There was always something odd about John McAfee. The tech entrepreneur made a fortune from the antivirus software that bears his name, even as he nursed an addiction to cocaine and set himself up as a spiritual guru and yoga expert. In 2009, after losing millions in the stock market crash, he decided to retire to the tiny Central American nation of Belize. That’s when things really got weird. He started hanging out with killers, prostitutes, and pimps. He fell in love with a 17-year-old and surrounded his tropical compound with armed guards. In November 2012 his neighbor was found murdered. McAfee, who professed his innocence, fled the police and went into hiding.
WIRED’s Joshua Davis had weeks of exclusive access to and interviews with McAfee before his disappearance and was virtually the only journalist McAfee had contact with when he went on the lam. In this fascinating profile, Davis takes readers into McAfee’s heart of darkness, a harrowing and jaw-dropping tale of ambition, paranoia, sex, and madness.
WIRED Contributing Editor Joshua Davis has traveled the world reporting stories for WIRED—Colombia, Belize, China, Nepal, South Korea, Iraq, Italy, Estonia, Russia, the Netherlands. His writing is anthologized in the 2012 edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing as well as the 2006, 2007, and 2009 editions of The Best Technology Writing. He’s the author of The Underdog, an account of his adventures in competitive armwrestling, bullfighting, sumo, sauna, and backward running. He lives in San Francisco.
