UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Person of Interest Gave Steve-O’s Memoir 3 Out of 5 Stars on Goodreads

The secret to good storytelling is, paradoxically, to “show, don’t tell.” Jackass star Steve-O could learn a thing or two from the “show” in front of the Midtown Manhattan Hilton Hotel this past Wednesday.

Earlier today, law enforcement officials announced that they had brought in a person of interest for questioning regarding last week’s shooting death of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, ahead of the company’s shareholder meeting in New York City. Police officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania arrested Luigi Mangione, 26, on gun charges this morning after an employee at a McDonald’s location where Mangione was eating notified the authorities about the presence of a man resembling the widely publicized security photos showing the shooter’s partially concealed face. 

Upon apprehending Mangione, officers found in his possession a gun, a silencer, a fake ID and a handwritten manifesto lambasting health insurance companies for prioritizing profits at the expense of American lives.

Critically, none of the charges Mangione currently faces are directly connected to the shooting of Thompson, and the police have not yet published the exact prose contained in Mangione’s alleged manifesto. But, if it’s anything like Mangione’s three-star Goodreads review of Stephen “Steve-O” Glover’s 2022 memoir A Hard Kick in the Nuts: What I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Terrible Decisions, we expect Mangione’s criticism of the healthcare industry to be measured, slightly disappointed and capped off with praise of the subject’s early work:

“Overall, I’m not sure I really learned anything,” Mangione admitted of his experience with A Hard Kick in the Nuts. “The lessons were all pretty generic and would’ve carried more weight with better storytelling. Further, I wish the lessons themselves were more interesting? Steve-O has been through intensive rehab programs — for sex, drugs, etc. — over several years. Admirably, he’s managed to stay sober for over a decade and now seems to have achieved a very healthy relationship. I would’ve been interested in hearing some of the specific tools and strategies he’s learned over the years through these programs. Clearly they’ve helped him, and this is an area where he’s truly an expert."

Considering the fact that law enforcement experts are incredibly interested in the specific tools and strategies used in the killing of Thompson, Mangione’s literary criticism could very well help them to elucidate the truth about his possible involvement in the high-profile shooting. From Mangione’s review of A Hard Kick in the Nuts, we learn a little more about the person of interest’s values than what the words written on shell casings found at the scene of the killing could teach us. And, although “defend,” “deny” and “depose” is certainly an efficient motto, Mangione was still able to wrap up his thoughts on Steve-O’s stories about addiction, recovery and relationships in fewer than 200 words, which is about as far as anyone will ever get into a Goodreads review.

We know that Mangione values honest reflection that leads to personal revelations, and he expects his heroes to use their soul-searching to teach others the lessons they had to learn the hard way. Clearly, in A Hard Kick in the Nuts, Steve-O is not wise in the ways of hiding a hot handgun.