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The ex-girlfriend of John McAfee claims that the late IT mogul actually faked his suicide in prison and is living in hiding in Texas. Samantha Herrera made this shocking statement in the new Netflix documentary Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAffe.
In the documentary, his ex-partner affirms that McAfee would have bribed key people to fake his suicide in a jail in Barcelona (Spain), where he had been since October 2020, when he was arrested for tax evasion and international non-filing of tax returns.
According to the Belizean Samantha Herrera, who was the tycoon’s partner during his time in the Caribbean country, John McAfee would have called her shortly after his alleged suicide, which took place on June 23, 2021.
“I don’t know if I should say, but two weeks ago, after his death, I got a call from Texas: ‘It’s me, John. I paid off people to pretend that I am dead, but I am not dead” —Herrera stated in the Netflix documentary. According to her, John claims that “There are only three persons in this world that know I’m still alive.”
John McAfee’s widow, Janice McAfee, assured on Twitter that she does not believe Herrera’s statements are true, but she wishes they were true. She also explained that, if he were alive, he would not be hiding in Texas, since it was the IRS that was after him, John would not have gone to the United States.
Oh how I wish this were true. If John were alive I'm pretty sure he would not be hiding out in Texas. https://t.co/BQnEqPIxOY
— Janice McAfee (@theemrsmcafee) August 23, 2022
Meanwhile, the documentary’s director, Charlie Russell, explained in an interview with Esquire what he thinks about Herrera’s statements. “I don’t know what I think and I don’t think she does” —Russell said. “She says it, then she looks at the camera, and I can’t work out whether she thinks it’s real or not. She’s someone who was very angry at John. He promised them a life together and I think they were genuinely in love, despite the huge age difference.”
“I think he offered her a real different future, then he literally ditched her at the border and I think that’s very painful for her and it’s taken her years to get over that,” he stated.
Despite the skepticism shown by both his widow and the director of the documentary, the truth is that John McAfee’s death was surprising and bizarre, just like his entire life. Herrera’s striking assertion that he is still alive adds to the fact that Janice McAfee and her team of lawyers are still fighting to get an independent third-party autopsy on John McAfee’s body, which is still in a Spanish morgue more than a year after his death.
The Strange Life and Stranger Death of John McAfee
John McAfee was the inventor of the ubiquitous eponymous antivirus in the 1980s, and to his status as a computer genius, he had lately added his facet as a cryptocurrency guru, which was ultimately what got him in trouble with the IRS.
McAfee always flaunted his libertarian anti-government ideology, which got him into various scrapes with the law. Some believe that his eccentricities and legal problems were the result of paranoia and that he accused the government of persecuting him to avoid his responsibilities, while others agree with him that he was the victim of a witch hunt for being a nuisance to the government.
In 2012 he had to flee Belize accused of having ordered the murder of his neighbor. He managed to reach Guatemala where he apparently faked a heart attack in order to return to the US. This type of precedent is what makes no one dare to state categorically that John McAfee is dead.
His latest controversies were related to this anti-government side of McAfee. On the one hand, in 2017 he bet that he would cut off his manly member and eat it live if Bitcoin wasn’t worth half a million dollars by 2020, doubling down on his bet shortly thereafter with a $1 million figure.
if not, I will eat my dick on national television.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) July 17, 2017
He was arrested without his prophecies coming true and without fulfilling his promise, but beyond the provocative nature of his statement, many see in his bet on cryptocurrencies a dangerous challenge to the government monopoly on money.
Also, shortly after his death, a cryptic message was posted on his Instagram account that many interpreted as a “dead man’s switch”, a mechanism by which if someone dies under strange circumstances it would automatically trigger the release of compromising information, in this case, for the government.
That such a switch was not activated and the allegedly damning information did not come to light was taken as a sign that this was just more bluster from the eccentric John McAfee. However, Samantha Herrera’s statements that he may still be alive are no doubt serving to fuel the imagination of those who see McAfee as a fearless freedom fighter.
The one thing that can be said with certainty is that even after his death – or otherwise – John McAfee is still John McAfee, and he generates as much controversy and intrigue as he did when he was alive.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm