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This is Deborah Roberts. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Each week, we reach back into our archives and bring you a story we found unforgettable. Only a true psychopath could do this. A pool of blood coming from his head. Somebody had been paid to kill me. Why would you want your husband killed? Take a listen. Coming up...
John McAfee, one of the most famous and infamous entrepreneurs in the world. A computer virus is written by a hacker. In the cybersecurity community, there are legends. He falls into that category. A household name on millions of computers, with a fortune won, then lost. How to kiss nearly $100 million, go.
Goodbye. Setting up a new life and new business in Central America. That story continues to get even more strange. How did he go from millionaire to this? I'm pretty confident that he ordered the murder. Was he behind the killing of his beachside neighbor who hated his barking dogs? Greg had told him that he was going to poison the dogs. Of course he's the main suspect. I mean, did you order a hit on him? No.
- It's not, please. - Nine of your dogs, your beloved dogs, are poisoned. The person who threatened to poison them is dead. - For four years, we tracked him. - Hello? - As he played Catch Me If You Can.
From Belize to Guatemala. On the run from police. Miami to Middle America. Why go on the run? Because I did go on the run. I'll be a dead man now. He's finally ready to talk about his rise, fall, and new rise. Oh, Christ almighty, my friend. Are you losing your mind? Are you? And the fireworks are just getting started. It's not going to happen. Goodbye. You're walking out on this interview? Yes, because you have not kept your damn word.
I'm John Quinones. John McAfee, the man who invented the McAfee antivirus software. He calls himself the god of computer security. And after years off the grid, he's front and center again. But what happened during those mysterious off-the-radar years when he says he lost his fortune and then moved to Central America?
He was suspected of running a drug lab, and police call him a person of interest in the murder of a next-door neighbor. Matt Gutman followed the elusive McAfee for four years. Then, in 2017, the two finally sat down face-to-face. For McAfee, it was a chance to confront the accusations against him. And whether you believe him or not, you'll be fascinated by what he has to say.
There are so many layers to the epic, disturbing story of John McAfee, maybe because there are so many John McAfees. John McAfee is one of the wildest characters you'll ever come across. There's McAfee the party animal. John?
McAfee, the Silicon Valley gazillionaire. It is the number one computer threat. McAfee, the international fugitive. He's someone that I feel is dangerous. Even McAfee, the presidential candidate. Stand with me to protect our freedom. Pitting down the truth in McAfee's life story is never easy because often...
It is as slippery as he is. He is like Teflon. Nothing sticks to the man. If the name McAfee rings a bell, it should. There's a good chance it's on your home computer screen right now. Yep, he's the guy behind the famous McAfee antivirus software. When we say we're going to talk tomorrow, does that mean face-to-face? I first crossed paths with McAfee in 2012, but he'd become even more famous south of the border.
He was on the run and would only talk to me by phone. You may think that you're not being followed, but I can assure you, you are. Hello? Anybody home? But I wasn't chasing him around Latin America because of a cybercrime. This was a real-life homicide, allegations that he murdered fellow American Greg Fall. We begin with that software millionaire on the run suspected of murder. Police wanted to question McAfee about the murder
But he didn't want to answer. He dodged authorities all the way back to the U.S., where he has been ever since, never charged with a crime. The Pandora's box has been opened. But what makes this story even stranger is John McAfee's latest incarnation. Our computers are no longer back home in the office. They are in our hands.
These days he's reemerged as a prophet of digital doom and his apocalyptic warnings about today's cyber threats attract plenty of eyeballs both in person and on TV. We're being spied on by our government. Even with all that attention, what he hasn't done since returning home is a no holds barred interview on every aspect of his past.
But now, after more than four years, I'm about to get my chance. I admit, I've heard so many things about him. He's erratic. He's a high-tech prince of darkness. He's just plain dangerous that I'm nervous. I've been warned about John McAfee, so I'm keeping my second cell phone and my credit cards here at the hotel.
So they don't get hacked. I drive on to our meeting place, a parking lot in rural Tennessee, where McAfee greets me like a southern gentleman. How are you doing, sir? Good to see you. How are you? We talk a bit and head off in his tank-like trunk. If I have to put up with people like you, then I'm going to have fun doing it. To him, reporters are just like a ball of twine to a cat. Something to play with until he gets bored.
We arrive at a quiet suburban downtown for a casual lunch at this Mexican restaurant. Yeah, I like Mexican food, sure. Said he grew up in a town like this in Virginia, right? Between bites of chips and salsa and beers for McAfee, we talked about his troubled childhood. One of the things that was not idyllic there was your father. You said that he was a raging alcoholic, that he was abusive to you and to your mother. Nobody has an ideal life, even children.
He died when you were 15? 15. He shot himself. He shot himself? Yeah. People always look to the past to explain the present. It doesn't work that way. The present for McAfee is this upscale but hardly lavish spread. He shares it with his new wife, Janice, his ever-present bodyguard, and his dogs. As we sit down inside, fortified by a glass of expensive scotch, McAfee continues with his life story. I've always followed my own path.
You know, the drummer that leads me is an odd drummer, but I follow the sound. That unique sound started early. McAfee says that despite being a lazy kid, he always got straight A's. Math came easy to me. I never studied, but I just did what I felt like I should do. Math is the basis of all of life. Everything in the world is math. Your genetic structure is mathematics.
So I love this. Software is just the ultimate manifestation of math. But before he started developing software in college, McAfee says he began peddling a product he knew he could sell: cocaine. It's interesting that drug dealing was really your first foray into entrepreneurship. Yeah, well, it is entrepreneurship. It's everything. It's salesmanship.
Then came the dawn of the go-go 80s. Big hair, even bigger shoulder pads, Pac-Man fever. As the home computer revolution kicked in, McAfee, now working as a programmer, was among the first to identify its perils and a potential profit. A computer virus is a programmer.
written by a hacker with a unique purpose and that purpose is to multiply and live. I was figuring out, oh yeah, I could stop this year, I could stop this year, I could stop this year, I can do this, I can actually remove the thing and wrote a program in a day and a half. So McAfee Antivirus was created in a day and a half? Yes. Were you selling it at that point or were you... No, no, I just wrote it to give it away because
I saw the beauty in the program. So at what point did you turn it into a business? I started getting calls, hundreds a day. And how well did it work?
4 million people were using it within a month. Five years later, over half the Fortune 500 companies in the country had begun using it. That's how important it became to their business and to keeping their computers safe. What was it like suddenly seeing your name attached to every computer basically in the world? You will not believe this. It never meant anything to me. Your name is synonymous with antivirus, McAfee antivirus. Right, but it meant nothing.
That was meaningless. What was meaningful was doing the work. Fame may have been meaningless for him, but in no time, the software bad boy amassed a large fortune. But still, as McAfee admits, he gets bored easily. So after a few years, he cashed out. You made $100 million, let's say, from selling McAfee, right? That's what they say. How much did you make? Much more. What did you do with the money?
I wasted it like everybody else money. He built nine homes, filled them with expensive art and furniture, bought a fleet of antique cars. Is that love? Isn't it selfishness? Isn't it all about you? His next chapter, creating a yoga retreat in Colorado, reinventing himself as a new age guru, bestowing his eternal wisdom on his guests. It's all about need.
And jealousy is all about the fear of losing all of these pleasant things which you have obtained. But McAfee says his zen was disturbed by a constant wave of what he calls frivolous lawsuits. Tonight on Nightline, losing a fortune. So after the financial crash in 2009, McAfee let it be known he had lost most of his money. How to kiss nearly $100 million off.
Sometimes a little bit of pain is necessary to see and understand the true circumstances of your life. Nightline covered this auction on McAfee's ranch where everything, including his beloved airplanes, Winnebago's exotic art collection, even the gold elephant and dinosaur skull, went on the block.
McAfee now claims it was all a charade, a ruse. He was just trying to look broke so people would stop suing him. No, I didn't lose my fortune. I'm not that stupid. Whatever the case, one part of that report is indisputable. Now McAfee plans to take his remaining handful of millions and head to Central America. Next up, Belize. He figured no one would sue him there. Ah!
John McAfee has been eluding police. But he probably never imagined his time in the tropical paradise would make him an international fugitive. Stay with us.
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Here at Chez McAfee, the scotch is brought in by the case. And champagne is waiting as usual. Champagne is on ice. Excuse me for smoking people, but it's one of my vices. Cigarettes are always ablaze and the guns are always loaded. At 1,300 feet per second...
