After criminals broke into the Louvre and stole the crown jewels, it didn’t seem like another crime could ever be as cinematic, but an attempt to break Luigi Mangione out of prison is just as worthy of becoming a blockbuster movie.
Armed with a pizza cutter, a barbecue fork, and a dream, a man walked inside a New York jail and pretended to be an FBI agent in an attempt to free Mangione.
A 36-year-old man impersonating a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent walked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and presented a fake court order to release Mangione, who was being held at the detention center while he awaits federal and state trials for allegedly shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024, ABC News reports.
The man, now identified as Mark Anderson, was charged Thursday with impersonating a federal agent after his unsuccessful attempt to spring Mangione from custody.
In an attempted prison break straight out of a Hollywood comedy, Anderson reportedly showed the Bureau of Prisons personnel a Minnesota driver's license when they demanded to see his credentials after he claimed to have paperwork "signed by a judge," and then he "threw at the BOP officers numerous documents.”
On top of his phony paperwork, Anderson also claimed to have weapons in his bag, but only had a “barbecue fork” and a “circular steel blade resembling a pizza cutter” in his possession, authorities said.
The bizarre and almost comical attempt to break Mangione out of jail may have been foiled, but Judge Margaret Garnett ruled on Friday that federal prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty against Mangione, despite the Trump administration’s desire to see him executed for his alleged crime.
