John McAfee 'WHACKD' Tattoo On His Right Arm & Past Tweets Under Microscope After Apparent Suicide

John McAfee in 2019 got his right arm tattooed with 'WHACKD' and further tweeted that if he ever died by suicide it wasn't the case. He even accused U.S. officials of threatening him.

Image Source: Twitter

New Delhi: John McAfee, the 75-year-old anti-virus pioneer, was found dead in his cell in Spain from an apparent suicide. The news came, hours after the country's highest court approved for him to extradited to the United States where he is needed for tax-related charges. 

Days before McAfee’s apparent suicide, he shared tweets about the poor conditions in prison. His tweets and a tattoo from 2019 are under scrutiny now. 

In 2019, he got a tattoo on his right arm '$WHACKD' and in a tweet, he accused the U.S. officials of targeting him. He said that if he was ever found to be dead by suicide, he didn't, "I was whacked".

Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: "We're coming for you McAfee! We're going to kill yourself". I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd. Check my right arm.$WHACKD available only on https://t.co/HdSEYi9krq:) pic.twitter.com/rJ0Vi2Hpjj

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 30, 2019

In another tweet, he compared himself to Jeffery Epstein, who was also found dead in his prison cell from an apparent suicide.

I am content in here. I have friends.

The food is good. All is well.

Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 15, 2020

However, McAfee’s lawyer told Reuters on Wednesday evening that McAfee had apparently hanged himself in his prison cell. According to a Guardian report, conspiracy theorists edited his Wikipedia page to state he was murdered. 

McAfee's charges

The tech-mogul was arrested in Barcelona's International Airport as he was about board a plane to Istanbul just a day after authorities announced a US indictment stemming from alleged tax offenses. Prosecutors from Tennessee charged McAfee with tax evasion after failing to report income made from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consulting work, made speaking engagements, and sold the rights to his life story for a documentary. McAfee time and against said that he didn't pay taxes due to ideological reasons. 

On Wednesday, the Spanish court approved for him to be extradited to the U.S. According to The Guardian, the 16-page ruling read, “The court agrees to grant the extradition of John David McAfee as requested by the American judicial authorities for the crimes referred to in the tax offense indictments for years 2016 to 2018.”

He sold his antivirus company, McAfee, to Intel for $7.7billion in 2011.

 A problematic figure

He founded the software company McAfee Associates in 1987 and ran it until 1994 when he resigned from the company. McAfee had engaged in increasingly erratic behavior, most recently as a self-styled cryptocurrency guru claiming to make $2,000 a day. 

McAfee founded Tribal Voice, which developed one of the first instant messaging programs, PowWow. In 2000, he invested in and joined the board of directors of Zone Labs, makers of firewall software, before its acquisition by Check Point Software in 2003. In February 2010, McAfee started the company QuorumEx, headquartered in Belize, which aimed to produce herbal antibiotics that disrupt quorum sensing in bacteria.

In 2009, his personal finance started to decline from the peak of $100 million it hit in 2007-2008. In 2019, he created a YouTube video title 'How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus' which garnered over 10 million views, in the video he criticized the antivirus while snorting a white powdery substance. The company's spokesperson retorted that the video was  "ludicrous". 

McAfee was also a political activist. He unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for President of the United States in 2016 and 2020. He is also known for advocating the decriminalization of cannabis, an end to the war on drugs, non-interventionism in foreign policy, a free-market economy that does not redistribute wealth, and upholding free trade.

In 2012, he touted conspiracy theories around an unsolved murder of neighbour in Belize stating that he probably the target of the murder suspect.