In one or the other interview since this started, the interviewer asked him that very question and he responded rather incongruously that he loves Belize and has no intention of leaving. That was the moment I started to lean towards he's a little loopy.
There was also a rumor going around that he couldn't return to the US for tax reasons, which is plausible but I think unsubstantiated.
When insane people commit a crime they should be incarcerated. The victim should have justice. But, it seems that McAfee started going downhill years ago. Look how far he's gone. That could happen to anyone. He's just in the news because he was rich and has a recognizable name. If even the rich can have this happen to them, there is little hope that we can be truly effective at stopping others from having the same happen to them.
I do not believe the purpose of incarceration should ever be justice for the victim, it should be safety for other potential victims (either from the criminal, or from those who would see the crime go unpunished and decide they can do the same). That's the reason why we should put mentally insane criminals in mental institutions and not in jail, too; if everything works well, that should shield the lowest chance of more people being hurt.
If you want justice for the victim, punishing the perpetrator is not the best way to go about that. Making the criminal make reparations is a solution in some cases (notably not in murder).
Having followed this since the raid earlier this year, I actually have no idea whose side of the story I believe now. Some people portray him as a Machiavellian psychopath (Jeff Wise), others think he just went paranoid nuts from drug use, yet if I were only to hear John McAfee tell his own story I'm fairly certain I would absolutely believe him.
He's clearly still in full command of his capacities at least as it comes to elucidating his thoughts in words, and everything he says is reasonable enough that I would believe it quite straightforwardly (as I did back when the raid news first came out) if it weren't for the notion planted in my head now from Wise's article that he's a scheming psychopath that's very charming and knows just what to say to make people believe him.
Either way, this guy has a crazy shit life. If everything is true in Jeff's article about his past and current life, I'd have to believe that he probably is just a scheming possibly paranoid psychopath, though still a little skeptical that he shot his neighbor to death. Fully plausible either way as I see it however, wouldn't be surprised at either outcome.
Also, I definitely hear the words "kill him" and "that's what he fucking needs" in that recording with all the background noise he sent out. Who knows what it is though.
I'm honestly sort of confused why we care what he's doing at all. There are other accused murderers and other fugitives in the world. Why is McAfee a big deal outside the fact that there's a well-known company with his name on it?
The same reason Hans Reiser's court case kept popping up on and off. The fact that they're in the tech industry brings the odd sense of connection to them, for better or worse, that makes people be interested-- or, at least, makes media outlets think that people will be interested.
And yet this article is on the front page of Hacker News, so I guess the media's thoughts on the matter are justified :)
> the fact there's a well-known company with his name on it?
That's a good part of it, the guy has name recognition on par with most household cleaning products.
Then there is the little detail that he actually is - or was - half decent programmer and even in illegality he shows his entrepreneurial drive. It's the same kind of fascination that got the tech press running around Hans Reiser the way they did when Nina disappeared.
This is what drives tabloid sales, people love a good story and McAfee is giving them just that.
I'm not even sure if the facts of the matter will be a decision point from here on, the eyeballs industry probably hopes he will on the lam for a long time so they can milk this for what it is worth. The worst that could happen from their point of view is that he gets arrested or worse, that he really does get killed (they may try to go for the conspiracy angle if that happens to extend the time they can spin this).
It's a sad affair in many ways. McAfee used to be named right along Bill Gates at some point and now you're just as likely to find him associated with Hans Reiser (like in this comment for instance).
Are those fugitives powerful men/women that have history of crazy ventures, plausible conspiracy theories, and constant communication with the world? If so please link their blogs too.
“Almost certainly what happened there was he suggested it to somebody, and then one of his many Belizean hangers on probably took it upon himself to do John a favor,” Allnatt says. “Because John surrounded himself with gang members. These are not nice people.”
I don't know what to make of any of this. There is enough confusion and mis-information that it is totally impossible to know what the truth is any more but regardless of what the truth is I'm pretty sure that John McAfee isn't going to die in some old folks home to be visited on Sundays by his children that hope that granddad will kick the bucket soon so they can stop these visits.
At his age most folks are thinking about which brand rollator will bring the most value for their money. McAfee seems to be a star in his own totally weird movie with sex (illegal?), drugs (some of it definitely illegal) and banana republics thrown into the mix with abandon.
I'm happy I don't have to make the choice between the retirement home and John McAfee's, but I'm fairly sure that a large number of people in retirement homes would happily trade with him.
I'm not quite admiring him (definitely would not admire him if it turns out he killed that guy and taking advantage of all these young girls is definitely not ok) but I'm not saying he doesn't have his weird charm either. If he did it I hope he gets caught and sentenced appropriately, if he didn't I hope he manages to escape to safety somehow. The problem is that it is impossible to know what to believe, and a large factor in that is McAfee himself. He's been on the run in one form or another for years now so for him this is likely business as usual.
