Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee (2022) - full transcript

[man] Ready?

[metal rattles]

My decisions...

[muffled chattering]

...were the same decisions
any average human would make.

[muffled chattering]

What you would have done
in the same circumstances, I believe, sir.

[gun cocks]

Oh, hello there, I'm John McAfee.

Founder of the McAfee antivirus company.

Since leaving the company,



I've become part of
a bigger and better thing.

Chances are you've heard
of McAfee Antivirus.

Well, the founder of that company
went into hiding last month.

John McAfee is a wanted man.

[newsreader 1] Police want to question him
about the murder of his neighbour.

[man 1] At one point
he was worth a hundred million dollars.

And the once-Silicon Valley golden boy

is now in hiding
somewhere in Central America.

[man 2] The plan was just to film
this man on the run.

[John] We gotta go.

- Passport. Shit, I don't have mine.
- I've got my passport.

[man 2] But I didn't know
how far it could go.

Okay, stop.

You forgot to turn the camera on.
You're fucking with me.



- [man 2] Fuck. I'm not.
- You're not.

[man 2] No.

- [laptop shatters]
- ["Lo Boob Oscillator" by Stereolab plays]

They will put me in jail
and say I am a flight risk,

which clearly, I am a flight risk.

I specialise in flighting.

This is not gonna be a movie
about sex and violence,

even though there may be some in it.

The story is a human story.

Can I order sushi?

I just happened to live it
in an extremely intense fashion.

Motherfucking hell?

You were shooting in the air and saying,
"I'm gonna kill the motherfucker."

We all make mistakes.

So is McAfee
a successful entrepreneur who went mad...

[laughs]

...and killed his neighbour?

Or is he the potential saviour of America?

John McAfee, presidential candidate.

I hate to advocate alcohol,
drugs, violence, and insanity to anybody.

[man 3] What in the fuck
is going on here?

But it's always worked for me.

[man 1] John had information on everyone.

[woman] You can't be paranoid
if people are really after you.

I was once a part of that.

[man 1] The cartel is trying to kill him.

Tell me this is not
a story worthy of telling.

- James Bond meets Scarface...
- [snorting]

...with a little Indiana Jones.

Cheers to you.

That would be the tagline.

[man 1] This is a dangerous man.

[gunshot]

[dial-up line beeping]

[static]

- [static crackles]
- [camera clacks]

[pleasant music playing]

[birds squawking]

[man] Belize is a place
that everyone loves.

It's a two-hour flight from Miami.

You can come here
and you can find Mayan temples,

deserted islands
where there's just one tree.

You can dive with whale sharks.

If you're planning
to come and live and retire,

a lot of people have come
and really made it into a new life.

But truth is, the government
does not do a close enough check

on the sort of people they allow
to pick up and move to this country.

[birds chirping]

It's the best place
for a lot of people to come to

who are trying to escape
something in North America, for example.

A lot of them escape to Belize.

I have, uh, just become
a permanent resident of Belize

and I'm very grateful
that the country of Belize allowed me

to, uh... to live here permanently.

[Sanchez] Everyone knew John McAfee.

You could always see him
driving around the island with his dogs.

[indistinct]

One day,
this thing happened to his neighbour.

I was the first reporter on the scene.

[ominous music playing]

The sea and the sun
are the reasons why

tourists come to the island
of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye.

However, the atmosphere
seems a little affected

by the tragedy
that occurred over the weekend.

Behind me,
and those idyllic coconut trees,

inside that home, Gregory Faull,
the 52-year-old Florida native,

was shot once to the back of his head.

[crickets chirping]

When I got there,
there was no signs of forced entry.

The police also said nothing was broken,
no bars were broken to get in,

so obviously he had to have
let someone in.

[newsreader] Before he was murdered,

Faull complained to authorities
about his neighbour,

software security pioneer John McAfee.

Chances are you've heard
of McAfee Antivirus software.

Well, the founder of that company,
John McAfee, went into hiding,

and the police there want to question him.

Police raided Mr McAfee's mansion
on Ambergris Caye late Sunday

to question him about the murder,

- but Mr McAfee was nowhere to be found.
- [sirens wailing]

[man] He said he had gone into hiding,

because if police found him,
they'd kill him.

[commentator] It all seems
too hard to believe,

but it's one of these things
that's so crazy it simply has to be true.

