The man who was arrested on charges of setting the deadly Palisades Fire early last year was allegedly an admirer of Luigi Mangione, the infamous suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Jonathan Rinderknecht’s apparent admiration of Mangione adds to a growing list of accused violent criminals who have reportedly invoked his name, as experts warn of the rise of assassination culture in the United States.
Rinderknecht, 30, a former Uber driver, was arrested in October 2025 and charged with destruction of property by means of fire in relation to the Palisades Fire in California, which kicked off on New Year’s Day 2025. Estimates say the fire caused between $35 billion and $45 billion in damage, as it burned 23,448 acres and 6,833 structures over more than a month. Twelve people died in the fire.
Last week, prosecutors filed a memo in court outlining Rinderknecht’s solidarity with Mangione.
“In the months leading up to the fire, he had become increasingly angry with his life and society at large,” prosecutors wrote. “For example, in the weeks and hours leading up to the fire, defendant fixated on Luigi Mangione, who allegedly murdered the UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York City on December 4, 2024.”
Rinderknecht searched for the terms “free LuigiMangione,” “lets take down all the billionaires” and “reddit lets kill all the billionaires,” federal prosecutors said, adding that he harbored “resentment for the rich.”
“Many of defendant’s Uber passengers on Dec. 31, 2024 and Jan. 1, 2025, described defendant as angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘p—ed off at the world’ and Luigi Mangione, capitalism, and vigilantism,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
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“When investigators asked defendant why someone might commit arson in the Pacific Palisades, he responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them’ and compared such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder for which Mangione was charged,” prosecutors wrote.
In mid-April, 20-year-old Moreno-Gama allegedly traveled from Texas to San Francisco in a planned attack to kill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to authorities.
He threw a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home, setting an exterior gate ablaze, according to investigators. He then allegedly went to OpenAI’s headquarters and was caught on surveillance camera throwing a chair at a set of glass doors. He is accused of threatening to burn the building to the ground and kill everyone inside.
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In January, Moreno-Gama suggested “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs” in an online exchange with producers of “The Last Invention” podcast, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He later walked back the comments.
Abdulkarim, 20, of Highland, California, stands accused of setting ablaze a massive warehouse where he worked on April 7. He allegedly filmed himself sparking the inferno, which destroyed the 1.2 million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark distribution center, a paper product hub, and caused $500 million in damage.
In that video, he complained about his wages.
“If you’re not going to pay us enough to [expletive] live… at least pay us enough not to do this,” he said, according to the Department of Justice affidavit.
Prosecutors allege that he bragged about setting the fire in subsequent texts and phone calls, one of which referenced Mangione and suggested that people would understand his actions.
“Luigi popped that mutherf—er,” Abdulkarim said, according to the federal complaint, adding “a lot of people are going to understand.”
He’s facing charges of arson of a building used in interstate and foreign commerce and faces multiple state felony counts that could significantly increase his prison exposure.
English, who went by “Riley Jane English” and used she/her pronouns, allegedly walked up to a U.S. Capitol Police officer on Jan. 27, 2025 and said, “I’d like to turn myself in.”
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English claimed to have two Molotov cocktails and two knives and expressed the desire “to kill [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent,” court documents said.
English reportedly left home in Massachusetts and traveled to Washington, D.C., with the intent of killing War Secretary Pete Hegseth, too, whom the suspect referred to as a “Nazi,” along with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. English also allegedly expressed a desire to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank “two blocks from the White House.”
English cited a terminal illness as one factor in the planned attack, and prosecutors used that as justification to hold English without bond.
Prosecutors also said English referenced Mangione.
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“As another example, the Defendant specifically mentioned being influenced by Luigi Mangione, the individual accused in the recent murder of United Health Group CEO Brian Thompson,” the court documents said. “The Defendant referred to her call to violence as ‘fate’ or ‘destiny.’ Those statements, coupled with Defendant’s statements that she has only a few months to live, demonstrate that the Defendant is a risk to the community if released.”
English pleaded guilty in March.
Last July, Shane Tamura committed an attack on the NFL’s headquarters in New York City, which killed four people.
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Prosecutors compared his actions to Mangione’s.
“On July 28, 2025, Shane Tamura brought an assault rifle to a Manhattan office building, a short distance away from where Mangione had killed Thompson,” prosecutors wrote. “Tamura shot and killed four people, including an off-duty police officer, an executive of a financial services firm, and a security guard, and he injured others, including an employee of the National Football League (“NFL”). Like Mangione, Tamura left behind a piece of evidence for investigators to find, blaming the NFL and football for causing chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Almost immediately, members of the public sympathetic to the defendant touted Tamura’s actions as a laudable continuation of the defendant’s philosophy.”
Mangione’s attorney did not return a Wednesday comment request, but has said previously that her client does not support political violence.
“As we have stated before in multiple public court filings, Mr. Mangione does not support violent actions and does not condone past or future political violence,” Karen Friedman Agnifino told Fox News Digital in a recent statement. “These repeated attempts to connect him to unrelated acts or to insinuate that he condones or supports these acts are irresponsible, dangerous and prejudicial.”
Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes, Stepheny Price, Michael Dorgan, Danielle Wallace and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
