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What does the Biblical character Samson have to do with Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan on the morning of Dec. 4?
Here is more about Samson who had been captured and blinded by his Philistine enemies. From Chapter 16 of the book of Judges in the Old Testament from verse 23 through verse 30:
23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to rejoice; for they said, ‘Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.’
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, ‘Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.’
25 And when their hearts were merry, they said, ‘Call Samson, and let him entertain us.’ So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars;
26 and Samson said to the attendant who held him by the hand, ‘Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them.’
27 Now the house was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who looked on while Samson performed.
28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.’
29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.
30 Then Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines.’ He strained with all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.

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By sacrificing himself as he pulled down their temple, Samson punished and gained revenge over his Philistine oppressors.
When Mangione was arrested, he was in possession of a manifesto-type document that mentioned UnitedHealthCare and accused health insurance companies of corporate greed.
For Mangione, these insurance companies were like Samson’s Philistines. They were oppressors who needed to be punished.
As reported in an article in the Dec. 12 Washington Post by Philip Kennicott, Mangione has become a Samson-like hero to some.
Kennicott writes, “Images of a shirtless and muscular Mangione have flooded social media, along with memes that pose him as a saint with a halo or a potential martyr protectively embraced by Jesus (“It’s okay they called me guilty too,” reads one poorly punctuated caption). A Free Luigi movement presents him as a folk hero. Images of his hooded face before capture have apparently been tattooed on arms or legs, and on TikTok and other sites he’s been given the epithet of a superhero or cinema vigilante: “The Adjuster.”
“Praise for him seems to cross partisan lines and is worrisome to the insurance industry, which suddenly seems to be widely loathed in the United States despite polls that paint a more complicated picture. ‘My empathy is out of network,’ another phrase circulating on social media, suggests that many people are struggling to hold in their heads two ideas at the same time: That killing is wrong and yet our health care system, and especially the insurance industry that generates enormous profits, is arguably broken and at times feels cruel.”
The problems in the insurance industry require attention and reform but do not justify the “solutions” of Samson or Luigi Mangione.

D.G. Martin, a retired lawyer, served as UNC-System’s vice president for public affairs and hosted PBS-NC’s “North Carolina Bookwatch.”