[Sanchez] Do I think he had something
to do with Gregory Faull's death?

There's definitely a high probability.

[tense music playing]

[dial clicking]

Are we ready? Okay.

We're at Miami...
We're at Miami International Airport.

It's about 7:30 a.m.

And we are ready
to rock and roll with John McAfee.

[upbeat music plays]

I get a call. The biggest story
in the world just drops in your lap.

- John McAfee...
- McAfee...

John McAfee.

It's like the perfect story,
and we're gonna catch the end of it,

and it's an historic moment.

And I cannot wait to see
what this guy puts us through.

I just thought, "Oh, this will be fun."

And literally got on a plane with Robert.

[interviewer] What was the plan?

The plan? We had no plan.

I didn't know what the plan...

The plan was just to
film this man on the run.

Let's go.

I love you, Mom, if I don't see ya.

[King] Well, my job was to run
the audio, edit, and record.

And Rocco's was to interact with John.

[Castoro] We're gonna arrive tomorrow
at the airport.

I'm supposed to wear
a blue scarf around my neck.

Lots of cabs will come up and they'll say,

"Do you want a ride, sir?"

But eventually someone's gonna
come up and say, "I'm sorry I'm late."

And that's whose car we get into.

[King] I mean, I knew it was a big story.

You know, VICE was onto it.

I'm going with the Editor-in-Chief.
We wanted the scoop.

[Castoro] I'm literally swimming
with the sharks tomorrow.

I don't know
if I'd call John McAfee a shark,

maybe a manta ray,
'cause he just floats around.

He's got that fucking tail.

He'll stab you with it
if he wants to, but...

[laughs]

Oh, shit, where do we go?

His name is all over all this
antivirus software for the last 20 years.

Intel bought his company out
for $7 billion.

[King] He was employed as a programmer
at the NASA Institute of Space Studies.

He worked on the Apollo programme.

[Neil Armstrong]
That's one small step for man...

[Castoro] It was almost like
this guy was like this counterpoint

to Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

He goes from antivirus mogul
to yoga and meditation.

- [indistinct announcement on PA system]
- [upbeat music continues]

[King] And I'm just filming,
you know, drinking and filming,

and, you know, stupid shit, whatever,
no smoking sign, the drink.

Of course I was extremely naive,
but I didn't know how far it could go.

Who knows
what we're getting ourselves into,

but I mean, how can you say no?

Virus scanning, drugs possibly, guns.

- So we'll...
- [King] Like a movie.

It's totally a movie.
We're living in a movie right now,

so, you know, hopefully nobody dies.

[King] It's exciting.

But I didn't buy new equipment.

One of the cameras
that I shot this documentary on

was given to me at a bar.

[flight attendant] Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of...

[King] So we get through customs,
not a problem.

We're standing together
and a van pulls up.

There's John and he says, "Jump in."

And then we're in it.

[indistinct chattering]

- [John] All right then, how are you doing?
- [King] I'm doing well.

I'm just the cameraman.

- I don't talk to interviewers.
- [King] I won't be doing interviews.

I talk to the camera people,
you guys have the frigging camera

- Okay.
- I'm joking.

[King] There's Sam, John's girlfriend.

I mean, he starts, like,
shoving flowers in his mouth.

What does that do?

Rose petals.

[King] And he's asked us
to film him while he's in disguise,

playing like
he's had a stroke or he can't talk

and, you know,
making gestures that he's impaired.

[imitating slurred, unintelligible speech]

[Sam exclaims]

So I thought that was weird.

[continues imitating
slurred, unintelligible speech]

Is that okay? Did it work?

[Castoro] Can we talk about
why you wanted

this part of your journey documented?

Well, it's dramatic, isn't it?

[Castoro] It's definitely dramatic.

We're talking about danger,
adventure, risk, uncertainty.

- People love that shit.
- [Castoro] They do.

Okay, so that will tell my story

if you guys don't edit me to the point
that I'm saying all this stupidity.

[Castoro] This'll be a long-form doc.

Right, so, you know,
and I realise that if I say enough,

- you can turn me into anything you want.
- [Castoro] Editing.

A saint, the devil, whatever.

But, you know, by the time we finish this,
we'll become friends,

so maybe you'll have
some sympathy for my cause.

It has to happen by one o'clock.

My life depends on this,
my friend, all right?

