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Valuetainment

Luigi Mangione Wrote Me a Letter From Prison…

10 Apr 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What prompted Patrick to share Luigi Mangione's letter?

0.031 - 11.662 Patrick Bet-David

So recently I get a letter from Luigi Mangione. My assistant comes to me and says, you got a letter from Luigi Mangione. I said, which Luigi Mangione? He says, D. Luigi Mangione. I said, D. Luigi Mangione from the Metropolitan Detention Center? Yes. In Brooklyn? Yes.

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12.383 - 31.453 Patrick Bet-David

The same place that a lot of these guys, Nicolas Maduro's at right now, by the way, Jelaine Maxwell, R. Kelly Diddy, some of these guys? Yes. The guy that got accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health? Yes. What's he writing me a letter for? I don't know. Okay. So what do I do? I open it up. And I read through it.

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32.154 - 59.586 Patrick Bet-David

And by the way, to tell you how well it was written would be an understatement. This was written as if a kid went to Harvard or Yale. Good writer. Sense of humor. Sarcasm. Witty. Even a riddle in there. He even cut a piece out. Like, go figure it out for yourself. Clips. Go watch these clips of these philosophers. You can tell. You can tell he's very...

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59.785 - 63.289 Patrick Bet-David

intellectual, deep meaning in the way he's writing his stuff, right?

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Chapter 2: What insights does the letter reveal about Luigi's character?

64.17 - 84.055 Patrick Bet-David

And even in there he talks about, because one day I'm doing a podcast, my phone blows up with a couple hundred messages, Pat, a viral article is going around right now of Luigi Mangione, who turned 27 years old, writing 27 things he's grateful for, and number seven is you. I said, number seven, I don't have a connection with him. Yeah, go read it. Number seven, I'm grateful for

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85.486 - 109.266 Patrick Bet-David

Patrick B. David's book, Your Next Five Moves. Really? Yes. And he's passing it around in the prison he's at right now. Huh. Interesting. How that book made it there? Who knows? But it's there. And then in here he says, Pat, out of all the 27 things I wrote that I was grateful for, the one that I got the most hate mail was number seven, Your Next Five Moves.

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109.246 - 131.319 Patrick Bet-David

A lot of girls who are Gen Z were not happy about that. He says, you have a Gen Z female problem. He says that in the letter. Anyways, he said a lot of other things. So I sat on it and I said, what do I tell this guy? Do I write back? You know, what level of hope does a person have at 27 years old that is accused of killing the CEO of a company, United Healthcare?

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131.339 - 151.595 Patrick Bet-David

We all know that United Healthcare was known for lowest percentage of paying insurance to their clients or the, you know, payouts that they're giving. So it's not like they had a good reputation. But to go and allegedly kill that CEO, what do you tell a guy like that in the letter? What do you tell them? So I sat there and I thought about it.

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151.615 - 169.138 Patrick Bet-David

I remember being in military and how much letters meant to us. Till today, my teacher from my high school, health and guidance teacher, that I met her when I was 14 years old. I'm 47, 33 years old. You know, till today we write letters to each other. Every three months I get a letter from her. She's got chickens, she's got this, she's got that.

Chapter 3: How does Luigi's gratitude for 'Your Next Five Moves' reflect his mindset?

169.738 - 188.318 Patrick Bet-David

But it took me back to when I was in the military, how valuable a response was. So I wrote a letter back to him, and I sent it yesterday with six books to him. So I think those other six books, he's got time to read, so I sent him the other six books to go through as well. The guy's got a sense of humor, even though he knows what he's done.

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188.358 - 210.013 Patrick Bet-David

And I have so many questions that I wrote in the letter to him. But maybe think about something else. How does this apply to you and I? You and I directly and indirectly. I was a kid back in the days that, you know, I listened to a lot of Tupac. I listened to a lot of Hit Em Up. I probably listened to Hit Em Up, I don't know, 500 times. That was my workout song.

