• Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Seriously a manifesto that starts off by praising the feds is about as suspicious as a cop going “Yeah, the suspect died in my custody, but before you think about giving me suspending me from the force with pay. He wrote this confession letter in his own blood confirming he killed himself and three whole paragraphs affirming that my massive cock is indeed large and super not-small.”

    • sudo@programming.dev
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      The “manifesto” isn’t a manifesto at all. Its basically just a written confession. And reads like a forced one at that. To me, the theory that they used illegal means to catch him and are just planting evidence so they have a case makes way more sense. They probably lost him and had to tap into some NSA data to ID him. He probably wasn’t a fucking moron and ditched the gun with the bag central park.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        That would explain that part that says

        PS: “Oh yeah that Agent Smith guy who called in this arrest, he needs to be promoted and his co-workers need to stop complaining about his body odor, because it’s quite pleasant actually. Prefer it to an air freshener.”

    • Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net
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      Between that, the discrepancy of the eyebrows, and the discrepancy of the backpack thing, so much of this doesn’t add up. Not guilty.

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    I really hope that Luigi does get acquitted. I mean if it is factual that he didn’t do it and the real killer is out there… well then, I guess Luigi still got lots of fame, but at the same time we will also be happy that the real guy is not only free, but the mystery of who he is will make him cooler.

  • big_fat_fluffy@leminal.space
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    Maybe it’s a staged event. The latest consensus-splitter / distraction.

    Look how it has split us. Reddit deleting posts. Unironic discussion of guillotines.

    • Sl00k@programming.dev
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      This event has brought a lot more class consciousness to the masses than anything else imo.

      • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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        It doesn’t have to have been effective. They might just have overestimated how many people would think killing health insurance CEOs was unacceptable.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Don’t get me wrong. After all of this high drama, it would be extremely funny if Luigi Mangione can prove he was in Rochester on the day of the shooting.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
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      I think that’s exactly where it’s going. Get convicted, real killer confesses and the state can’t pursue a crime they’ve convicted someone for.

      • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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        Why not? The double jeopardy clause is about prosecuting a single person twice; it says nothing about prosecuting a second person for the same crime. Heck, convicting a second person wouldn’t even automatically invalidate the first conviction. (SCOTUS has ruled that innocence is not a sufficient reason to overturn a conviction.)

        Remember, we have a judicial system. Calling it a “justice system” is inaccurate.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
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          They can once they release that conviction but it goes to show ineptitude and malfeasance which casts doubt on any further attempt to convict someone. And yes it would, shadow of a doubt is a high standard and a second conviction is a huge amount of doubt.

          Factual innocence is different, it’s a positive defense for literally any criminal charge.

          • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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            There’s no mechanism to release a conviction. Usually, if prosecutors have convicted somebody for murder, they won’t pursue a case against a second person only for reason of not wanting to admit that they may have got it wrong. But there’s no legal barrier, and it has happened for other crimes. The Ninth Circuit even ruled that it’s legal.

            • Madison420@lemmy.world
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              Reversed, released, overturned are all the same thing and happen literally daily. Where did you get your information that a conviction can’t be changed?

              Ed: reading your source it hinged on the crime technically being capable of being committed by multiple people and this one clearly can’t be.

              • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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                Sure, a conviction can be overturned, but what I’m pointing out here is that it doesn’t have to be in order to convict somebody else for the same crime.

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 days ago

    There’s a part of me hoping dudes going along with it to aid in the others escape, solidarity style, and he’s got some iron clad alibi his lawyer plans to deliver in the courtroom that means they can’t convict him.

    • lemmyknow@lemmy.today
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      Plot twist: this was a group act all along. The murderer flees the scene. Once the image gets released, a second actor shows up at a McDonald’s, a public space. Gets reported to authorities by a third actor, who does actually work at McD’s. They waste the authorities’ time, and the second actor, having commited no crimes, proves his innocence. The actual murderer, in the meantime, disappears for real, benefiting of the time wasted by the authorities. Second actor represents something, and gets some cool pics getting “arrested”

      Idk, the idea just came to mind seeing the comment above

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        the second actor, having commited no crimes, proves his innocence.

        Here’s the flaw in your plan: This doesn’t actually work in the US.

