Luigi Mangione Trades Letters With MAGA Podcaster From Prison
Podcaster and Trump supporter Patrick Bet-David revealed on Monday he’s exchanged letters with someone he did not expect to hear from: Alleged murderer Luigi Mangione.
Mangione wrote to the PBD Podcast host from prison, where he is currently awaiting trial for the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Bet-David was reticent to share many details from the letter, but he said it would be an “understatement” to say it was well-written.
“This was written as if a kid went to Harvard or Yale — good writer, sense of humor, sarcasm, witty, even a riddle in there,” Bet-David said. “You can tell he’s very intellectual, deep meaning in the way he’s writing his stuff.”
Mangione actually went to a different Ivy League school — the University of Pennsylvania, following his graudation from his $42,000-per-year high school in Baltimore.
Bet-David was surprised but not entirely shocked to hear from Mangione, because the alleged killer had mentioned the podcaster’s book “Your Next Five Moves” in a letter last year outlining 27 things he was grateful for.
One thing Bet-David did share from Mangione’s letter: the jailbird told him “A lot of girls who are Gen Z” were not happy that Mangione said he was grateful for PBD’s book. “He says, ‘You have a Gen Z female problem,'” Bet-David said.
Bet-David said he debated whether to respond to Mangione.
He said he opted to send Mangione a letter last weekend, after considering how much letters meant to him when he was serving in the military; Bet-David said he was also reminded of what an FBI profiler told him about killers, that “genetics load the gun” but “life experiences pull the trigger.” The podcaster said that definitely applied to Mangione.
“This guy had back issues, he had certain health problems, his grandpa was a very successful businessman. He had the trajectory of — he was a valedictorian, this is not a regular kid, he is a valedictorian,” Bet-David said. “Could have been a net positive to society, working, building a business, creating jobs, maybe getting involved in politics, doing something positive for the world. He had that brain to do it, he had the genetics to do it.”
Bet-David did not mention too much about what he told Mangione, beyond saying he sent him six books to read in the clink. He did not share which books those were.
He suggested his viewers reach out to people in their lives who they feel may be adrift, saying it was important to “lift them up” with an encouraging message or by sharing Bible passages. Doing so could help someone like Mangione out there, Bet-David said.
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