The former roommate of the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has revealed that he is the one who introduced Luigi Mangione to the screed that would eventually shape his future.
A focal point in untangling who Mangione is following his arrest on Monday has been his Goodreads account, particularly a chilling review he wrote of Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski’s radical manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future.
Writing on the account associated with him in January, Mangione described Kaczynski’s text as “prescient” and noted that “when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive.” Along with giving the Unabomber manifesto a 4 out of 5 star rating, sentiments from Kaczynski’s text were also reportedly mirrored in the 262-word manifesto police found on Mangione the day of his arrest.
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Mangione’s former roommate, R.J. Martin, who lived with him in Hawaii between January and June 2022, detailed to Fox News on Tuesday how exactly the 26-year-old suspect in Thompson’s killing got acquainted with the book in the first place.
Speaking to Jesse Watters, Martin explained that Mangione spearheaded a book club where he suggested “a bunch of interesting” pieces to read. One of the earlier books the group read was Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which profiles different success stories.
As for how Kaczynski entered the chat, Martin said that he was actually the one to suggest reading the book.
“I actually proposed that we read, kind of half joke, that we read the Unabomber manifesto,” he shared. “I always wanted to read it but never got around to it, so that was my suggestion.”
Martin proceeded to disclose that they had a “normal” discussion around it. “Nothing that stood out at the time. No anger. No special affinity towards it. Just, you know, thought provoking discussion,” he added.
When Watters pressed Martin on why he wanted to read Kaczynski’s manifesto in the first place, Martin explained, “I have an academic background and I really enjoy reading just about anything, different perspectives, right, left, middle, progressive.”
He noted that he wanted to “understand a little bit more about what he wrote” and “why he wrote it,” before adding that he wouldn’t say that he “turned” Mangione on to the essay.
In an earlier phone interview with NBC News, Kaczynski’s brother David disclosed that he hopes Mangione didn’t view the domestic terrorist as a “key model” and likened his sibling’s actions to a “virus.”
“They could be like a virus unless they understand he was a very angry and disturbed man,” David shared. “It doesn’t mean his ideas are ideas of a lunatic, but his behavior, I believe, is the behavior of a lunatic.
“To the extent that he may have attributed at all to sort of normalizing or recasting the violent acts as beneficial to humanity is a terrible mistake,” he added.
