Luigi Mangione appears to have left behind ‘riddle’ as number of bizarre details linked to ‘286’

Mangione has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson

Internet sleuths believe they have figured out a ‘riddle’ seemingly left behind by Luigi Mangione on his social media.

Mangione was apprehended and charged with the murder of United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, in Manhattan, New York last week.

Thompson was shot three times outside of the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue and died after being rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The shooter, whose bullets were engraved with the words, ‘deny’, ‘depose’, and ‘defend’, then fled the crime scene on an e-bike through Central Park, before promptly ditching the bike at around 7am.

On Monday (9 December), police announced that a person of interest in connection to the shooting had been detained in Altoona, Pennsylvania after receiving a tip-off from a McDonalds employee.

Mangione has been charged with one count of murder, as well as charges relating to the possession of a firearm, forgery and giving the police false identification.

The 26-year-old attended his extradition hearing yesterday (10 December), where he was heard shouting something to reporters waiting outside.

Following this, internet sleuths immediately began investigating apart Mangione’s online presence and any clues he may have supposedly left behind.

While all of his social media platforms have since been taken down, the last to remain up was his account on X.

As well as digging into his Goodreads, which featured a positive four star review of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski’s, manifesto, as per The Independent, the main focus was on looking into his header on X.

The three image header featured a Pokémon character, an X-Ray of a back with metal pins, and a shirtless picture of him on a hike.

Though much of the internet has focused on the hiking picture, sleuths have dug more so into the secret meaning of the other pictures, considering it a ‘riddle’ to be solved.

And now, several have claimed to have found a hidden meaning, linked to the number ‘286’ which they believe has ‘figured out’ a number of key details.

Firstly, the picture of a back X-Ray is speculated to be that of Mangione’s, with his former roommate claiming to CivilBeat that he’d suffered with back pain as a result of a misaligned vertebrae that sometimes pinched his spine.

In addition, the Pokémon in question is not random, but is also speculated to have a secret meaning behind it.

Every Pokémon has a specific number attached to it in the ‘pokedex’, with the one shown in his header Breloom being 286.

In addition to this, Mangione had exactly 286 posts on his X account, as per The Daily Star.

This has a multitude of supposed meanings that fans have realised.

Firstly, proverbs 28:6 in the Bible refers to a verse which many suspect is particularly relevant to the alleged shooter’s possible motives.

It reads: “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.”

A ‘manifesto’ found in Mangione’s backpack also reportedly indicated to police that he ‘appeared to view the targeted killing of the company’s highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and power games’.

In his three-page manifesto, Mangione also referred to private healthcare as ‘parasites [who] simply had it coming’.

This is reinforced by another ‘secret meaning’, with 286 being a code used by health services, which some have used to point to a claim having been rejected because of a late appeal.

This can mean that the appeal was not filed in time after a claim was first denied.

Following his arrest, Mangione’s family issued a statement, saying they were ‘shocked’ and ‘devastated’ by his arrest.