EXPLAINER
On-line self-publishing platform Substack has eliminated a submit purportedly by Luigi Mangione, chief suspect within the homicide of CEO Brian Thompson.
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Revealed On 11 Dec 2024
Luigi Mangione, the suspect charged with homicide in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s December 4 capturing demise, left a handwritten doc explaining his motivation, New York Metropolis police officers mentioned.
Police had not launched the doc to the general public as of December 10. However some X customers had been sharing what they mentioned was a manifesto Mangione printed on Substack, a subscription-based platform for on-line content material creators.
“That is allegedly Luigi’s manifesto,” a December 9 X submit with greater than 5 million views mentioned. The submit shared 4 screenshots of textual content from a Substack submit with the headline “The Allopathic Complicated and Its Penalties” and the subhead “Luigi Mangione’s final phrases”.
The Substack article was dated December 9, the day Mangione was arrested at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s. “The second modification means I’m my very own chief govt and commander in chief of my very own navy,” it mentioned. “I authorise my very own act of self-defence in response to a hostile entity making warfare on me and my household.”
We discovered different social media posts sharing the identical photographs or language because the weblog submit and saying Mangione had written them.
However he didn’t write them. Substack eliminated the submit “for violating Substack’s Content material Tips, which prohibit impersonation”, an organization spokesperson informed PolitiFact in an emailed assertion.
New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned on December 9 that police had discovered a handwritten doc after they arrested Mangione “that speaks to each his motivation and mindset”. As of December 10, authorities had not provided extra details about its contents.
The New York Instances reported on the three-page doc, citing an inside police report it obtained. Mangione described the act as a “symbolic takedown” of the healthcare trade, citing “alleged corruption and ‘energy video games’”.
None of that language appeared within the Substack submit being shared on-line as Mangione’s manifesto.
PolitiFact reviewed stories in regards to the doc by The New York Instances, CNN, New York Submit or ABC Information, all retailers that mentioned that they had reviewed the message or had it described to them by regulation enforcement sources. Not one of the stories included point out of the Second Modification. PolitiFact has not obtained a duplicate.
We price claims that Mangione wrote the Substack article as False.
