Murder Suspect John McAfee: I'm Innocent | Hacker News Reader

Murder Suspect John McAfee: I'm Innocent

wired.com

79 pointsQuekster72 comments

For those of you just tuning in to Adventures of John McAfee:

"Antivirus Software Pioneer John McAfee Loses Fortune (2009)" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2933994 [some additional discussion/links in the comments]

"Meth Labs and Dead Dogs: How the Founder of McAfee Antivirus Went on the Run" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4027046

And here's the Cliff's Notes:

2004: McAfee sells his entire stake in his antivirus company for something like $100 million. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequal...

2004: He starts building a compound in New Mexico for aerotrekking, i.e. flying ultralight aircraft. http://www.desertexposure.com/200711/200711_mcafee_icarus.ph...

2006: His nephew dies in an aerotrekking accident.

2007: He's getting major press coverage for his aerotrekking and his band of "Sky Gypsies". http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/aerotrekking...

2009: The financial crash supposedly wipes out most of his wealth, reducing his net worth to $4 million. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequal...

2010: He relocates to Belize. He is supposedly studying quorum-sensing in rainforest plants with a brilliant young doctor. http://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-f...

May 2012: McAfee's house is raided and he's charged with running a meth-lab and possessing illegal firearms. Than the charges are dropped. But he goes on the run for a few days anyway. http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/05/meth-labs-and-dead-dogs-how...

8 November 2012: Oops! Turns out he moved to Belize and planted the rumor that he lost 96% of his wealth to avoid possible damages in case he loses the civil lawsuits against him in the US related to his nephew's death. Oh, and now he hangs out with known gangsters. http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-and-lots-of-guns-...

12 November 2012: McAfee is wanted in connection with the murder of his neighbor. http://gizmodo.com/5959812/john-mcafee-wanted-for-murder

TIL some people actually trust this tribe of neanderthals: http://gizmodo.com/about/

As opposed to trusting a tattooed dude with a shotgun?

Gizmodo and its parent company have a documented history of ethical slips. A tattooed guy with a shotgun isn't inherently unethical or guilty, in my mind. But I don't watch a lot of TV or movies, so I'm weak in the stereotyping department.

He looks exactly like a kind of person who would make trouble. Not saying that he did, we know looks can be deceptive. Just pointing out that ad hominem argument here can fly both ways.

Oops! Turns out he moved to Belize and planted the rumor...

Bravo, McAfee, bravo. That's straight out of a movie right there.

That would explain why he wouldn't be so eager to get back to the US now. Thanks!

Gizmodo has more details, especially regarding his meth activities and drug use (which could explain his paranoia and erraticness): http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/11/john-mcafee-wanted-for-murd...

Reading about John McAfee is similar to reading about Hans Reiser - - brilliant minds wasted doing stupid things.

For some odd reason, Phil Katz popped into my mind first.

Prompted me to read about Hans Reiser. Irrational as it is, it increased the my priority to move to ZFS...

You know what they say, genius and insanity are just two sides of the same coin.

It didn't really shock me when the Reiser thing came to light. I remember back around 2003-2004 (possibly before) when there was all the hoo-haa on the lkml between Reiser's scratchy personality and his attacks on Torvalds, Cox et al., but backed up with a brilliant FS.

It genuinely was faster, especially for lots of small files (the common case in 2003). It was night and day difference when running a busy mail server. It had lots of nice things too, e.g. it was reliably possible to grow a reiserFS while the FS was online / mounted, which was a neat trick in conjunction with LVM.

There were some folks who stepped into the fray to try and lubricate the relationships a little - allowing the community at large to benefit from Reiser's work, by avoiding the need for the tempered Reiser to interact with others while his work was integrated. That never really happened though, there was noone to successfully defang the Torvalds side of the bun fight (which is entirely understandable).

So when the case came to light, i couldn't help wondering if it was more than likely true.

He's in a country where he claims the authorities will arrest him on sight and plan to execute him, but he won't leave because he loves it there.

Something is not right either with him or these facts.

"[T]he nicest place on earth" is not the place where they poison your dogs and try to kill you.

See edj's cliffs notes version of McAfee's adventures: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4776504

> 8 November 2012: Oops! Turns out he moved to Belize and planted the rumor that he lost 96% of his wealth to avoid possible damages in case he loses the civil lawsuits against him in the US related to his nephew's death. Oh, and now he hangs out with known gangsters. http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-and-lots-of-guns-...

I think there is something wrong with both him and the country.

He's nuts and he didn't pay a large enough bribe.

So, to put it short: he loses his fortune, flees to a corrupt developing country, collects firearms there, gets arrested, thinks the govt need some black suited special ops in a boat to kill a dog, gets accused of murder so he goes on the run which would be a smart thing to do, but then he doesn't want to flee the country that presumabely wants to kill him because it's lovely.