That's the ridiculous part, the whole story sounds so much like it was taken right out of a movie I have no idea even where to begin to tease out the truth.
If I had a penny for every security guy who thought a government was out to kill him, I'd be a rich man. Paranoid drives that industry. :) It's rare but threats happen given the data and relationships a security officer of a public firm will be exposed too.
More realistically, it sounds like John's eclectic lifestyle is rubbing people wrong like it did in the States. It doesn't take a genius to do a google search on your loud new immigrant and find a plethora of bad press, justice or injustice. In a developing country like Belize (which shares a border with Mexico), the corruption around you becomes very real when a community (or powers that be) start to feel your presence is threatening. And Americans REALLY don't go over smoothly when they think they are above the local law of the land. Travel security 101.
A former business partner sold his company to Symantec. We more recently built mobile security software and worked closely with local & federal govts in US, and UK House of Lords. I also worked in international finance, security of our Brazil and Mexico teams were something we thought about often.
"Numerous press reports point to an epic thread on Bluelight (the world’s largest drug forum) posted by a user named Stuffmonger. [...] At one point Stuffmonger mentions that he lives in Belize, in the jungle, beside a river. Connections were made, and people began to believe that Stuffmonger was actually myself, and that I was indeed doing the drugs that I was encouraging others to create.
I am indeed that same Stuffmonger. I, however, do not do drugs [...]. I am, however, a practical joker who does not mind investing months in a given joking enterprise."
Repeat with me: He is a practical joker who does not mind investing months in a given joking enterprise.
I appreciate that the following link is to material which some people here may object to, but it's all legal as far as the law is concerned so grab some popcorn and start reading:
Thank you, that is a great link. It makes this story much more interesting--fascinating, even, assuming stuffmonger really is McAfee (as seems to be the case).
>I planted tiny POV video cameras and sound recorders on myself, some of my dogs, all around my property, in my cars, on my boats, at the Studio 54 bar in Orange Walk, on trees, in bushes, – everywhere I could...
Is it only me who thinks he's a teeny-tiny bit paranoid?
Well, what would you do if the police executed a commando raid on your property looking for a meth lab that wasn't there, and your pets were slaughtered, but you really hadn't done anything to precipitate such events?
Given that context, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
Around the turn of the millennium, on my little software company's farm-like compound in rural California, we had a couple incidents where we would find one of our angora goats lying dead in front of the converted-barn office, with its throat slashed open from ear to ear. I happened across the first one when me and a buddy were out for a moonlight walk--after smoking a joint, no less--and it was some creepy fucking shit. I invested in a whole bunch of wireless night vision cameras after the second time that happened, and put them in trees, on the roof, and in the bushes.
It turned out it wasn't any kind of weird cult ritual or insane meth-heads living in the woods, as we had first thought; it was the German shepherd owned by the Nazi skinheads up the road, slipping its chain at night and going out on missions, apparently well-fed but still with the killing urge.
We didn't find out through the cameras; it was one morning when I ran outside at 5:30 after being awakened by the plaintive cries of our biggest billy goat, only to find him on his back with his neck clamped between the jaws of the dog (named Psycho (of course)). Luckily for me, those skinheads had apparently beaten a healthy fear of humans into the dog, so I was able to save Billy Whiskers by throwing some rocks and shouting.
Still, given the circumstances, it doesn't seem too paranoid to have planted all those cameras. If McAfee's story is true (which is admittedly pretty hard to believe) then going on the run, carrying guns, and deploying all the cameras and whatever else he can seems reasonable to me.
32 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 65.9 ms ] threadThere was also a rumor going around that he couldn't return to the US for tax reasons, which is plausible but I think unsubstantiated.
If you want justice for the victim, punishing the perpetrator is not the best way to go about that. Making the criminal make reparations is a solution in some cases (notably not in murder).
He's clearly still in full command of his capacities at least as it comes to elucidating his thoughts in words, and everything he says is reasonable enough that I would believe it quite straightforwardly (as I did back when the raid news first came out) if it weren't for the notion planted in my head now from Wise's article that he's a scheming psychopath that's very charming and knows just what to say to make people believe him.
Either way, this guy has a crazy shit life. If everything is true in Jeff's article about his past and current life, I'd have to believe that he probably is just a scheming possibly paranoid psychopath, though still a little skeptical that he shot his neighbor to death. Fully plausible either way as I see it however, wouldn't be surprised at either outcome.
Also, I definitely hear the words "kill him" and "that's what he fucking needs" in that recording with all the background noise he sent out. Who knows what it is though.
