John McAfee, We Hardly Knew Thee

News came today that John McAfee, of the antivirus program fame, was found dead in a Spanish jail.

I was reminded of this story by Joshua Davis in WIRED that ran when McAfee was named as a person of interest in a murder in Belize.

Shortly after I began listening to the Longform podcast years and years ago, I simply went back to the beginning of the episode list and marched forward through theme. The 17th episode was with Davis, and the background on the reporting of the story was just a captivating listen and absolutely makes you want to read the story.

What was even crazier was that in the AP story about his death, I learned that he lived in Lexington, Tennessee, not that far from my hometown. The story said:

He lived for a time in Lexington, Tennessee, a rural town of about 7,800 some 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Memphis. In a 2015 interview with WBBJ-TV, McAfee said he only felt comfortable when armed. The TV station reported that he chose to be interviewed with a loaded gun in each hand.

I had no idea. If you remember the McAfee antivirus software but had no idea of the eccentric founder of the company, you should dig into this story a little bit more.