After a manhunt lasting nearly a week, authorities have arrested and charged a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson. WSJ’s Joshua Chaffin unpacks what we know about the alleged killer, his possible motivations, and the public rage that has bubbled up as the search continued. Further Reading: - Suspect in UnitedHealth Killing Was Ivy Leaguer With Anticapitalist Leanings - Manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO Killer Meets Unexpected Obstacle: Sympathy for the Gunman - Murder at Dawn: A Top Executive’s Final Moments in Manhattan Further Listening: - The Story Behind the Stabbing of a San Francisco Tech Exec - Why So Many Emergency Rooms Are Failing Kids in America Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Last week, the CEO of United Healthcare, a major insurance company, was shot and killed in midtown Manhattan. And the story, in subsequent search for his killer, has captivated the nation.
Meantime, developing now, a manhunt is underway in the deadly shooting of United Healthcare's CEO. He was shot and killed this morning outside of a New York City hotel.
It has the kind of makings of like a thriller. You know, this top executive is in the middle of midtown Manhattan in the middle of holiday season, and he is gunned down by an assassin in the sort of pre-dawn darkness.
That's our colleague Joshua Chaffin, who's been covering the story.
Somebody with a pistol, with a silencer, who seemed to know what they were doing. And it's utterly mysterious as to what has happened, why this has happened.
And then, yesterday... We begin with that breaking news out of Pennsylvania. After a six-day manhunt, a man is in custody in connection with the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, was arrested hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime, at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He's been charged with murder. But the story is far from over.
There's yet another layer to the story, which is the response from the public and the deep, deep anger at the healthcare system, at the health insurers in particular. And so we've actually seen a case where you have a murdered executive who's a father of two, and yet you have all sorts of sympathy online for the killer, which is unusual.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Tuesday, December 10th. Coming up on the show, the murder of a health insurance CEO and what we know about the alleged killer. The CEO of UnitedHealthcare was a man named Brian Thompson. He was 50 years old, had two kids, and he'd been in the role for about three years.
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