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210.033 - 232.681 Patrick Bet-David

I listened to Eazy-E, Real Mother, you know what, geez. I listened to RBL Posse. I listened to Rappin' Forte and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and DMX and all these guys. I hung out with guys that were troubled kids. I was part of a basketball league that was with Blood and Crip and Black Diamonds and 18th Street and Tunerville and all these guys, TVR.

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233.442 - 260.309 Patrick Bet-David

I was in that community trying to figure myself out at 14 years old. Parents got a divorce. Life was a little bit interesting. And I went into the military. And so I thought about myself. Luckily, when I was in those moments of being impressionable and vulnerable, the right people were in my ear. And so it got me to go back and think about a guy I interviewed who was an FBI criminal profiler.

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260.349 - 280.472 Patrick Bet-David

This guy would talk to you right after a person killed their wife. He was the first person that interviewed the husband that's accused of killing his wife. Vice versa. Wife accused of killing the husband. He's interviewing the wife to see what happened. What got you to the point of killing your wife? What was it? Was it cheating? Did he hit you? Did he remind you? Did she do this?

280.632 - 303.151 Patrick Bet-David

What gets you to point of killing? And we all read or see these movies or the stories we go through, right? What got you there? And I said, Jim, what makes somebody do this? He says, Pat, 22 years of doing this, you know, it comes down to three things. I said, what is it? He said, genetics loads the gun. Genetics. Mom and dad. Loads the gun. He says, your personality aims the gun.

303.972 - 319.196 Patrick Bet-David

But he said, life experiences pulls the trigger. So, life experiences. This guy had back issues. He had certain health problems. His grandpa was a very successful businessman, made a lot of money. He had the trajectory of, he was a valedictorian.

Chapter 4: What does Patrick contemplate about responding to Luigi's letter?

319.217 - 322.28 Patrick Bet-David

This is not a regular kid. He was a valedictorian.

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322.52 - 330.109 Unknown

Could have been a net positive to society, working, building a business, creating jobs, maybe getting involved in politics, doing something positive for the world.

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330.129 - 352.731 Patrick Bet-David

He had that brain to do it. He had the genetics to do it. But those life experiences, the 90 days that he went on his own and mother couldn't find him, And eventually, around November of 2024, I believe, mom reported that, I think my son is missing. And then December 4th is the day he's accused of killing Brian Thompson. We've all seen the videos. And they caught him.

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353.451 - 374.409 Patrick Bet-David

So what happened during those 90 days? You know, one of the movies I hate the most, when I tell you, I don't hate a lot of movies, I hate this movie. You know what's the movie I hate the most? Joker, with Joaquin Phoenix. Absolutely hate the movie. Joker. You know why? At 43 minutes, I don't know what the timeline was. I'm sitting with my wife. We went with about 20 of us.

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376.193 - 380.16 Patrick Bet-David

And the story is the guy ends up killing the capitalist, the wealthy guy.

380.2 - 395.718 Unknown

And he's a hero. Look at this guy. Wow. You know, take out these rich. And I said, what kind of a freaking movie is this? How many kids is going to watch this and they're going to be like, you know what, I want to be a hero. Let me go take out somebody in power. That could have been him.

395.958 - 408.73 Unknown

Luigi Mangia could have watched Joker while he's away with somebody else and somebody's in his ear, you know what, look what they're doing and what happened with you with insurance and this is not fair and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden you're like, I am right and the system is wrong.

408.77 - 428.492 Patrick Bet-David

And when you get to that point, that's a very dangerous place to be because you're almost giving yourself permission to justify doing something crazy like this. But I still don't get it. How does this apply to me? Do you have kids? Do you have a son? Do you have a daughter? Do you have a nephew? Do you have a cousin? Are you 17 years old watching this? You're impressionable.

429.513 - 455.625 Patrick Bet-David

When you're at the lowest in life, and we will be, many times we will be. I got four kids. Many times we will be. When you're at the lowest, dude, you better guard who you listen to and what you watch and what you read. I don't care if you're 14. I don't care if you're 44. I don't care if you're 64. This is our entire life. This thing's not easy. This thing's tough.

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