A new Netflix documentary premiered yesterday (August 24) about the bizarre life story of McAfee Anti-Virus software creator John McAfee. The feature-length documentary called Running With The Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee shows hours of unseen footage of an increasingly paranoid man on the run.
Based on true events, the former presidential candidate goes into hiding in Guatemala after being implicated in the murder of his neighbour in Belize in 2012. After evading the US authorities, McAfee, 75, was discovered hanged in a Spanish police cell 2021 whilst facing extradition for ten counts of tax evasion and seven counts of fraud in the US.
The Netflix TV show delves deep into the life of the outlandish tech mogul throwing up many conspiracies theories along the way. These include murdering his own father and faking his own death.
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Here at the MEN, we took a look at some of the highlights of the tumultuous life of Silicon Valley pioneer John McAfee.
McAfee'S family
The tycoon was born in Gloucestershire in 1945 however his parents moved home to Virginia in the United States when he was young. McAfee had a turbulent relationship with his father who was described as an "abusive alcoholic" and used to beat him regularly.
His father killed himself with a gun when McAfee was just 15. McAfee was married three times and Tweeted in 2010 that he estimated he had 47 children.
McAfee Anti-Virus software
After working for companies such as NASA and Xerox, McAfee went on to create the first commercial anti-virus software in 1987. One of the most widely used anti-virus software programmes on Windows PCs he created pioneering cyber security code to protect computers from the first ever 'Brain Virus.'
His creation was not without controversy however as he took issue with McAfee Anti-Virus software. In 1994 he sold his stake in his company, McAfee Associates, for around £100 million and thanked Intel for freeing him from "the worst software on the planet."
Biological viruses
After a number of short-lived business ventures including a Windows instant messenger feature called PowWow, McAfee decided to turn his attention to biological viruses. He moved to Belize in 2008 to create herb-based anti-biotics which claimed to stop the cell to cell communication that allows bacteria to share information on cell density.
He was accused of producing methamphetamine by the local authorities however and his plant was raided. His dog was shot in the incident along with his own weapons and passport seized.
He was detained for a short time however was released without charge. McAfee later spoke out about corruption in the Central American country.
Outlaw
McAfee was known for his beliefs that taxes were illegal and just before he died, he faced up to 30 years in prison for not filing any tax returns with the IRS from 2014 to 2018. He also got in trouble for a crypto currency scheme in 2020 and was arrested in Norway in the same year for putting a thong on his face instead of face mask.
He also faced much more sinister charges after McAfee's neighbour, 52-year-old Greg Faull, went to complain about the entrepreneur's dogs in 2012 and was later found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in his Belize home. Greg had allegedly poisoned McAfee's pets making McAfee an immediate "person of interest" for the authorities.
Believing he was going to be tortured or murdered, McAfee fled to Guatemala as the Netflix show documents. He was later deported to back to the US and order to pay £25million as part of a wrongful death claim.
He was never actually charged with Greg's murder however. Another sinister allegation in the Netflix documentary is one by former McAfee employee Allison Adonizio that he drugged and raped her while living in Belize.
Presidential candidacy
McAfee ran for president in 2016 from a yacht in Cuba whilst wanted by the US government for tax evasion. He wanted to create his own party, the Cyber Party, however stated that he didn't really want the White House job. A few months later he changed tact and tried to court the Liberation Party's nomination but was unsuccessful.
He ran again in 2020 running on a platform called the 'crypto community' which again got him in trouble with the law. He dropped out of the race by March 2020 however.
Conspiracy theories
In many ways, the Netflix documentary brought up more questions than it answered about the tycoon's mad life and even his death. McAfee's ex-girlfriend who he lived with in Belize in 2012 claims he faked his own death.
Samantha Herrera, 30, alleges she got a phone call from McAfee claiming to be in Texas stating that he'd paid people off to pretend that he is dead. McAfee's widow, Janice, and the cameraman that went on the run with him, don't believe the suicide verdict despite a note being found in his pocket.
Many other conspiracy theorists believe he was murdered in his cell because he wanted to start his own crypto currency and run for president again. McAfee was also said to be developing sophisticated spy software that a lot of powerful people weren't happy about.
The documentary also hints that he might have killed his own father. Ghost writer Alex Cody Foster who was hired to write about McAfee's life was unnerved when he gave a particularly troubling anecdote about his father.
McAfee states his dad once broke his arms and abused him to the point where it was intolerable so he "did something about it". Panicked, Foster asked Jimmy, McAfee's executive advisor, about it who alleged that the businessman once confessed in his presence to shooting his own dad.
To find out more about Running With the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, visit the Netflix website.
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