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Tracing the powerful household roots of suspected killer Luigi Mangione


Tracing the powerful household roots of suspected killer Luigi Mangione

BBC The foreground is a street with Little Italy painted on it and the background shows older brick buildings and a man bicycling down a street.BBC

This week, the surname Mangione became inextricably linked with the cold-blooded killing of health-insurance executive Brian Thompson in recent York City, when 26-year-ancient Luigi Mangione was charged with his murder.

But for decades, the name has meant something entirely different: riches, power, prominence, philanthropy – particularly within the Italian throng of Baltimore.

They’re one of, if not the, “most respected” Italian families in the area, according to Giovanna Aquia Blatterman.

Now 77, Ms Aquia Blatterman, who arrived in the US from Sicily in1953, said she has known three generations of Mangiones.

The household is “charitable” and “self-made”, she said, while Luigi, who she met briefly about eight years ago, appeared clever, approachable and handsome – “as you can inform”.

“Something has occurred with him,” she mused, referencing the last several days. “He’s two different people.”

She also insisted he’s innocent until proven guilty: “This is one of the greatest honours of being an American citizen.”

Reuters Close up photo of Luigi Mangione in an orange prison jumpsuit. Police are around him and his facial expression is serious.Reuters

The roots of the Mangiones

The cluster of streets in downtown Baltimore that make up Little Italy, where Ms Blatterman owns one of the neighbourhood’s many Italian restaurants, has been an enclave for Italian immigrants since they flocked there in the 1800s and 1900s.

An Italian tri-colour flag is still proudly displayed. Even fire hydrants are painted green, white and red.

Nicholas Mangione Sr was born there in 1925, starting life in a impoverished immigrant household. He spent the first eight years of his life in a one-room flat with an outdoor privy toilet, according to the Baltimore Sun.

During globe War Two, he served in the Navy in the South Pacific before returning to his Maryland home where he built a series of enterprises as well as, according to local media, a combative – even aggressive – reputation when it came to his business interests.

A lighted sign that says Little Italy is suspended over a street against a blue sky with brick and wood buildings behind it. There are cars driving below it on the street.

In a 1995 narrative about him titled ‘Fiery builder has softer side’, Mr Mangione recalled buying the Turf Valley resort, which lies to the west of Baltimore, in 1978.

“People thought I needed money from the mafia to buy this place. They asked me what household I belonged to. I told them, ‘I belong to the Mangione household. The Mangione household of Baltimore County.'”

In 1988, Turf Valley was at the centre of a racism row when the then-manager – Mangione Sr’s now deceased nephew – was recorded using a racial slur. The incident made local information.

But within Baltimore’s tight-knit Italian throng, there’s loyalty to Nick Mangione and his recollection. Life-long Little Italy resident, 83-year-ancient Mary Ann Campanella, called him an “excellent man”.

“If you went to him (for assist),” she said, “and he looked at you – you got it. He helped everyone.”

The household patriarch – who long ago had moved his expanding household out to the suburbs – died in 2008, leaving behind 10 children, and 37 grandchildren, including Luigi Mangione.

Luigi Mangione’s childhood

When he was arrested, police declare Luigi Mangione was carrying a hand-written document detailing his alleged “ill will” towards corporate elites, which US media have reported included the line “these parasites had it coming”.

Unlike his grandfather, Luigi was born into privilege, attending an all-boys private school in a northern Baltimore suburb, where fees can reach $37,690 a year.

From a rainy Baltimore roadside, the sprawling campus of the Gilman School is visible, including its centrepiece, a double-fronted, 1920s red-brick hall behind which are extensive sporting grounds.

One household associate likened it to Eton, the English boys school attended by aristocratic familes and members of the Royal household.

Many have wondered how this 26-year-ancient man went from being a youthful, promising graduate to an alleged fugitive, arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.

A large brick building can be seen in the background with a brick gate that says Gilman in the foreground. It is rainy and the sky is grey.

The Mangiones boast a riches of cousins, aunts and uncles, who have spread well beyond Little Italy. But the household has remained largely silent following Mr Mangione’s arrest, only releasing a short statement via Republican state lawmaker and cousin Nino Mangione to declare they are “shocked and devastated”.

Requests to talk to household members were met either with no response or a firm, but courteous: “No comment.”

One simply told us: “Everything that needs to be said has been.”

Dylan Segelbaum, a reporter for local information website the Baltimore Banner, said that as Luigi Mangione grew up, his household owned businesses ranging from country clubs and golf courses to assisted living facilities.

“The Mangione household is prominent in the Baltimore area,” he said.

The Mangione legacy

A woman wearing a blue sweater is stiing smiling in a colorful restaurant with a bar behind her with blue and pink lights over it. She is wearing a coloured scarf and there is a painting of red and yellow flowers behind her as well.
Giovanna Aquia Blatterman

The name is literally imprinted on Baltimore.

A plaque at the entrance to the household Center at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center reads: “Donated by Nicholas and Mary Mangione.”

“The household’s very philanthropic,” Mr Segelbaum said, noting the household gave more than $1m to the hospital.

But Ms Blatterman insists the Mangiones have remained “relatable” and don’t “showboat”.

Previously a salon stylist, Ms Blatterman said she cut the hair of Luigi Mangione’s grandmother Mary Mangione, who she calls “Miss Mary”, in the early 1970s.

And, before the Covid pandemic, she said she played bocce (an Italian bowling game) with members of the Mangione household, including Luigi Mangione’s parents, Louis and Kathleen Mangione.

“Kathy has a trip agency. She does trips to Italy,” she said.

While she expressed sympathy for the household of Mr Thompson, 50, the health-executive fatally shot on 4 December, Ms Blatterman said her thoughts are also with the Mangiones.

“I can’t imagine what the household’s going through. I’m sorry about Mr Thompson, they’re going through hell, too – but so is this household going through hell.”



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