McAfee’s incredible life story
After watching the new documentary “Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee,” you may find yourself thinking, “This can’t possibly be true.”
Certainly that’s what the Silicon Valley pioneer claims about the film, which premieres Saturday, Sept. 24, on Showtime.
The man who once said of himself “You know, I’m sort of the god of computer security” has had quite a life since the 1980s, when he invented the antivirus software that bore his name.
The film, directed by Nanette Burstein (“The
Kid Stays in the Picture”), suggests that McAfee was somehow involved in the murder of a neighbor in Belize who had complained about his dogs, set himself up as the de facto ruler of a town in that Central American nation, plied teenage girls with money and gifts and kept them as a virtual harem, and recruited his own personal police force to patrol the streets to make sure the townsfolk observed McAfee-imposed curfews.
There’s more: According to the girls, he was given to the sexual fetish known as scat. It’s a definite moment of TMI in the documentary. We already know or suspect enough about McAfee to want to keep our distance from him.
McAfee was born in Scotland and raised in Virginia, where he went to Roanoke College. In late 1986, he performed his first experiments with antivirus software. He was obviously ahead of his time, but he also knew how to market his creation by spinning the story that the virus known as Michelangelo was about to attack personal computers. Millions of people immediately downloaded McAfee programs, and by 1993, he controlled 60 percent of the desktop antivirus market.
McAfee founded and sold a number of enterprises over the years, and at one point, created a yoga and meditation center on a sprawling Colorado estate. Eventually, he found his way to Belize, living for a time at a waterfront property on San Pedro Island before moving to the mainland town of Orange Walk.
He hired a gifted young scientist named Allison Adonizio to develop pharmaceuticals through the process known as quorum sensing. He built her a lab, but she didn’t have the equipment to make much headway, she claims. That didn’t stop McAfee from getting her to fill beakers and test tubes with colored liquid so he could tell the media that his new enterprise had made great progress.
She grew dissatisfied with their business relationship, she says, and told McAfee she wanted to go home. By her account in the film, he attacked her. She barricaded herself in a building in the Orange Walk Town complex and says she texted friends to rescue her after he cut off the power to the building.
According to other people interviewed in the film, a local man named David Middleton broke into McAfee’s home, and McAfee wanted to teach the intruder a lesson. He allegedly ordered members of his security force, some of whom he is said to have recruited from local gangs, to deliver the lesson. They did so so forcefully that Middleton later died.
In 2012, McAfee’s property was raided by the Belizean Gang Suppression Unit, and he was arrested for illegal drug manufacture and possession of a single unlicensed weapon. The U.S. Embassy intervened to secure his release. He was able to control the local police with generous donations of arms and equipment, but he couldn’t control the Gang Suppression Unit.
Gregory Faull was another American expat living in Belize. Faull complained about several vicious dogs that were roaming around McAfee’s compound. Faull reportedly made an offhand comment about poisoning the dogs if McAfee wouldn’t restrain them. When the dogs were found poisoned, McAfee shot each one to put it out of its misery, according to witnesses. Later, Faull was found shot to death in his home, execution style.
McAfee was declared a person of interest in the murder and fled the country for Guatemala, where he was later arrested for illegal entry. He is said to have faked a heart attack as way of delaying justice long enough to enable him to escape to the U.S.
Flash forward to recent time: McAfee ran for president on the Libertarian ticket but lost to the party’s eventual nominee, Gary Johnson. However, as part of his platform, McAfee made convincing arguments about the danger of cyberwarfare. In fact, McAfee claims, we are already in the midst of cyberwarfare, and even Hillary Clinton might not disagree.
Burstein has done a very good job reining in the mountain of details, allegations, facts and suppositions surrounding McAfee. He refused to be interviewed for the film, yet carried on an often taunting email exchange with Burstein, and when she confronted him with her camera crew when he was running for president, he bolted from the room.
Viewers can form their own conclusions about McAfee’s alleged connection to Faull’s murder, the death of David Middleton and other aspects of his life. Burstein convincingly makes her case through the testimony of former girlfriends, associates, journalists and others.