Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
6,000 LETTERS, THOUSANDS IN DONATIONS, BILLBOARDS RENTED, LUIGI MANGIONE FANS WONT STOP
18 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Spending thousands and thousands of dollars for billboards along the street. Tens of thousands of dollars of donation. Nearly 10,000 letters. I'm not talking about a rock star or a movie star. I'm talking about Luigi Mangione fans. They're crazy. I wonder how Brian Thompson's widow and orphaned boys feel about the billboards, the donations, and the letters.
I'm Nancy Grace.
Chapter 2: What led to the creation of the website for Luigi Mangione?
This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. As the suspected killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO heads to court, Amazingly, his support amongst mostly female fans has not died. When Mangione arrived at a Manhattan courthouse for hearings, a billboard featuring a guy named Michael Kissling was mounted on a truck driving around outside. Who is Kissling? He is a 32-year-old amputee.
who blames UnitedHealthcare for denying treatments he said would have saved his leg. Now, Kissling does not condone violence, but he does say the shooting death of the CEO, Brian Thompson, did draw attention to the many obstacles he and many others have faced getting insurance coverage. Kissling makes a point by saying if he, Mangione, is Malcolm X, then I'm emulating MLK, Martin Luther King.
Of course, UnitedHealthcare disputed Kissling's account, and I'm certainly not defending UnitedHealthcare in this. What I am supporting is the right to a trial. What happened? That early morning when Brian Thompson was gunned down on the street. A masked gunman shoots dead the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Midtown Manhattan. An urgent search ensues for the suspect. Last seen entering Central Park.
Marriage secrets being revealed as this health boss worth millions of dollars is gunned down? In open? Around the public? What do we make of clues left behind? Cryptic and odd clues. For instance, bullets found actually have been inscribed with letters on them. A cell phone had been left behind. Is there DNA on a water bottle? Was this a pro? A silencer was used.
And in the middle of the assassination, the gun jams. And seemingly the pro shooter simply adjusted and continued firing. Everyone, thank you for being with us. If this can happen in public. What are we to think of it? Well, take a listen to what the chief of detectives has to say.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was presented during the suppression hearing?
This morning at 6.46 a.m., patrol officers from Midtown North Precinct responded to a 911 call of a person shot in front of the Hilton Hotel located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. This is between West 53rd Street and West 54th Street.
At 6.48 a.m., officers arrive and find the victim, Brian R. Thompson, a 50-year-old male on the sidewalk in front of the Hilton with gunshot wounds to his back and leg.
You know, the way the shooter handled the weapon, the use of a silencer, the mask, the lying in wait, all indicates a professional hit, but a pro wouldn't want to be caught. A pro would do everything not to get caught. So then why were there especially engraved bullets with cryptic messages on them? It sounds like a fifth grade girl writing a crime thriller, Something's way off with this.
Joining me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first, straight out to investigative reporter Lauren Conlon joining us. Co-host Primetime Crime on YouTube. And you can find her at PopCrime.tv, who has gone to the scene and investigated. Lauren, what can you tell us?
Yes, Nancy. And the street, the entire street of West 53rd Street was blocked off. There was plainclothes detectives as well as uniformed officers. Basically not saying anything. I asked questions. I asked witnesses if they heard anything. And the parking lot attendants were actually there earlier that morning. But they said, you know, due to the silencer, they didn't hear anything.
Tell me your understanding, what you learned of what happened starting at the beginning.
starting at the beginning i learned that brian thompson arrived in new york monday now he was not staying at the hilton he was staying at a hotel across the street he was set to speak at 8 a.m at their annual investors conference and he was arriving early at 6 45. so as he walked
into the entrance of the Hilton, it was revealed by NYPD that this gunman was allegedly lying in wait before he shot him.
Take a listen to Chief Detective Joe Kinney.
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Chapter 4: How did the 911 call impact the case against Mangione?
but I see that he is not wearing gloves. To Lauren Conlon, what can you tell me about a discarded water bottle? The discarded water bottle, Nancy, was found in the alleyway, which is between 53rd and 54th Street. It's the Ziegfeld Ballroom alleyway. A pro would not leave behind A water bottle. A pro wouldn't even be drinking anything right before you murder somebody. No, exactly right, Nancy.
And it goes to my suggestion. This person, again, kind of orchestrated this, pre-planned it, thought it out. We can speak about perhaps the weapon a little bit later on. All these things tied to somebody who is knowledgeable about not only what they were doing, but certainly not a professional. That's somebody we might see kind of portrayed in the movies.
These people would be much more sub-roser about their efforts, would kind of not be seen beforehand. I'm gonna suggest to you is that besides this video and these images we have now, as that police are looking to kind of put together both the timeline and his trail, there'll be some more coming out and we'll have some more facial images perhaps, the DNA may help.
