Local Artist Pledges to Create Mural Dedicated to the McDonald’s Worker Who Reported Luigi Mangione

ALTOONA, PA – Altoona native and local muralist Christina Lee Benedetti is petitioning the city of Altoona to allow her to install a mural of Nancy Parker, the infamous McDonald’s employee who reported Luigi Mangione last year. 

Benedetti believes that the employee should be commemorated in downtown Altoona’s historic district, and ultimately aims to partner with the city to include this new mural as a part of the urban design as laid out in the city’s monumental development plan, “All Together Altoona.” The proposal, which passed in July 2024, outlined a mission for evolving the city of Altoona through several different factors, including further advancing the overall character of downtown Altoona. 

“When I tell people I’m from Altoona, the first thing they bring up is Luigi Mangione,” Benedetti claimed in an interview, “Honestly, this really upset me. Luigi isn’t from our city, he’s just some guy who killed another guy, so why does he get the first person brought up in the mention of Altoona? We need to focus on our hometown heroes, and for me, that’s Nancy Parker.” 

Benedetti has a variety of experience in the Altoona art scene such as paid sidewalk chalk teaching sessions, designing an installation for the local Smoker’s Express, and a 12-foot mural of her dog, Roofie McStumbles, holding an intimate meditation session with Ann Coulter, installed in Benedetti’s very own living room. 

Benedetti has been generous enough to share her concept art for the mural below: