‘Delay, Deny, Defend’ becomes Amazon bestseller after words carved into bullets used to killed UnitedHealthcare CEO

The cryptic message found on the bullet casings at the scene of the Midtown murder could refer to the ‘the three D’s of insurance’ — deny, delay, and defend — which is also the title of a book critical of the insurance industry

The 2010 book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it has become a bestseller on Amazon in the week since the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The book’s title is reminiscent of the three words carved into the bullet casings — “deny,” “defend,” “depose” — found on the Midtown Manhattan street where 50-year-old Thompson was fatally shot on December 4. Luigi Mangione, 26, has been charged with murder in connection to Thompson’s death.

Investigators believed the cryptic words found on the bullet casings alluded to “the three D’s of insurance” — deny, delay, defend — which are tactics that critics say insurers use to avoid paying claims.

As of Wednesday, one week after the murder, Jay Feinman’s 14-year-old book skyrocketed to the top of Amazon’s insurance law category. The book is an “expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight back” and includes stories from dozens of Americans who were “unfairly denied payment,” the description says

Luigi Mangione, 26, a suspect in the New York City killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson, poses shortly after being discovered by police at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. (Reuters)

The insurance executive’s death and Mangione’s arrest have sparked wide-ranging reactions across the country and fueled conversations about the health care system, with some celebrating the killing as a statement encapsulating Americans’ grievances with the industry. UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest health care networks in the country, insures nearly 30 million Americans, according to its website.

Mangione’s friends have said that the 26-year-old suffered from chronic back pain that interfered with his romantic life and ability to surf in Hawaii, where he had been living, the New York Times reported. He underwent surgery on his spine in 2023 and disappeared shortly thereafter. Just two weeks before the Manhattan attack, his mother reported him missing, the San Francisco Standard reported.

Thompson’s “targeted” death sparked a nationwide manhunt. Police pieced together the suspect’s movements and circulated photos of him. Six days later, a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania recognized a customer nibbling on hash browns from NYPD’s photos, leading to the arrest of Mangione.

‘Delay, Deny, Defend’ has become an unexpected bestseller in the wake on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder (Penguin)

Mangione was carrying “multiple fraudulent IDs,” a ghost gun, a suppressor, clothes and masks, all of which were “consistent with” the suspected shooter, NYPD said following his arrest Monday. He also had a handwritten three-page manifesto that “speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” police added.

Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge in connection with Thompson’s death in New York and forgery and gun charges in Pennsylvania.

At an extradition hearing on Tuesday, a judge denied him bail and the 26-year-old contested extradition to New York. He will remain at a Pennsylvania jail as the extradition process plays out.

“It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” he shouted after exiting a police car.