This is at 800 feet per second. So which one would hurt more? Oh, this. Absolutely. But I'm not here for a party or target practice. I'm here to talk to him about how his life took a very dark turn during his Central American interlude.
Why did you go to Belize in the first place? Well, because I'm a stupid man. Easy to joke now in his pleasant suburban kitchen, but back in 2009, before everything went so horribly wrong, Belize seemed a brilliant idea for John McAfee, who was eager to escape the cascade of lawsuits back in the U.S. Most beautiful beach in the world.
A reef a quarter of a mile offshore. I snorkel, I fish, I swim, I love the water. It was beautiful. The quintessential millionaire's dream. He purchased a spread on an island called Ambergris Cay, surrounded by American expats. But McAfee's most intriguing fantasy wasn't on the beach at all.
Alright, get ready for some serious heart of darkness here. As seen on this CNBC report, he purchased a second property in the interior of the country and moved deep in the jungle to a place called Orange Walk, where he had set up a lab.
I thought, wow, this is a dream come true. Allison Adonizio was a Harvard-trained microbiologist he brought into the jungle. The famed entrepreneur was at it again with his latest startup venture, creating plant-based antibiotics.
But she says the enterprise fell apart when her benefactor started to become unhinged. He became very paranoid. He was talking about taking over the country. I started to think, this guy is a madman. McAfee says he was helping the locals, feeding poor families and providing many with jobs. I employed half of the town.
I can show you a letter from the mayor saying that Mr. McAfee has done more for Orange Walk than any of our citizens have. But exactly what was he doing for those citizens? McAfee admits he brought in young women to be in his harem.
Then there was the gang of convicted criminals McAfee proudly says he hired as his armed bodyguards, his own private militia. Everybody I hired was an ex-felon and had spent half of their life in prison. It sounds like that's a recipe for disaster. They never shot anybody, never even shot at anybody, never even pointed a gun at anybody because they were dangerous people. He called them hitmen. He told me repeatedly that he could have people killed.
hurt taken out if he wanted to. Adonizio says it all became too much for her. But listen to her traumatic account of what she says happened when she told McAfee she wanted out. When I did go over there, the conversation did not go as I expected. And God, I feel so stupid.
She wasn't able to go on. I'm sorry, I just. The one time she was able to describe publicly what she says happened was in a documentary film about McAfee called Gringo. I told him I had a headache and he brought me, you know, he went into the other room and he brought me two pills and a glass of orange juice. It tasted foul. She says he drugged her with that juice and then raped her.
I only have sort of flashes of recollection. He was standing over me naked. I grabbed my clothes. I don't even remember taking them off. Adonizio says she quickly fled Belize without telling the local police. She says U.S. authorities told her they had no jurisdiction, so no charges were pursued. I don't know what to tell you except that I have evidence.
emotional and physical scars from that experience. - Alison Adonicio, a mad woman. - A mad woman. - A mad woman. - Well, she claims that you raped her. You drugged her and raped her. - Well, she can claim whatever she likes. I've never had sex with her, certainly never raped her. She seemed rational. She was not. - I find it rather ironic that somebody as unhinged as McAfee would say that I'm unstable.
I think that I'm pretty strong considering everything that I've had to go through. Then, in April of 2012, McAfee was about to have trouble with the law for an entirely different reason. There was a belief that he was manufacturing illicit drugs on the compound
Like as I said, because of all the different criminal elements that were there. It's very unusual that you'd be doing research into plants and you need so many people to protect you. Belize's gang suppression unit raided his lab. They say on suspicion he was making meth. No drugs were found. McAfee claims the government was harassing him because he wouldn't pay bribes.
I was on the verge of something when I refused to pay an extortion for two million dollars and a week later the gang suppression unit destroyed my lab.
McAfee abandoned the jungle and moved back to Ambergris Key, but trouble followed. Among his neighbors was this man, Greg Fall, a builder who came from Central Florida to Central America. He was very active, always doing something. He knew where you stood with Greg. He just had a lot of enthusiasm for life. Greg's mother, Eileen Keeney. This is the house of Belize.
