CNN guest Neill Franklin floated an alarming theory that UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson paid his own assassin to murder him on Friday.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning by a mask individual who is still at large.
During a Friday interview on CNN, anchor Dana Bash asked Franklin on whether he believes law enforcement already knows the identity of the killer. The former Maryland state police commander responded by suggesting Thompson may have hired the shooter himself.
WATCH:
FRANKLIN: It’s a good chance. It’s a very good possibility with these new photographs, that is, that they already know who he is. It’s a very good chance of that. But I also I want to say something else that I know these criminal investigators are looking into as it relates to motive. There have been times when people have orchestrated their own demise for certain reasons. We know that.
BASH: Wow.
BASH: Like for insurance purposes?
FRANKLIN: Absolutely. Insurance purposes, you know, maybe they fear some type of investigation down the road. Maybe they want to leave their family in a in a good light. But there have been cases where people have orchestrated their own demise.
BASH: And just to say you’re saying in a nice language, you’re saying that it is a possibility that he hired somebody to kill.
FRANKLIN: Absolutely. It cannot be ignored. This is what is is really digging at me as a former criminal investigator. This guy knew too much about where he was going to be at a specific time. There’s no evidence that I’ve seen of him — when you look at the timeline of him coming to that area outside of the Hilton and where he was outside of the Hilton, it’s a very small window. Very small window. It’s not like he was roaming around. We have video of him roaming around going from one door to the next to the next, trying to figure out where he’s going to be at a specific time.
Authorities have not revealed a motive, but after bullet casings at the scene were found with words “deny”, “depose” and “defend” written on them – a possible reference to the book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It – speculation swirled that the slaying may have grown out of resentment for a denied claim.
NYPD investigators believe the suspect left the city at some point following the Wednesday killing in Midtown Manhattan.
Authorities believe the suspect arrived in New York by bus from Atlanta days before the killing.
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