
Murder Suspect John McAfee: I'm Innocent - Quekster
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/11/threatlevel_1112_mcafee/
======
_delirium
For those of you just tuning in to _Adventures of John McAfee_ :

"Antivirus Software Pioneer John McAfee Loses Fortune (2009)"
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2933994> [some additional
discussion/links in the comments]

"Meth Labs and Dead Dogs: How the Founder of McAfee Antivirus Went on the Run"
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4027046>

~~~
edj
And here's the Cliff's Notes:

2004: McAfee sells his entire stake in his antivirus company for something
like $100 million.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequal...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html)

2004: He starts building a compound in New Mexico for aerotrekking, i.e.
flying ultralight aircraft.
[http://www.desertexposure.com/200711/200711_mcafee_icarus.ph...](http://www.desertexposure.com/200711/200711_mcafee_icarus.php)

2006: His nephew dies in an aerotrekking accident.

2007: He's getting major press coverage for his aerotrekking and his band of
"Sky Gypsies".
[http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/aerotrekking...](http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/aerotrekking/tom-
clynes-text)

2009: The financial crash supposedly wipes out most of his wealth, reducing
his net worth to $4 million.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequal...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html)

2010: He relocates to Belize. He is supposedly studying quorum-sensing in
rainforest plants with a brilliant young doctor.
[http://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-
mcafee-f...](http://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-
founder-hunts-cures-belize)

May 2012: McAfee's house is raided and he's charged with running a meth-lab
and possessing illegal firearms. Than the charges are dropped. But he goes on
the run for a few days anyway. [http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/05/meth-labs-
and-dead-dogs-how...](http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/05/meth-labs-and-dead-
dogs-how-the-founder-of-mcafee-antivirus-went-on-the-run-in-belize/)

8 November 2012: Oops! Turns out he moved to Belize and planted the rumor that
he lost 96% of his wealth to avoid possible damages in case he loses the civil
lawsuits against him in the US related to his nephew's death. Oh, and now he
hangs out with known gangsters. [http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-
and-lots-of-guns-...](http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-and-lots-of-
guns-inside-john-mcafees-heart-of-darkness)

12 November 2012: McAfee is wanted in connection with the murder of his
neighbor. <http://gizmodo.com/5959812/john-mcafee-wanted-for-murder>

~~~
pyrotechnick
TIL some people actually trust this tribe of neanderthals:
<http://gizmodo.com/about/>

~~~
varjag
As opposed to trusting a tattooed dude with a shotgun?

~~~
runjake
Gizmodo and its parent company have a documented history of ethical slips. A
tattooed guy with a shotgun isn't inherently unethical or guilty, in my mind.
But I don't watch a lot of TV or movies, so I'm weak in the stereotyping
department.

~~~
varjag
He looks exactly like a kind of person who would make trouble. Not saying that
he did, we know looks can be deceptive. Just pointing out that ad hominem
argument here can fly both ways.

------
amix
Gizmodo has more details, especially regarding his meth activities and drug
use (which could explain his paranoia and erraticness):
[http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/11/john-mcafee-wanted-for-
murd...](http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/11/john-mcafee-wanted-for-murder/)

Reading about John McAfee is similar to reading about Hans Reiser - -
brilliant minds wasted doing stupid things.

~~~
3amOpsGuy
It didn't really shock me when the Reiser thing came to light. I remember back
around 2003-2004 (possibly before) when there was all the hoo-haa on the lkml
between Reiser's scratchy personality and his attacks on Torvalds, Cox et al.,
but backed up with a brilliant FS.

It genuinely was faster, especially for lots of small files (the common case
in 2003). It was night and day difference when running a busy mail server. It
had lots of nice things too, e.g. it was reliably possible to grow a reiserFS
while the FS was online / mounted, which was a neat trick in conjunction with
LVM.

There were some folks who stepped into the fray to try and lubricate the
relationships a little - allowing the community at large to benefit from
Reiser's work, by avoiding the need for the tempered Reiser to interact with
others while his work was integrated. That never really happened though, there
was noone to successfully defang the Torvalds side of the bun fight (which is
entirely understandable).

So when the case came to light, i couldn't help wondering if it was more than
likely true.

------
aneth4
He's in a country where he claims the authorities will arrest him on sight and
plan to execute him, but he won't leave because he loves it there.

Something is not right either with him or these facts.

"[T]he nicest place on earth" is not the place where they poison your dogs and
try to kill you.

~~~
mvzink
See edj's cliffs notes version of McAfee's adventures:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4776504>

> 8 November 2012: Oops! Turns out he moved to Belize and planted the rumor
> that he lost 96% of his wealth to avoid possible damages in case he loses
> the civil lawsuits against him in the US related to his nephew's death. Oh,
> and now he hangs out with known gangsters.
> [http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-and-lots-of-
> guns-...](http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-and-lots-of-guns-
> inside-john-mcafees-heart-of-darkness)

------
zalew
So, to put it short: he loses his fortune, flees to a corrupt developing
country, collects firearms there, gets arrested, thinks the govt need some
black suited special ops in a boat to kill a dog, gets accused of murder so he
goes on the run which would be a smart thing to do, but then he doesn't want
to flee the country that presumabely wants to kill him because it's lovely.

Sounds like trouble really likes this guy, or dude is simply nuts.

------
tptacek
How easy it to spot "9mm Luger ammunition" laying on a table? How much of an
expert would you need to be?

