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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Victoria Bekiempis

Luigi Mangione superfans’ press passes raise issue of who is really a journalist

a handcuffed man enters a courtroom
Luigi Mangione appears at a pre-trial hearing for the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the Manhattan criminal court on 18 May 2026. Photograph: Steven Hirsch/EPA

On what felt like an early New York City summer day, a gaggle of women in the bloom of youth gathered outside Manhattan’s criminal courthouse last week, waxing philosophical about Luigi Mangione and the man he is accused of murdering.

“Fuck Brian Thompson, that’s all I’m going to say,” one of the three women, who sported a button adorned with Mangione’s face, said of the late UnitedHealthcare executive. After directing the same invective towards Thompson’s mother, the woman continued: “I said what I said.”

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