Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Has A New High Profile Case

After his failed prosecution of Daniel Penny, will Bragg redeem himself with a successful prosecution of Luigi Mangione?

As was reported yesterday by ABC News:

ALTOONA, Pennsylvania (WABC) -- The ghost gun allegedly in Luigi Mangione's possession in Pennsylvania was matched to three shell chasings recovered in Midtown, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday.

She also confirmed fingerprints recovered in NYC have been matched to Mangione's in Pennsylvania.

"First, we got the gun in question back from Pennsylvania. It's now in the NYPD crime lab. We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in Midtown at the scene of the homicide. We were also able in our crime lab to match the person of interest's fingerprints with fingerprints that we found, both on the water bottle, and the kind bar near the scene of the homicide in midtown," Tisch said.

If Tisch’s statements are an accurate representation of factual reality, they add to the emerging picture that Luigi Mangione did absolutely nothing to evade detection for this crime apart from wearing a mask and fleeing the scene. Any 13-year-old boy of middling intelligence who watches crime movies knows not to leave a water bottle and food wrapper that likely bear his fingerprints and DNA at a crime scene.

If the NYPD is indeed telling the truth about its evidence—and the chain of custody of this evidence has been properly documented—it suggests that Mangione fantasized about being a martyr, which necessitated getting caught.

However, if this is the case, it’s puzzling that Mangione did not attempt to have his “manifesto” published, or to send a video recording of himself making a statement to the press. Instead he appears to have kept his manifesto on his person. Equally remarkable in this respect is that he has pled not guilty to the charge of murdering Brian Thompson.

It seems to me that far more research needs to be done on young men like Thomas Matthew Crooks and Luigi Mangione. Is it possible that both boys drew attention to themselves from their internet search and reading profiles? That is, is it possible for nefarious actors to identify troubled and susceptible young men—from their internet profiles—as suitable candidates for grooming to participate in nefarious actions?

To indulge in wild speculation: I imagine a scenario in which Mangione was invited to participate in a high profile crime against “United Health executives,” but he was not informed of the details of what he was being recruited to do. This could explain the puzzling fact that he checked into the youth hostel ten days before Thompson was assassinated. Was he instructed to do this and told that he would receive further instructions after getting situated in Manhattan?

I wonder if the whole truth of this deeply intriguing story will ultimately come to light. It doesn’t give me much confidence that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg will be leading the prosecution of Mangione. Again, to quote the ABC News report:

In his first comments since Mangione was charged with second-degree murder on Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he was confident that the 26-year-old would quickly be extradited to New York where he will be held accountable for brazenly killing Thompson.

"We will get the defendant here and bring him to justice through our court proceeding," Bragg told ABC News' Aaron Katersky.

Note that Bragg appears to have made this statement before the NYPD performed its comparative analysis of Mangione’s fingerprints with those found on the water bottle and food wrapper found at the crime scene. Why was Bragg confident that Mangione would be held accountable for the crime before the NYPD had performed its comparative analysis of the crime scene evidence? Why didn’t he hold fire on making this statement until he’d had sufficient time to review whatever evidence emerged from an impartial investigation?

News that the NYPD has obtained this physical evidence linking Mangione to the crime scene was reported on the same day that Daniel Penny and his attorneys announced they are suing DA Bragg for malicious prosecution. Especially alarming was Bragg’s apparent collusion with the medical examiner during the trial.