“What a long strange trip it’s been… “, Grateful Dead
This site will officially close Nov 19, 2013. Unless something earth shattering happens, this will be the last post. I still can post comments until the close.
On November 11, 2012, Greg Faull was found dead in his house. His killers have never been found. Greg was shot to death in the house that he designed and built in Belize. Greg had come to Belize after the hurricane, and felt he found the perfect place to build his dream home. Pictures show him on his boat in Belize with his pet parrot. My sympathies are with his family. I hope someday his murder will be solved.
Greg seemed the direct opposite of John McAfee in many ways. While McAfee was involved in a dozen projects, Greg was relaxing and fishing. They did not get along. John McAfee’s dogs were stray dogs, and a menace to people walking on the beach. John McAfee had late night parties, and taxis would be arriving late into the night. The noise bothered Greg and he complained to the police. We learned later that before Greg moved in to the house, he rented it to John McAfee, who was in the initial stages of setting up a laboratory, to produce anti-bacterial medicines based on through a relatively new research in biology “quorum sensing.” We learned that on leaving, John McAfee left Greg’s place in a mess. We suggested 4 murder scenarios with no real evidence backing up any one of them.
Until Greg’s murder is solved, a cloud of suspicion will hang over McAfee’s head. I started a poll on how people feel about JM in relation to the murder. Around 41% feel he’s completely innocent. JM claims all of his surveillance cameras were removed as he was going to replace them prior to the murder, so he couldn’t see what was going on around his house. I’m more than a little bit suspicious. JM’s actions following the murder were, in my opinion, bizarre, with the wild chase for John McAfee around Belize, with probably more journalists than police looking for him. He left his beautiful home on Ambergris Caye and had gone to Belize City. People were suspicious of John McAfee, including myself. There has been no evidence to date to directly connect him to the crime. He has never been a prime suspect in the crime, only a “person of interest” and Belize police want to question him.
I waited patiently for the next shoe to drop on Greg Faull’s murder. There was nothing from the police. There were many unanswered questions. It appears there was no forced entry. Greg was shot with a 9 mm lugar pistol in the upstairs of his house. He was murdered at night after his walk from his favorite bar. From what little evidence there was, It seem Greg knew his killers. He was a very big, strong man. From this, it seem realistic he was killed in his home.
John McAfee’s life has been one of extreme highs and lows. I am certain, if I could ask John McAfee the one pivotal moment in his life, he would point to 1983, the year he gave up drugs and alcohol, at the age of 38. The founding of his company occurred in 1987, when he was 42 years old. He attributes his success to hiring the best people in the industry, and then leaving them alone to develop the software. He has said that the anti-virus programs were written by others. His genius was being the first to realize how big a problem virus or the fear of viruses would be. I think it is true that he relentlessly promoted the McAfee anti-virus program, recognizing the need to beat out the competition, which would inevitably emerge. The competition emerged in early 1991 with Norton Anti-Virus program.
Never could predict JM’s next move. I guess you could say his unpredictability is the only thing that is predictable. I chronicled his many endeavors, from Tribal Voice, yoga schools, aerotrekking, to the half dozen businesses in Belize including the very short-lived Ex-Quorum. I suspect the raid on his home in Belize in May 2012 would be one of the low point in his life. He saw the raid as much more than overzealous Gang Suppression Unit. The Belize government was against him. I was helped here by the writings of Joshua Davis and Jeff Wise. Joshua has the one and only book on John McAfee. Jeff Wise has followed McAfee from New Mexico to Belize.
He began to post blogs on social engineering or the art/science of manipulating people because you know how they will react. Knowledge of social engineering, as JM defines it, can help someone being conned, to see through the manipulation. I saw it as a huge step from yoga master days, kind of cynical one.
He also pokes fun of his years as a yoga teacher and innovator, by telling people not to buy his books because they are all garbage. He created and promoted his own type of yoga, relational yoga. Then, when he was in Belize, he conned reporters, by explaining a new form of yoga, observational yoga, where you don’t actually do yoga, but watch someone else.
Back in 2012, despite being surrounding by quite a nice flock of young women and two homes in Belize, not all was blissful in paradise. He seemed to enjoy the attention given to the fact he shared his homes with a number of lovely young women. Well, what ever gets you through the night, it’s alright… I commented that most of JM’s adult life has been monogamous, which he doesn’t talk about. I think there’s a lot JM keeps private.
Many have wondered about the goings on in dark days in Belize, as Joshua Davis reported. Joshua wrote of JM’s increased paranoia and his explosive temper as Ex-Quorum failed to find new drugs after only 7 months. Then there was the raid on his home in Carmelita, which clearly indicated to JM that the government of Belize was targeting him. There was thought that JM had lapsed back into drug use. My thinking was he wasn’t trying to get high but increase his libido using the bath salts. I couldn’t accept he made all those Internet postings if there wasn’t some truth behind it. Anyway, he has denied any drug use, about a million times, and claims all those postings were part of an elaborate gag.
JM’s wealth was hard to figure. It is very well publicized that he cashed in his McAfee stock for 100 million dollars, and later, after the 2008 bust, said he had only 4 million dollars left, which nobody believed. He stated in an interview in Belize that he is still “loaded” and I can go with that.
Right now, one of John McAfee’s projects is documenting his version of his life (McAfee as told by McAfee, the official version), in film, book and graphic novel forms. Warner Brothers bought fim rights from Joshua Davis, to make a film and it is in the screenwriting stage.
And in October, 2013, JM is back in the tech world, with a proposed gizmo, D-Central, to be a sort of router you carry around, creating a mini-internet. It is now getting incredible press, although it is too early to tell what will materialize. The product is schedule to debut on March 23, 2014 (do I hear the drums rolling), with commercial production maybe 6 months after this date- ready for Christmas 2014. We shall see.
Alex Jones creates baseless mega conspiracy theories with online videos, radio programs, etc. JM’s association with him, furthers the concept that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
I very much enjoyed peeking into the beautiful homes JM has built over the years and posting the pictures I found on the Internet. From glimpse of his homes in Belize, Colorado, New Mexico and Hawaii, there is attention to fine details, wide open spaces, and an uncanny ability to design complexes (multiple living spaces) which blend into the natural environment, much in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. But these homes now have been sold, along with his private jet.
I was glad to hear John McAfee say that you have to be a bit crazy to be a successful entrepeneur. So, last year when the Prime Minister suggested that JM might be bonkers, he couldn’t have taken it that badly. A common thread that seems present through all McAfee’s projects, is as a skilled and relentlless promotor, and he had even promoted the idea of being a bit crazy as an attribute.
I received many excellent comments to these blogs, and I really appreciate the personal insights. Frequent comments by M and Fyou helped add more details, interpretation and occasionally some music to accompany my blogs. One thing is certain, is the unpredictability of John McAfee’s future, Today, D-Central, tomorrow, an extradition order to Belize??? – mind you, I’m not predicting this, only that it could happen. Or D-Central, his film and book all go on to be incredible successes. Or he bags everything, and starts a whole new harem in the middle of Belize. Who really knows?
Thanks to all of you who shared with me, a bit of the road on this long strange trip.
Dave