      • affiliate@lemmy.world
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        if luigi hypothetically did participate in this plan, wouldn’t that itself be a crime (accessory to murder)? so they could still get him for something if they found out about the plan, but probably for less than if he did actually kill someone. i’m not a lawyer though so i don’t really know how this stuff works or if it would even be feasible to prosecute him for any of those things (if he did them)

        • lemmyknow@lemmy.today
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          Indeed, I can see the parallel. To the movie, of course. I have not read the book, which I reckon has no plots? (It seems ťo be history rather than story). Though they do differ in a few ways. Great movie, imo

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          The feds, and state of New York, already said that the informant wasn’t going to get a dime of the posted reward.

          The only class solidarity that we have seen systemically is for the owners.

          • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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            Source?

            One random news source here:

            The McDonald’s worker who reported the UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect to 911 is eligible for a reward, but it may take time for them to receive payment. NYPD officials have confirmed the worker is eligible for a $10,000 reward from the department if Mangione were to be convicted, but the FBI has yet to confirm eligibility for its portion, the remaining $50,000 of the total reward.

            (Wouldn’t vouch for any of it from a rando paper)

          • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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            I knew this was how it would go down. I’m guessing they’re saying since they didn’t go through crimestoppers they can’t get it?

            I love it. Snitch gets their pretend cash snatched. Makes it less likely for people to snitch. And that fucker is going to be mad about it every day for the rest of their life.

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      I don’t trust the police so I don’t assume the items they claim that they got off of Luigi are legit. We’ll see what his lawyer says in court. We also don’t know if the gun that they say he had was the murder weapon. Have they done ballistics analysis or anything yet?

        • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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          Probably a majority of ppl on social media who don’t like wealth inequality, have said that in some form.

        • xtr0n@sh.itjust.works
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          The one with the monopoly money? How do they know that it was his backpack? I heard them talking about the backpack and monopoly money non stop but I have heard nothing about how they are so sure that it’s related to the case. NYC is huge and there’s a lot of people who lose backpacks all the time and there’s a lot of folks who would want to troll and stir up shit.

    • Punkie@lemmy.world
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      See, I think one of three scenarios might have happened:

      • Luigi didn’t do it. He was framed and set up because out of the hundreds of prank tips, this guy looked “close enough.”
      • Luigi did it, but the evidence was made up to make the case solid and the police look competent. Luigi wasn’t stupid, but he’s boned anyway.
      • Luigi did it, and he really was that stupid.

      As a writer, one of the aggravating tropes we have to follow is, “make the story believable,” when reality sometimes doesn’t align with “a good story.” Some criminals are really that stupid, and some armchair theory, based on decades of movies, books, and TV shows, you expect “hey, this is what they SHOULD have done is.” And they didn’t. It’s like when a chessmaster has to watch complete amateurs play chess. “Obvious strategies” are ignored, and basically both players are just not thinking past their last move.

      • xtr0n@sh.itjust.works
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        The thing is, whoever did it was pretty smart about much of the crime, which is why the story of how Luigi was caught and what they say he had on is person seems so odd relative to the behavior the previous week.

        If it was Luigi, he was pretty disciplined and smart before, during and immediately after the crime with the only leak being showing his face at the hostel (which he may have been required to do when he gave them ID).

        If he did do it and really had all that evidence on him, maybe he wanted to get caught? It seems crazy that anyone would hang onto a 3d printed gun when it would be pretty easy to destroy and dispose of it in multiple pieces and locations.

        I’ve said it before but I truly believe that Luigi would still be free if he had plucked his eyebrows, regardless of whether he did it.

        Edit to add, maybe he thought he’d get shot or captured at the scene and didn’t think too far beyond the immediate getaway? And with the stress of his picture up all over the news and social media, he kinda wasn’t thinking straight?

        • orcrist@lemm.ee
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          To be precise, we have no idea what evidence was collected or what it shows. All we know is what the cops said they found, and cops are notorious liars. Just ask Young Thug or Karen Read.

          We can assume some of what the cops say is true, but the challenge is that we have no idea which parts.

          • leadore@lemmy.world
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            It seems quite plausible that when they found the backpack it also had the gun and “manifesto” (stupid to call it that but it pushes their agenda) and whatever else in it, but they kept quiet about it. They only revealed that they had found the backpack. That would allow them to arrest anyone and then claim that he had the gun, etc. on him when they found him. They’ll need to prove that those things weren’t in the backpack they found.

            • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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              They’ll need to prove that those things weren’t in the backpack they found.

