Suspected arsonist behind Palisades fire looked up to Luigi Mangione as hero, prosecutors say
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The man accused of starting the Palisades fire, one of the costliest disasters in U.S.history, was motivated by a resentment for the rich and viewed Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, as a Robin Hood-like figure, according to court documents detailing evidence gathered by federal prosecutors.
In a court brief filed last week, authorities say a forensic review of his computer showed Jonathan Rinderknecht searched “Free Luigi” and “reddit lets kill all billionaires” in December 2024.Rinderknecht, 30, is accused of starting the Lachman fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan.1, 2025, which smoldered underground for a week before exploding into the deadly Palisades fire.According to the brief, passengers described Rinderknecht — who working as an Uber driver — as “angry, intense, driving erratically and ranting about being ‘pissed off at the world’ and Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism,” in the hours before the clock struck midnight.“On New Year’s Eve 2024, the defendant was alone again,” federal prosecutors wrote in the 25-page brief.
They allege that a relationship with a co-worker had ended that year and that she rebuffed him again on Dec.30, leading to a “visceral reaction: He left her two manic voicemails and entered prompts into ChatGPT expressing his extreme displeasure with her treatment of him.”Authorities allege in their brief that he was stewing over being in the neighborhood of his ex-lover and listening to a French rap song that evoked images of fire in its music video.It may be too much of a stretch to tie all these pieces of circumstantial evidence together to make a solid case for Rinderknecht’s prosecution, said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor.
The prosecution “has to convince the court to admit the evidence of his relationships, his dislike of capitalism, and praising L...