Took him about seven years, seven years to build it. She says her son only wanted a peaceful retirement in the Caribbean. I said, well, Greg, you don't want to consider the Virgin Islands. And he says, there's too many people. I want to go where it's
more isolated where there's not as many people and that's what my paradise would be. But she says his paradise had a flaw. When Keeney came to visit Greg, she says his peaceful life was anything but. Greg was not happy with him and he had had some issues with McAfee.
Keeney says her son Greg was disgusted by what McAfee had brought back from the jungle, that harem of women, the armed guards, and especially the swarm of dogs that constantly menaced passersby. He said, now, we're going to be walking past McAfee's house, and there's going to be dogs there. Now, they're usually fenced up, but he says, I just want to warn you.
As Keeney headed home to Florida, she had no clue what was ahead. Two days later, she received an unfathomable phone call from her daughter. And then she told me, Greg's been murdered. And I left out this blood-curdling scream. A brutal beachside murder. Was the eccentric millionaire involved? I have a couple more questions about that. Coming up, when we press him, we discover that is a touchy subject. It's not going to happen. Goodbye. Goodbye.
You're walking out on this interview. Yes, because you have not kept your word. Stay with us.
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Trouble is brewing in Belize. American Greg Fall has had it with his neighbor, John McAfee's pack of aggressive dogs. He told friends he was going to take care of the problem. Greg had told him that he was going to poison the dogs. Then one evening, some poisoned meat is thrown over McAfee's fence. All nine of his dogs are poisoned. Gregory Fall complains about McAfee's dogs and shortly after the dogs are poisoned and they die,
The very next night, an intruder sneaks into Fall's home, tasers him several times, and then shoots him in the head. No one has confronted McAfee and Fall did. You see there's a linkage there. The house showed no sign of forced entry. Nothing was taken from inside. He was brutally murdered and he had no enemies. But Belizean journalist Jose Sanchez says his country is notorious as a place
just about anyone can get away with murder. Unless there's an eyewitness to a crime, murder is rarely solved in Belize and that is the reason why there's a 3% average conviction rate.
Still, Belize police quickly named McAfee as a person of interest in false murder. And because of that famous name seen on millions of computers worldwide, the story makes international headlines. On the run from police in Belize. John McAfee has been marked.
Police want to talk to McAfee, but the feeling's not mutual. Even as the news of the murder breaks, McAfee goes on the lam. Of course he's the main suspect out here. You've got the motive, you've got this incident with the dog, you've got their history. Why would you go to the effort of hiding if you weren't guilty? Why did you go on the run? Because if I didn't go on the run, I'd be a dead man now.
McAfee claims that after he refused to pay bribes, the Belize government was out to get him. And the poisoning of his dogs and the murder of Fall was somehow just part of that sinister plot. If you think they do not do this, then you are seriously naive. And again, I want to talk to the audience. Please, people.
Even in television, you see this happening constantly, all right? And some part of that television or the movies, some part of it is probably true. That allegation that he makes that the government killed his dogs and the government killed Fall because he wouldn't pay bribes is utter nonsense. The Belizean government wouldn't comment on McAfee's accusations, but many, including the prime minister, called him crazy. It strikes me that he's...
But bonkers or not, Belize couldn't catch him. That's when I started on his trail. You guys scared?
Yeah. Yeah. This is East La Bonita, man. This is paradise. Things like this don't happen down here. Three weeks underground, all the while calling in to U.S. journalists. John McAfee is joining us now by telephone. My life has become a little more intense. And I want to ask you some questions. Including me. You're sincerely concerned that if you somehow wind up in their custody, they're going to assassinate you. Absolutely. Why were you contacting journalists while you were on the run? It seems like a
a bad idea if you're trying to stay hidden. No, it's a really good idea. As long as the world is paying attention, they couldn't actually shoot me in the street. That story continues to get even more strange by the hour. Strange indeed. He finally surfaced across the border in Guatemala. Thank God. I am in a place where there's some sanity. Where we met face to face for the first time. How have you been?
really good since I got here. He told me his great escape involved everything from burying himself in the sand to a series of elaborate disguises. And I had a cane and I was walking like this and I had my my jaws stuffed with with toilet paper. He was hoping for political asylum but
But instead, just a few hours later... John, where are you going? To jail. Vice TV filmed him being arrested... Whoa, whoa, whoa! ...as Guatemala prepared to deport him back to Belize to face questioning. His attorney has been arguing all along that any move for McAfee back to Belize could risk his life. But before they could put him on a plane...