              I really doubt it. Cops barely have to prove shit when they’re arresting someone for weed. In something this high profile and important for the establishment I doubt there will be much proof at all.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        Some criminals are really that stupid,

        A lot of criminals are remarkably stupid. It’s fun to imagine criminal masterminds making up a lot of their plans with meticulous planning only to be foiled by the heroes. But in real life most crooks are fairly dumb. Even intelligent people who do crimes can make mistakes that come off as remarkably stupid to people learning about them.

        I watched a lot of episode of Forensics Files and other shows that document cases that were solved by slim margins. Some criminals on the show really did almost get away with it if it wasn`t for one tiny mistake. In other cases, however, they got caught ultimately because they left behind something that absolutely would have lead to their capture.

        Like in one case there was a mugger who killed a college girl while she walking home. The area she walked through was wooded and dark. The episode documents how DNA was used after it had advanced sufficiently to get him and they had to track him down to get a good sample. But there is something absolutely critical that the show didn’t point out: He got on police radar because he dropped a bag of his that had a medicine bottle with his name on it. If he just picked up his bag the police would have had nothing to go by at all.

        The other problem is that planning a murder like the one for Brian Thompson and getting away with it is hard as balls. Other than the fact that there are cameras everywhere. The guy needed to be at the right place and the right time and be there for only a minimal amount of time (to not draw undue attention) and he also had to be sure that there weren’t that many police around so police response times would be extended. I think he did it at the time because he also knew that the police change shifts so there are fewer beat cops around.

        Also the silencer obviously doesn’t make the gun 100% quiet, but it was done to make it quiet enough to not set off the shotspotter towers. Those towers are more and more common in many cities so that when a criminal fires a gun, they can quickly triangulate where the shot was fired from. This would give away his location very quickly and minimize police response time.

        It is meticulously planned. But there could be any number of things that could have gone wrong. The gun could have simply not fired at all. There could have been a few cops working extra hours nearby and ran after him quickly. Someone could have jumped at him to stop him right away. Lots and lots of factors go into it.

        Even some people said that why was he using a hostel (which has security cameras and other witnesses) when he could have rented an AirBnB apartment. Some places rent rooms and apartments for people and those people never actually meet the host, meaning there is no one who would see you.

        As for how to pay for them… the guy could have used a prepaid cash card, one bought and charged with cash. It cannot be traced back to you easily, if at all.

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net
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        Luigi did it, and he really was that stupid.

        Given that he was valedictorian at his school, I find that unlikely to be the option.

        I think you’re missing a 4th option:

        • He did it, and believed it not worth the anxiety/suffering of living the rest of his life as a wanted man, so did what he could to get away from the immediate scene but ultimately turn himself in so to speak.

        And there are almost certainly more nuanced options out there.

      • [email protected]@sh.itjust.works
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        A slight variation on your second scenario is parallel construction.
        I don’t know if Luigi’s the shooter or not, but if he did it, there’s a decent chance whatever is presented as evidence has absolutely nothing to do with how they actually caught the guy.

    • too_high_for_this@lemmy.world
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      It looks like you couldn’t decide on “bizarre” or “bazaar” so you split the difference. Bazaar is a market place, bizarre is weird. Just fyi, not trying to be a dick about it happy holidays love you

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      Maybe he found the gun lying around and decided to keep it. If I found a fully functional pistol I might do that…

  • anachronist@midwest.social
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    Next time they pick a patsy for a guy with distinctive eyebrows they should find a guy with the same eyebrows.

    • leadore@lemmy.world
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      It wouldn’t even have to be someone who looks like Luigi. They got the screen shots of Luigi from the hostel and found him based on the pictures, but they haven’t presented evidence that he was at the crime scene. If you look at the shooting video you can tell that the jacket worn by the killer is not the same jacket Luigi was recorded wearing at the hostel. Same with the fake ID. It only proves that was him at the hostel. They’ll need to present evidence that he was at the crime scene. They say they found a water bottle nearby that can be linked to him, we’ll see.

      • Colonel Panic@lemm.ee
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        It also bugs me that if you look at the hostel and crime scene footage, one person is darker hoodie with lighter backpack, the other is lighter hoodie with darker backpack. It’s inverse colors and no one seems to notice.

  • lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    This is actually the beginning of the plot to Sonic Adventure 2. We should be seeing Luigi snowboarding down the streets of San Francisco any day now.

    • Sai Somsphet
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      Oh great, now I have to ask my 9 year old sonic fan to put this into context. Kid beat the game on computer despite the crazy control setup.

    • Colonel Panic@lemm.ee
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      So you think he kept a backpack full of all the exact items involved and was just hanging around 3 days later in a McDonald’s by mistake?

      So like, he slept, showered, did all the usual daily things and just kept carrying around the incriminating evidence out in public? Seems weird to me. I’d assume most people would go bury the gun and clothes or something, not go carrying it all around.

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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    Genuine question, but supposing we were to consider this theory, why would there also, one, be complaints about the cops parading him around as a victory, and two, people saying Luigi was a hero?

    Whether you love or hate cops, they are not stupid. I’m sure if there was even an ounce of suggestion that they got the wrong guy, the cops would quietly decide not to be so smug about it.

    And to those who side with him, he’s either a hero/idol or he didn’t do anything. Pick one. I myself pick the third choice.

    Also, of note, it’s quite a coincidence they found the guy, then found out his name, and then found out his wealthy upbringing, evidenced by the fact he was trying to be as low profile as possible at the time, which would’ve curbed the ability to do all of that in reverse order. If he wasn’t the killer, that’s like firing a bullseye in the dark.

    • ynthrepic@lemmy.world
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      He’s just this guy who has a big chance of being a murderer. He is capable of deliberately planning to kill a person outside of immediate self-defence. However evil CEO A or B may be, the moral calculus isn’t hard: society as a whole comes first. Unless we’re sure he is innocent, it’s not clear he’s someone who can be left free safely. He’s a flight risk for starters.

      Police parade him and his manifesto so that they have an excuse to hold him, they look competent, and they get to keep him behind bars until we know for sure one way or another, or until they can’t hold him any longer. In which case we may never know for sure until the statue of limitations had passed and if he wants to confess.

      • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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        The scary part is, supposing he wasn’t the murderer and the actual one is out there, under normal circumstances, people could post wanted signs to see if someone might find this “actual” killer, but we aren’t under normal circumstances right now, with our circumstances being ones where the turnout for finds would be low in a world where wanted signs of random billionaires hang in random places in New York, with Brian Thompson actually not being a big opponent of society, having come from poor, rural Iowa and wanting to reform the business but lagging due to hoops (only to, then, be killed by someone he had not had under his insurance to begin with).

    • spireghost
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      It’s not really the photos. For me, it’s that it’s really unusual for him to have had all the evidence on hand. Like the ID, gun, silencer, notes, and a motive on hand, just chilling in McDonalds. He also gave away probable cause to search him by presenting the ID which he should have known was fake. Considering he took concealing steps like using a ghost gun, ditching his backpack, and making a relatively clean getaway, it’s pretty odd.

      Still it’s obviously possible that he wanted to be caught or was exhausted… or just dumb enough to not think of that.

      It IS a big thing that the evidence hasn’t been presented officially yet. There’s a lot of media talk implying that he’s the guy but trial by media is not a verdict

      • GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works
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        I think that the gun and everything else were dumped and found and the cops are saying he had them on him when he didn’t. I think they know it’s him, but they didn’t use legal means to identify him (parallel construction). They might have used some kind of new way of tracking people that they don’t want to reveal to the public.

        • spireghost
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          Oh yeah, definitely. I mean they definitely ran more than face detection software.

          They probably got thousands of tips and chose to respond to the one randomly in Altoona based on other knowledge they had.

          It’s crazy to me that parallel construction is allowed.

          • GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works
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            I suppose you could use targeted social media algorithms to target people within a certain area who are service workers who are more likely to see him. So they could theoretically manipulate people into better recognizing him.

      • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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        The thing that gets me is the “ghost gun” they found on him doesn’t look like a 3D printed gun according to the pictures that were released. It looks like a typical factory manufactured pistol with a metal slide and a metal barrel. Both machined. He would have spent a lot of needless time adding this much detail to the gun, like the grips on the machined metal slide. Why put so much effort into something like that?

        Everything on that gun looks highly machined. This isn’t what you would expect from a home brewed 3D printed gun.

        Now it could be they just took a random gun and photoed it to make the media happy and didn’t want to show the actual gun. But it’s odd.

        • brown567@sh.itjust.works
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          “3d printed guns” aren’t all homebrew. Usually with guns you can just buy literally every part except for a certain part that’s serialized and legally considered to be “the gun” (ship of Theseus style; any other part can be replaced and it’s the same gun, but if that one’s different it’s a different gun)

          It’s pretty trivial to print only that part and buy the rest. Also completely legal in many states, here’s a website with a bunch of examples:

          https://www.printyour2a.com/frames