Opinion: The Moment Luigi Mangione Finally Lost His Luster

Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images At 11:13 am on Friday, a dimmed version of the once hot, hot, hot Luigi Mangione appeared in Manhattan federal court wearing a tan prison outfit and a white long-sleeved undershirt.

The 28-year-old had gained weight during the 20 months he has been remanded to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on charges of stalking a health insurance executive with the intent of killing him.

He lost some of the youth-in-bloom shine that had set his fans aflutter.

His face was stubbled after previously being clean-shaven.

The heartthrob was starting to look like a convict as he prepared to plead guilty on Friday morning.

Mangione sat down at the defense table with his husband-and-wife legal team, Marc Agnifilo and Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Three minutes later, an open hand slapped loudly on a courtroom door to announce the entry of U.S.

District Court Judge Margaret Garnett.

“All rise,” a clerk called out.

“Case 25-cr-176.” Mangione had been arrested for killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December of 2024, the last year of the Biden era.

But the 25 in the case number signaled that he had been federally indicted in the first year of President Trump’s return to office.

Trump’s previous attorney general, Pam Bondi, had called for the death penalty.

Mangione’s lawyers managed to get the courts to toss that.

The Agnifilos appear to have a paternal affection for their client, and they can take comfort in maybe having saved his life.