Federal prosecutors say Jonathan Rinderknecht searched for “Free Luigi” and “reddit lets kill all billionaires” in December 2024, then ranted about Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism in the hours before the Pacific Palisades blaze that killed 12 people and destroyed 6,500 structures.
The 30-year-old was accused of starting the Lachman fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 1, 2025, a fire investigators say smoldered underground for a week before it exploded into the deadly Palisades fire on Jan. 7. Prosecutors said the former Uber driver’s fixation on Mangione fit a wider pattern of resentment toward the rich.
That detail gives the case a sharper edge than a routine arson probe. In a 25-page brief filed last week, federal prosecutors said a forensic review of Rinderknecht’s computer turned up the Luigi-related searches, and passengers described him as angry, intense, driving erratically and ranting about being “pissed off at the world” and Mangione before midnight on New Year’s Eve 2024. They also said a relationship with a co-worker had ended in 2024, that the co-worker rebuffed him again on Dec. 30, and that he left two manic voicemails and entered prompts into ChatGPT expressing extreme displeasure with her treatment of him.
The investigation moved quickly after the fire. ATF agents focused on Rinderknecht within three weeks, seized a Bic barbecue lighter from his car with his DNA on it, and said he admitted having the lighter with him on the Temescal Canyon Trail in Pacific Palisades. Investigators also obtained warrants for his cellphone and other electronics after tying the vehicle he drove for Uber to the scene.
The case now turns on whether prosecutors can prove the Jan. 1 blaze, not the later wind-driven disaster, is the legal beginning of the tragedy. They say the answer is yes, and that the fire’s underground smoldering and reignition days later are central to proving how the Palisades disaster became one of the costliest in U.S. history.
