Delay, Deny, Defend Books Flip for $1,000+ After CEO Slaying

First, let’s do a quick recap, talking about just the facts. On the morning of December 4, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot on the streets of NYC, and the masked assassin successfully escaped the scene.

With little to go on at the time, the NYPD published most of their findings at the scene and urged the public to help them find the killer. One of the most intriguing pieces of evidence came from the bullet casings found at the site.

The words “deny” “defend” and “depose” were found written with permanent marker on the spent rounds, immediately kicking off intense speculation to their meaning. It was clear that this was no random killing, and the shooter was ideologically opposed to UHC and likely the state of American healthcare in general.

These sentiments were widely echoed on social media, and the phrase “Deny, Defend, Depose” exploded online. It was quickly connected the unofficial motto “Delay, Deny, Defend” adopted by critics of America’s insurance companies; a simple distillation of the tactics used to avoid paying out claims.

And it didn’t take long for the 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend” to enter the conversation. Written by Law professor Jay M. Feinman, the work is a major criticism of companies like UHC that cites real-world cases.

At the time, almost nothing concrete was known about the shooter or his motivations. This book and the meaning behind it were taken as an inspiration for Thompson’s slaying.

Feinman himself has responded to the surge in interest behind his book, noting that it’s still available on Kindle and for bulk order.

With so much interest around the book and not enough copies to go around, we’ve seen a major surge in sales for secondhand copies of Jay M. Feinman’s “Delay, Deny, Defend”. These kicked off almost immediately after the shooting.

And while most of them have sold fairly modest prices, we recently saw a string of sales for around $1,000 at a time. These were all for hardcover versions, typically the most collectible variant of any book.

Several of these listings directly reference Thompson’s murder, but they are not signed or special in any particular way. These sales are very surprising, and something we don’t expect to see again.

You might’ve heard that a suspect has been arrested related to the shooting. Luigi Mangione was grabbed in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s carrying, among other things, a silenced pistol and manifesto harshly criticizing America’s insurance industry.

Notably, this manifesto makes no direct reference to Feinman’s writings. Mangione does not cite “Delay Deny, Defend” or Feinman himself, instead referring to the “Rosenthal” and “Moore” (likely Elisabeth Rosenthal and Michael Moore).

It will likely be some time, years even, before we completely understand the shooting or the motivations behind it. No public statement has been released from Mangione, and we do not know for sure why the shooter chose to write the words “deny, defend, depose” on his bullets.

Semi-related, but Jay M. Feinman has confirmed via Twitter that additional hardcover copies of his book will be printed next week.

There’s a small chance that these will sell out, and a smaller one they will continue to resell. If you’re considering buying one, expect to keep it for personal use, and not as an investment.

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