McAfee collapsed. An ambulance rushed him to the hospital with a media horde following behind.
But miraculously, McAfee opened his eyes and asked the nurses not to undress him in front of the cameras. You faked a heart attack. Sure I faked it. What would you have done? The whole charade lasted just long enough to allow his lawyer to file an appeal. John McAfee has been granted a stay of deportation to Belize. McAfee outfoxed Belize again.
In the meantime, McAfee will have to wait in this lockup full of South American migrants until the high court here can decide his fate. From inside that facility, he still managed to tap out messages to the world. I apologize for the format of this conference. Our intent is to return to America, if at all possible. And lo and behold, that's exactly what happened. There's nothing I can say. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm going to Miami.
Guatemala authorities deported McAfee to Miami. I had no choice. They put me on an airplane. I am here. There, he escaped reporters in this van. I was again able to run him down, and a little while later, we sat down at his hotel. How would you categorize the past month or couple of months? More of an adventure than I would normally like. I got nothing, though. What does nothing mean? I got a pair of clothes, some shoes.
A friend dropped off some cash. Friend dropped off cash. Can we see it? I'm not sure. Brand new. Really nice. In fact, I thought it has to be counterfeit, but it was not. So when you and I spoke that night, you had no idea what you were going to do? No, absolutely not. None. You know, I let the universe unveil its plan.
The universe led McAfee here to this Miami restaurant where he crossed paths with his future wife. You met in Miami, right? Yeah. The day after he was deported. Janice was a prostitute at the time. It was, I don't know how to say it, magical. Because he saw the hurt that was there. He saw the human in me. You know what I'm saying? But...
He thought I was worthy enough of a second chance. Is it strange for you to have found love in your late 60s, early 70s? You know what? I instantly saw in Janice what I had been looking for my entire life. But as McAfee was starting out on that new life... Yes, I was outraged. I was angry. Eileen Keeney still wanted to make him pay for what she believed were the sins of his old one.
I have a folder here of all the letters and correspondence that we had with officials in the government. Senator Nelson, U.S. Embassy, Menmopan, Belize. She did everything a grieving mother could do to get answers and justice for the death of her son. I can't say it brought much in the way of results.
But now she's got newfound hope thanks to new allegations against McAfee. You found the smoke to the fire of the Greg Fall murder. Yes, I did. Did a documentary filmmaker make the case that the police couldn't? Please turn your cameras off. Stay with us.
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Four years after the murder of his neighbor in Belize, John McAfee is back in the United States. He has not been charged in Greg Falls' death, but as Matt Gutman found, as much as McAfee's life has changed, in some ways it remains much the same.
In his rural Tennessee outpost, John McAfee has a new set of dogs. He's pretty much given up the trappings of his old millionaire lifestyle. They seal. For a guy who in Belize had all of these toys. Boats, cell phones. This is a very quaint suburban life. The things you think you own, own you.
But even here, he still has an armed bodyguard anywhere he goes. People ask me, do you think you're ever going to have to use that? I said, no, but you only get one shot. And a private arsenal at the ready inside the house. And I don't even know what this thing is. What is that? I'm not going to tell you what that is because that's the newest weapon available. We're not telling anything. Is it a real gun, though, or is it like an air rifle? You've got to believe me, it's a f***.
- Do you have a fascination with guns? - I have no fascination with guns. I have a fascination with survival. - When you held that gun up to your head in that picture, were you thinking about your father who took his own life? - Oh Christ almighty, my friend. Are you losing your mind? - Are you? - No.
McAfee and his wife claim that for the past four years, they've been followed wherever they go. We had been chased for days. And you could see the same cars and trucks over and over and over. Are you paranoid? If I were, would I know? He makes a lot of preposterous statements. Paranoia or not, there's no doubt at all that filmmaker Nanette Burstein has been hot on his trail.
When her film, Gringo, was released in 2016, it caused shockwaves, thanks to interviews with McAfee's ex-employees who talk about his bizarre activities.
