5 ms·

Can someone explain why McAfee had decamped to Belize in the first place and started a life on the lam? Wikipedia is surprisingly sparse here. Edit - in 2012

by et-al 5y ago

Can someone explain why McAfee had decamped to Belize in the first place and started a life on the lam? Wikipedia is surprisingly sparse here. Edit - in 2012 he was the prime suspect to the killing of his neighbor as mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27609243 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27609243

mothsonasloth 5y ago
He moved to Belize to "experiment" on herbal medicines to affect the micro-biology of the human body. Guess Belize are lax on experiments and "labs" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#After_McAfee_Associates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#After_McAfee_Assoc...
duskwuff 5y ago
> Can someone explain why McAfee had decamped to Belize in the first place and started a life on the lam? Drugs. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/09/the-obscure-legal-drug-that-fuels-john-mcafee.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/09/the-obscure-legal-dr...
twelve40 5y ago
someone posted a nice story in a different thread - before he started going really crazy with the lab and stuff, it looks like he first wanted to get away from a couple of pending lawsuits in the States: "He was already facing a suit from a man who had tripped on his property in New Mexico. Another suit alleged that he was responsible for the death of someone who crashed during a lesson at a flight school McAfee had founded. He figured that if he were out of the country, he'd be less of a target. And he knew that, should he lose a case, it would be harder for the plaintiffs to collect money if he lived overseas." https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/ https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/
- stevenjohns 5y ago
  From memory, his nephew had passed in a similar way to the person in the flight. It may be the same case. I don't think he was running away from paying a settlement, I think he was running away from the guilt he felt that he had facilitated his own nephew's death. It was immediately after that that his downhill spiral began. Wired suggesting it was a financial move is just lowbrow journalism.
  - morelisp 5y ago
    McAfee himself said it was a financial move at the time. https://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-founder-hunts-cures-belize https://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-... (You're roughly correct about the circumstances - his nephew was illegally piloting and crashed a plane killing himself and the passenger in McAfee's low-altitude flight program.)

by et-al 5y ago

mothsonasloth 5y ago

He moved to Belize to "experiment" on herbal medicines to affect the micro-biology of the human body. Guess Belize are lax on experiments and "labs" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#After_McAfee_Associates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#After_McAfee_Assoc...

duskwuff 5y ago

> Can someone explain why McAfee had decamped to Belize in the first place and started a life on the lam? Drugs. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/09/the-obscure-legal-drug-that-fuels-john-mcafee.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/09/the-obscure-legal-dr...

twelve40 5y ago

someone posted a nice story in a different thread - before he started going really crazy with the lab and stuff, it looks like he first wanted to get away from a couple of pending lawsuits in the States: "He was already facing a suit from a man who had tripped on his property in New Mexico. Another suit alleged that he was responsible for the death of someone who crashed during a lesson at a flight school McAfee had founded. He figured that if he were out of the country, he'd be less of a target. And he knew that, should he lose a case, it would be harder for the plaintiffs to collect money if he lived overseas." https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/ https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/

stevenjohns 5y ago
From memory, his nephew had passed in a similar way to the person in the flight. It may be the same case. I don't think he was running away from paying a settlement, I think he was running away from the guilt he felt that he had facilitated his own nephew's death. It was immediately after that that his downhill spiral began. Wired suggesting it was a financial move is just lowbrow journalism.
- morelisp 5y ago
  McAfee himself said it was a financial move at the time. https://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-founder-hunts-cures-belize https://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-... (You're roughly correct about the circumstances - his nephew was illegally piloting and crashed a plane killing himself and the passenger in McAfee's low-altitude flight program.)