Sounds like trouble really likes this guy, or dude is simply nuts.

How easy it to spot "9mm Luger ammunition" laying on a table? How much of an expert would you need to be?

Unless he somehow saw the box or the imprint at the bottom, it's almost impossible.

There is a small difference in width but you can't really tell if you're further than a foot away.

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo...

It might seem like a small difference if you're not used to handling pistol cartridges, but if you are, that's like saying it's difficult to tell PHP from Perl.

Edit: Also, there is usually an imprint on the bottom of the cartridge that says "9MM LUGER".

I handle a lot of guns and that is a great analogy. We know that all we have to do is look for a ".php". But how many average people notice that type of stuff?

You're right that there are imprints on all rounds but seeing and remembering that is like getting a database error and remembering if it was Microsoft or MYSQL...You have to have a lot of experience and a keen memory.

So pretty much impossible.

You're assuming that the author is an average person with respect to gun knowledge. I don't know how much he knows about them, but the story seems to suggest he knows a little, right? Maybe relevant: he was a war correspondent in Iraq[1]. Or maybe he just likes guns?

[1] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/battlefield_pr.html

Edit: spelling

There's also a much more obvious difference in "fatness" (e.g. width/length). Humans are much better at judging that kind of relative difference quickly and from a distance....

I don't think there's "Luger Brand ammunition" as mentioned in the police report, either (unless it's some lame latin american brand I've never heard of)

Luger isn't a brand, but rather the casing sizing.

Rather, it's a brand/mark, but not that of the ammunition manufacturer. The (9mm Luger|9x19mm|9mm Parabellum) is the round used by most 9mm handguns, and is manufactured by thousands of companies worldwide. "Luger" is simply the name of the round's designer and the Luger pistol that introduced it.

Parabellum - derived from the latin Si vis pacem, para bellum - "If you seek peace, prepare for war".

Interesting. I'd always assumed that it had to do with the parabolic shape of the bullet, as opposed to earlier flat-nosed designs.

It is written on all 9mm cartridges regardless of who manufactured the ammo. It would be hard to distinguish it from say 40 S&W ammo from across the room, but my guess is the reporter just read what was on the cartridges.

"9mm Luger" is about as specific as saying there was a 12oz soda can on his table. The details about a specific cartridge are only written on the box, but can be determined from a casing and a photo book. If he said he has "124 Gr Remmington Golden Saber 9mm Luger" ammo, that would actually be specific information.

Looking at a cartridge from a few feet away, anyone who's a gun geek and has decent eyesight can probably tell you that a 9mm cartridge is either that, a .40 S&W, or something very obscure. Also though, almost all handgun cartridges have their caliber stamped on the rim. I just checked to see from how far away I can read the markings on my Federal .40 (I don't own any 9mm, but it should be basically comparable). In good light and at just the correct angle, I can read it from about arm's length. Otherwise I have to hold it close.

So wait, all 9MM cartridges are "Luger" cartridges? "Luger" and "9MM" are synonyms?

(Gun illiterate).

No, but the Luger, or 9x19mm Parabellum as it's also called, is by far the most common type of 9mm ammunition used.

"Luger", originally, meant the Luger P08 pistol. You'd probably recognize it as the sidearm you see the Nazis carrying in WWII movies. It was the first pistol to take the cartridge which today most people just call "9mm".

Today, "9mm Luger", "9mm Parabellum", and "9x19mm" are all synonyms for this same cartridge. Usually when "9mm" is said without qualification, this is what it means. However, there are other much rarer 9mm cartridges such as the 9x18mm Makarov, and also "9mm short" and "9x17mm" are rarely-used synonyms for the (common) cartridge usually called .380ACP.

An occasional, recreational shooter aught to be able to recognize 9mm cartridges fairly easily. Here are a couple of lineups comparing 9mm with other pistol cartridges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CartridgeComparison.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comparitive_handgun_round...

9mm luger is easy to identify for someone familiar with handguns. However, 9mm luger is one of, if not THE most popular handgun ammunition in the world, so in my mind, it doesn't even imply circumstantial guilt.

the photos and title do a great job of loading the question

A keen observation indeed. In a zombie apocalypse, I'd readily let you keep watch whilst I slept.

Wired is notoriously sensationalist. Take anything you get from there with many grains of salt.

Whether or not he is innocent/guilty/crazy/sane is to be determined but one thing about the dogs - the first thing police do is kill any dog that looks like it could attack them, they don't have to justify it so it's fun target practice for them. Special ops that don't want any alert by gunfire or barking would definitely poison the dogs with tainted meat, etc.

So that part is not hard to believe. There are other aspects though that are worse. It's a series of poor, dramatic choices.

