The Luigi Mangione trial is all about narrative control

On Monday, several dozen members of the public are lined up outside 100 Centre Street in Lower Manhattan, hoping to squeeze into the courtroom to hear testimony from witnesses called by the state against Luigi Mangione — the man accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a year ago.

Despite the endless news coverage, viral memes, and photos seen by millions of people, the group that shows up to hearings has thinned out significantly since the court date in February, when hundreds gathered outside and in the courthouse. There is a small demonstration ramping up, organized by healthcare reform group People Over Profit NYC. I recognize many of the people in line trying to get inside from previous hearings I’ve attended. It’s not the same rowdy, chaotic scene from February; like other grassroots movements, it has professionalized. Supporters hire line-sitters, come with custom T-shirts, and have developed a suspicion of reporters looking for soundbites. When they do speak to the press, many are careful about staying on-message: the focus is on a fair trial, they say, and their presence as supporters is an act of protest.

Meanwhile, actual hoards of reporters and photographers descend upon the Manhattan courthouse. There are far more members of the media here than there are Mangione supporters, with multiple crowded press lines and television crews in tents set up down the block. Photographers set up phones on tripods to livestream the action to fans online. News outlets spin up alliterative, rage-bait headlines. (the New York Post went with “MANGIONE AND THE MANIACS.”)

The narrative battle is in full swing. Even before Mangione was arrested and charged with Thompson’s murder, public perception of the killing was central to the story of the crime. For every article of the shooting, there was another focused on the “celebrating” that was coming from people online. For some commentators and observers, the reaction that seemed to be shared by a wide range of people was just as shocking as the killing itself. From the beginning, the general public was a party to the spectacle, a shapeless but undeniable force in the case against — or for — Mangione.

As the case moves toward trial, image management remains at its heart. Mangione’s wardrobe has become a matter of national attention. Supporters and opponents fight over how he should be walked into the courtroom and whether he should appear in restraints, something the legal team argues hurts his right to a fair trial — he’s pleaded not guilty to all charges. (In addition to the New York state case, Mangione is also facing charges in Pennsylvania and in a federal case, where there is the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.) And the week’s hearings concern what, in a case that’s been marked from the beginning by massive information overload, should be fair game for a jury to see.

Mangione appeared in court for the first day of a series of pre-trial hearings, clad in a dark gray suit and light dress shirt. (It was announced last month that he would have two suits, three shirts, three sweaters, three pairs of pants, five pairs of socks, and a pair of shoes without laces.) Unlike in September, when Mangione had spent his time at court shackled and in a khaki prison uniform, his hands were uncuffed during the hours-long hearing, allowing him to take notes and move more freely. Supporters still questioned procedure: Why was Mangione brought into court through a side door, rather than past the gaggle of photographers waiting in the hallway? Whose idea was it to do it this way? What’s with the officers of the court standing behind him in courtroom pictures? Why isn’t Mangione sitting next to his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo? Are they on bad terms? Why’d they cut his hair like that? And most importantly, does all of this benefit New York State prosecutors or Mangione’s defense?

On one hand, the atmosphere inside the courtroom is largely calm. People are on their best behavior, and the drama and theatrics of whatever is happening outside — protests, Nintendo costumes, LED billboards — is shut down promptly. But there is still the unmistakable feeling that there is a larger audience beyond the 100 or so people in the benches. Everything said in court will be immediately disseminated on social media, which will be linked and screenshotted and reshared on Reddit, where Mangione supporters are watching for live updates to come through. Some of the attendees in person will go back in the evening and do ask me anything-style Q&As for other fans. Each small moment will be dissected ad nauseum as the Mangione base gets more and more information to feast on. At times it feels like the internet has crash-landed into Judge Gregory Carro’s courtroom: there’s all the pomp and circumstance of the legal system, and then two rows in the back of people dressed in various green outfits or meme-y slogan T-shirts.

