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Suspected assassin Luigi Mangione joked about paying for prostitutes with valuable “Pokémon” trading cards during a self-described “Zen” trip to Japan months before he was accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, according to a new report.
While in Osaka, Japan, Mangione joked to a friend about trying to pay a mob boss with “pornstar Pokémon” cards instead of yen, the country’s currency, according to a chronicle of his trip across Asia in The New York Times.
It wasn’t the only time he brought up the popular “Pokémon” franchise on the trip, according to the report. He discussed it and other video games with an expatriate American who went to Thailand to play professional soccer.
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Mangione’s reported stops included visits to Thailand, Japan and India. He met with an author who had written about the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in Mumbai, lost a fight to seven “ladyboys” in Bangkok and went on a spiritual retreat in a Japanese mountain village called Tenkawa.
He returned to the United States that July, staying in San Francisco, California. But by December, he was staying at a hostel in New York City, allegedly waiting to ambush Thompson outside a shareholder conference in Manhattan.
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On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, surveillance video shows a hooded gunman approach Thompson from behind and open fire. The married father of two died from his injuries.
Mangione was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, allegedly in possession of the murder weapon and a manifesto critical of the health insurance industry.
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Mangione faces a slew of charges in New York, Pennsylvania and at the federal level, including interstate stalking, the use of a firearm to commit a murder and second-degree murder.
He could face the death penalty on the top federal charge and up to life in prison in New York if convicted.
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