Since being arrested in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, days after he allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk, Luigi Mangione has been all over the place, in a metaphorical sense. Memes, news coverage, Caroline Calloway claiming they hooked up, the nagging feeling that you’ve seen this whole thing happen on a movie screen before—he’s been an inescapable figure. Mangione, 26, has been in custody at the State Correctional Institute at Huntingdon in Pennsylvania, where he is awaiting trial without bail on charges including first-degree murder and terrorism, and on Thursday will be transferred to a New York City facility.
Mangione has gained widespread attention and some fans, including at least one person who tried to use a delivery service to send him some snacks. Despite reports on social media from users claiming to be Huntingdon area locals that local UberEats drivers have been “overrun” with orders directed to Mangione at the facility, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections press secretary Maria Bivens told Vanity Fair via email that “One food delivery service attempted to deliver him food his first night at the facility and was turned away.”
Food deliveries to people who are detained at the facility are prohibited. “This is not a common occurrence,” Bivens continued. In the event that a delivery person does come ringing, “they are turned away with the food.”
Emails and letters, however, are allowed, and Bivens said that as of Wednesday, Mangione has received 40 email messages and 53 pieces of mail.
And what of those people posting videos of themselves with drive-by bellowed offers of support and/or a Baja Blast for Luigi? What about the person who has filmed themselves multiple times outside the facility doing the “Apple” dance because they “heard he likes Charli XCX”? The college girls grooving outside? Have the new local fans and their tourism changed anything at the facility?
We’ll have to keep wondering, as Bivens declined to confirm how often such things happen, and whether any procedures had been put into place as a result. “Security operations is not public information,” she said.
