When John McAfee died in a Barcelona jail cell while awaiting extradition to the US on charges of tax evasion and securities fraud, it wasn't the first time the infamous tech millionaire had been in trouble with the law.
Since pioneering his groundbreaking, namesake computer virus software in the 1990s, McAfee had veered close to arrest on many occasions: suspicions of running a methamphetamine lab, of sexual assault, pursuit of underage girls (at least one of whom tried to kill him) and dodgy cryptocurrency business deals were rarely off the radar.
Towards the end of his life McAfee used the internet to lobby for his innocence and reputation. "I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing," he tweeted on June 17, just days before his suicide.
McAfee had became a fringe, cult figure in the minds of his followers — 1.1 million on Twitter alone — where he argued against government control and promoted himself as a hedonistic and misunderstood outsider, ideologically opposed to taxation, unfairly framed by corrupt officials in Belize, his second home, where the Prime Minister once described him as "extremely paranoid, even bonkers".
"I think a lot of people will remember him as a very troubled soul," McAfee's biographer Steve Morgan told AP. "Some people will remember him as a criminal."
But it was his reputation as a "person of interest" in the unsolved murder of his neighbour in the Latin American country of Belize that lingered until the end of his life.
How it unravelled
In 2008, following the stockmarket crash that obliterated his fortune, McAfee moved to the wealthy tourist enclave of Ambergris Caye in Belize. But rather than living out his days in quiet luxury, McAfee's life appeared to quickly begin to unravel.
He announced plans to move away from computer tech and virus programs and instead manufacture what he described as "herbal antibiotics", capable of stopping bacteria communicating with each other. It wasn't long before McAfee's production plant in the Belize district of Orange Walk, run by his girlfriends who had no scientific knowledge, raised suspicion.
Loading...In 2012 his compound was raided. When the Belize police turned up, he answered the door naked and holding a gun. A 17-year-old girl waited terrified in his bed.
He was accused of manufacturing methamphetamines and during the raid one of his dogs was killed. McAfee was detained.
But McAfee told his supporters a different story. He was innocent, he said. Instead, he was fighting political corruption and his factory was raided soon after he refused demands from a local politician wanting a $2 million "donation".
He was never convicted of drug crimes. Belize police pinned him on weapons charges, instead, but he was later released.
The raid left him seething. "This will blow… I am not going to f***ing be quiet — you shot my f***ing dog, you destroyed my f***ing property and you tortured me. I am not going to shut the f*** up." he told Australian journalist David O'Shea who interviewed him in 2016.
McAfee was consistently raising concerns about his safety and although the reasons why were never made clear – fear of inciting competitors in whatever he was producing? Criminals after what was left of his fortune? Political enemies? – he was well known for surrounding himself with heavily armed security guards drawn from ex-military ranks, and keeping a pack of dogs that roamed the perimeter of his property and were trained to attack.
A neighbourhood dispute turned bad
His neighbour in Ambergris Caye was Gregory Faull – a 52-year-old retired Florida restaurateur – who was known to be impatient with the dogs that were left unleashed and threatening as he wandered past to reach his favourite beach bar every evening.
When the animals turned up dead one day, Faull – who lived three doors away and had expressed a desire to poison the aggressive animals — was the number one suspect.
Then when Faull was found dead a day later, lying in a pool of blood with a 9mm bullet casing nearby, it was McAfee who was the key "person of interest" in the case.
But McAfee didn't wait around to clear his name. He did a runner – a move he later admitted probably made him look guilty. But McAfee claimed he was not running away from arrest but running for his life, convinced that the murder of Faull was a failed hit on him by one of his enemies.
In true McAfee style he became a fugitive with one of his girlfriends, 20-year-old Samantha, and a documentary crew from Vice Magazine in tow as he headed from Belize to Guatamala to escape.
McAfee's wild escape plan wasn't over yet.
As he entered Guatamala, McAfee was arrested for illegally entering the country.
But he had a plan. After faking two heart attacks Guatemalan authorities had had enough of him and deported him back to the comparative safety of the US from where he launched two unsuccessful bids for President of the United States.
Back in the US things were no less unstable
In 2019 Faull's daughter filed a "wrongful death" lawsuit against McAfee and he was ordered to pay Faull's family $US25 million. He never did.
Then last year the final chapter of McAfee's life began to unfold.
As he boarded a flight to Turkey from Spain, he was arrested for securities fraud, allegedly attempting to sell cryptocurrencies in a "pump and dump" scheme. He was held in prison in Barcelona until word this week that his extradition to the US had been approved.
McAfee had long claimed US authorities were trying to kill him. He had "$Whackd" tattooed on his arm in reference to a belief his murder would be made to look like a suicide.
He had also tweeted a reference to Jeffrey Epstein's jail suicide, posting "Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine"
Yet there is no credible evidence that McAfee's death in Spain was murder.
From a troubled boy, born in England, and abused by his alcoholic father who also died by suicide, to the brilliant mathematician, NASA programmer and tech entrepreneur, John McAfee's life was a roller coaster, ultimately breaking apart via addiction and crime.
As his months inside a Barcelona jail stacked up and some of the bravado slipped away, McAfee must have felt he had nowhere left to run.
"My life's conflicts stemmed from one source: My best friend and my worst enemy were both myself," he tweeted in February.