’ Blatt added.
‘And it’s undoubtedly him, when this man saw that Luigi had been arrested he couldn’t believe that was the same guy he met on Grindr.’
Mangione has attracted a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills.
The ‘viral fundraiser’ is run by a team of 15 volunteers from across the country, and ‘is just one example of an outpouring of support and prayers for Luigi, whose alleged actions have spurred a national conversation on the morality and efficacy of the American for-profit health care system,’ the statement continued.
Mangione, who is currently locked up at Brooklyn’s infamous Metropolitan Center, pleaded not guilty to the 11 charges in his indictment, including first-degree murder and murder as an act of terrorism.
The Maryland native has also been charged in the Big Apple with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree, four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree, one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth-degree, and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second-degree.
The 26-year-old faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.
One of his federal charges, murder through use of a firearm, is eligible for the death penalty.