These days, dead lunatics don't stay dead for long. Take a bow John McAfee, one of the most wild personalities in computing, who was best-known for the antivirus software that bears his name but lived an absolutely wild life beholden to no-one. McAfee died in a Spanish prison cell in 2021 when he was due to be extradited to the US to face charges of cryptocurrency fraud: An autopsy declared the cause of death was suicide, a verdict later confirmed by a Spanish court.
Needless to say this hasn't stopped speculation, mainly instigated by McAfee's own pronouncements while alive, that he was murdered in some conspiracy. McAfee posted this on X in 2019:
"Getting subtle messages from US 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."
You may wonder about the spelling of "whacked." As ever, McAfee was using this claim to promote something called $Whackd. That was McAfee's first memecoin venture and now we can say for sure it isn't his last.
McAfee's X account burst back into so-called life on January 23. "I'm back with AIntivirus," says the account. "An AI version of myself. You didn't think I would miss this cycle did you?"
If you go to the AIntivirus site, there's a nice picture of McAfee looking all digital and a button to "chat with John." I tried, and discovered that the AIntivirus account has been suspended on X, presumably for impersonating a dead person.
It soon became clear that Janice McAfee, John's third wife, is behind the scheme.
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"For those of you who think I am tarnishing John's legacy you clearly have no idea who John McAfee was," posted Janice McAfee. "Whackd was the first meme coin John created. The same person who helped John create Whackd is the same one who worked on AIntivirus… I believe if John was still alive he would absolutely love the idea of having an AI version of himself. He would probably pick a fight with it."
That at least seems accurate. And rather brilliantly, after the McAfee AI account was suspended by X, his official account decided to pick a fight with Elon Musk. "Thanks Elon Musk," says the John McAfee account. "There is always some government, or some corporation, that will try to do anything to maintain the status quo. But the cat is out of the bag on this one now. What are they going to do. Kill John again?"
Don't cut yourself on that edge. The project has a Medium page explaining what it's all about: "AIntivirus is not just another meme token," it booms unconvincingly, "AIntivirus is the cure for other meme coins!" There are plenty of promises about products that are apparently set to launch this year but, of course, not much in the way of hard detail. The token's price has fluctuated wildly since launch, with some estimates putting its total value between $25 and $30 million dollars but who really knows: If you do buy this one, good luck.
Well, it's a bizarre coda to a bizarre life. McAfee made several fortunes through various business ventures, but spent the last decade of his life embroiled in legal troubles. He was described by police as a "person of interest" in the murder of American Gregory Viant Faull, a neighbour, but never charged. He also tried to be the Libertarian candidate for US president twice, in 2016 and 2020, but was nominated on neither occasion.
Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."
