Although born in the UK in the mid-1940s, John McAfee and his parents relocated to Roanoke, Virginia when he was young. And his early life was rough. His father —
a road surveyor, alcoholic, and, according to John, a very unhappy man — committed suicide when McAfee was just 15 years old. McAfee has struggled with this fact
his entire life. He told Wired, "Every relationship I have, he’s by my side; every mistrust, he is the negotiator of that mistrust. So my life is fucked."
McAfee started drinking shortly into his first year at Roanoke College. To support himself, he sold magazine subscriptions door-to-door, where he learned that confidence was key in business. He would knock
on people's doors, tell them they won an absolutely free subscription to a magazine — all they had to do was pay for shipping and handling. So, in other words,
Unfortunately, he spent most of the money he made from his magazine-selling days on booze, but still he managed to graduate and start a PhD in mathematics at Northeast Louisiana
State College in '68. They kicked him out, however, for sleeping with one of his undergraduate students. He then ended up coding old-school punch-card programs for Univac, but like his
His days at Univac taught him the basics of early computing, despite his limited time there, and he was able to use the information to land a new job at
During his days at Missouri Pacific Railroad, he began experimenting with other drugs besides alcohol and marijuana — specifically, psychedelics. Many days, he'd drop acid in the morning, go to
work, and route trains all day. One day he decided to dabble with a different psychedelic, a powerful spirit molecule known as DMT. McAfee snorted a line, but felt nothing
He'd hear people asking him questions while on DMT, but he couldn't comprehend their words. The train schedules were shooting out of the computer and heading toward the moon. He
freaked out, and ran to hide behind a garbage can in downtown St. Louis. He hoped that nobody would find him, and nobody did. In fact, he never went back
In the 1970s, McAfee moved to Silicon Valley. There, he held numerous jobs but couldn't kick his drug habit. In 1983, he finally reached his breaking point. He was working
for a company called Omex and his daily routine consisted of snorting coke off his desk, taking quaaludes to calm down, snorting more coke, and then topping off the day
Finally sober, McAfee found a new job at Lockheed. Computers were still quite a new idea at the time, so when the first computer virus hit PCs in 1986, everyone
panicked. That's where it all really began for McAfee, as he found this computer virus to be an opportunity for him. He had read about these viruses and decided he
He started McAfee Associates in his 700-square-foot home in Santa Clara, but surprisingly, it really took off. By the end of the '80s, his new antivirus company was raking in around
McAfee became a household name shortly after — especially because in 1992, Michelangelo, a major computer virus, hit the scene. McAfee thought of it as one of the worst viruses
to date and expected it to infect up to 5 million computers. After the virus hit, the scare alone caused people to invest in McAfee's antivirus software — and subsequently
Michelangelo only ended up infecting tens of thousands of computers, but it still inspired McAfee to go public. In a nutshell, his own paranoia is what made him his fortune.
In 1994, McAfee resigned from his own company. Then in 1996, he sold his shares, earning him around $100 million. He decided to keep a low profile in the years
following. He'd lecture at Stanford Graduate School of Business, give advice to young startups, and work on side projects. But by 2008, a time of economic turmoil in the U.S.,
In 2010, McAfee met vacationing microbiologist Allison Adonizio at a beachfront resort. The 31-year-old was doing postgrad research at Harvard on plant compounds that could prevent bacterial infections. McAfee was
Once in Belize, trouble arose. That paranoia McAfee experienced time and again throughout his life manifested itself in a major way on Central American turf.
as Lover's Bar, where he'd reportedly sit and watch people go in and out. He withdrew from everything, basically, except watching people in this poor town. Six months into his
In 2012, Gregory Faull, his American neighbor in Belize, was shot to death. McAfee was the number one suspect, as the night before, his dogs were poisoned and he assumed
Faull was the culprit. When the Belize government questioned him, he went into hiding for three weeks, then fled the country altogether. Alongside his 20-year-old girlfriend, he crossed into Guatemala
Vice traveled to Guatemala to meet up and interview McAfee while he was a person of interest in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. That was a mistake
on their part, as they forgot to remove the GPS coordinates from the photos they posted of McAfee. Shortly after, police found him and arrested him in Guatemala. But while
A media frenzy ensued after his bizarre behavior in Belize and his escapade in Guatemala. Everyone wanted to know what was going on with the antivirus hero — and he didn't
make things any easier on himself. In 2013, things got weirder when he released a strange video called "How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus." In said video, he's surrounded by women groping
him, guns, and drugs. Though it was intended to be some sort of parody where he uninstalls the software he invented, it was not well received by the general public.
McAfee's time back in the states has been pretty bizarre as well. In August 2015, he was pulled over and arrested on DUI charges and handgun possession. He pleaded guilty to
a DUI and admitted to driving under the influence of Xanax in a Facebook post. But, rather than taking the blame, he said his doctor did not specify that driving
A month later, McAfee decided he wanted to run the country. He filed paperwork to run in the 2016 presidential race under his own party: "The Cyber Party." Suiting. He
McAfee headed toward the Libertarian Party National Convention with his campaign. Unfortunately for him, he failed to secure the nomination. Instead, it went to former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.
In November 2016, McAfee was appointed chairman and CEO of a tech company called MGT Technologies. Originally, the company invested in daily fantasy and mobile games, but pivoted
MGT switched once again from investing in cybersecurity to investing in cryptocurrency. When the company reorganized, McAfee resigned as chairman and CEO and became, instead, the "chief cybersecurity visionary" in August
Today, McAfee has joined CryptoSecure, a firm that offers "hackproof security solutions" in the cryptocurrency industry. He's acting as senior strategic adviser, and Key Capital Corp. — a
company focused on precious-metal mining, fintech, and cancer treatments — is leading the firm's development. After announcing McAfee's joining, shares of Key Capital rose almost 400 percent.
According to McAfee, he is "very happy with my decision. I am looking forward to toiling in obscurity as the world’s foremost authority of all things cyber and