~~~
dr_doom
Unless he somehow saw the box or the imprint at the bottom, it's almost
impossible.

There is a small difference in width but you can't really tell if you're
further than a foot away.

[http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo...](http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo=d&biw=1182&bih=620&tbm=isch&tbnid=Z9ewtO6fax9T4M:&imgrefurl=http://herohog.com/images/guns/ammo/&docid=ehyFGanbGndNqM&imgurl=http://herohog.com/images/guns/ammo/CartridgeComparison.jpg&w=800&h=480&ei=uLGhUISKBYLzygHn-
YC4Ag&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=241&sig=100504590602866504905&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=219&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0,i:139&tx=135&ty=98)

~~~
sk5t
It might seem like a small difference if you're not used to handling pistol
cartridges, but if you are, that's like saying it's difficult to tell PHP from
Perl.

Edit: Also, there is usually an imprint on the bottom of the cartridge that
says "9MM LUGER".

~~~
dr_doom
I handle a lot of guns and that is a great analogy. We know that all we have
to do is look for a ".php". But how many average people notice that type of
stuff?

You're right that there are imprints on all rounds but seeing and remembering
that is like getting a database error and remembering if it was Microsoft or
MYSQL...You have to have a lot of experience and a keen memory.

So pretty much impossible.

~~~
icambron
You're assuming that the author is an average person with respect to gun
knowledge. I don't know how much he knows about them, but the story seems to
suggest he knows a little, right? Maybe relevant: he was a war correspondent
in Iraq[1]. Or maybe he just likes guns?

[1] <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/battlefield_pr.html>

Edit: spelling

------
nilved
the photos and title do a great job of loading the question

~~~
pyrotechnick
A keen observation indeed. In a zombie apocalypse, I'd readily let you keep
watch whilst I slept.

Wired is notoriously sensationalist. Take anything you get from there with
many grains of salt.

------
ck2
Whether or not he is innocent/guilty/crazy/sane is to be determined but one
thing about the dogs - the first thing police do is kill any dog that looks
like it could attack them, they don't have to justify it so it's fun target
practice for them. Special ops that don't want any alert by gunfire or barking
would definitely poison the dogs with tainted meat, etc.

So that part is not hard to believe. There are other aspects though that are
worse. It's a series of poor, dramatic choices.

~~~
Vivtek
I'm actually not sure about that. If they need quiet, they'd shoot the dog
quietly - but apparently the dogs had not yet all died by the time the
interview was held, so they were alive far, far longer than could possibly be
of any benefit to a special ops team.

More likely that a neighbor did it, sad as it is. Maybe the guy that got shot,
maybe somebody else who got sick of a pack of wild dogs trying to attack them
for using a public beach. It's one thing to "love dogs" and another to
tolerate a dangerous pack of animals in your neighborhood that have been
spoiled by a paranoid nutcase.

~~~
bluedanieru
How the hell are you going to shoot the dog quietly?

~~~
Vivtek
With a silencer, I guess. What do I know? I've never shot anything nor do I
plan to - but it seems a silencer would be quieter than a dog that was still
dying of poison two days later.

~~~
bluedanieru
Silencers in real life aren't like what you see in the movies. They are just
enough to prevent hearing loss (usually) but that's it.

If you want to shoot something quietly, use a crossbow.

~~~
Vivtek
Seriously?!? That _jioop_ sound is another Hollywood lie? Man, I've about had
it with those people. They really don't care about reality at all!

------
unimpressive
He's wanted for murder and he has no plans to leave the country?

I sincerely doubt that.

~~~
bluedanieru
His description of a Navy SEALesque operation the government of Belize put in
place to poison a bunch of stupid dogs leads me to believe this guy has a
tenuous grasp on reality. And he has a history of violence. Oh and he's
apparently been really big on research chemicals as well? Yeah, his mind is
fried.

~~~
pyrotechnick
_Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance._

<http://quorumex.com/content/about-us>

Perhaps he got a little too close to The Truth?

~~~
ceejayoz
I'm still going to go with "he's a nutter", personally.

~~~
pyrotechnick
The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?

 _Alice checks Hatter's temperature_

Alice Kingsley: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a
secret. All the best people are.

~~~
ceejayoz
A lot of the worst, too. What, exactly, are you going for here?

~~~
pyrotechnick
What, exactly, are you going for here?

------
joewee
Innocent until proven guilty, no matter how many drugs he has used.

------
xbryanx
Just in case no one else says it, my friends say that Belize is actually a
very lovely and mostly safe place to travel.

~~~
crdoconnor
It has the fifth highest murder rate in the world.

~~~
justinY
i believe it's the 5th highest in the Americas, not the world -
[https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=123...](https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=12320)

------
nnq
...AMAZING how much work some people put into fucking up their lives ...still,
better than having a heart attack in front of your PC while stuffing yourself
with junkfood and energy drinks though :)

------
swampthing
He looks amazingly youthful for someone who's nearly 70...

------
imjk
This guy has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons.

------
Evbn
Any Hans Reiser comparison write ups yet?

------
xer0x
wtf

