If you had a desktop computer in the last 10 or 20 or 30 years, you, at some point, were probably running Windows. And if you were running Windows, you needed virus protection. McAfee was the first, and possibly still, the most prominent name in virus protection.

But you might not have been familiar with the creator of that software, John David McAfee. At least not until the story broke in 2012 that he was a murder suspect in Belize. Or, when in 2021, he hung himself in a Spanish prison.

It was 1987 when John McAfee wrote the first commercial anti-virus software. In 1994 he sold the company. The product still carries his name though it lost favor in the eyes of its creator.

“In a profane, drug-filled satirical video he published to YouTube in 2013, McAfee mocked both his own reputation for hedonism and the software’s for being slow, omnipresent and inconvenient.

“’Every time I turn on the f—— computer it’s there looking at me. Something went wrong,’  he says in the video, surrounded by guns and scantily clad women, his face covered in white powder. ‘Fifteen years ago I had some beautiful software and they took it over. I don’t know what they did.’” (Kevin Collier, NBC News, June 24, 2021)

McAfee’s finances were apparently something of a roller coaster.

“He sold his shares in the software company in the mid-90s, and reportedly made $100 million, though McAfee told ABC News his fortune was worth ‘much more.’ But, he added, ‘I wasted it, like everybody who has money.’

“McAfee built nine homes, filling them with expensive art, furniture and oddities, such as a dinosaur skull, and he bought a fleet of planes and antique cars. He created a yoga retreat in Colorado that hosted 200 guests at a time and set up a center in New Mexico for a new sport called aero-trekking.

“But then the recession hit McAfee hard and in 2009, he said he liquidated his assets, and several of his properties and possessions were auctioned off. But he later said he didn’t lose all of his fortune, and had set up the auctions to try to fool the media.” (ABC News, May 12, 2017)

He then set out on something of nomadic course, characterized by lawless, erratic and paranoid behavior. He headed off to Belize in 2009.

A media photographer caught up with him during a visit in 2012. 

“In 2012, photographer Brian Finke went to Belize to shoot the erratic tech entrepreneur at his remote compound. He had no idea what he was in for.

“‘He brought his whole crew over that day. Girlfriends, guns, hanging out poolside. Everyone came and went. My impression was that he was a smart guy with an enormous ego, who loved the attention.’” (Eric Sullivan, Esquire, June 26, 2021) 

Maria Fontoura of Rolling Stone (June 24, 2021) described it a bit more bluntly: “In reality, he was living like a creep surrounded by vulnerable young women with problems.”

This BBC (James Clayton, June 24, 2021) story describes the problems that eventually led to McAfee leaving Belize. 

“In 2008, he had moved to Belize, where he ended up living next to man called Gregory Faull. 

“In November, 2012, Faull was murdered in his home.

“In fact, as ABC News later revealed, Faull had filed a complaint about McAfee’s dogs – saying one had attacked a tourist.

“Whatever the truth, when the police came looking for McAfee, he was not around. 

“He was living with a 17-year-old girl at the time and the police discovered a large number of weapons in his home. 

“When they eventually caught up with him, in Guatemala, many believed McAfee would be tried for Faull’s murder. 

“But within a week, he was released and allowed to fly to Miami – a free man.”

McAfee would later be forced to pay damages to Faull’s family.

“John McAfee has been ordered to pay $25 million in damages over the killing of his ex-neighbour Gregory Faull in 2012.

“The judgement was handed down by a US Federal District judge in Florida, based on a wrongful death lawsuit by Faull’s daughter which claims that McAfee paid $5,000 to have Faull killed.

“’John McAfee’s depraved acts of plotting, financing, and directing Greg’s murder reflect that he has absolutely no respect for life or law,’ Faull’s family said in a statement. ‘Although Greg cannot be replaced, today we are comforted that John McAfee’s evil acts have been officially condemned through the power of civil justice.’” (Adam Shepherd, ITPro, March 21, 2019)

Back in the states, McAfee set up shop in Tennessee and reinvented himself as a crypto currency guru, creating a company called MGC Capital that invested in crypto. In 2019, he authored this tweet:

“I have not paid taxes for eight years… I have not filed returns. Every year I tell the IRS ‘I am not filing a return, I have no intention of doing so, come and find me.’” (Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, Oct 5 2020)

They did. Not surprisingly, McAfee was soon facing tax evasion charges. Reportedly, he owed more than $4 million.

