00:00 / 00:00
Dec 6, 2024

Flirtatious Moment May Be ULTIMATE Downfall Of CEO Killer

The suspected gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive Brian Thompson lowered his mask to flirt with a hostel employee before the shooting.
  • 12 minutes
You will not believe what might be responsible for the ultimate downfall and capture of the man who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealth in New York a few days ago. He checks into this hospital, which we've been up to on the Upper West [00:00:15] Side, and he's assigned to a room where he has these two roommates. So it's a room for four. But he's the third person there. He talks to the clerk at the desk, and, you know, they are chatting back and forth and, you know, she's kind of having a flirty moment with him, [00:00:31] and that's when the smile happens. Let me see your face. Take down your mask. And he lowers the mask and gives that big smile, that little flirtation between the two of them, in some good humored way, actually yielded what is so far the most significant clue to identifying him. [00:00:48] After somehow evading capture in the wake of all this, which, if you follow the play by play, it is insane. The guy apparently got on a bike, went through Central Park, ditched his backpack, got out, got in a cab, went to as the new late breaking news is went to a [00:01:04] bus station and made his way out of town. It turns out he was very disciplined in tons of ways to not get caught. They have a partial fingerprint of him. Maybe, but the one time when he apparently lowered his mask, [00:01:20] according to the sources, is to flirt with the girl behind the desk at the hostel. We have a lot more details to get into, but first, mark your reaction to this news. Well, you know, first of all, the guy has this almost movie star smile. [00:01:39] He looks to me like Jake Gyllenhaal a little bit, which is, I don't know, it just striking you kind of, I don't know, you expect the shadowy figure to have sort of a shadowy face, and instead he has this leading man face. I'm. Because of some of the stuff that we've even talked about on the show today, [00:01:57] just in terms of kind of the digital trail that we all leave one way or another. I'm a little surprised that he hasn't been apprehended yet. I mean, there is so much CCTV footage of him, and I'm a bit astounded that he's eluded, authorities as well as he has. [00:02:15] I mean, we have had a good look at his face and the fact that you could, in a way, crowdsource id'ing that guy. I mean, somebody knows that guy based on that face, and yet authorities have nothing on that. It's astounding. But, you know, if he is taken in [00:02:33] because of that smile flash, we know, you know, guys, you can't help it, right? It's, flirting works. It's what I was wondering, because this is the thing. It was. You know, the flirting moment is like the headlines. Now. It's so us. [00:02:50] Not us as tight or the three of us, but, like Americans, for us to be like. Oh, but this guy was flirting. You know, I saw a headline where he said this. The chilling, the chilling moment when the shooter's flirting. Okay, the guy shot, the CEO in the back a few times, fiddled [00:03:08] with the gun and shot him a couple. Maybe another time. And our concern is that. Look, he even smiles afterwards. Hey, dude rolled off like he did nothing when it happened, so I don't think it's such a chilling moment that he was smiling at some point before or after. [00:03:23] I think it was before he even took part in it. He'd been there for over a week plotting the whole thing out. But we're focused on look how he smiled because he was flirting with a girl. How do we know that he was flirting? Is there audio of this conversation? Maybe she's talking about how, you know, she smells a fart in the background or something. [00:03:39] He's laughing about it, I don't know. Well, she. Asked to see his smile. So, that was the reason that he lowered the mask? She asked. So she. Was flirting? Yeah, I think that's fair to say. She was. There was a some flirtation, mild or whatever. [00:03:54] Or maybe she was just being friendly. I mean, we kind of. You're right. We've flown under the, I mean, I did it, too. I'm not trying to criticize anybody. Yeah, no, look. At his face. He's happy. He's into it. He let down his guard. This is the hubris, the most amazing. [00:04:10] I'm sure a good writer could come up with it, but a normal writer could not come up with this moment. I did. I do have a list of suspects. Let's skip to graphic four. Mark thinks he looks like Jake Gyllenhaal. I'm more of a. He looks like Aaron Taylor-Johnson from Kick-Ass and ensuing films, [00:04:27] but his first movie was Kick-Ass. I think runner up Dark Horse, someone who is also missing not to talk trash about former child stars, but Rider Strong. I think he looks a lot like Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World. I don't know if you can see the resemblance. [00:04:43] - Oh yeah, that's actually a good call. - Is there an age progression on this kid? Yeah, it's the photo on the left. It's amazing. I do want to say, like, I agree that I think Ken Klippenstein is like, yeah, obviously we're joking. It's murder is bad. I know that murder is bad. [00:05:01] None of us are arguing that murder is good. It is obviously a bad thing. But like, this is the kind of this is the nation, As you know, Mark points out this kind of stuff, but like, this is a nation where like, if I want to do hard news and get a sponsor doing politics and hard news, they won't show up. [00:05:22] But this is a country where if I had a true crime podcast where I outlined the gruesome details of people getting their arms chopped off, dismembered, deposited in mailboxes all around the city, they'll be like sponsored by Verizon. 100%. 