[King] John's plan was to escape Belize
and cross into Guatemala.

We just heard from the one guy
who's an ex-police officer.

The Prime Minister has
a $150,000 bounty if I am shot.

- [Castoro] If you are shot?
- [John] Yes, or killed.

[Castoro] He was absolutely afraid
of being picked up by the authorities.

We'll be meeting him in an hour.

[Castoro] He said the government of Belize
itself was, you know, persecuting him

and they're
basically special forces units.

And wanted to get out of there.

Here's a guy who's got the means
to get the fuck out of the country

when the heat's on.

He mentioned that he hacked the
cell phones of the Belizean government.

There's probably
a lot of crazy shit going on there.

[Castoro] Call it truth, call it secrets.

McAfee's good at blackmailing
and extorting people.

[eerie music playing]

This isn't like tiddlywinks
and my cousin Suzie.

Like, we're covering people
that do bad things on a scale

that other people can only
have nightmares about.

And then, uh, we slipped into our hotel
right next to the Guatemalan border,

some hotel in the rainforest.

- [tranquil music playing]
- [birds chirping]

It was beautiful.

Oh, my God, it was magical.

How the light came through
the leaves, the forest.

Just like little fairies.

And there was
some real, kind of, tranquillity.

But it was really foggy.

And slippery.

- [slipping]
- [camera clatters]

God damn. Oh, shit. Oh, fuck.

God damn, that hurt
like a motherfucker, man.

Oh, fuck. [sighs]

[grunts] Oh, fuck.

- [mellow music playing]
- [bird squawking]

John's, like... [mumbles]
He's meandering through the hotel.

I'm trying to get him,
and you know, the fog's on the lens

and there's just the humidity and stuff.

So that was kinda hard.

[John] We wanna see the Rio Dulce.
How far is that?

[Castoro] To my complete astonishment,

he did that for an entire night
and day with the hotel staff,

who did not recognise him,

and he's on every television
in the country at this point.

[news jingle plays]

Never met the man.
Don't know what he looks like.

Uh, I don't want to be unkind,

but it strikes me
that he's extremely paranoid.

In fact, I would go
so far as to say bonkers.

[Castoro] So day one is over.

It's about ten o'clock at night.
It's December 1st.

We made it safely to basically
[tuts] the southeastern...

Close to
the southeastern border of Belize.

- [King] Well...
- [Castoro] He's not a sound man.

[John] No, I understand that.

[King] Well, I know what's happening.

Yeah.

[Castoro] So, you've made it
through November.

- All of November.
- [Castoro] Amazing.

In those early interviews,

I really wanted to hammer down
on just sort of the series of events

around the murder.

But I knew that the best way
to get the interviews

would be just keep
hammering McAfee to sit down.

Try to get him to sit still
for as long as possible,

and I kept reminding him
he could be put away tomorrow,

he could be dead tomorrow.

So, like, if you don't
take the time, who knows?

Do you feel relatively safe here?

I mean, you know,
theoretically you could have cops come in,

there's no locks on these doors,
and cut open the screen,

and I was thinking
these thoughts last night.

They would do that
and the thoughts you had,

- trust me, I had.
- Mm-hmm.

You ask if I feel safe.

I do not feel safe
and have not felt safe since I left.

How can I feel safe?

[man] I just remembered the...

- We can't talk in here, boys.
- [Castoro] Tom, sorry.

- We can't talk in here.
- [man] You have nine minutes.

[King] But something happens...

[John] Okay, yeah.

...and then we're on the run again for sure.

[Sam] But John is not here.

[man] There's a little window of time
here for you.

[John] I know. We gotta go, run.

[audio shuts off]

[Sam coughs]

I packed as quick as I can, sorry.

All right.

Oh, fuck. Shit.

- [Sam] What?
- Nothing.

There can't be...
There can't be an "Oh, fuck."

- [Castoro] No, I'm good. I'm good.
- [King] Passport?

- Passport. Shit. I don't have mine.
- I've got my passport.

- Wait, yes, it's here.
- Fuck.

- Don't say that.
- Okay.

And here, I found your camera case.

Thanks. Okay, we're on.

By the way,
you guys almost got left behind.

- Just now? Why?
- Yes, right here.

'Cause I told Thomas
to turn on the motor and let's go.

- [Castoro] Sorry.
- I believed we had to go.

