John McAfee. Founder of McAfee Associates, which created commercial anti-virus software, the man has led an incredible rockstar-type life, with adventures, exploits and escapades that are the stuff of Hollywood movies.
I was lucky enough to interview John McAfee on video in 2019, in advance of his pending appearance at the StartCon conference for startups, which you can read about here, and which I've embedded below.
News reports arrived this morning explaining that McAfee was found dead in a Spanish jail cell, apparently by suicide, with this Reuters report also having more information.
The 75 year old McAfee was facing years in a US jail if he was extradited and subsequently convicted, but reports say that the decision by a Spanish court to grant the US extradition request could have been appealed, and it wasn't as if McAfee was going to be sent back to the US tomorrow.
Startlingly, a report by Russia Today reminds the world of McAfee's warning in December 2019 that if he was ever reported to have died by suicide, he didn't, and instead, was "whackd", as he purposefully misspelled the word, as you can see embedded below.
Here is my first and only video interview with John McAfee, of whom a movie will presumably no doubt be made to celebrate on of the technology world's most intriguing characters.
Here is McAfee's Tweet warning any death of his wouldn't be an accident:
Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: "We're coming for you McAfee! We're going to kill yourself". I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd. Check my right arm.$WHACKD available only on https://t.co/HdSEYi9krq:) pic.twitter.com/rJ0Vi2Hpjj
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 30, 2019
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