People have noticed numerous unusual ties between CEO killer Luigi Mangione and video video games, however they’re tenuous at finest.
Chances are you’re already aware of Luigi Mangione, the person arrested and charged with murdering Brian Thompson, the CEO of American medical health insurance firm UnitedHealthcare.
Naturally, along with his title and face being made public, web sleuths have been eager to be taught extra about him, leading to loads of data broadly circulating on-line.
Mangione has been linked to a number of distinguished video video games, however most of those are awfully slim ties and largely only a unusual sequence of coincidences.
The first connection is, unsurprisingly, his title. People have been fast to crack jokes about Luigi from Nintendo’s Super Mario video games, as well as reference Nintendo’s infamous Year of Luigi, an anniversary occasion meant to have a good time the character’s twentieth anniversary however which coincided with a poor monetary yr for the corporate.
Word additionally rapidly unfold that Mangione’s title straight interprets to ‘mansion’ in Italitan, which means he shares a reputation with the Luigi’s Mansion sequence of video games. A cursory glance at Google Translate, nonetheless, exhibits that’s not correct, with ‘mangione’ mentioned to be Italian for ‘glutton’ or ‘huge eater.’
One widespread conspiracy concept claims Mangione cryptically hinted at his crime utilizing the header image on his X account, which features a image of the Pokémon Breloom.
People imagine the selection of Breloom has a deeper which means, specializing in it being formally listed because the 286th Pokémon. In the Bible, Proverbs 2:86 reads: ‘Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a wealthy man who’s crooked in his methods.’
It’s recommended that is tied to Mangione’s potential motive for committing homicide… or perhaps he simply likes the Pokémon? Even one as pretty forgettable as Breloom goes to have its followers.
NBC did report that Mangione as soon as belonged to a gaggle who routinely performed a sure online game the place you play the position of an ‘murderer’, which sounds insidious till you realise they’re speaking about Among Us.
The social deduction recreation has been round since 2018 and, because of a surge in reputation through the coronavirus pandemic, has change into extraordinarily widespread amongst gamers of all ages.
The solely actual connection Mangione has to video video games is that he did briefly work at Civilization developer Firaxis, however solely as an intern for roughly a yr the place he did bug testing on Civilization 6.
Firaxis has confirmed to Polygon that it employed Mangione, however in any other case declined to remark additional. A bug tester is as low-level a job as you will get in gaming and doesn’t indicate any technical or design expertise.
Ultimately, whereas the web continues to be amused by its Luigi and ‘there’s a killer amongst us’ jokes, Mangione’s gaming ties are minor and don’t have anything to do along with his alleged crimes.
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