- [Castoro] Sorry.
- No problem.

I ran.

[dramatic music playing]

We're out in the open sea here
and we're going to fucking Guatemala.

[Sam] One point, he told me that
he was searching for me all of his life.

I was 18 years old when I met him.

I think I was young, stupid, foolish.

And at the same time,
[chuckles] I thought he was sexy.

[laughs]

[Castoro] How are you feeling, Sam?

You were sick yesterday in the car,
and you get seasick, but you seem okay.

Yeah, I'm fine.

You're okay?

- I'm fine.
- Are you happy to be, uh, here?

- Yeah.
- [both chuckle]

- She's shy on camera.
- I am happy.

- Yes, I'm shy on camera.
- [Castoro] That's okay.

[Sam] We were going to live together,

and we were going to adopt a child
because he had a vasectomy,

and have a normal life.

[sombre music playing]

When this whole thing
with his neighbour happened,

everything that we planned
and had planned was just destroyed.

His plan was to go back to America.

Thank you, friend.

[Sam] I say, "If you're going,
I'm going with you."

"I'm gonna ride it out
with you till the end."

[Castoro] Once he made it out of Belize,
he really felt a sigh of relief.

Belize and Guatemala
have this unspoken tension,

and he was gonna sort of leverage that.

That's a big camera you got, man.

[King] Oh, thank you.

- Where you from?
- [King] Memphis, Tennessee.

[man] What you doing here?

You gotta give me
a real quick standup here.

[King] Okay.

Hold on. Yeah.

So, we just made it
to shore in Livingston, Guatemala.

Uh, it's a pretty interesting place.
Getting a lot of looks.

John's home free.

We're gonna go check in with customs,
I think, here now. [laughs]

When we reached Guatemala,
what we're gonna do here,

none of these fools, which is John
and the others to understand.

We arrived there illegally

because we didn't get
our passports stamped exiting Belize.

If you do these things,
you know, you're gonna get caught.

And if you don't have proof
that you came in legally in the country,

you will get deported back to Belize.

- [Castoro] If I would've known...
- [John chuckles]

- [Sam] Como?
- [man] Did you guys, uh, stamp before?

- What's that?
- [in Spanish] From where?

[in English] Stamped anything?

[in Spanish]
They came from Belize

and I think they have the stamp from...

[man] If they came from Punta Gorda,
they should've had a stamp.

What can we do?

[John] I'll take care of this.

[in Spanish]
They came from the International Airport.

[man] No, no, no, no.

- [John] No?
- [man] No, no.

[John] Okay.

[Sam] I told you not to do it.

[Castoro] The customs official
got a little upset.

He flagged all of our passports.

[indistinct chattering]

You're caught in a legal loophole
that has real consequences.

Entering a country illegally,
exiting a country illegally.

Those carry real time in jail.

I told him, you know,
my uncle lives here, and he's a lawyer.

He works for the president of Guatemala.

I told him, um, I could get his number

and try to see if he can
get our passports stamped.

Maybe...

- We'll call him and find out.
- Wait.

Maybe he could
get your passport stamped

without them saying anything about you.

[Castoro] Then you're like,
"Wait a second."

They have hamburgers here?

[Castoro]
Your barely legal girlfriend Sam,

her great-uncle is
the former Attorney General of Guatemala?

Under one of the most corrupt regimes
the country's ever seen? Really?

So certainly at that point,
I took a step back and was like,

"What in the fuck is going on here?"

John McAfee is a wanted man.

With the McAfee manhunt right now
in full swing. Good morning, Marla.

The once-Silicon Valley golden boy

is now in hiding
somewhere in Central America.

- [birds chirping]
- [tranquil music playing]

[John] The jungle, it's incredible.
It's a magical kingdom.

And it operates by no rules
that are created by man.

[squawking]

The rules that much of
the rest of the world is run by

cannot operate there.

The justice here
is the justice of Darwinism.

When anyone asks me,
"Do you think John killed his neighbour?"

My response is, "I don't know."

His side of the story
is that they're after him

because he didn't pay off the government.

They wanted to hurt him,
to get rid of him.

[crickets chirping]

Your black phone
has my uncle number, I just remember.

[John] But my black... Okay.

[line beeps]

- [Sam] It's him. Hello.
- Okay.

[on mobile] Yeah.

My name is John McAfee,
and I'm with your niece Samantha.

