'CEO Killer' Luigi Mangione’s Grandfather Exposed as 'Bully Businessman' With Mafia Links — As Ivy League Grad Is Charged With Second-Degree Murder

Accused CEO Killer Luigi Mangione came from a very successful lineage - all started by his grandfather, who earned a ruthless reputation for his short temper.

The 26-year-old suspect, who was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania Monday, forged a twisted path from a well-respected Ivy League student to the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Mangione comes from a powerful Maryland family centered on the late patriarch Nicholas Mangione, a first-generation American who built a real estate empire in the state.

Nicholas was forced into the world at age 11, when he and his brother went to work to support the family after their father died of pneumonia and left the family broke.

Through hard work and an attitude described as "the embodiment of anger," Nicholas was able to become successful beyond his wildest dreams.

Nicholas does not deny he had to step on a few heads to get to and maintain his lifestyle.

According to The New York Times, after he thought he was being discriminated against at country clubs in the 70s because he was Italian, he simply decided to buy his own resort.

After he tired of having to wait for permission to build a golf course at one of his clubs, he sent in bulldozers anyway to have the land cleared out.

And he was known to hold grudges. The elder Mangione once made sure a soccer coach would be banned from his club, after his son was cut from the team.

The patriarch's successful empire had many wondering if he had some additional outside help securing his land - specifically from organized crime.

In 1978, Nicholas bought the Turf Valley Country Club in Howard County - just outside of Baltimore.

After expansion and reconstruction, it is now known as The Turf Valley Resort - a full service lodge complete with meeting rooms and office space - and has become a popular destination.

Still, some questioned how the businessman was able to raise the $5million needed to buy the club.

Speaking with The Baltimore Sun years later, Mangione said: "People thought I needed money from the Mafia to buy this place. They asked me what family I belonged to. I told them, 'I belong to the Mangione family. The Mangione family of Baltimore County.'"

Nicholas died in 2008 at the age of 83 after suffering a stroke. He left behind the Turf Valley Resort and Hayfields Country Club, as well as radio station WCBM-AM.

His family has been thrust into the spotlight after his grandson Luigi was the subject of a nationwide manhunt after he was charged with killing Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.

Luigi was caught after a five-day manhunt by a cop inside a McDonald's in Pennsylvania.

He was searched by officers who found a fake ID, a "ghost gun" similar to the one seen in CCTV footage of the killing, and a manifesto lambasting the healthcare industry.

A spiral notebook was also found which detailed to-do lists of tasks that needed to be planned out to pull off a brazen kill, according to a police source.

Several chilling notes also justified these calculated plans, a source told RadarOnline.com.