But as we all know, working these cases, is you need to have something to compare it to. You need to have some database to compare it to or using ancestral DNA, perhaps tie this person back to someone else and work through that angle.
So even though we have all these things, and it could be, who knows, maybe fragmented fingerprints on the bullet casings or other evidence left behind, again, you need something to compare it to.
What we know is that the shooter arrived at the location on foot about five minutes prior to the victim's arrival. He stands alongside the building line as numerous other people and pedestrians pass him by. From video, we see at 6.44 a.m., the victim is walking alone towards the Hilton after exiting his hotel across the street.
We believe the victim was headed to the Hilton Hotel to attend the United Health Group investors conference that was scheduled to start at 8 a.m.
Let me look at that stance one more time where the shooter is pointing, pointing the gun at the victim. You know, everybody on the panel jump in. But Bill Daley, look at that. It looks like someone has been watching too many movies and they think that's a professional killer stance. Do you see you see that right there? I'm just telling you, look, he doesn't have on gloves.
He's been hanging out drinking from a water bottle that he leaves behind. I also understand a cell phone has been left behind. And then he gets on a city bike. It reminds me of a bank robbery I prosecuted where the perp had a bike waiting around the corner. He was anything but a pro. And he pedaled off just like this guy is doing.
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Chapter 5: What role did the McDonald's manager play in the investigation?
Apparently it jammed between shots, but, you know, that didn't stop him. So he kept shooting after he fixed it. So the answer is yes. Okay, that's telling me a lot right there. Daily, daily, daily, a pro's going to take a gun that jams between every shot? Really?
Yeah.
Well, according to some of the forensic experts is that by using that silencer, again, silencers are not things that you are supposed to legally have. So if it was homemade, it could have caused more of this kind of malfunction of the weapon. But again, it did seem as though calmly he cleared that weapon. He was able to pull the slide on the top. Daily. Did you say homemade?
Look, this is smelling. This is not a pro. I don't even know where that came from. A homemade silencer. A pro can make a homemade silencer. But come on, man, a homemade silencer that doesn't work, a pretend professional killer stance, drinking a water bottle and leaving it behind and hopping on a bike without gloves and taking off. No, no, I got to figure this thing out.
Guys, why was a health CEO worth millions of dollars gunned down? In public, early, early morning, many people say it's a pro-killer.
The shooter then flees on foot northbound into an alleyway between 54th Street and 55th Street. Once at West 55th Street, the shooter continues to walk westbound on the Avenue of the Americas, where he gets onto an electric E-City bike and rides northbound on the Avenue of the Americas. towards Central Park. At 6.48 a.m., we have the shooter riding this bike into Central Park at Center Drive.
We're still tracking video. The last we see with him on that bike is in Central Park. At the scene, we recover three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings. The motive for this murder currently is unknown, but based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted. But at this point, we do not know why.
This does not appear to be a random act of violence.
OK, I know that. I know it's not random. Joining me, high profile lawyer Bernarda Villalona, New York criminal defense attorney. This is her beat. She is also a former prosecutor. Bernarda, thank you for being with us. What do you make of it so far? Because not only did the pro assassin leave behind. three discharged nine millimeter shell casings. They were engraved with three cryptic words.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the 3D-printed gun found in Mangione's backpack?
flummoxed by the fact that he would leave a water bottle with his DNA on it, a candy wrapper, take a bike, no gloves, has a pretend pro shooter stance, and has engraved bullets for Pete's sake. Why not just throw down your driver's license before you leave? Okay, now we hear about a potential eyewitness that goes on the run.
Police still have not identified the eyewitness who ran from the scene as Thompson was gunned down.
A woman dressed in dark clothing and holding a coffee cup was standing in a doorway just feet away from Thompson when the shooter opened fire. She runs along the building toward the shooter to avoid the gunfire and disappears from frame.
Authorities are asking her to come forward, hoping she may be able to provide new details on the shooter. There's a cell phone recovered in the alleyway. We're working through that cell phone. Obviously, we'll be processing it forensically. And as far as words being exchanged, we do not have audio of the incident. We only have the regular video. But nothing from witnesses? Nothing.
Well, there was one witness standing right next to the victim when he was shot. We're still trying to identify that victim. Excuse me, that witness.
And we also learn that law enforcement has turned their attention back home to Minnesota.
Listen. Once again, we're looking at everything. We're looking at his social media. We are interviewing employees. We are interviewing family members. We will be speaking to law enforcement in Minnesota.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Billboards, thousands of dollars, thousands of letters supporting the so-called health care assassin. Will it matter in court? Will public opinion matter? It certainly did in the case of Sean Diddy Combs. This is what I know is true. These facts. This is what happened.
Number one, what is the address of your emergency? It's not really an emergency. I just, I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of that he looked like the CEO shooter from New York. Okay.
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