NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Suspected assassin Luigi Mangione joked about paying for prostitutes with valuable “Pokémon” trading cards during a self-described “Zen” trip to Japan months before he was accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, according to a new report.
While in Osaka, Japan, Mangione joked to a friend about trying to pay a mob boss with “pornstar Pokémon” cards instead of yen, the country’s currency, according to a chronicle of his trip across Asia in The New York Times.
It wasn’t the only time he brought up the popular “Pokémon” franchise on the trip, according to the report. He discussed it and other video games with an expatriate American who went to Thailand to play professional soccer.
APPARENT LUIGI MANGIONE SUPPORTER CLAIMS SHE’S ‘MARRIED’ TO HIS ‘AI’ AT COURTHOUSE RALLY
This split image shows a pile of collectible “Pokémon” cards and Luigi Mangione appears in court for a hearing on his state murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Supreme Court on Sept. 16, 2025, in New York City. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images, Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
Mangione’s reported stops included visits to Thailand, Japan and India. He met with an author who had written about the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in Mumbai, lost a fight to seven “ladyboys” in Bangkok and went on a spiritual retreat in a Japanese mountain village called Tenkawa.
He returned to the United States that July, staying in San Francisco, California. But by December, he was staying at a hostel in New York City, allegedly waiting to ambush Thompson outside a shareholder conference in Manhattan.
Luigi Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, surveillance video shows a hooded gunman approach Thompson from behind and open fire. The married father of two died from his injuries.
Mangione was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, allegedly in possession of the murder weapon and a manifesto critical of the health insurance industry.
Luigi Mangione, suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, arrives at a heliport with members of the NYPD on Dec. 19, 2024, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Mangione faces a slew of charges in New York, Pennsylvania and at the federal level, including interstate stalking, the use of a firearm to commit a murder and second-degree murder.
He could face the death penalty on the top federal charge and up to life in prison in New York if convicted.