If the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — and suspect Luigi Mangione‘s alleged involvement — sounds familiar, that is because Law & Order: SVU released an episode featuring a similar story line more than 20 years ago.
In a 2002 episode titled “Undercovered,” a fictional insurance company executive Warren Slater (Joseph Culliton) was found dead on the streets of Manhattan. Viewers later learn that he was killed by a father named Tony Garcia (Juan Carlos Hernández), whose 9-year-old daughter Courtney (Courtnie Beceiro) was battling leukemia. Tony killed Warren after the executive cast a deciding vote on a panel to deny Courtney an expensive healthcare treatment.
Mangione, 26, meanwhile, is suspected of shooting and killing Thompson outside an entrance to the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel in New York City earlier this month. After a five-day search, Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania on Monday, December 9, while he was eating at McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Wendy Battles, who cowrote the Law & Order episode with Noah Baylin, weighed in on the similarities to Thompson’s death.
PA State Police/MEGA Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man suspected of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan, was apprehended by law enforcement officials on December 9 after a five-day search. Photos of Mangione in police custody were then circulated online, and some celebrities … liked what they saw. “Does he need a […]
“Noah and I exchanged texts. We just both recognized right away that there were parallels,” Battles told Vanity Fair in an interview published on Wednesday, December 11.
Battles said the script was inspired by her personal life, adding, “When I was in high school, my father — who was 40 years old at the time — had six children and owned his own business, came down with type 1 diabetes. After that diagnosis, he was denied insurance, needed a lot of treatment, and had to go to Boston, to the Joslin Clinic, all on his own dime.”
She continued: “And this is a man who had paid all his premiums his whole life. So that stuck with me. Fortunately he was able to afford it, but there were tens of millions of people out there in the same situation who couldn’t.”
So many notable names have made guest appearances on Law & Order: SVU over the years — and some even played more than one character. Peter Scanavino appeared as Johnny Dubcek for two episodes in season 14 in 2013 before nabbing a series regular role as Detective Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. in season 16, which […]
Mangione has been charged with murder and is facing four additional charges, including one count of forging a document and criminally possessing a firearm. His attorney Thomas Dickey shared in a statement that he is expected to plead not guilty to the murder charge in New York and his weapons charges in Pennsylvania.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that he’s the shooter,” Dickey told reporters on Tuesday, December 10. “Remember, and this is not just a small thing: A fundamental concert of American justice is a presumption of innocence until you’re proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And I’ve seen zero evidence at this point.”