And yet this article is on the front page of Hacker News, so I guess the media's thoughts on the matter are justified :)
That's a good part of it, the guy has name recognition on par with most household cleaning products.
Then there is the little detail that he actually is - or was - half decent programmer and even in illegality he shows his entrepreneurial drive. It's the same kind of fascination that got the tech press running around Hans Reiser the way they did when Nina disappeared.
This is what drives tabloid sales, people love a good story and McAfee is giving them just that.
I'm not even sure if the facts of the matter will be a decision point from here on, the eyeballs industry probably hopes he will on the lam for a long time so they can milk this for what it is worth. The worst that could happen from their point of view is that he gets arrested or worse, that he really does get killed (they may try to go for the conspiracy angle if that happens to extend the time they can spin this).
It's a sad affair in many ways. McAfee used to be named right along Bill Gates at some point and now you're just as likely to find him associated with Hans Reiser (like in this comment for instance).
“Almost certainly what happened there was he suggested it to somebody, and then one of his many Belizean hangers on probably took it upon himself to do John a favor,” Allnatt says. “Because John surrounded himself with gang members. These are not nice people.”
I don't know what to make of any of this. There is enough confusion and mis-information that it is totally impossible to know what the truth is any more but regardless of what the truth is I'm pretty sure that John McAfee isn't going to die in some old folks home to be visited on Sundays by his children that hope that granddad will kick the bucket soon so they can stop these visits.
At his age most folks are thinking about which brand rollator will bring the most value for their money. McAfee seems to be a star in his own totally weird movie with sex (illegal?), drugs (some of it definitely illegal) and banana republics thrown into the mix with abandon.
I'm happy I don't have to make the choice between the retirement home and John McAfee's, but I'm fairly sure that a large number of people in retirement homes would happily trade with him.
I'm not quite admiring him (definitely would not admire him if it turns out he killed that guy and taking advantage of all these young girls is definitely not ok) but I'm not saying he doesn't have his weird charm either. If he did it I hope he gets caught and sentenced appropriately, if he didn't I hope he manages to escape to safety somehow. The problem is that it is impossible to know what to believe, and a large factor in that is McAfee himself. He's been on the run in one form or another for years now so for him this is likely business as usual.
More realistically, it sounds like John's eclectic lifestyle is rubbing people wrong like it did in the States. It doesn't take a genius to do a google search on your loud new immigrant and find a plethora of bad press, justice or injustice. In a developing country like Belize (which shares a border with Mexico), the corruption around you becomes very real when a community (or powers that be) start to feel your presence is threatening. And Americans REALLY don't go over smoothly when they think they are above the local law of the land. Travel security 101.
A former business partner sold his company to Symantec. We more recently built mobile security software and worked closely with local & federal govts in US, and UK House of Lords. I also worked in international finance, security of our Brazil and Mexico teams were something we thought about often.
I am indeed that same Stuffmonger. I, however, do not do drugs [...]. I am, however, a practical joker who does not mind investing months in a given joking enterprise."
Repeat with me: He is a practical joker who does not mind investing months in a given joking enterprise.
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/652661-John-McAfee-aka-St...
>I planted tiny POV video cameras and sound recorders on myself, some of my dogs, all around my property, in my cars, on my boats, at the Studio 54 bar in Orange Walk, on trees, in bushes, – everywhere I could...
Is it only me who thinks he's a teeny-tiny bit paranoid?
Given that context, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
Around the turn of the millennium, on my little software company's farm-like compound in rural California, we had a couple incidents where we would find one of our angora goats lying dead in front of the converted-barn office, with its throat slashed open from ear to ear. I happened across the first one when me and a buddy were out for a moonlight walk--after smoking a joint, no less--and it was some creepy fucking shit. I invested in a whole bunch of wireless night vision cameras after the second time that happened, and put them in trees, on the roof, and in the bushes.
It turned out it wasn't any kind of weird cult ritual or insane meth-heads living in the woods, as we had first thought; it was the German shepherd owned by the Nazi skinheads up the road, slipping its chain at night and going out on missions, apparently well-fed but still with the killing urge.
We didn't find out through the cameras; it was one morning when I ran outside at 5:30 after being awakened by the plaintive cries of our biggest billy goat, only to find him on his back with his neck clamped between the jaws of the dog (named Psycho (of course)). Luckily for me, those skinheads had apparently beaten a healthy fear of humans into the dog, so I was able to save Billy Whiskers by throwing some rocks and shouting.
Still, given the circumstances, it doesn't seem too paranoid to have planted all those cameras. If McAfee's story is true (which is admittedly pretty hard to believe) then going on the run, carrying guns, and deploying all the cameras and whatever else he can seems reasonable to me.