When software pioneer John McAfee was found dead in a Spanish jail, it marked the end of a saga spanning two presidential campaigns, a murder investigation, millions won and lost in the tech field, and years spent evading authorities.
The flamboyant millionaire, who claimed to be father to 47 children, first came to wealth and prominence spearheading antivirus technology in the late 1980s.
The popular McAfee antivirus software still bears his name — and is installed on an estimated 500 million computers worldwide.
However, he has not had anything to do with the company for years, more recently being involved in cryptocurrency and other ventures that ultimately led to suspicion and his imprisonment.
A murder mystery and a heart attack
McAfee, an avid user of Twitter, described himself on the platform as an "Iconoclast. Lover of women, adventure and mystery".
He was never short of any of those, but after losing a large chunk of his fortune in the 2008 financial crisis he moved to the Central American nation of Belize, where trouble seemed to have a way of sniffing him out.
He started a herbal medicines laboratory, but it was raided by police under the pretence it was a meth lab — they did not find any drugs.
It was the first — but not the most serious — of his clashes with the country's authorities, which led him to describe it as an "extremely corrupt and dangerous place".
He was catapaulted to international attention in 2012 when he fled the country days after his neighbour Gregory Faull was shot dead and police sought him for questioning.
He and Faull had been feuding over McAfee's dogs escaping and suggestions Faull had poisoned them in response.
Soon after, Faull was found dead in his home.
McAfee claimed at the time that he fled Belize due to fear of the police, using a body double as a smokescreen to make good his escape.
He was detained in neighbouring Guatemala, and officials prepared to send him back to face questioning.
But at just the right moment, he collapsed on the floor — a heart attack, it seemed.
The sudden onset of illness (it was reported he suffered two heart attacks) bought his lawyers time to argue he should be deported to the US instead, where he would go on to twice seek the Libertarian Party's endorsement for president.
He later admitted to US network ABC the heart attacks had been a ruse.
"Sure I faked it," he said. "What would you have done?"
While police never formally declared him a suspect, a US court ordered he pay $25 million in a wrongful death suit brought by Faull's estate after McAfee declined to participate in the court process, calling it a "legal extortion game".
John McAfee's groundbreaking innovation
The chaotic nature of McAfee's later years — one reporter described his insistence at playing Russian roulette in front of them — overshadowed the hugely influential role McAfee software played in modern computing.
He was operating an early internet system when he witnessed the world's first major computer virus, known as "Brain", in action.
"John instantly dialled up a programmer he knew and said, there’s a big opportunity. We need to do something. You know, we want to write some code to combat this virus,” his contracted biographer Steve Morgan said.
“He was a true pioneer, not just as a security technologist but as one of the first companies to distribute software over the internet."
In 2019, he left the US to live with his wife on a megayacht along with four large dogs, two security guards and seven staff.
He posted online about having 11 phones to evade surveillance, in an image that also showed several rifle magazines littered across a bench.
Dominican Republic detained him for a time under suspicion the yacht was carrying high-calibre weapons and military gear.
McAfee was charged with tax, fraud offences
Interviewed by US network ABC in 2017, McAfee said: "I'm a mad man to some people because I don't follow the normal rules."
That approach extended to his tax affairs, and he boasted about having paid no income tax for eight years for ideological reasons.
That's despite a US extradition request alleging he made more than $15.8 million between 2014 and 2018.
It was those charges that ultimately led to his arrest and imprisonment in a Spanish jail, awaiting extradition to the US.
He was also facing separate charges that he cheated investors in a cryptocurrency scheme.
But he retained access to his Twitter account from prison, and gave regular updates, including one where he suggested if he was found dead in a cell "a la [Jeffrey] Epstein, it will be no fault of mine".
But in the hours before his death — authorities say it appears he took his own life — a Spanish court ruled in favour of sending him back to the US to face the charges.
From outside prison, his wife wrote the last message shared by McAfee's Twitter account before his death.
"I know John is an extremely polarising individual," it said.
"These eight months John has spent in prison in Spain have been especially hard on his overall health both mentally and physically, as well as financially, but he is undeterred from continuing to speak truth to power."
ABC/wires