Luigi Mangione case to be explored in new ABC News true crime podcast
Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty, has attracted an unusually large online following since his arrest last year
By Callum Wells
ABC News is launching a new podcast series exploring the case of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty, has attracted an unusually large online following since his arrest last year, fuelling unverified claims about his sexuality.
Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione will launch on 10 August through the ABC News Podcast Network, with the first episode available exclusively to subscribers of the broadcaster’s new 20/20 True Crime+ service on Apple Podcasts from 7 August before releasing more widely three days later.
What will ABC News’s Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione cover?
Hosted by legal analyst Brian Buckmire, the five-part series revisits the fatal shooting of Thompson in New York before following the investigation that culminated in Mangione’s arrest.
According to ABC News, the podcast traces Mangione’s life “from a privileged Baltimore upbringing to the centre of one of America’s most shocking crimes, for which he has entered a not guilty plea.” It also examines “what may have driven him to murder as this case became a lightning rod in the larger debate around healthcare in the United States.”
Buckmire previously hosted the ABC News podcast Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy, which explored the allegations surrounding Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
The series arrives ahead of Mangione’s upcoming criminal trials. He faces both state and federal charges over the December 2024 shooting of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. Mangione has pleaded not guilty, with his New York state trial scheduled to begin before his separate federal trial.
The launch of ABC News’s 20/20 True Crime+
The podcast forms part of ABC News’s wider investment in true crime audio. Alongside Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione, the broadcaster has announced What Happened to the McStays?, a separate series examining the disappearance and murders of the McStay family in California. Both titles are launching alongside 20/20 True Crime+, a new Apple Podcasts subscription offering ad-free listening, early episode access and exclusive bonus content from the broadcaster’s growing true crime catalogue.
Katie den Daas, ABC News’s senior vice-president of global newsgathering, said the company’s approach remains rooted in reporting rather than dramatisation.
“We think what sets us apart is that we are still using our fact-based, true-crime journalism to tell these stories,” she said.
Explaining why Apple Podcasts was chosen as the launch platform, den Daas added: “Apple is just ubiquitous. We want to make it as easy as possible to access our content.”