The dark fandom behind the suspected murder of CEO Luigi Mangione

They came in hoodies, they came in masks, shuffling their feet and nervously laughing while waiting for the announcement of the winner.

Just days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on a sidewalk in New York City, these young men lined up in Washington Square Park to compete in a contest to look like the man wanted for the murder.

It was poorly attended, and those who showed up saw it as a joke, said Talia Jain, a journalist who attended.

But it underscored the obsession with the murder suspect that has gripped social media since the Dec. 4 killing, fueled by latent anger directed at America’s private health insurance companies.

“There was already a lot of tinder, a lot of discontent, a lot of frustration, and (this) kind of threw a match into it,” Ms. Jane said.

And that has only increased since Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League-educated member of a prominent Baltimore family, was named as the suspect.

In TikTok videos, memes and group chats, the young man accused of fatally shooting a father of two on a New York City sidewalk has been condescended to and hailed as a kind of folk hero.

This fetishization was extremely widespread, not limited to radical corners of the Internet or any political affiliation, which troubled many observers.

“We don’t kill people in cold blood to settle political differences or make a point,” said Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, where Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s.

“In civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues participate in justice.”

Almost immediately after Mr. Thompson was shot, the Internet began to lionize his suspected killer. On TikTok, people posted a video of a “CEO killer” walking tour of New York. Playlists dedicated to the suspect began appearing on Spotify.

After Mr. Mangione was arrested, those fans came to his defense.

The start of his legal battles prompted anonymous donors to pour thousands of dollars into his defense through various online fundraisers.

Etsy was flooded with pro-Mangione clothing, while Amazon pulled similar products from its site.

The McDonald’s worker who allegedly handed it in became the target of online hate, while the fast food franchise itself was showered with bad reviews.

The Altoona, Pennsylvania, police department that arrested him even received death threats.

Much of this online backlash focused on his appearance, with the internet calling him a “hot killer.”

Indeed, Mr. Mangione’s appearance, which he displayed in shirtless social media posts, is now clearly part of the appeal, said cultural critic Blakely Thornton.

According to him, Americans are actually “programmed” to trust and empathize with men who look like Mr. Mangione.

“That’s why they’re the main characters in our movies, books and stories.”

Public worship of handsome men Accusation of crimes is nothing new – from Ted Bundy to Jeremy Meeks, violent men have created a cult following.

But Professor Tanya Harek, an expert on digital culture and true crime at Ruskin University in England, says social media has made these sentiments widely visible and helped them spread.

The internet has led to a “blurring of the lines between celebrity and crime”, she told the BBC, adding that when people see a good-looking person appear on their feed, their first thought is lust, not moral criticism.

“The mood around Luigi Mangione is ‘thirst,'” she said.

Appearance aside, a large part of Mr. Mangione’s online appeal clearly lies in his apparent anger against the private health care industry and corporate elites in general. US media reported that Mr Mangione was arrested with a handwritten document saying “these parasites wanted”.

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a nonprofit research group on extremism based in New Jersey, said the hashtag #EatTheRich went viral after the shooting.

Since Mr. Mangione’s arrest, variations of “#FreeLuigi” have been posted on X more than 50,000 times, likely receiving tens of millions of impressions. And by some measures, the NCRI said, engagement with messages about Mr. Thompson’s assassination on platforms such as X, Reddit and others surpassed the assassination of Donald Trump in July.

An analysis of a sample of comments by research firm OneCliq found that the vast majority – four-fifths – contained criticism of the health care system.

Mr Mangione’s X account has gained more than 400,000 followers since the shooting.

The shooting also appears to have inspired others to take action against health insurers, with “wanted” posters in New York for other CEOs, and a woman in Florida was arrested after telling an insurance agent over the phone, “Delay, Deny, Depose. You people are next,” alluding to the words written on shell casings found at the scene of the murder.

Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at NCRI, called the online backlash “a turning point” and “a catalyst for the normalization of political violence that was once confined to extremists on the fringes.”

He compared the wave of comments to online activism after racist massacres, designed to protect the killers and reinforce their beliefs – only more widespread and taking place on mainstream social media.

“The dynamics we’re seeing are eerily similar to the activity on platforms like 4chan, 8chan, Discord and other dark corners of the Internet where mass shootings are often met with glee,” he said.

Tim Weninger, a professor of computer science at Notre Dame and an expert in social media and artificial intelligence, said the data suggested the underground wave was real — not created by bots or government influence operations.

“People are furious with the health care industry, and they’re using social media to express their frustration,” he said. “They are expressing that frustration by supporting this suspect.”

A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy institute, found that 45% of insured working-age adults were charged for something they thought should have been free or covered by insurance, and 17% of respondents said their insurer refused in coverage recommended by their doctor.

There are signs that the shooting has prompted some introspection on the part of medical companies.

“I think we’re all taking a step back and trying to understand what’s going on with patients and their experience,” Pfizer Chief Sustainability Officer Caroline Rohan said at a conference in New York on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Some of the people who protested against health insurance companies for years, before the UHC took off online, understand some of the dark sentiment, even if they don’t share it.

“This is a horrific act of violence, and I condemn it in the strongest terms regardless of the motivation,” Jen Coffey, who fought to have UHC cover her medical bills, said of Mr. Thompson’s murder. “But I’m not shocked by the reaction.”

Ms. Coffey, 53, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and later developed complex regional pain syndrome, a potentially debilitating neurological condition. When her doctor suggested she try ketamine therapy, her UHC insurance didn’t cover the procedure, she said. Since then, she has participated in a protest campaign organized by the activist group “People’s Action”.

Ms. Coffey’s illness forced her to stop working as an emergency medical technician. She said she started a crowdfunding campaign and had to sell most of her belongings to pay for the treatment herself.

“Thanks to the treatment, I can sit and paint or enjoy a meal with my family,” she said. “I can have a life worth living.”

UnitedHealth Group told the BBC it could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.

At the same time, much of the internet discussion effectively ignored the victim, Brian Thompson, who was in his 50s.

“It’s incredibly dark that (Thompson’s death) didn’t get as much coverage because, basically, a man died, a man was killed,” Blakely Thornton said.

“The collective anger at (the health care industry) really outweighs what is still a tragedy.”

In his latest LinkedIn post, Mr Thompson talked about trying to make healthcare more affordable – and was criticized in the comments. CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, has obtained a message UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Whitty sent to staff this week, paying tribute to Mr Thompson and calling his slain colleague “one of the good guys”.

“He was definitely one of the smartest guys. I think he was one of the best guys. I will miss him. And I am incredibly proud to call him my friend,” he wrote.

In an email, the company shared messages from customers, including one who wrote about his cancer recovery saying his insurance company was paying for his treatment.

“I am grateful to UHC and everyone working in a broken system to help as many people as possible,” they wrote, according to the company.

Another post said: “It’s so sad that this world is so hateful. I’ve always had a great experience with UHC.”

Ms Coffey, a UHC policyholder and patient, said: “My heart goes out to the family and I can’t imagine what they have to deal with with this (murder). I am appalled that this is the catalyst for this discussion. .”

“I’d like to sit down and talk to him.”

With additional reporting by Grace Dean