100%. [00:05:39] You know, every episode of Dateline, is detailed. Not every. I guess most are detailing someone's murder. And they talk to the family. They talk to the suspect. They talk to the person that they have in prison. And as they're going through it, sometimes as they're going in and out of breaks or coming back to introductions for the next block, then they'll [00:05:56] say things like in the gruesome murder. And I was like, man, this is still that person's kid brother, father, mother, whatever. And the way that we flippantly talk about murder, it's just the way it is, how often it happens from our gun violence situation to honestly, how many people were shot in New York City that same day [00:06:14] that, you know, haven't had the coverage? And I understand the point of the coverage, but we pick and choose our moments when we actually have some reverence for death. And to act like that's not the case, I think isn't being very honest with I'm just humanity in general. [00:06:31] - I feel like we do sort of thousands. - Of people murdered overseas every day. Right? Boy, that's true too. I mean, maybe we're just so immersed in it that on some level we become inured to it. But the the, the Dateline thing is funny only because you're right. [00:06:46] And they've got a podcast now, and it goes right to number one. Like everybody's just I think the top two podcasts in America are Dateline. And so they're doing the Dateline thing just with J.R. Is talking about. And then, there's a live read for like, you know, more on that. [00:07:03] More on who the murderer might be in a moment. But first, have you ever wished for fresh baked goods delivered to your door? I mean, it's it's crazy. I mean, like, dude. What? So you're right, there's a weird cognitive dissonance here when it comes to a grisly crime. Like gunning someone down on the streets of Manhattan, the, the manhunt. [00:07:23] And then we get into some of these things that do make you smile, or they're just quirky, or they're just weird aspects to it. And on some level, sure, we feel guilty for it. But on the other, on the other hand, as you've said, there's just, you know, there's there are too many examples of this stuff happening all the time [00:07:39] and looking at the quirky things. Yeah, yeah. Like also CSI is going to be a murder of people that were in a fight. This is like Michael Clayton. This is someone doing some ostensibly the fact that for people who don't know, they had handwritten, [00:07:55] writing on the shell casings that had basically key words in a book about the corruption of the health care industry, all of us know how incredibly, insanely expensive it is to get sick [00:08:12] in America or even not sick or, you know, break your ankle and need some. God forbid you have to pay for an ambulance to come. All the jokes that ensued afterwards were the kinds of jokes on everyone's mind. The question was, do we have the temerity to, and not as much riding on our career to actually communicate them with the world? [00:08:31] So, you know, not fear of getting in trouble, right? The. One thing I'll just say, because you brought it up and I think it's great that you did, is that this reaction on the part of the public to this entire thing has been surprisingly, well, it's just lacked sympathy, frankly, for the victim. [00:08:47] I mean, I'm just seeing online tons of. Karma's a bitch, dude. You know, couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I mean, you know, finally payback. It's it's it's it's incredible to me. I mean, it's just extraordinary. And yet we do live with a system that's horribly broken. [00:09:03] And people are so aware of it and so fed up with it that when this thing happens, that is, in a sense, a predictable reaction. Right? And then also if you think that that is ridiculous, here is an actual moment from CNN, [00:09:19] where a crime solver went on to speculate about possible motives as to who might have actually orchestrated this murder. This was on CNN. - Take a. - Look. There have been times when people have orchestrated their own demise for certain reasons. [00:09:35] We know that there are some and I'm not I'm not saying this is the case, but as an investigator. - For insurance. - Purposes, absolutely. Insurance purposes, you know, maybe they fear some type of investigation down the road. Maybe they want to leave their family in a in a good light. [00:09:54] But there have been cases where people have orchestrated their own demise. - And here's another. - Reason. Just to say, you're saying in a nice language, you're saying you're saying that it is a possibility. It is a possibility that he hired somebody to kill him. Absolutely. It cannot be ignored. This guy knew too much about where he was going to be at a specific time. [00:10:13] Yeah. - Wow. - This guy's like he might have. I love it because this is CNN doing what was instantly on the internet like instantly on X, instantly, everywhere. Instantly. People talking about like, let me just speculate wildly and I don't think CNN is [00:10:29] like, oh, we got to catch up with them. But it is it is kind of fascinating. I mean, I don't know, your guys reaction. I mean, conspiracy theories are always the sexy theories, you know? I mean, listen, if you want to if you want to pin some specifics on a conspiracy theory, here's something you know, he was involved in an insider [00:10:46] trading situation with that company. And there was there were depositions, you know, one of the bullets had on the casing the word depose on it. So if you want to go that way with it. So it's not a now a disgruntled person who, you know, was stiffed on insurance [00:11:02] and one of their loved ones died because they couldn't get the appropriate coverage, whatever it might be. And you want to play the insider trading thing, and this guy was taken out because he maybe was going to turn state's evidence. I mean, that's to me like a more believable a conspiracy than that. He was setting this whole thing up to take his his own life. [00:11:20] He had two kids, I don't know. - I mean, and he. - Needed some money. The CEO of UnitedHealthCare needed to plot to have himself killed so his family could be well. - Off or. - Needed to do insider trading. Like what? I don't know if it was he that was implied or implicated in any of the wrongdoing, [00:11:37] or that he just had to be deposed. But if like, dude, you're. If you're not making enough money as the CEO of UnitedHealthCare. Like, I feel like. He was getting 10 million a year in salary and bonuses as well on top of that. So you're right. I mean, the money thing, we can pretty well scratch that off the list. [00:11:55] I love how he says we can't ignore it. I think you pretty much can ignore him offing himself. Actually, I'm just the opposite view. You can ignore that. Yeah. - That's a guy conspiracy. - A guy who has a gun that jams on him. Okay. While we're all, flailing to figure out who the suspects are, I did [00:12:12] compile a list, and this is a graphic. Graphic seven. Of who? The suspects are not in this murder. And it's the pharmaceutical industry, mainstream media and pro private health lobbyists and politicians like you can rule those ones out, [00:12:27] because I think they really like a guy who is responsible for as graphics, six says the value Penguin found that UnitedHealthCare denied 32% of claims in 2023, twice the industry average, though they do say, [00:12:44] according to Value Penguins website. An unnamed an unnamed insurer disputed the denial rate on Thursday, one day after the guy was shot. But in the spirit of the American healthcare industry, I'm denying their claim that those figures are wrong. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. [00:13:01] Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. 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