UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was brutally executed on a Manhattan street one year ago Thursday — and a former colleague is lamenting how the notoriety of accused killer Luigi Mangione has far eclipsed the victim in the tragedy.
“It was the Luigi show,” said Terrie Martin, an independent Medicare broker in Texas who met Thompson at a conference a few months before he was gunned down.
“The whole thing just disgusts me — the way it was handled, the way it was portrayed, the way everybody jumped to celebrate when they weren’t even thinking this guy was a father, a husband, a boss or anything. That was just appalling,” she told The Post.
Thompson, 50, was shot dead Dec. 4, 2024 outside the Hilton Hotel at 54th Street and Sixth Avenue in a cold-blooded, caught-on-camera slaying that captivated the nation.
Mangione, who was 26 at the time, was arrested for the shooting at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania five days later after fleeing New York and kicking off a massive manhunt.
A subsequent investigation revealed Mangione harbored a deep-seated animosity toward the healthcare industry, which federal prosecutors are pointing to as a motive in his ongoing murder trial.
But Martin said Thompson bore no resemblance to the “caricature” money-hungry CEO Mangione’s deranged supporters painted him as since his murder.
“That’s what really bothered me about it. He really and truly wanted to know how to make it better, nuts and bolts from people who are working on the ground in the trenches,” she said.
“What’s beneficial, what’s lacking, how can we make it better? He was really, really set on that very sincerely. He was actually trying to make a difference. That’s what made me so sad.”
Martin recalled being struck by how down-to-earth Thompson was when they met.
“The one thing that I noticed from the very beginning was that everyone called him BT. They didn’t call him Brian or Mr. Thompson…I’m talking about regional managers. I’ve never seen a dynamic like that before in corporate America.”
The two spoke and she thought he was an area manager.
“He was so, so nice about it. He was kinda embarrassed about it but was like ‘I’m the CEO.’ I was like ‘oh my stars. I am so sorry,’” she said of the awkward interaction.
“He just laughed. He was so gracious about it.”
She said the episode stuck with her, and left her with a “sense of endearment” for the slain healthcare executive.
“If you had met him anywhere like in line at a grocery store or a sporting event, you would never have guessed he was a CEO. Never. He was just such a really nice, humble, everyday kinda guy.”
She took a dim view of Mangione being embraced by a contingent of fringe lunatics, who have elevated him to folk-hero status.
“I think we can all agree that assassination in any form is wrong from the get-go. I can’t comprehend that,” she said of his supporters, many of whom flock to his every court appearance waving signs and banners.
“I’m having a very hard time understanding what their thought process is and their justification for what happened to Brian Thompson,” she said.
“There was a celebratory tone in the country that absolutely shocked me. It was just dehumanizing. If they can do that to Brian, they can do that to anybody.”
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