Luigi Mangione’s supporters are fearing for his life after a fellow inmate revealed the murder suspect was seen wearing a turtle suit, sparking assassination conspiracy theories.
Mangione, 26, is accused of the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4. Thompson was shot in the back by a masked assailant outside an investors’ conference in Midtown Manhattan.
Five days later, police charged Mangione after he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania following a nationwide manhunt. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and terrorism.
His arrest captured global attention and Mangione has amassed a large ‘fan base’ since gaining a swathe of internet admirers and sparking conversations about the US healthcare industry. Those fans have now begun circulating a sinister theory that has gained traction online, alleging Mangione could be assassinated behind bars.
It comes after Vaughn Wright, an inmate at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Huntington, where Mangione was held for around 10 days before being extradited to New York, revealed details about the Ivy League graduate’s time at the prison in an essay for the Prison Journalism Project.
Wright noted that rather than wearing the standard issue orange jumpsuit, Mangione was wearing a turtle suit, also known as an anti-suicide smock. The blue padded clothing is used primarily for prisoners at risk of committing self-harm.
It is not a restraint but is tear-resistant, single-piece and its thickness makes it impossible to roll or fold. “Every time he was escorted from his cell, D Block got locked down. During lockdowns, all prisoner movement is prohibited,” Wright also revealed.
But Mangione’s supporters believe the suit isn’t to protect him from himself but rather part of a conspiracy to have him killed and make it look like suicide. The conspiracy theory mimics those that circulated online about Jeffrey Epstein before he was found dead in his jail cell in 2019.
In a TikTok video that has racked up more than 8 million views on the platform, TikTok user Kewiski can be seen miming the lyrics of the song “Digital Silence” by Peter McPoland. “Why don’t you get it? Can’t you get it? Understand. They’re gonna execute the mother to elevate the man,” she mouths.
A text overlay on the clip read: “Can’t yall (eye emoji) they are setting him up to look like he’d (knife emoji) himself.” “I just got chills and I’m afraid for him,” one person commented on the video.
Another alleged: “I would think they’re doing that so that if something does happen to him, nobody asks questions.” Another TikTok, which has amassed more than 100,000 views, suggested the same theory.
Creator Lilli Menne shared a clip of herself using the same song, captioning it: “Just saying this now before it happens, we know Luigi will not commit suicide (We aren’t stupid).” Mangione is currently being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in New York, it is not clear whether he has continued to wear a turtle suit after being extradited.
Mangione has been charged with 11 state criminal counts, including murder and terrorism charges. He also faces federal stalking and murder charges that could lead to a death penalty sentence. Brian’s murder was celebrated by some people online and Mangione quickly established an unprecedented amount of support.
“I’ve never seen an alleged murderer receive so much sympathy. To many people, Mangione is a hero of sorts,” Former federal prosecutor in California Neama Rahmani. Alejandro Mayorkas, the US homeland security secretary, previously said that he was “alarmed by the heroism that is being attributed to an alleged murderer of a father of two children on the streets in New York”.
He continued: “We have been concerned about the rhetoric on social media for some time. We’ve seen narratives of hate. We’ve seen narratives of anti-government sentiment. We’ve seen personal grievances in the language of violence.”
Meanwhile, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, defending Mangione, has said she is “concerned” about his right to a fair trial. “This is a young man. He is being treated like a human pingpong ball between warring jurisdictions here,” she said.
