A retired NYPD detective who investigated the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson said in a new interview that the silencer recovered is unlike anything he had previously encountered, underscoring what investigators say was the sophistication and planning behind the slaying.Retired NYPD Detective Sgt.John Griffin told "Dateline" Friday that in 25 years on the job, he'd never seen one before."It had something on the front, like a homemade suppressor or silencer-type thing," said the detective, who was part of the NYPD's major crimes unit.Luigi Mangione, 28, is accused of assassinating Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota who was gunned down on video outside a Manhattan Hilton hotel on the morning of a planned investor conference on Dec.
4, 2024.UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO ASSASSINATION: CRIME EXPERT BREAKS DOWN QUESTIONS INVESTIGATORS ARE TRYING TO SOLVELuigi Mangione arrives at an evidence suppression hearing at the Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City on May 18, 2026.(Jeenah Moon/Reuters)Pat Diaz, a private investigator who spent 30 years as a homicide detective in the Miami area, told Fox News Digital Monday that silencers were a big part of the violent "Cocaine Cowboys" and mafia era of the 1980s and 1990s."Usually on major drug killings, they'd just drop the weapon there, because most of the time they were untraceable," he said.
"It wasn't unusual in the '80s, '90s, to come up with a firearm with a silencer on it — especially in Miami."Stricter laws diminished their use in more recent decades, but they are making a resurgence, he said.FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON XBrian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shown in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth.He was shot and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors described as a politically motivated assassination.
(AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)The 3D-printed version shows some capability with mechanical engineering as well a...