The recent slew of hearings have to do with what evidence will be barred from being shown to jurors if it goes to a jury trial. Mangione’s defense argues that key evidence collected when he was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s — including a notebook and a handgun found in a backpack — should be suppressed because it was obtained without a warrant. The defense is also looking to get statements Mangione initially made to Altoona, Pennsylvania, police thrown out on the basis that they failed to read him his Miranda rights before questioning him.

Over the course of several days, New York prosecutors called a NYPD public information sergeant; an employee of the company that manages the surveillance system at the McDonald’s; the county 911 coordinator that covers the area where Mangione was arrested; two Pennsylvania corrections officers that kept watch over Mangione was he was held in a state prison; and Altoona police officers who arrested Mangione on December 9th, 2024.

Almost immediately, the outsize media coverage about the Thompson shooting was raised, with prosecutors presenting screenshot after screenshot of NYPD Crimestoppers tip line posts that were disseminated via social media and traditional news outlets. At one point during cross examination, Mangione’s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo questioned NYPD Sgt. Christopher McLaughlin about a Fox News segment on the shooting and the manhunt underway; the chyron appearing below indicates that over 1,600 people were shot in New York. Agnifilo asked McLaughlin how many photos were circulated from those other shootings, a line of questioning that Judge Carro quickly shut down.

For several hours on Tuesday and Thursday, the court reviewed copious footage from body cameras worn by Altoona police officers. Even in the city of around 40,000, news of Thompson’s death was top of mind. Officer Joseph Detwiler, who responded to the initial 911 call from the McDonald’s, testified that he had seen extensive coverage of the shooting on Fox News. As he headed toward the McDonald’s, he was doubtful that the tip would turn out to be legit, he said. Another officer texted him that he would buy Detwiler a hoagie if the person in question was the suspect. He testified that he replied, “Consider it done.”

The body camera footage shows extended interactions between Mangione and law enforcement that at times veers into the surreal. At one point, while police run a fake New Jersey driver’s license Mangione provides to them, Mangione silently begins taking bites of a McDonald’s hash brown, which triggered laughter from the courtroom audience. (Prosecutors at one point displayed an enlarged image of the ID printed on posterboard and displayed on an easel for the court to see.) As Mangione is being cuffed and officially arrested, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is blaring in the McDonald’s through the speaker system.

Some of the most contentious moments eliciting reactions came during testimony from two corrections officers at the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon, a Pennsylvania prison where Mangione was held for over a week after his arrest. Tomas Rivers, one of the officers assigned to watch Mangione around the clock, said that he was held in a secure, separate block of cells and monitored constantly because the facility did not want “an Epstein-style situation,” referring to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s prison suicide.

According to Rivers’ testimony, Mangione discussed the public reaction to the killing of Brian Thompson. Rivers says the two had extended “casual” conversations about everything from travel and healthcare to books while he watched over Mangione. At one point, Rivers testified that the two talked about media reactions to the shooting; Rivers said he told Mangione what he had observed, that mainstream media was focused more on the crime, and that social media was instead focused on the wrongdoings of the healthcare industry.

As with many accused of high-profile crimes, Mangione’s social media accounts were mined for insight into who he was and what he was interested in — Rivers testified that he and Mangione discussed this to some extent, too. According to Rivers, Mangione was “disappointed” that people were comparing him to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski just because he reviewed one of his books on Goodreads. Later in the week, the prosecution showed the court images of items Altoona officers say they recovered from Mangione, including a crumpled piece of paper with daily to-do lists. The image was shown only briefly, and it was hard to make out all that was written. In one portion, there was what appeared to be a hand-drawn map of several streets and an intersection. Under December 8th, there were check boxes for buying USBs and a digital camera from Best Buy; for another day, journalist Lorena O’Neil reported that the to-do list appeared to include “archiving” social media accounts like LinkedIn and X.

