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RIP: John McAfee Found Dead in Spanish Prison, Hours After Extradition to US Approved
John McAfee, the notorious antivirus software billionaire, has been found dead in a Spanish prison near Barcelona, late on Wednesday, June 23.
McAfee was arrested at Barcelona International Airport last October on tax evasion charges. His death comes just hours after the Spanish National Court approved his extradition to the US, where he was wanted for tax-related criminal charges and would have faced up to 30 years in prison.
Suicide or Murder?
According to McAfee’s lawyer, McAfee hanged himself in his prison cell late in the evening of June 23, just hours after the court ruling regarding his extradition to the US. Officials from the Catalan Justice Department said: “Judicial staff have been dispatched to the prison and are investigating the causes of death. Everything points to death by suicide.” For many watching this story unfold, this explanation fits the argument that McAfee would rather take his own life than face 30 years in a US prison cell.
According to his wife of eight years, Janice Dyson, McAfee’s mental health had deteriorated over the course of the eight months he was in prison.
These eight months John has spent in prison in Spain have been especially hard on his overall health both mentally and physically, as well as financially, but he is undeterred from continuing to speak truth to power.
Janice Dyson
Signs of Foul Play
However, there are also signs that point towards foul play. A tweet from McAfee on December 1, 2019 stated that he was wary of US officials and might have even received death threats in some form. The tweet also strongly suggested McAfee would never commit suicide, even if it looked like he had.
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.
John McAfee [Twitter]
Another tweet from October 16, not long after he was arrested in Spain, ominously foreshadows his hanging and alludes to the fact that if he wound up dead, it would not be a suicide:
At the time of writing it was still too early to draw any definite conclusions, pending a coroner’s report and the findings of the official investigation.
The ‘Original Elon Musk’
In 2017, during the height of that year’s bull run, McAfee, who had around a million followers at the time, often tweeted about projects he was supposedly interested in. This resulted in the original twitter pump and dumps, which would see random altcoins soar thousands of percent in an hour and then dump to an all-time low as people started to panic sell as the price plummeted.
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In March this year, McAfee was charged for cryptocurrency fraud by the US Federal Court in New York City. Many argue that McAfee was the ‘original Elon Musk’.
Crypto Community Mourns Loss
John McAfee, 75, lived a long and eventful life. He built an empire that changed internet security, fathered an estimated 47 children around the world, and had constant run-ins with the law. He was an extremely polarising figure – a lot of people loved him and many despised him. But despite his notoriety, he achieved legend status within the crypto community for his unwavering commitment to crypto and his willingness to speak his truth.
RIP Mr McAfee. Your legacy will live on for generations to come in the cryptoverse. Letting someone die this way w/o due process should show all of us just how anti human & corrupt of a world we live in. I don’t believe he killed himself at all. They didn’t want a US show trial.
Jared Tate (founder of Digibyte)
On behalf of everyone at Crypto News, RIP John McAfee – your legend will live on.
Author
Ben Carey
Ben Carey is a Brisbane-based writer, with a wide range of experience, from copywriting to game design and film and tv scriptwriting. He's been following, investing, and trading crypto since 2017. He has three lambos (in Gran Turismo), and can often be seen around town wearing a Bitcoin or Ethereum themed Christmas sweater.
