John McAfee

Until quite recently, I cannot claim to have known very much at all of the computer programmer and software developer John McAfee. In fact, the extent of my knowledge was my association of his surname to the antivirus software he designed and named - I view it every time I power up my laptop.

I was actually fortunate enough to have been informed of McAfee's infamy by a friend almost immediately before the most recent turn of events in this strange and bizarre saga - he'd even had the foresight to predict that the story was "about to get much much more interesting over the next few days."

Although perhaps now subscribing to an outdated stereotype, it's probably still true to say of most people (myself included) that they would presume the designer of a successful anti-virus software to be an archetypical computer nerd; technologically obsessive, introverted, socially-awkward, often pale, bespectacled, and unfashionably hair-styled and dressed. 

With the shattering of your preconceptions imminent, let me introduce you to the strange man that is John McAfee. 
 

McAfee (this is a genuine photograph)

Now aged 67, he has exhibited increasingly erratic and unhinged behaviour for what I can only imagine is for most of his life, though it's in the last year or so that things have become particularly interesting.

In May of this year he was arrested by police at his riverside compound in Belize, and the subsequent press release revealed that his detainment was due to illegal drug manufacturing and the possesion of unlicensed firearms. This ocurred, reportedly, in the presence of his 17-year-old Belizean girlfriend. 

The police found $20,000 in cash, a laboratory teeming with chemistry equipment, seven pump-action shotguns, one single-action shotgun, two 9mm pistols, 270 shotgun cartridges, 30 9mm pistol rounds, and twenty .38 calibre rounds. As to quite why this would be considered necessary possessions is unknown, but it would transpire that the equipment and firearms were legal. A police spokesman would go on to say: "He was suspected (of making crystal meth) but he was not convicted nor was he charged. He was only suspected."

Over the subsequent months McAfee would display evermore deranged behaviour, and begun fortifying his jungle compound until it resembled a small security base, complete with heavily armed guards on constant patrol, while associating with known criminals and gangsters. He also wrote on the internet at great length his attempts to extract and purify extremely powerful psychoactive drugs (colloquially known as "bath salts") from commercially available chemical compounds. He described the effects of the potent base-form of the drug: "I had visual and auditory hallucinations and the worst paranoia of my life." 

He would go on to write that it's "the finest drug ever conceived, not just for the indescribable hypersexuality, but also for the smooth euphoria and mild comedown." In a rather unforgettable turn of phrase, he would detail the administrative procedure for the drug, via rectal insertion, known informally as 'plugging':

"Measure your dose, apply a small amount of saliva to just the tip of your middle finger, press it against the dose, insert. Doesn't really hurt as much as it sounds. We're in an arena (drugs/libido) that I navigate as well as anyone on the planet here. If you take my advice about this (may sound gross to some of you perhaps), you will be well rewarded."

His rapid estrangement from the local community and those who know him may well be explained by the psychosis-inducing drug he's extensively administering  - also apparently unaware of the extent of his overdosing on the powerful chemicals. At any rate, journalists who recently spent time with McAfee reported increasing unease and discomfort in his company as his mental state has declined.

Last Sunday, a neighbour to one of McAfee's beachfront properties, U.S. businessman Gregory Faull, was found dead at his home. He had been killed by a single bullet to the head. McAfee and Faull's arguments and disputes were well known, and Belizean police have confirmed that McAfee is "a person of interest" in their line of enquiry investigating Faull's murder.

McAfee has disappeared, in hiding somewhere in Belize. Although admitting that Faull was "an annoyance", he is vehemently denying responsibility for or involvement in the killing. Despite not actually being an official suspect, he maintains that he is the victim of a conspiracy against him by the authorities, and is moving constantly to avoid detection. The Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, said: "I don't want to be unkind, but he seems to be extremely paranoid, I would go as far as to say bonkers."

Where events will next lead is anyone's guess, although I think it's fair to say that we certainly haven't heard the last of McAfee.