And when it specifically comes to Falls murder? You think you found the smoke to the fire of the Greg Fall murder? Yes, I did. This man, McAfee's beachfront caretaker named Cashin, alleges his boss paid to have it done. This Thursday night, the dogs were poisoned. The following morning, sometime around 9 o'clock, John called me. He said, take this money, $5,000.
and go put it in this guy's account. Cashin says the man who got that money called late the night of the murder to come pick him up. I ain't coming out of the bushes. It was like 600 feet from Greg's house. Then I realized that this $5,000 was for him to do that. To do what? To kill the guy, you know, to kill the guy.
The supposed killer denied both cash in story and that he killed fall, but it seems like a damning accusation. There was some very convincing testimony.
Very convincing evidence that I had not seen before that makes me believe that there could be an investigation reopened. This documentary has brought what appears to be new evidence to life. McAfee, blast it off. Wait, wait. Everyone who went on TV called me and said they've offered me cash. They offered me 12,000 U.S. dollars. I said, take it.
McAfee accuses Burstein of paying Cashin and others in the film to tell lies. He got $12,000, but he was smart enough to make up a story that nobody would believe except Nanette.
Because she's the most naive woman I've ever met. Nannette has been after me since... McAfee posted videos online in which Cashin and others take back what they said. John had nothing to do with that murder. What I told you, Nannette, was a fabrication to earn what you offered to pay me.
Those are some serious accusations. They are. Burstein denies paying for any interviews, though she says she did pay what she calls a nominal fee for some photos. She says McAfee was the only one who paid for a story, pressuring Cashin to recant. I called him immediately and said, listen, why did you do this? And he said, someone showed up at my house that works for John.
They offered me thousands of dollars to say this. People in Belize understand why Cassian and the others have to say that they made it all up because their lives possibly could be in danger. Now, both Cassian and McAfee deny that he was paid off to change his story. Let me make this perfectly clear. I had nothing to do
with the murder of Gregory Fall. You're asking the most ridiculous thing. This is not, you have to admit that it's not ridiculous. It is. That your dogs, nine of your dogs, your beloved dogs are poisoned. Right. Were killed by the government. That would make a man who loves animals absolutely irate. Right. It would be enough to make a man who loves his dogs willing to kill, some would say. Does this man look to you like he would be stupid enough?
to kill whoever was responsible. - I don't think he would be stupid enough. - The night after? - The day after? - You tell me. - No. - Did you order a hit on him? - Of course not, please. - I am sick of Belize. We're finished with Belize. - That is your choice. - But we're not, I'm not, I have a couple more questions about Belize. - As we ratcheted up the pressure on McAfee about Belize, he started to walk out on our main interview. - You're walking out on this ? - Yes, because you have not kept your word. - I have kept my word.
There had been no preconditions to the interview, and McAfee quickly calmed down and sat down. But coming up next, I follow McAfee where none of this matters, where he is a hero and the subject is the future, not the past. Stay with us.
McAfee, a barely passable virus scanning program that updates at the worst possible times. Here's something you rarely see, an inventor trashing the very product that made him filthy rich. I've had nothing to do with McAfee software for over 15 years. I've had more pressing things to do.
In this masterpiece of satire called How to Uninstall McAfee Antivirus... This is my lab tech, Bartholomew. He's going to take you through uninstalling the McAfee antivirus software. McAfee makes light of his harem and his affinity for drugs and weapons. I know what to do. I know exactly what to do. The company that still bears his name called the video ludicrous, saying it has no basis in reality.
This ring is two computers. McAfee says he's got plenty of new tricks up his sleeve or actually on his finger. This is called an NFC ring, near field communications. He's showing me some of the high-tech spyware that's out on the market. So I borrow your phone, I put it to my ear. But it's really a warning. I could have downloaded a script which took full control of your phone. You are living in an age of no privacy. ♪
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This is my new product, EveryKey. McAfee is still a player in the cybersecurity business. This is not just the key to my online accounts or the key to my car or the key to my house. It's my EveryKey. But very 2017. We are the revolution of access control. He's now with MGT Capital, a company that invests in cybersecurity like this cell phone, which McAfee claims is the first ever that can't be hacked. Given the
obsession with hacking, it seems like the perfect time for John McAfee. Well, it's an opportunity for me to speak again.
