UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin appears to have a penchant for subliminal messages.
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a prominent psychiatrist and trail expert, told the Daily Beast she believes the still-anonymous killer intentionally left behind a pair of clues—including inscribed shell casings and a backpack stuffed with monopoly money—to send a message about why he carried out the cold-blooded act.
“The monopoly money conveys messages, both that UnitedHealthcare is a ripoff that steals money from patients in order to pay its executives millions, and that it is itself a monopoly,” Lieberman told the Daily Beast. “He may have planned to scatter the monopoly money around the CEO’s body after he shot him, but he forgot to take the bills out of his backpack.”
The retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer concurred, telling the Daily Beast the monopoly money was “meant to send a message.”
The backpack stuffed with fake money and a jacket was found dumped in Central Park on Friday, two days after the gunman ambushed the 50-year-old Thompson on a busy Manhattan street before fleeing on an e-bike.
That advancement came on the heels of it being revealed that shell casings from the scene read “deny,” defend,” and “depose.” Lieberman told the Daily Beast last week that those messages suggested the gunman was the loved one of someone who died—or is dying—because UnitedHealthcare denied them medical coverage.
“It’s interesting how some people don’t want to believe it, but my opinion is that it is a disgruntled a loved one of a disgruntled patient who died because this insurance company wouldn’t pay for sufficient treatment,” she said.
Charlie Carroll, a security expert and CEO of ASET Corporation, told the Daily Beast on Thursday that he’s not convinced the gunman wasn’t a professional. He said the inscribed casing may very well be a “symbolic distraction” to make police think he’s a disgruntled patient or a loved one to someone who is a UnitedHealthcare customer.
“The inscriptions on the bullet casings—‘Denied, Defend, Dispose’—are designed to make the public think this was a disgruntled customer,” he said. “But it’s too thought out. The average angry person doesn’t engrave their rounds. It’s an intentional effort to mislead investigators.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams has remained adamant that the gunman will be identified and arrested, but that likelihood appears to be shrinking by the day as the suspect remains on the loose and is believed to have already left New York on a bus.
“Let him continue to believe he can hide behind a mask,” Adams said on Saturday. “We’re going to reveal who he is, and we’re going to bring him to justice.”
The NYPD said they believe the killer spent a full 10 days in New York—including Thanksgiving—at a hostel in Manhattan after arriving by bus from Atlanta. Police have also been attempting to find possible clues left after the killing, with a scuba team being deployed to Central Park in search of the silenced murder weapon and other possible evidence.
Police have upped their reward for information about the killer to $50,000 and are said to be using artificial intelligence to help them identify the man.
The killing appears to have spurred fears of a copy-cat attack in the insurance industry, with the names of executives being wiped from the websites of prominent insurers like Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medica.
