Self-styled martyr Luigi Mangione said a jailhouse letter he got from a mom who’s struggling to pay her daughter’s medical bills made him “tear up” — as he promised to pin up their picture in his prison cell.
The brief message, written on loose-leaf paper and dated Dec. 29, 2024, thanked “Karen” for sharing her grievances with the health care system in solidarity with Mangione, whose own frustrations allegedly led him to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“Your letter is the first to make me tear up. I am so, so, sorry for what you and your daughter so senselessly had to endure,” Mangione wrote in the anonymous mom.
The 26-year-old UPenn graduate agreed to accept a photograph of Karen and her daughter, as well as a print of Jesus that the mother referenced in her letter — which he promised to put “up on my prison cell walls next to your letter.”
“Your daughter is blessed to have a mother who loves her so much and fights for her so relentlessly,” Mangione concluded the letter.
The letter was published Tuesday by journalist Ashley Shelby on her substack, “Bartleby on Trial,” which chronicles Mangione’s case.
Karen told Shelby she was inclined to reach out to Mangione after witnessing his perp walk in December.
“I felt very weird about it,” Karen told Shelby. “Driven by some force that didn’t make sense but couldn’t be ignored.”
Karen had her own battles with UnitedHealthcare in the months leading up to Thompson’s murder. The mother claimed the insurance company declined to cover her daughter’s treatment for what she described as a “rare, life-threatening disease that requires constant care and medical treatment.”
In January 2024, her daughter had fallen into full catatonia and was hospitalized for 60 days in a year, but UnitedHealthcare continued to deny her prescribed treatment, she claimed. It took months of fighting before Karen won and was able to get her daughter the meds.
“What she and I went through as a result of insurance calling the shots rather than the doctors is a horrible story for another time. She is improving, but hardly close to her old self. I refer to UHC as ‘those white collar criminals’ whenever discussing them and vowed to fight for reform for the rest of my life,” Karen told Shelby.
Karen relayed her story in her letter to Mangione, and included a blurry picture of the Christ in Majesty mosaic at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, or what Karen dubbed the “Warrior Jesus.”
She also vowed to “keep up the fight” in Mangione’s name.
The letter is just one of thousands Mangione has received since his December arrest, and he acknowledged the outpouring in his first public statement last month.
“I am overwhelmed by – and grateful for – everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support,” Mangione said in a statement posted to his website.
“While I can’t reply to most letters, please know that I read every one that I receive. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to write. I look forward to hearing more in the future.”
Mangione is being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center on first-degree murder charges in furtherance of terrorism for killing the 50-year-old health care boss and dad of two.
In his manifesto, the UPenn grad said he considered himself a “hero” for allegedly killing Thompson in a “symbolic takedown” of the “parasitic” health care system.
He has since pleaded not guilty to a slew of state and federal charges.