In-depth investigation into the life of John McAfee

[cronus]

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive ... BCampaign2

Dangerous: an in-depth investigation into the life of John McAfee

On 5 December 2012, John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala for illegally entering the country. Belizean police also wanted to speak to him in connection with the murder of his neighbour. Six months earlier, Wired's Joshua Davis began an in-depth investigation into McAfee's life.

Twelve weeks before the murder, John McAfee flicks open the cylinder of his Smith & Wesson revolver and empties the bullets, letting them clatter on to the table between us. A few tumble to the floor. McAfee is 66, lean and fit, with veins bulging out of his forearms. His hair is bleached blonde in patches and tattoos wrap around his arms and shoulders.

More than 25 years ago, he formed McAfee Associates, a maker of antivirus software that went on to become immensely popular and was acquired by Intel in 2010 for $7.68 billion (£4.75 billion). Now he's holed up in a bungalow on his island estate, about 24km off the coast of mainland Belize. The shades are drawn so I can see only a sliver of the white sand beach and turquoise water outside. The table is piled with boxes of ammunition, fake IDs bearing his photo, Frontiersman bear deterrent, and a single blue baby's dummy.

McAfee picks a bullet off the floor and fixes me with wide eyes. "This is a bullet, right?" he says in the congenial southern accent that has stuck with him since his boyhood in Virginia.

"Let's put the gun back," I tell him. I'd come here to try to understand why the government of Belize was accusing him of assembling a private army and entering the drug trade. It seemed implausible that a wildly successful tech entrepreneur would disappear into the Central American jungle and become a narco-trafficker. Now I'm not so sure.

But he explains that the accusations are a fabrication. "Maybe what happened didn't actually happen," he says, staring hard at me. "Can I do a demonstration?"

He loads the bullet into the revolver and spins the cylinder.
"This scares you, right?" he says. Then he puts the gun to his head.
My heart rate kicks up. "Yeah, I'm scared," I admit.

"We don't have to do this."
"I know we don't," he says, the muzzle pressed against his temple. And then he pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. He pulls it three more times in rapid succession. There are only five chambers.

(continued)

[JimC]

I do believe there may be some mental health issues there...

Perhaps triggered by over-indulging in a certain white powder, which give his californian background, wealth and current location, would not exactly be unlikely...

[Azathoth]

He appears to have pissed off some rather unpleasant people. Sometimes they really are out to get you.

[Tyrannical]

Or at least the crazy amount he was taking

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Richest dead man in the world?

[cronus]

Some kind of existential crisis? He can afford the bullets but he's pushing his luck with the trigger.