John McAfee was a genius. He was also, by almost every account from people who actually knew him, a total nightmare. If you grew up with a PC in the 90s, you knew his name because it popped up every time you turned on your computer. That shield logo was everywhere. But the guy behind the software? He wasn't some buttoned-up Silicon Valley executive. He was a yoga-teaching, drug-using, gun-toting enigma who eventually went on the run from the law in a saga that felt more like a Tom Clancy novel written on acid than a business biography.
He died in a Spanish prison cell in 2021, but the question of who was John McAfee still lingers because he spent the last decade of his life making sure nobody could actually pin down the truth. He lied constantly. He loved the chaos. He’d tell one reporter he was a harmless eccentric and the next that he’d hacked the world’s most dangerous cartels.
To understand him, you have to look at the massive gap between the "Antivirus King" of 1987 and the crypto-shilling fugitive of 2020. It’s a wild ride.
The birth of an industry and a massive ego
Before the paranoia set in, John was a brilliant programmer. He worked at NASA’s Institute for Space Studies and later at Xerox and Lockheed. In 1986, the first PC virus, "Brain," started hitting IBM computers. Most people didn't even know what a computer virus was back then. John saw an opportunity. He founded McAfee Associates in 1987 and started giving away the software for free to individual users while charging corporations a fortune. It was a masterclass in early tech marketing.
He grew the company into a juggernaut. By the time he resigned and sold his stake in 1994, he walked away with about $100 million. At the time, that was "never work again" money. He could have retired to a beach and stayed quiet. But John hated quiet.
He spent the next few years doing weird stuff. He bought huge tracts of land. He started a company called Tribal Voice that made one of the first instant messaging programs. He became obsessed with "aerotrekking"—basically flying low-altitude kit planes that were incredibly dangerous. This hobby ended in tragedy when a passenger and his nephew were involved in a fatal crash, leading to a massive lawsuit that allegedly wiped out a huge chunk of his net worth during the 2008 financial crisis.
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People often ask if the money loss is what broke him. Honestly? It probably didn't help, but the real shift happened when he moved to Belize.
The Belize years and the descent into chaos
In 2008, John moved to a compound in Orange Walk, Belize. This is where the story stops being about technology and starts being about a man trying to build his own private kingdom. He claimed he was there to research natural antibiotics with a scientist named Allison Adonizio. He built a lab. He hired a private security force of armed men, many of whom were rumored to be former gang members.
The local government hated him. He claimed they were trying to extort him; they claimed he was running a meth lab. In April 2012, the Belize Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit raided his property. They shot his dog and arrested him for unlicensed weapons possession. They didn't find a meth lab, but they found a man who was becoming increasingly convinced that the world was out to get him.
Then came the murder of Gregory Faull.
Faull was McAfee’s neighbor. He was a builder from Florida who just wanted some peace and quiet, but McAfee’s dogs were constantly barking. Faull complained. Shortly after, the dogs were found poisoned. A day later, Gregory Faull was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
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The police wanted to question John. He didn't wait around for them. He buried himself in the sand with a cardboard box over his head so he could breathe while the police searched his property. Then, he went on the run.
Why John McAfee still matters to the internet
He spent weeks trekking through the jungle with a 20-year-old girlfriend and a reporter from Vice who accidentally gave away his location by posting a photo with the GPS metadata still attached. It was a comedy of errors. He was eventually caught in Guatemala, faked a heart attack to avoid deportation to Belize, and somehow ended up back in the United States.
You’d think he would lie low. Nope.
He ran for President of the United States. Twice. He became a "crypto influencer," charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to tweet about obscure digital coins. He was basically a professional provocateur at that point. He’d post videos of himself surrounded by guns and booze, mocking the IRS. He openly admitted he hadn't filed a tax return in years because "taxation is illegal."
The IRS didn't find it funny. In 2020, he was indicted for tax evasion and arrested in Barcelona while trying to board a flight to Istanbul.
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The final act in a Spanish cell
The question of who was John McAfee usually leads to the "Jeffrey Epstein" style conspiracies surrounding his death. On June 23, 2021, the Spanish High Court authorized his extradition to the U.S. Hours later, he was found dead in his cell.
His wife, Janice McAfee, has never accepted the official ruling of suicide. John himself had tweeted years earlier that if he ever "suicided" himself, it was a lie. He even got a tattoo that said "WHACKD." It’s the kind of theatrical ending he would have loved—leaving the world wondering if he was a victim of a deep-state hit or just a desperate man who realized he was never going to see the sun as a free man again.
The reality is likely more mundane, but John never did "mundane." He was a man who lived his life as a performance.
What we can learn from the McAfee saga
John’s life is a cautionary tale about the intersection of extreme wealth, brilliant intellect, and zero accountability. He was a pioneer of the cybersecurity industry who ended up becoming the very thing his software was designed to stop: an unpredictable threat to the system.
If you’re looking to protect your own digital and financial life after reading about a guy who lost his mind trying to outrun the taxman, there are a few practical takeaways:
- Diversify your security: McAfee Antivirus today is owned by a corporate entity that has nothing to do with the man. It’s fine, but don't rely on a single brand. Use a mix of hardware security keys (like YubiKeys) and encrypted communication (like Signal).
- Privacy has limits: John tried to go "off-grid" while staying on Twitter. That’s impossible. If you actually want privacy, you have to stop seeking attention.
- Tax compliance isn't a suggestion: The U.S. government will let a lot of things slide, but they will chase you to the ends of the earth for their cut of your money. If you're into crypto, use tools like CoinTracker to stay legal.
- Question the "Guru": Whether it's tech, crypto, or lifestyle advice, the more flamboyant the person giving the advice, the more likely they are selling you a character rather than a solution.
John McAfee was a complicated, often brilliant, and frequently dangerous man. He helped build the digital world we live in, and then he spent the rest of his life trying to burn his part of it down. Whether you see him as a folk hero or a villain, you can't deny that he was never boring.
Next Steps for Your Digital Privacy
- Check your own exposure by using a tool like Have I Been Pwned to see if your data has been leaked in any recent breaches.
- If you are still using a legacy antivirus subscription from the 90s, audit your system. Modern operating systems like Windows 11 and macOS have built-in protections that often outperform older, bloated third-party software.
- Move your sensitive communications to end-to-end encrypted platforms. John's downfall was often his own inability to stop talking on unsecure channels. Don't make the same mistake.