TOWSON, Md. — Luigi Mangione’s family is “beloved’’ Baltimore royalty, fueled by a real-estate empire and history of contributing millions of dollars to healthcare — the very industry that allegedly drove him to murder.
Luigi’s late grandfather, family patriarch Nick Mangione Sr., liked to talk about being the product of a classic immigrant success story.
“I didn’t have two nickels to rub together when my father died when I was 11, yet I still became a millionaire,” Nick once told the Baltimore Sun of his Italian immigrant dad and his own hard-scrabble upbringing.
The family’s personal dynasty reaches as far as Maryland’s statehouse, too, where grandkid Nino Mangione serves in its House of Delegates.
Relatives and friends said the family’s “amazing’’ reputation is what makes the news of Luigi’s arrest all the more shocking — particularly if he was driven by anger over the healthcare industry, which was near and dear to his grandparents’ hearts.
The brilliant 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania grad is accused of executing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a sidewalk hit in Midtown last week.
He was allegedly seething over the country’s medical system and what he considered its “mafiosa’’ of greedy healthcare companies.
“It’s a shock for all of us,” Luigi’s uncle, Jerry O’Keefe, told The Post on Tuesday.
“I can’t say anymore. The statement summed it up for all of us. We don’t know anything more than what’s been reported in the media.”
On Monday, the family issued a statement saying, “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”
Friends and others in the community poured out their hearts to the family on Facebook — where seemingly everyone knows a Mangione.
