John McAfee was the software programmer behind the world’s first anti-virus program. He reportedly died by suicide in a Barcelona, Spain jail in 2021 while he was waiting to be extradited to the United States. In a Netflix documentary titled Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, his former girlfriend claims that McAfee did not die in the Spanish jail and that he had called her after the news surfaced in order to reveal that he had paid off people to spread the alleged fake news.

Who was John McAfee?

McAfee was born on a US Army base in Gloucestershire, England in 1945. He was only 15 when his father, Don McAfee, killed himself using a gun.  McAfee went on to receive an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Virginia’s Roanoke College. He had enrolled himself into Northeast Louisiana State College to pursue a PhD, but was expelled from the institution.

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McAfee began his professional career as a software developer for NASA. Subsequently, he worked for Univac, Xerox, Computer Sciences Corporation, Booz Allen, as well as Lockheed. He created McAfee Associates Inc. in 1987 to sell his anti-virus software.

By 1994, McAfee ended his association with the company and also sold all his stakes in it. The company was acquired by Intel in 2010 and all of its products came under Intel Security. McAfee had then expressed his happiness that the products would not be sold under his name anymore. However, Intel’s association with McAfee Associates ended in 2014 and the products were again being sold under the McAfee name.

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McAfee, in 2016, sought candidacy from the Libertarian Party for the presidential elections but ended up losing the primaries. He also lodged a campaign for the 2020 elections, but then suspended the same and backed Adam Kokesh.

McAfee courted a number of controversies during his life. He claimed in 2019 that taxes were illegal and that he hadn’t filed tax returns since 2010. He was also sought by police officials in Belize in relation to the murder of Gregory Faull. McAfee was arrested in Spain and was awaiting extradition when news of his death surfaced. His wife believes that a suicide note that was found with McAfee was faked.