John McAfee Tells World How He Fooled Cops and Escaped Belize

It looks like the long and winding road of the John McAfee saga is going to continue for at least a little longer. McAfee posted a detailed blog post about how he was able to elude Belizean authorities and sneak out of the country. From the article: "'It's visually interesting and it is mostly a happy story — in line with most Christmas stories,' he wrote. The former software executive describes an operation that was heavy in advance planning and trickery. He says he planted a lookalike ('my double — a man I have known for over 30 years and who years ago legally changed his name to John McAfee') and had him picked up by authorities in the northern Belize-Mexico border, while he and a group of friends and reporters loaded up a truck and headed in the opposite direction, to a southern town called Punta Gorda. With the news that he'd been arrested broadcasting on a local news station, McAfee figured that checkpoint security would relax."

Would /. please spare us ??

[Taco Cowboy]

Dunno about you, but I'm really sick and tired of yet another episode of the ensuing saga McAfee, the publicity whore !

Please have some heart, Slashdot !!

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[Bieeanda]

Please, yes. The man's a scummy asshat who hasn't been involved in the tech industry for years. It isn't like that ghastly business with Hans Reiser, where there was at least the excuse of handwringing over the fate of the file system he was developing.

"I'm so clever..."

[mystyc]

Why is it that people who have evaded authorities find it irresistible to gloat about how "clever" they are to have outwitted cops. I get it, maybe eventually talk about it in an autobiography, but he may technically still be evading said authorities. He might as well say, "nanna nanna booboo, come and get me!".

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[LordLucless]

I hate his software as much as the next Slashdot geek, and think he's nutty as a fruitcake, but he's hardly a publicity whore. Publicity whores don't vanish into south America for decades on end. Your comment reminds me of all the attacks on Julian Assange - it seems anyone who gets media attention for anything other than being a politician or a celebrity gets accused of publicity whoring.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Vintermann]

Did he kill anyone?

That's the important question. And I got to say, the more I hear of his antics (dopplegangers changing their name to his?) and novelty drug habits, the less inclined I am to give him the benefit of doubt on this one.

Delusional

[Snjit]

This has gone beyond news to just soap opera drama that belongs on a bad trash news site, not ./

I don't expect top notch, confirmed journalism from any internet news site but this one is pure fantasy on the part of McAfee. Stop feeding this delusional, drug addled news whore. He hasn't done anything for technology since selling his business. Stop letting these "news" stories through to the front page.

Thanks

Re:Such a wonderful person

[gutnor]

He is a dodgy man living in a dodgy country in latina america. You need to take any news from either the government or McAfee with a spoonful of salt.

Re:Such a wonderful person

[Anonymous Coward]

So, with a government death squad supposedly after him he got a lookalike who he's known for 30 years and who changed his name to John McAfee to hand hmself in? Did he explain the death squad bit first? Did his chosen victim believe any of it and if so then why participate - just because he wants to give his life to save the real McAffee? The whole thing is ludicrously far fetched. The sort of government who send death squads are not exactly likely to be gently with a false McAfee who deliberately aided and abetted the real one, even assuming the death squad didn't shoot him on sight.

Overall I'd say 99% chance that McAfee is guilty as hell (and probably lost touch with reality too), 1% innocent but completely lost touch with reality.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[MagusSlurpy]

Head in his glove box is only circumstantial evidence. Did you see him put it in there?

GTFO

[slashmydots]

I am going to be beyond pissed if the US doesn't extradite his dumb ass straight back to Belize.

Re:Would /. please spare us ??

[TheCarp]

> Can't tell if you're for real Anon

GP's 'Latent Psychic' crack wasn't a dead giveaway? wow, have you considered a job at the FBI or TSA?

> Compelling circumstantial evidence can also win cases

as can lies, misunderstandings, and judges who are out to get "those anarchist bastards" (as one judge was famously quoted as saying after an old and controversial case in my own city). Winning a case is not the same as proving anything, or settling the matter in everyones mind. You may be able to convict with less, but you wont convince everyone that its not a wrongful conviction with less.

On the other hand, leading the police directly to where you buried the body is, generally, a dead giveaway.