By: Rob Otto

Inside the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, accused killer Luigi Mangione has carved out an unexpected role: part janitor, part greeter, and according to a fellow former inmate, a surprisingly friendly presence, the NY Post originally reported in an exclusive report .

Mangione, 27, charged with the December 4 sidewalk assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, has spent more than 175 days in pre-trial detention. His lawyers describe him as a “model prisoner.” But it was another inmate, Michael Daddea, who gave the public a vivid picture of Mangione’s day-to-day behind bars in a video posted to X on June 7 – a video that racked up more than 80,000 views before it was taken down, the NY Post first reported.

Daddea, 29, recalled arriving at the MDC earlier this year and being informed by a guard that he’d be bunking in the same unit as “the guy who shot the CEO.” “I’m like, ‘Yeah, he’s being a wise ass,’” Daddea said in the now-deleted clip. “I look out the cell, Luigi is standing there and he’s like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Like, super nice. Introduced himself to me first thing. I’d literally been in the unit for 10 minutes.”

Daddea was himself facing federal charges for allegedly 3D-printing over two dozen untraceable “ghost guns.” He was released on $250,000 bail after two nights in the same 4G unit as Mangione, the NY Post reported.

During his brief stint, Daddea said he and Mangione became fast friends. Alongside another inmate nicknamed “V,” the trio shared meals and conversation. “I go up to shake Luigi’s hand, I’m like, ‘Yo, it’s an honor to meet you,’” Daddea said. “He goes, ‘You two are the first kids that came in here who knew who I was or even cared about it.’”

Mangione, he noted, worked as a “collie” – prison slang for inmates with official jobs. “Luigi just happened to be a collie that cleans the showers,” Daddea said, adding that other jobs included distributing food trays and managing cell assignments. When not scrubbing washrooms or jogging laps around the unit, Mangione could be found poring over newspapers to see if his name appeared in the headlines.

“Luigi gets the New York newspaper every day,” Daddea explained in the video’s comment section. “He would have me help look through some to see if there’s articles about him.”

Their shared Catholic faith also brought them together. On March 5, when a priest visited the jail for Ash Wednesday, both received the traditional ash cross on their foreheads. “So we sat together,” Daddea said. “Luigi would grab his sh-t and come sit with us every day. We would just eat, bulls–t.”

The NY Post reported that Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, is scheduled to appear again in Manhattan court on June 26.

In a June 3 email from jail, Mangione described his life inside in upbeat terms. He expressed gratitude for simple comforts – “Chicken Thursdays,” Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce, the Bureau of Prisons’ music catalog and for thousands of books.

He also praised his cellmate, “J,” saying he “tolerates the clutter of all my papers, shares his unique wisdom, and doesn’t hesitate to humble me when I need it.” As for jail staff and guards, Mangione wrote they were “nothing like what ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ or ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ had me to believe” – though he admitted to the “occasional minor dissent.”