John McAfee

Background

John David McAfee was born in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, England, on 18 September 1945. His father was a U.S. army officer, and his mother was British. McAfee spent his formative years in Salem, Virginia. When McAfee was 14 years old, his father committed suicide, leaving McAfee to be raised by his mother. In 1967, McAfee got a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Roanoke College in Virginia. After which, he began working towards a doctorate in mathematics at Northeast Louisiana State College. However, he was expelled in 1968 because he entered a relationship with an undergraduate student, who later became his first wife.

McAfee was a programmer for NASA’s Institute for Space Studies in New York from 1968 to 1970. A few years later, he created an antivirus software that could automatically detect and remove computer viruses. To market his creation, McAfee founded McAfee Associates in 1987 and began to sell the software, which he named VirusScan. It was the first anti-virus software to be distributed over the internet. He sold the company in 1994. After leaving McAfee Associates, McAfee lived in Belize for several years but returned to the U.S.in 2013.

In October 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain over U.S. tax evasion charges. He was found dead due to an apparent suicide in his prison cell in Barcelona on June 23, 2021. McAfee’s death came after the Spanish National Court authorized his extradition to the U.S. His death generated widespread speculation and conspiracy theories about the possibility of murder. Janice McAfee, McAfee’s wife, noted that she did not believe McAfee committed suicide and that the suicide note was forged.