John McAfee, the millionaire anti-virus software developer who started McAfee Associates in his home in Santa Clara in 1989, has been living for years in Belize and on the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye. Just a couple weeks ago he was named a person of interest in the murder of his American expat neighbor, Gregory Viant Faull, who may or may not have poisoned and killed McAfee's dogs. And since then he's been on the lam on the island, and he's been blogging about the various elaborate disguises he's been wearing to avoid detection by police and reporters, all while allegedly lurking near his own home.
McAfee, 67, had a previous run-in with Belize police at his mainland home in Orange Walk Town in May when they raided the residence saying McAfee was suspected of making and possessing crystal meth. He had a 17-year-old girlfriend with him at the time, and was never charged with or convicted of anything.
But now McAfee says he's distrustful of Belize's Gang Suppression Unit, which raided his home, and yesterday he posted this lengthy blog post on his blog The Hinterland describing how he'd been observing the police come and go at his home, searching for him and for possible evidence in Faull's murder. He claims that if he is captured, the blog will live on because he has someone else administrating it and he has "pre-written enough material to keep this blog alive for at least a year." Sounds like someone's been up for more than a few days straight, if you ask us, but we digress. Behold his description of one of his disguises (and keep in mind that AP reporters on the ground do not recall encountering anyone who fits this description):
The first day I colored my full beard and my hair light grey- almost white. I darkened the skin of my face, neck and hands carefully with shoe polish and put on an LA Saints baseball cap with the brim facing backwards and tufts of the front of my hair sticking out unkempt through the band. I stuffed my cheeks with chewed bubble gum stuck to the outside of my upper and lower molars - making my face appear much fatter. I darkened and browned my front teeth. I stuffed a shaved down tampon deep into my right nostril and died the tip dark brown - giving my nose an awkward, lopsided, disgusting appearance. I put on a pair of ragged brown pants with holes patched and darned. I wore an old, ragged long sleeve shirt. I donned an old Guatemalan style sarape and toted a bag containing a variety of Guatemalan woven goods. I adjusted my posture so that I appeared a good six inches shorter than my actual height and slowly walked up and down the beach with a pronounced limp, pushing an old single speed bicycle and peddling my wares to tourists and reporters using a broken English with a heavy Spanish accent. On my second day, while peddling small wooden carvings, I nearly sold a dolphin carving to an Associated Press reporter standing at the edge of my dock.
In addition to the 17-year-old girlfriend, who he identifies as Sam and who is apparently on the run with him, McAfee writes today of a 22-year-old woman named Timesha who lives on his property and whom he met in a bar. She was one of the ladies who gets paid a dollar a beer for every drink she can get a man to buy for her. He titled the post "Understanding the culture - Part One." He seems to take pride in helping the girl avoid becoming a prostitute, and writes a couple thousand words in an effort to make himself sound more sympathetic as well.
He's also asking that supporters "Write your congressman to ask for sanctions against Belize" and appeal for the release of four friends and employees he says were arrested.
A reporter in 2009 said the McAfee's personal fortune had dwindled to $4 million from a high of $100 million.
For his part, Belize prime minister Dean Barrow has said that McAfee is "extremely paranoid, even bonkers.
