Crazy biography of John McAfee, billionaire and creator of McAfee (8 photos)

This guy managed to live such a rich life that it would be enough for several people. Agree, all talented people breed the most thoroughbred cockroaches in their heads.





In the summer of 2021, the creator of one of the most famous antiviruses, a participant in high-profile drug and firearms scandals, a tax evader and the husband of a former sex worker was found dead in Spain.



McAfee was born in 1945 in Ciderford (Gloucestershire, UK). From childhood, little John showed a penchant for exact sciences, and even his alcoholic father, who committed suicide (John was only 15 years old at that time), did not become an obstacle for him to receive a quality education. In 1967, McAfee received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from a local college.

Then John began working at a computer company, where he began to study programming, and then moved to another. It was at his second job that he created train schedules on an IBM machine. During the same period, John began using psychedelics, which had a great influence on his inner state. The young man quit his job and later said that his life was just a hallucination.

McAfee moved to America and began working there, not staying anywhere, including even such a delicious place as a NASA laboratory.





McAfee, (circa 1989), holds a stethoscope up to a computer with a bag of ice on top, illustrating the "virus" his software could destroy.

By the way, in 1968, McAfee began an affair with a student he mentored while working on his doctorate in mathematics at the College of Philadelphia. The situation led to the collapse of McAfee's academic career - the college authorities "asked" him from college. John married a student and moved to Silicon Valley. Jumping from one place of work to another (Siemens, NASA, General Electric, Xerox, Univac), the future creator of the antivirus had a lot of fun using drugs and alcohol. In one of the interviews, he mentioned that most of his bosses also sinned with use. McAfee hid his hobbies from both his mother and his wife, but at his work places he did not hesitate to “dine” on some substances. “It was a strange time,” McAfee recalled about that period.

In the early 80s, McAfee’s wife first left her, unable to bear her husband’s behavior, and the Omex company, where John drank and used every day while sitting at his workplace, kicked him out the door.

McAfee finally decided to cope with his addictions and went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.



In 1986, the world's first virus epidemic hit computers. A virus created by Pakistani brothers Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi, called Brain. He tracked pirated copies of their medical software. McAfee quickly realized that the world would soon be in dire need of a pill against a variety of viruses and immediately invited several developers to work, releasing the first antivirus together with them, calling it VirusScan + McAfee.

The antivirus was free only for individuals, but the company already had to pay. The business took off, and its creator immediately became famous, giving interviews where he spoke in detail about the dangers of viruses.

The Michelangelo virus attack became a real sensation: the program was not noticeable on the device until March 6, but on the birthday of the greatest sculptor, the virus became active and permanently destroyed data from the hard drive, and then disabled the computer. Michelangelo brought John McAfee millions and he took over 67% of the antivirus market.



In 1994, McAfee sold his own company, Intel, for $100 million and went on a rampage. He was actively involved in yoga and tried to attract everyone he met along the way to this activity. He gave lectures, tried several times to create what we today call a messenger, then bought a fleet of vintage cars and a fleet of airplanes, built nine houses where he kept various works of art.

The 2007-2008 crisis greatly reduced McAfee's fortune - he had to sell a number of assets and real estate in Hawaii, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and then move to Belize. This is a modest state in Central America, with a very, very flexible tax system.

In Belize, a man came up with the idea to create a new plant type of antibiotics and built the company QuorumEx. At the same time, he organized sales of cigars and coffee in Belize and created a water taxi company. He was surrounded by several professional bodyguards and watchdogs, but John changed his IP address several times a day.



McAfee explained his excessive caution by the narcotic substances that had been with him almost all his life, and here he also had his own laboratory.

When it was discovered that there was a village of drug dealers nearby, John came up with nothing better than to start sponsoring the police and bribing small drug dealers to get out of business. But all this led to the fact that in May 2012, the police came to visit John McAfee and searched him.

The creator of the antivirus was accused of trafficking in unlicensed medicines and illegal arms trade. McAfee managed to defend himself and the charges against him were dropped. And the authorities also received a lawsuit for unjustified arrest.

Six months later, the police came again when McAfee began accusing his neighbor of poisoning his dogs. In November, a neighbor was found dead - he had been shot.

McAfee attacked everyone at once: he blamed both the corrupt government and some businessman whom he decided not to pay. To avoid ending up in prison, John decided to flee the country and chose Guatemala as his new home.



John and his wife Janice check the weapon after Cuban authorities returned it to them (2019)

Here a real series began for him: McAfee hid from the police in abandoned buildings, constantly changed phones, and then hired a double, who went to Mexico with a DPRK passport. Ingeniously, the double was arrested and the news about this immediately spread to all media and social networks.

The real John, having dyed his beard and hair a different color and altered his cheekbones with chewing gum, managed to pass control and made his way to Guatemala.

A seemingly smart guy decided to share a story about how pure and innocent he was, and he was soon arrested. At the police station, he convincingly feigned a heart attack so that his lawyer would have time to fight his deportation to Belize.

It all ended with extradition to the United States and in Miami John met his great love - former sex worker Janice. They got married, and McAfee began giving lectures, became interested in cryptocurrency, and planned to run for president. The man was not boring, irrepressible.



In October 2020, John McAfee was arrested in Spain, only to be redirected to America. The man was accused of concealing real estate, yachts, cars and $23 million in bitcoins. Well, the most favorite thing among such comrades is registering their own assets for others and using crypto accounts.

The businessman faced as many as 30 years in prison; already in June 2021, McAfee, who was already 75 years old at the time, was found dead in a Barcelona prison. The Catalan Ministry of Justice said the incident could have been a suicide.

But in 2019, John McAfee wrote on his social networks: “Received a message from US officials essentially saying: “We are coming for you, McAfee! We're going to kill you." Got a tattoo today just in case. If I commit suicide, I didn't do it. I was killed." And in October 2020, after his arrest, John confirmed that he was not going to die voluntarily.

McAfee was generally a supporter of the conspiracy theory about the “shadow government of the whole world” and begged not to be extradited to America.