Online manifesto appearing to be penned by Luigi Mangione is fake

Luigi Mangione, 26, was charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Following his arrest, various claims about him circulated online, including speculation about an online manifesto that allegedly explained his motive for the killing.

The post, attributed to "LM" on the blog site Substack, is titled “The Allopathic Complex and Its Consequences" and has been shared in various social media posts crediting Mangione as the author.

VERIFY reader Tony texted us asking if the manifesto published to Substack is real.

THE QUESTION

Is the viral online post on Substack appearing to be written by Luigi Mangione real?

THE SOURCES

• Substack spokesperson
• Dec. 9 press conference hosted by New York City Mayor Eric Adams
• The Wayback Machine archives of the Substack blog
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania court records
• Various news reports on the handwritten document recovered by police

THE ANSWER

No, the viral online post published to Substack appearing to be written by Luigi Mangione isn’t real.

WHAT WE FOUND

Luigi Mangione had a three-page document with him when he was arrested that police say speaks to his alleged motive at the time of the killing, but claims the manifesto posted online was authored by Mangione are false. VERIFY analyzed excerpts of the handwritten document and found it doesn't match any of the language in the fake online manifesto. Substack also said it removed the account because it violates the platform’s content guidelines, “which prohibit impersonation.”

During a Dec. 9 press conference, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the handwritten document Mangione had on his person when arrested “speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” When asked if the handwritten document was posted online, the New York Police Department’s Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, “Don’t know if it's online. As of right now, it's a handwritten three-page document.”

While police haven’t publicly released the handwritten document, excerpts have been reported by various news outlets such as the Associated Press, The New York Times and CBS. According to these reports, the document was either independently reviewed or described to reporters by sources close to the investigation. 

The New York Times summarized the excerpts they reviewed, saying the handwritten document called Thompson’s killing a “symbolic takedown” of the healthcare industry and also referenced corruption and “power games.”

CBS reported Mangione criticized the disparity between U.S. healthcare costs and life expectancy rates. 

We compared the quoted excerpts from the reports to the Substack manifesto posted online and found none of the language from the handwritten document appears in the manifesto. The fake manifesto also lacks any reference to healthcare costs or life expectancy rates. 

Substack didn’t provide details on when the account was removed from the platform, but VERIFY was able to use archived pages captured on The Wayback Machine to determine the account was likely created while Mangione was in police custody. 

The Wayback Machine allows users to view and access snapshots, or screenshots, of websites. 

This screenshot archive from The Wayback Machine of the Substack account attributed to Mangione was captured at 9:43 p.m. ET on Dec. 9. Text on the Substack page archived indicates it was created about two hours earlier, during the time Mangione would have been in custody.

At around 1:45 p.m. on Dec. 9, the NYPD announced Mangione had been arrested as a person of interest in Thompson’s murder. He was arraigned on Dec. 9 around 6:30 p.m., according to court records.