People are listening. In the cybersecurity community, there are legends. People are watching you. He falls into that category. And now he comes back and says, I was that guy and now I'm still that guy. They believe that they are merely 10 blocks away from the White House. He's constantly talking with reporters, even when he's got one riding right beside him. There is no one person. And truth is, he says it's one of the reasons he agreed to spend time with me.
What do you hope to get out of this interview? I hope to get at least 10 minutes that I can talk about the serious problem in the world, which is cybersecurity. We're living in 1984. Our freedoms are being restricted, our security is being eroded, and we have no more privacy. If we lose privacy, we will lose civilization, and we will certainly lose our humanity. Ed McAfee, version 2.0, isn't just living in seclusion in Tennessee. He's taking his cybersecurity message on the road. Do you know what you're going to talk about on Larry King? Not clearly.
On this day, he's in New York City, a guest on Larry King's show on the Russia Today Network. John joins us from New York.
All right, what do you make of this, John? In my mind, Larry, this is the most horrifying of all of the leaks. They could just have easily taken the latest plans from a nuclear bomber, and maybe they did. I don't know. We're being spied on by our government. Duh. And I promise you, that back door will get out. His dire predictions find a home on cable talk shows and also at mainstream cybertech conferences. There will come one day where simultaneously...
When a guy comes in and says "I know the things you don't know" and has the goods to back it up, people are going to listen.
McAfee says speeches like this fetch about $25,000. And in 2016, McAfee took his public persona to new heights. Welcome back to our Libertarian presidential forum. Remember this guy? McAfee ran to become the Libertarian Party candidate for president. Liberty means that our bodies and our minds belong to ourselves. Finishing a respectable runner-up.
How can someone of that caliber, of that character, think he can run for the President of the United States? Meanwhile, for Greg Falls' mother, Eileen Keeney, the pain of losing her son runs deep. Greg loved the beach. Greg loved the ocean. He sailed, he surfed, he fished. That was his joy. That was his life. So I walk the beach. I know I'm communicating with him.
She wonders why no one's asking about what happened in Belize anymore. I'm thinking, how can this happen? I used to think that he was just odd, flamboyant, a rebel. But he's not a rebel. He's a rapist. He's a dangerous individual.
Authorities in Belize have never charged McAfee, but he's not out of the woods. Former employee and current accuser Allison Adonizio says the FBI is currently talking to her and others about McAfee's activities. My understanding is that there are recent and active investigations still into the murder of Greg Fall. My hope is that justice will eventually be served.
But McAfee did have one scrape with the law. He nearly hit a car head-on coming up the hill right here. The man who played catch me if you can with the law in Central America finally got caught in Central Tennessee, but not for what you might think.
John McAfee has pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence not far from his Tennessee home. I'm John McAfee. You probably read about me. Yeah, I don't know who you are. Really? I don't. He wasn't drunk, he says. He was high on Xanax. High on Xanax. How many Xanax had you taken? Well, what the doctor prescribed. There was a legal prescription. The guy that accused of murdering a police officer in Guatemala. Okay. Escaped from America and then
I got you. The FBI is going to be looking for me if you don't call here soon. The FBI? I mean, you were in the backseat of that police cruiser raving.
McAfee pleaded guilty, and since his license is still suspended, he sits in the backseat with me while Janice drives. Why were you prescribed Xanax? What were you taking it for? I was not sleeping properly. I always have a lot on my mind.
What's keeping him awake? Perhaps not those questions from Belize, but no matter how he's reinvented himself, he remains unpredictable.
Just hours after we said goodbye to him, a new McAfee health scare. This time, he wasn't faking. His appendix had burst and he landed in the hospital, texting me this picture. Once on the mend, McAfee turned on me again, texting me, in the end, you proved no better than what one would expect from low-life mainstream media.
Meanwhile, back in Belize, echoes of McAfee's infamy remain. At the site of his old property, there's now a watering hole fittingly called John's Escape. I can't say I've given up on my hopes for justice. But Eileen Keeney is confident that John's Escape is just temporary. Maybe I just have the faith that I believe that it will come. God has a way of taking care of people like him.
This is Deborah Roberts with an update on the story. Gregory Falls' murder remains unsolved. Belize authorities say John McAfee remained a person of interest, but in 2021, he took his life in a Spanish prison. He was serving time there after being arrested for tax evasion.
That's all for this edition of the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening.
