One of Baltimore’s most prominent families was thrust into the spotlight this week, when a son of the clan, Luigi Mangione, was arrested by Pennsylvania police and charged in the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Locally active in philanthropy, both via individual donations and through the Mangione Family Foundation, the Mangiones gave millions to Baltimore’s various institutions and nonprofits, including more than $1 million to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and more to the American Citizens for Italian Matters, Baltimore Opera Company and others. Loyola University, which counts Mangione alumni among their ranks, has an aquatic center named after the family, and GBMC previously had a high-risk obstetrics unit, since closed, that bore their name.

Their story is a uniquely American one: The Mangiones went from deep poverty to massive wealth in just three generations, with one cousin, Nino Mangione, now a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates.

Despite an eventually deep portfolio of development properties and government contracting for 20 years, the family patriarch, Nicholas Mangione Sr., said he still faced prejudice for his background when he attempted to buy land to build the Turf Valley Golf and Country Club, now the Turf Valley Resort, in Ellicott City.

“Tongues started wagging,” Mangione told The Baltimore Sun in 1995. “People [were] wondering where an unknown Italian could get the money for a $5 million project. In those days, there were no Italians in real visible positions [in Howard County].”

Mangione said the implication was that he must have backing from the mob, so he countered sharply.

“People thought I needed money from the Mafia to buy this place. They asked me what family I belonged to,” he said. “I told them, ‘I belong to the Mangione family. The Mangione family of Baltimore County.’”

The family is now defending its name again. On Monday, members released a statement on social media expressing dismay at Luigi Mangione’s arrest, saying they were stunned by the news.

“We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved,” the family wrote. “We are devastated by this news.”

The family did not respond to a request for comment via a family attorney or their foundation.

How they went from the Depression-era streets of the city’s Little Italy to its philanthropic elite is straight out of a Horatio Alger novel.

Nicholas Sr. was born in Baltimore’s Little Italy, and spent his first eight years in a one-room apartment with an outdoor privy, according to a 2008 Sun article. He earlier told The Sun his Italian immigrant father, Louis, could neither read nor write, and worked in the city water department until he died of pneumonia.

Today, the Mangione family is a sprawling one, with a business empire to match: Nicholas Sr., made the beginning of the family’s fortunes in the post-World War II years as a bricklayer and contractor.

He built up his business holdings throughout the following decades, with his wife, Mary, growing their family to include five sons, five daughters, and 37 grandchildren, including Luigi.

The family’s holdings range from construction to commercial real estate to local radio station WCBM-AM and a majority stake in Lorien Health Services, which operates multiple assisted living facilities in Maryland.

Aside from the Turf Valley Resort, with its 10,000-square-foot ballroom, 220-room hotel, and 85-seat amphitheater, the Mangiones also own the Hayfields Country Club in Cockeysville and a slew of companies registered in Maryland.

Its family foundation had net assets of $4.4M as of its 2022 tax filing, the most recent on record. The Mangione Family Foundation’s stated focus is supporting, “Organizations for any of the following purposes: religious, educational, charitable, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition (as long as it doesn’t provide athletic facilities or equipment), or the prevention of cruelty to children or animals.”

Politically, the Mangiones have been active across the aisle.

Luigi Mangione’s parents, Louis and Kathleen Mangione donated $35,935 to state and local politicians from 2005 through 2023, according to data from the State Board of Elections. Half went to Nino Mangione’s campaign account for his state delegate races from 2018 through 2023.

Other donations went to Howard County executives Calvin Ball and Ken Ulman, both Democrats, and Allan Kittleman, a Republican, along with additional high-profile candidates of both parties, including former Govs. Martin O’Malley and Robert L. Ehrlich, and former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon.

The immense number of Mangiones also was briefly confusing for Baltimoreans on Monday.

Aside from Nicholas Sr. and Mary Mangione’s 10 children and 37 grandchildren, city counts at least two other Mangione families, who were briefly inundated with phone calls from the media and queries from former schoolmates and acquaintances.

One of Luigi Mangione’s two sisters is a physician at the University of Texas Southwestern, according to her LinkedIn profile. Another sister is a visual artist. Neither sister responded to requests for comment.

His mother, Kathleen, comes from a family that owns a funeral home, the Charles S. Zannino Funeral Home in Highlandtown, the Baltimore Fishbowl reported, and now runs a travel agency, KZM Boutique Travel, which had removed its website as of Tuesday evening. His father, Louis was groomed to help take over the family’s business empire, according to a 2003 Washington Post article.