Friends Struggle With Executive's Loss

Friends and colleagues say they are reeling from both the sudden loss of slain United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the lionization of the man accused of killing him.

- Valerie Bauerlein, Scott Calvert and Andrew Tangel

During Wednesday's trivia night at Scoreboard Bar & Grill, a mile from the company's Minnetonka, Minn., headquarters, bartender Dee Dee Anderson felt the absence of one of her favorite customers. Thompson, or "B.T.," was known as an affable guy who often stopped by with colleagues for nachos at happy hour, preferred frosty mugs for his beer and didn't get irritated when orders backed up in the kitchen, she said.

The next morning in Hollidaysburg, Pa., marked a different remembrance. A handful of people cheered on the very man accused of killing Thompson. Defendant Luigi Mangione was at back-to-back hearings on state charges and his extradition to New York.

A cold dichotomy faces those mourning Thompson. "There's no connection to the fact that he was a person," Anderson said.

With his death on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Dec. 4, Thompson was transformed from a highly paid executive unknown to most Americans into a potent symbol for the frustration many people feel about the cost of healthcare and their access to it.