Luigi Mangione saw himself as a Robin Hood-like hero and flashed a “proud” grin when UnitedHealthcare’s stock price plummeted after he gunned down CEO Brian Thompson, a former inmate claimed.
Linus Fu, a former prisoner at Brooklyn’s infamous Metropolitan Detention Center, told Courthouse News he befriended the 28-year-old admitted killer and witnessed his ascension to celebrity status in the lockup.
Fu — who was behind bars from January 2025 to July 2026 for a low-level role in a bank fraud scheme — formed a “really good relationship” with Mangione in the intake wing and saw him on a daily basis, he told the outlet.
Mangione matter-of-factly pleaded guilty last week to two federal stalking counts for fatally shooting Thompson on a Midtown Street on Dec. 4, 2024. Each count carries a potential life sentence.
Fu, 32, who has since been sent back to his home country of China, said some inmates dismissed Mangione as aloof and arrogant — with his bunkmate even blasting the Ivy League graduate killer as someone who “just wants attention.”
He said he thought Mangione saw himself as a Robin Hood figure, and was “proud” after UnitedHealthcare’s stock price dipped after gunning down the CEO.
“He was smiling,” Fu recalled, noting it was the only time the pair discussed Mangione’s case.
When Fu asked whether Mangione wanted attention, the Maryland native denied the motive in the killing.
“He said, ‘I didn’t do that for the fame,’” Fu said. “He basically admitted he did it.”
Though Mangione was “really quiet,” the former inmate said he was a jokester who lobbed snowballs into Fu’s cell and autographed his wife’s and bunkmate’s wife’s birthday cards.
“He’s a funny guy. He always jokes,” Fu told the outlet. “He’s young, he’s creative.”
“Most people, they know Luigi,” he said. “Some people ask for autographs, some people want to talk to him.”
Fu and Mangione, who was in MDC’s intake unit for his protection, bonded over their education and books — including reading John H. Richardson’s “Luigi: The Making and the Meaning,” about Mangione’s case.
“He’d check my progress all the time,” Fu said. “He said, ‘What page are you on right now?’”
“A lot of people sent books, different kinds of magazines,” Fu said. “I don’t know why they sent travel magazines to Luigi, that made no sense. He can’t travel, why would you send him a travel magazine?”
Mangione’s supporters also subscribed him to the New York Times, but he passed off the newspapers to Fu to help him practice his English, he recalled.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has said it will lobby to keep its case alive, at least until it learns the severity of the sentence Mangione receives in federal court.
After his surprise federal guilty plea, Mangione’s state murder trial won’t start next month as planned.
Justice Gregory Carro on Monday pushed Mangione’s next appearance date to Dec. 10, postponing the trial indefinitely, court records show.
The CEO slayer now wants his state case tossed, arguing it would constitute “double jeopardy” — being tried for the same crime twice — in light of his federal plea.