“…he left the United States to avoid trial, largely living on a megayacht with his wife, four large dogs, two security guards and seven staff.

“The colourful tech founder was detained on Oct. 3 at the Barcelona airport as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul with a British passport, a Spanish police source said at the time.” (Reuters, June 24, 2021)

More charges would be forthcoming. CNN Business reported that McAfee “…has been indicted on fraud and money laundering charges by the Department of Justice, which alleges he and a business partner participated in a scheme that earned more than $13 million by falsely promoting cryptocurrency to unwitting investors.

“FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said the allegations boil down to ‘an age-old pump-and-dump scheme.’ The DOJ alleges McAfee, Watson and others would buy cryptocurrencies, hype them to McAfee’s Twitter followers, which numbered about 784,000 at the time, to boost prices and then sell for a profit — in addition to promoting cryptocurrency offerings without disclosing they were allegedly receiving payment to do so. (Clare Duffy, CNN Business, March 5, 2021)

McAfee was in a Spanish prison awaiting a court ruling on whether he would be extradited. When the Spanish court ruled that he would be, he allegedly committed suicide.

This post only scratches the surface of John McAfee’s erratic and often irrational behavior. Here a few more examples:

– During his time in Tennessee he “threw his weight behind an ‘unhackable’ crypto wallet – which was then hacked.” (James Clayton BBC, June 24, 2021)

– “he started a company (in Belize) that he said would manufacture plants from the Belize jungle into antibiotics. His lab was raided in May 2012 by the police department’s Gang Suppression Unit on suspicion he was manufacturing methamphetamine.” (ABC News, May 12, 2017) 

– “In the documentary ‘Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee,’ a former business partner accused McAfee of drugging and raping her in Belize. McAfee denied the accusation, as well as others presented in the documentary, in a four-part blog series, stating that she had ‘concocted’ her story and writing that he found her ‘unattractive.’” Kevin Collier, NBC News, June 24, 2021)

– “In August 2015, he was pulled over in Henderson County, Tennessee, on suspicion of driving under the influence. He says he wasn’t drunk, but high on Xanax, which he said a doctor had prescribed. He pleaded guilty to a DUI, and has yet to get his suspended license back.” (ABC News, May 12, 2017) 

– He briefly moved to New Mexico after selling his company. There “he developed a light aircraft that could fly in and out of canyons. That venture ended tragically when his nephew and another passenger were killed in a crash. McAfee was found negligent to the tune of $5.2 million, but when we talked, he insisted it was a cartel hit.” (Maria Fontoura, Rolling Stone, June 24, 2021)

The latter is an example of something that was consistent throughout his career, his paranoia. 

“He has gone from being known as a multimillionaire tech legend, to making headlines as a ‘person of interest’ in a mysterious killing in Belize, to launching new tech companies, to running to become a presidential candidate, to living in rural Tennessee. The one constant these days is his state of mind — his belief that people are after him.” (ABC News, May 12, 2017) 

This excerpt is from a 2019 interview he did with CryptoPotato:

“They’re going against me, but they can’t find me. Nobody can find me in a cage in some unknown place in the world specifically so that I can do what I’m doing: building a distributed exchange that can’t be shut down. Do you understand? This is the world we live in. If you’re going to do things like I’m doing, you’d better be prepared to go underground. You’d better be prepared for the SEC to come.” 

In her Rolling Stone story, Fontoura summoned it up like this: “John McAfee was a genius, a scoundrel-criminal, a gun fanatic, a possible murderer, and a man who liked to mix morning tequila sunrises with hands dirtied by throwing mattresses against his windows to ward off imaginary hit men.” 

But wait, have we not heard the last from John McAfee? Mashable reported last month that McAfee has re-emerged on X. “In the @officialmcafee’s first post since November of last year, McAfee’s account claimed that he was actually back. In AI form. And he came back as AI in order to drop a memecoin.” (Matt Binder, Mashable, Jan. 23, 2025)

Turns out the McAfee account was being used by his widow Janice McAfee to whom he had been  married since 2013. I found her story on AARP: “Janice Dyson was 34, older than most of McAfee’s women, when he spotted her outside a cafe in Miami and paid her for a day and night of sex work. Dyson had worked as a prostitute for more than 10 years; before McAfee, her most steady relationship was with her violent pimp, and she rarely saw her son. She was refreshingly honest when asked if it was love at first sight with McAfee.  ‘F— no. … I just saw an opportunity,’ she says.” (Dana Kennedy, AARP, Aug. 26, 2022)