As Aesop once wrote, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” The Apostle Paul said the same thing to the church in Corinth: “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’” That may end up being the case with Luigi Mangione, 26, who was arrested and charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday in New York City.

The leftist Jacobins celebrating Thompson’s murder are certainly of a similar ideological bent. According to their logic, Thompson was a wealthy CEO of a health insurance company that didn’t pay for every single medical procedure or pill; ergo, he was a villain and either deserved to die or at least wouldn’t be missed.

After several days on the lam, Mangione was recognized by an alert McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police arrested him within minutes. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “He was in possession of a ghost gun that had the capability of firing a 9mm round and a suppressor,” as well as four fake IDs and a “manifesto.” He’s been charged with murder, firearms, and forgery offenses, and it certainly seems as if he’s guilty.

CBS News reports, “Luigi is related to the Mangiones, a family in Maryland that owns several country clubs, including Haysfield Country Club in Hunt Valley, as well as health care facilities and real estate companies in the Baltimore area [emphasis added].”

He graduated in 2016 as valedictorian of the elite, all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore before attending the University of Pennsylvania and earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in 2020. According to those who knew him at Gilman, he was a hard worker and a good friend, a wrestler, and a soccer player. He was a nice kid who got along with others and was well-liked, and he attended dances and other social events, so he wasn’t an outcast.

But at some point at UPenn, or since, a strain of sociopathic behavior emerged, manifesting as an evil cool and calm regarding his premeditated violence. He wasn’t a loner like many sociopathic assailants — including “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whose rantings about capitalism seem to have inspired Mangione based on his online activity. Investigators may determine there is a cadre of socialist influence around him.

Notably, however, he was a loner in recent months. His family reported him missing last month after he cut off communication with them and others months earlier. The New York Post reports that he was having difficulty recovering from a traumatic back injury and surgery. The chronic physical pain he had endured for years, and as a result of his most recent surgery, is likely a factor in his radical behavior.

Regarding his motivation to target an insurance executive, at age 26 — the upper limit for “children” under ObamaCare — he may have paid only a few insurance premiums on his own. But the shell cases recovered at the scene of Thompson’s murder were inscribed with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend,” inspired by the title of a book that denounces the health insurance industry.

“Officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” said Commissioner Tisch. The New York Times was more specific, reporting that the “handwritten manifesto … criticized health care companies for putting profits above care.” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny added, “It does seem that he had some ill will toward corporate America.”

Socialists do harbor sometimes violent ill will toward capitalists.

Indeed, he sent a loud message to thousands of other socialist whackos that this is their “final solution” to fight capitalism. That’s especially true for the leaders of insurance companies because there are always cases of someone being or feeling mistreated. Assuming he’s the killer, Mangione likely sees himself as some “savior” of the common man and already has been iconized as such by the Left. That means the demand for corporate security contractors just got much higher.

Brian Thompson leaves behind a wife and two sons, while Mangione has “shocked and devastated” his own family. This murder didn’t solve a single thing wrong with the health insurance industry, and it already has fueled the increasing radicalization of anti-capitalist Jacobins on the Left, who may soon be out for more blood.

Now, Mangione’s fate is in the hands of corrupt Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, best known for his politicized persecution of Donald Trump and Daniel Penny and for letting actual criminals walk free. It would seem Mangione’s only defense is insanity.

There are no silver linings in this case.

(Updated)

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