By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 25th, 2025
It’s become quite difficult to find the actual, short and concise manifesto Luigi Mangione wrote about his motives for the apparent shooting and killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. At least one fake has been circulating online, which means that journalists and citizens alike must take care to ensure they have access to the actual treatise.
But what is more troubling is the silence of corporate news on this very important matter. Such top corporate sources as The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN have all failed – or have simply refused – to publish the document. The official line will almost certainly be that ‘they wish to avoid encouraging copycat attacks’.
But one suspects another ugly truth is behind the silence. They know that the U.S. healthcare system is innately exploitative and all too often reduces the right to live to an ever more expensive privilege that fewer and fewer Americans can afford. Such unjust mistreatment opens the possibility that the more people discover about Manigione, the more he will be seen as a hero who stood up to injustice and Big Greed.
The Spark cannot condone such thinking… But this whole affair does remind us of a biblical quote:
“For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”
Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 2:
It is a chilling – and, in this instance – perhaps even an ugly thing to say. But it is true. That is how people and societies work.
But for all that, the people have every right to know why Mr. Mangione appears to have performed this action. The people must know Mangione’s motives if they are to judge him.
The Spark has access to Mangione’s actual manifesto, which it quotes from the website of independent journalist Ken Klippenstein. According to Newsweek, the document was “later confirmed to be a legitimate transcription by law enforcement authorities.”
Below, The Spark provides its readers with Mangione’s confirmed manifesto:
“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone.
“This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. . .“My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive health-care system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.
“United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.
“Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
