John McAfee

In a bizarre twist in the long and convoluted story of John McAfee, creator of the eponymous antivirus software, he is allegedly alive, well, and living in Texas.

The extraordinary claims are made by McAfee’s ex-girlfriend in an interview for a new Netflix documentary titled Running With The Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, released this week.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-john-mcafee-not-a-bubble-2017-8 — Did John McAfee fake his own death?

McAfee ‘Speaks’ Post-‘Suicide’

Central to the Netflix biopic is an interview conducted with McAfee’s former partner Samantha Herrera, who claims she had spoken with the disgraced software developer over the phone after his supposed June 2021 suicide in a Spanish jail.

While the director of the documentary, Charlie Russell, is sceptical, stating “I can’t work out whether [Herrera] thinks it’s real or not”, McAfee’s widow, Janice, isn’t having any of it. She believes that if McAfee were hiding out, it wouldn’t be in Texas, or anywhere else in the US considering he is wanted by the IRS.

Instead, Janice McAfee is circulating a petition for the release of her husband’s remains – and for an independent autopsy – as they are yet to be returned to her by Spanish authorities:

Its difficult to put into words what life has been like this past year. I still can't believe John is gone. If you haven't yet please sign this petition to help pressure the Spanish authorities to release John's remains so he can finally be laid to rest.https://t.co/PJ5jH5MN2x
— Janice McAfee (@theemrsmcafee) June 23, 2022

Regardless of the truth surrounding McAfee’s passing, he remains as curious in death as he was in life. The biopic was released by Netflix on August 24.

Death and Taxes

McAfee was arrested at Barcelona International Airport in October 2020 for tax evasion. Late on June 23, 2021, he was reportedly discovered dead in his cell in a Barcelona jail, only hours after the Spanish National Court had approved his extradition to the US, where he would have faced up to 30 years in prison.

According to McAfee’s lawyer, he had hanged himself, although there were several signs of foul play in connection with his apparent death. One of these was a tweet from McAfee which read: ‘I am content in here. I have friends. The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, a la [convicted sex offender Jeffrey] Epstein, it will be no fault of mine’.

This Netflix documentary isn’t the only analysis of McAfee’s life in current circulation. No Domain: The John McAfee Tapes, a new book published by biographer Mark Eglinton, details exactly how McAfee managed to lose his US$100 million fortune. The funds were reportedly spent on “bizarre” mansions and compounds across the globe. Perhaps there’s one in Texas we didn’t know about.

John McAfee, the notorious antivirus software billionaire, has been found dead in a Spanish prison near Barcelona, late on Wednesday, June 23.

McAfee was arrested at Barcelona International Airport last October on tax evasion charges. His death comes just hours after the Spanish National Court approved his extradition to the US, where he was wanted for tax-related criminal charges and would have faced up to 30 years in prison.

McAfee speaking at the 2016 Politicon at the Pasadena Convention Center in California. Source: Wikimedia

Suicide or Murder?

According to McAfee’s lawyer, McAfee hanged himself in his prison cell late in the evening of June 23, just hours after the court ruling regarding his extradition to the US. Officials from the Catalan Justice Department said: “Judicial staff have been dispatched to the prison and are investigating the causes of death. Everything points to death by suicide.” For many watching this story unfold, this explanation fits the argument that McAfee would rather take his own life than face 30 years in a US prison cell.

According to his wife of eight years, Janice Dyson, McAfee’s mental health had deteriorated over the course of the eight months he was in prison.

These eight months John has spent in prison in Spain have been especially hard on his overall health both mentally and physically, as well as financially, but he is undeterred from continuing to speak truth to power.
Janice Dyson

Signs of Foul Play

However, there are also signs that point towards foul play. A tweet from McAfee on December 1, 2019 stated that he was wary of US officials and might have even received death threats in some form. The tweet also strongly suggested McAfee would never commit suicide, even if it looked like he had.

Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: “We’re coming for you McAfee! We’re going to kill yourself”. I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whackd. Check my right arm.
John McAfee [Twitter]

Another tweet from October 16, not long after he was arrested in Spain, ominously foreshadows his hanging and alludes to the fact that if he wound up dead, it would not be a suicide:

He killed himself because like Epstein, he was terrified of going to prison. He owed $4.2 million in taxes.
— John Sevigny (@John_Sevigny) June 23, 2021

At the time of writing it was still too early to draw any definite conclusions, pending a coroner’s report and the findings of the official investigation.

The ‘Original Elon Musk’

In 2017, during the height of that year’s bull run, McAfee, who had around a million followers at the time, often tweeted about projects he was supposedly interested in. This resulted in the original twitter pump and dumps, which would see random altcoins soar thousands of percent in an hour and then dump to an all-time low as people started to panic sell as the price plummeted.

John McAfee made me laugh quite alot in 2017.

He's basically the OG crypto pump and dumper – everyone else is just a copycat.

RIP
— rookie 🧲 (@RookieXBT) June 23, 2021

In March this year, McAfee was charged for cryptocurrency fraud by the US Federal Court in New York City. Many argue that McAfee was the ‘original Elon Musk’.

Crypto Community Mourns Loss

We lost a legend today. RIP John Mcafee ❤️
— Crypto ฿itlord (@crypto_bitlord7) June 23, 2021

John McAfee, 75, lived a long and eventful life. He built an empire that changed internet security, fathered an estimated 47 children around the world, and had constant run-ins with the law. He was an extremely polarising figure – a lot of people loved him and many despised him. But despite his notoriety, he achieved legend status within the crypto community for his unwavering commitment to crypto and his willingness to speak his truth.

RIP Mr McAfee. Your legacy will live on for generations to come in the cryptoverse. Letting someone die this way w/o due process should show all of us just how anti human & corrupt of a world we live in. I don’t believe he killed himself at all. They didn’t want a US show trial.
Jared Tate (founder of Digibyte)

On behalf of everyone at Crypto News, RIP John McAfee – your legend will live on.