Hawaii friends of Luigi Mangione, arrested in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, recall him as a natural leader who led a book club where members would share ideas while watching sunsets from a place called Magic Island.
"He was just such a thoughtful and deeply compassionate person at everything he did," said Jackie Wexler, a food technologist in New York. She used to live with Mangione at Surfbreak, a co-living space near Honolulu's Ala Moana Beach Park.
Mangione, 26, suffered chronic back pain from an apparent pinched nerve, said R.J. Martin, Surfbreak's founder. His friends stopped hearing from him this summer.
He said he was stunned by Mangione's arrest. "I loved this guy," said Martin. "In some ways I feel like my members are my kids."
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Wexler had attended the University of Pennsylvania with Mangione, she says, but didn't become friends with him until they were both living on Oahu at Surfbreak. Originally envisioned as long-term housing for graduate students, Surfbreak morphed into a sort of adult dorm for, as its website says, "adventurers, remote workers, and mindful travelers united by shared life in our co-living + coworking spaces."
Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald's restaurant on Monday and charged with five crimes, including carrying gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing "instruments of crime." He is suspected of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York City.
Surfbreak residents are expected to contribute to the community, and Mangione played a role by founding the book club with Wexler and Martin. They recall Mangione had recently read Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" and was enthusiastic about sharing ideas with friends.
The book club's reading list included "What's Our Problem," by Tim Urban, the creator of the blog "Wait But Why," and "The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve," by Steve Stewart Williams, Wexler and Martin said.
Wexler recalls Mangione as a thoughtful man who facilitated discussions by deeply listening. Martin, a former college professor who has a doctorate in history, said Mangione had a rare ability to articulate ideas in the books they read.
"I feel like he did a better job of parsing through the nuances of things," Martin said.
Wexler and Martin said they had suggested the book club read the manifesto of Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, as "a joke." Mangione reviewed it on a Goodreads account, which had been widely cited on social media on Monday.
The rambling Kaczynaki screed proved "painful to read" and so hard to engage with that it led to the demise of the club, Martin said.
Mangione was committed to personal development through reading and working out. He got around Oahu by bicycle, and even after he moved out of Surfbreak, he would walk with Wexler from Magic Island to Surfbreak, located in the penthouse of a building near the Hawaii Convention Center.
But it wasn't all idyllic. Mangione was often in pain from a back problem, Martin said, although the two would still rock climb together at at HiClimb, a gym in Kakaʻako near Surfbreak.
Martin recalled the problem, which had lingered for years, was a misaligned vertebrae that would pinch Mangione's spinal cord.
Martin did not recall the exact dates Mangione lived at Surfbreak but says they stayed in regular contact after Mangione left. Martin said Mangione later texted him pictures after getting back surgery.
"He went radio silent in June or July," Martin said.
Mangione has no significant criminal record in Hawaii. He was criminally cited on Nov. 12 of last year for trespassing in a "closed area" of Nuuanu Pali Lookout, a popular scenic viewpoint frequented by tourists on Oahu. At the time, he told a state parks officer his address was in Towson, Maryland, according to the citation.
After pleading no contest to the petty misdemeanor offense, court records show he paid a court-ordered $100 fine. Honolulu police said he had no other run-ins on the island.
Mangione had a gun believed to be the one used in last week's shooting and was taken into custody after police got a tip that he had been spotted at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
The news has been heartbreaking for his Hawaii friends.
"It just makes me sad to think how alone he must feel," Wexler said.