STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Impersonation

Was a post on Substack the real letter of explanation by Luigi Mangione, the man who has been arrested in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson? No, that's not true: A Substack spokesperson told Lead Stories the post was removed for violating the website's guidelines, "which prohibit impersonation." The taken-down post was a long story about a mother's illness and her insurance coverage denial by UnitedHealthcare as a motive for the shooting on December 4, 2024. None of the published quotes from the writings found on Mangione when he was arrested on December 9, 2024, were in the post on Substack.

The claim appeared in a post on X on December 9, 2024, (archived here) that said:

This is allegedly Luigi's manifesto

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Dec 10 18:23:33 2024 UTC)

The post on X included images of a post on the Substack website. That post was deleted but is archived here.

Lead Stories contacted Substack and a spokesperson replied via email on December 10, 2024, explaining why the post was taken down:

We've removed this post for violating Substack's Content Guidelines, which prohibit impersonation.

According to the charging documents obtained by Lead Stories, filed in the Criminal Court of the City of New York County of New York, for Mangione in the shooting death (archived here) of Brian Thompson on December 4, 2024, a police officer found "written admissions about the crime" in his belongings, as this screenshot shows:

(Source: Criminal Court City of New York documents obtained by Lead Stories taken on Tue Dec 10 23:44:11 2024 UTC)

CNN reported (archived here) that New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione was found with "a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," and New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said it " ... did not include specific threats but indicated 'ill will towards corporate America.'"

A police official told CNN the document included the phrases, "These parasites had it coming," and, "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done." The document "appeared to make a reference to UnitedHealthcare describing 'United' as one of the largest companies by market capitalization in the United States," CNN reported a law enforcement source said. There was no mention of Thompson in the document.

The post on Substack did not include the phrase "these parasites had it coming," nor "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done."

Journalist Ken Klippenstein (archived here) published what he said was Mangione's real manifesto on his Substack page (archived here) on December 10, 2024, but did not offer any proof that it was authentic. Lead Stories is publishing the text here to permit readers to compare it to the counterfeit item taken down by Substack The Klippenstein document's text does include phrases police have said were in the hand-written note recovered from Mangioni:

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 healthcare 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 allwed 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.

Lead Stories reached out to the NYPD for comment and will update this fact check when a response is received.

Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the shooting of Brian Thompson can be read here. Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Luigi Mangione can be read here.