Its VERY hard to poison a dog. If it was a special op they would just shoot the dog with a silenced weapon.

Really? Dogs eat anything. Seems like a no brainer to add a bit of poison.

I am no dog trainer, but I've lived with them all my life. The dog would needs trust in order to take food from a stranger, even if you threw it to them at a distance. Some dogs are more trusting than others. And some dogs are fussy eaters too. They may not even be hungry and decide to bury it for later.

Basically, if you want it dead, its simpler to shoot it. Less elaborate planning required.

Can you link to sources on instances of special ops using this tainted meat tactic?

I'm actually not sure about that. If they need quiet, they'd shoot the dog quietly - but apparently the dogs had not yet all died by the time the interview was held, so they were alive far, far longer than could possibly be of any benefit to a special ops team.

More likely that a neighbor did it, sad as it is. Maybe the guy that got shot, maybe somebody else who got sick of a pack of wild dogs trying to attack them for using a public beach. It's one thing to "love dogs" and another to tolerate a dangerous pack of animals in your neighborhood that have been spoiled by a paranoid nutcase.

How the hell are you going to shoot the dog quietly?

With a silencer, I guess. What do I know? I've never shot anything nor do I plan to - but it seems a silencer would be quieter than a dog that was still dying of poison two days later.

Silencers in real life aren't like what you see in the movies. They are just enough to prevent hearing loss (usually) but that's it.

If you want to shoot something quietly, use a crossbow.

Seriously?!? That jioop sound is another Hollywood lie? Man, I've about had it with those people. They really don't care about reality at all!

This is hearsay.

Poisoning is way too slow. If you need to neutralize animals, just shoot them!

"Special operations" always go for the most simple and efficient path.

He's wanted for murder and he has no plans to leave the country?

I sincerely doubt that.

His description of a Navy SEALesque operation the government of Belize put in place to poison a bunch of stupid dogs leads me to believe this guy has a tenuous grasp on reality. And he has a history of violence. Oh and he's apparently been really big on research chemicals as well? Yeah, his mind is fried.

Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance.

http://quorumex.com/content/about-us

Perhaps he got a little too close to The Truth?

I'm still going to go with "he's a nutter", personally.

The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?

Alice checks Hatter's temperature

Alice Kingsley: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

A lot of the worst, too. What, exactly, are you going for here?

What, exactly, are you going for here?

This is more about meth/meth derivatives than any work on some replacement for antibiotics or whatever. Research chemicals are bad fucking news and for every one discovery of something like LSD there are hundreds of newly-discovered chemicals that will happily get you high or keep you awake, while scrambling your brain and turning you into a literal crazy person who: thinks the government is poisoning his dogs; blacks out and kills his neighbor.

I apologise! I didn't realise you're sufficiently qualified to speak about exactly what it is QuorumEx has done and intends to do with its research.

Please formally introduce yourself so we can get a proper conversation started.

I guess you're right though. That pesky cosmos thing is nothing but a serious of compounding mistakes. Why won't it ever learn?

We simply cannot be trusted with science because some of us just might happen to abuse it.

Pack it up folks. Go back home to the caves. Science has been cancelled.

I think you have a point, but this type of overkill response makes me think you have a persecution complex.

Medicating one's self in this fashion is not good science.

Correct. And I'm not condoning uninformed self-medication in any way, shape or form.

But I don't have to feel bad or limit my investigation into the mysteries of the cosmos just because not everyone can handle it.

It's like telling men they cannot eat steak because babies can't chew.

While I have zero knowledge of this particular situation, I've spent a fair amount of time in Central America and "corrupt law enforcement does something creepy" really does not seem all that far fetched to me. The rule of law does not work the same way it does in the US or western Europe - I too would hesitate to trust the legal system, especially if I had been around long enough to piss off (eg fail to bribe) the local authorities.

Of course McAfee may very well be a nutter. These are not mutually exclusive propositions.

you appear to be confusing him with a person thinking rationally.

Innocent until proven guilty, no matter how many drugs he has used.

Just in case no one else says it, my friends say that Belize is actually a very lovely and mostly safe place to travel.

It has the fifth highest murder rate in the world.

i believe it's the 5th highest in the Americas, not the world - https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=123...

From http://wikitravel.org/en/Belize this interesting tidbit:

"Internet cafes can be found in larger tourist areas, but are infrequent in rural areas. The government does not allow Skype and forces tourists to call out of the country using its only government-owned phone company."

...AMAZING how much work some people put into fucking up their lives ...still, better than having a heart attack in front of your PC while stuffing yourself with junkfood and energy drinks though :)

He looks amazingly youthful for someone who's nearly 70...

This guy has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons.

Any Hans Reiser comparison write ups yet?

wtf

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