Another corrections officer assigned to watch duties, Matthew Henry, testified that Mangione spoke at him, at one point blurting out that he had a gun that was 3D printed as well as a backpack with foreign currency. In cross examination, Marc Agnifilo, another one of Mangione’s lawyers, was unconvinced and attempted to cast doubt on the claim that Mangione would offer significant information like that unprompted. Henry testified that he did not make a record of the exchange despite knowing the crime involved a firearm.

The Thompson murder is a case where all of us simply know too much: the shocking shooting; the slow trickle of bizarre details like the bullets with “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” written on them; the manhunt; and the theatrics once Mangione was arrested. Combine that with the ubiquity of Luigi memes and jokes only, shared and reposted by millions of people. A joke someone reposted a year ago may come back around during jury selection.

Court on Friday was brief: Mangione was sick and unable to attend, his attorneys told the judge. Was it a tactic by his legal team? He must have the flu. Does he have access to vaccines at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he’s being held? The stress must be getting to him. Do they give him warm enough clothing for New York’s frigid temperatures? His supporters began speculating.

The favorite media narrative is that there are hoards of “loony,” “ghoulish,” “fawning” female supporters who show up for Mangione and represent the rotten core of America, where allegedly murdering someone can get you a fan club. The reality, of course, has never been so cut and dry: For one, men have been at all of the hearings I’ve attended, and throughout the week men are some of the first people in line in the morning.

A group of supporters I spoke to during a break was incensed by what they saw as a double standard: The media accuses them of being craven and obsessed, yet reporters line up day after day, crane their necks in court to try to see Mangione more clearly. (One of the supporters claimed they saw a person in the press section pull out binoculars during the hearing, only to get scolded by an officer of the court.) “Can you imagine the negative reaction if one of us had binoculars?” they said.

Before hearings one day, I walked into the women’s bathroom to find a handful of supporters reapplying makeup, tidying their outfits, and asking whether they should tuck their hair behind their ears or leave it loose. Why is that so bad, supporters ask, when we saw a member of the press putting on concealer in the courtroom?

Mangione supporters are also not always in alignment with one another, some taking issue with how others represent the lot as a whole. There is no one unified Mangione fan base — some try to use the crime as a launching pad for deeper conversations about healthcare reform, to mixed results. Others keep the focus on Mangione himself and his right to a fair trial. There are also an untold number of people who will crack a joke, “like” a post with new pictures, or comment “FREE LUIGI” on social media but do not engage in any other way with the case or the crime, and do not believe Thompson’s muder will improve the US healthcare landscape in any meaningful way.

“There are some people who are more for the camera, for the action of it all, for the media attention of it all,” an attendee said one day about other supporters in court. Some members of the public cover their faces going into hearings to avoid being recorded by the press; others practically strut in, as if it were a “runway moment,” their friend said. (The group of attendees declined to share their names with me.) Some supporters are dressed “like they’re going to Comic Con,” another supporter said, and those are the characters that end up in all the news reports. The group is frustrated that the more sober statements — a shirt that says “Justice is not a spectacle,” or “Without a warrant, it’s not a search. It’s a violation” — are ignored by media coverage.

“He has a right to a fair trial, and we feel like that right is being violated,” one of the supporters says. “This is why we show up. We feel like our presence here is kind of a protest as to what’s being done to him.”

Still, there are moments where the call for a fair trial veers into something that more resembles internet stan culture. On Tuesday, Judge Carro announced at the end of the day that he intended to seal all exhibits — including police photos, body camera footage, and the 911 call recording — from the public until the trial. Members of the media pushed back: Inner City Press delivered a letter requesting the media have a chance to make their case for unsealing some exhibits.

Mangione fans were not happy either. On X, a user with a Mangione profile picture replied to the reporter who sent the letter: “[The] case has already been prejudiced, he is facing the [death penalty] but you want to do this, you are doing the prosecutions (sic) work,” they wrote. “I’m beyond disgusted with you.”

But like any fandom, new information is irresistible. Carro released a handful of documents as agreed upon by the prosecution and the defense a few days later, via a file drop to members of the media. Supporters reuploaded them to Mangione subreddits almost immediately.