Um, I'm trying to hire a limousine
here in, uh, Fronteras

to take us to, I believe,
to, uh, the city.

Thank you very much
and we will call you in the morning,

and I apologise
for disturbing you, my friend.

[Telésforo] Oh, okay then.

Thank you. Bye.

Okay, guys, get your bags,
we're spending the night.

- Got your pics?
- [Castoro] Yes.

In order to get our passports stamped,

we have to go [scoffs]
six hours away to Guatemala City,

which is the heart of the country,
which is bad fucking news.

We're gonna meet up with Sam's uncle,
who's apparently a powerful figure here,

and if we get there,

and we get to her uncle,

I think we're gonna
all be home free, especially John.

But then I gotta figure out
how to get out of here.

[King] Yeah, and so then in the morning,
we got up and we did some filming.

[bird squawks]

All right, we're on.

I believe that Sam's uncle
is smart enough and connected enough

to, um, get us to his place safely,
and from there, um, we are home free.

[King] Okay, stop.

- You forgot to turn the camera on.
- [bird squawks]

- [King] Start again.
- [Castoro sniggers]

- Shit.
- From the clap?

[Castoro] Go again.

[Castoro] So we're here
in Fronteras in Guatemala,

after our trip out of Belize.

[King] He does, uh,
a really nice interview, two cameras.

And I think it was
after we'd finished the noddies,

cutaways of the correspondent,

you know, shaking his head,
just some tight closeups of, like, that.

Really?

And then after that we're all in agreement
that we do have to take a photo.

- [keyboard clacks]
- We're gonna write something up quick

for the VICE blog.

[King] It was totally,
"Fuck you, I've got the exclusive."

Everything. "Suck my..." Yeah, yeah.

"I got the exclusive,
man, yeah, fuck you."

"We're VICE. We're here to stay."

[mobile ringing]

Once the image was released,
the phones started ringing.

I sent the email to Jonathan
and our PR people, saying,

"Take a fucking screenshot of it,
so the geo-data is not targeted."

We work for a fucking
digital media company

and they don't understand that.

In caps I said it.

And they posted the pic anyway.

[King] Metadata gives a file authenticity.

But a part of that metadata
is also geolocations.

The geo-data was on the image.

And they gave our GPS coordinates.

[beeping]

We're getting a lot...
a lot of them saying,

"You might want to also thank
VICE Magazine for including the GPS data

in the photo they posted. Oops."

"Keep the train wreck going.
Good for you."

There is an airstrip
three clicks northeast of that location.

Right here.

There is a reward out.

It's enough money that they would
go to extra lengths, I think, to find me.

We have a friendly person coming,
we have some unfriendly people coming.

If the friendly person gets here first,
we'll have a nice day.

Uh, otherwise we will have a very bad day.
That's where we are.

[King] What would the "bad day" entail?

I don't know. I have ten fingers

and now I may have fewer
by the end of this day.

[Castoro]...take a screenshot of the photo...

[King] It just wasn't normal.

- This doesn't look Mexican.
- No, that'll work.

That'll work? I could crop it.

It's incredible. It's nuts.

My credit's on the photo.

Change your name, dude.

Okay, here's the spin on this.

You guys are fucked too,
you realise that, if you're caught, right?

If you get arrested with me,

there is the chance
that you may suffer some ill-treatment.

We believed we were both fucked.

Fuck.

[Castoro] Sam has been in touch
with her great-uncle,

and he's telling us, "Whatever you do,

"get to Guatemala City
as quickly as possible."

"We're gonna send you a driver.
He's already on his way."

The uncle said simply, "Go and pack."

No further instructions.
He will call us. Okay?

If you're not ready this time,
I will fucking leave you, okay?

[King] Are your bags packed?
Are you ready to fly?

[John] You're not as funny as you were.

I may dump you here
on the road if you don't get funnier.

[horn blares]

["Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream playing]

Oh, mama.

♪ I've been waiting so long ♪

♪ To be where I'm going ♪

♪ In the sunshine... ♪

[John] People say
I remind them of the Joker.

Possibly the Joker is, uh, [chuckles]
the best description of me.

- [unsettling music playing]
- Uh, who was the Joker?

I mean, the motherfucker
didn't give a shit, did he?

Do you think I give a shit?

[chuckles] No, people, I do not.

So fucking be it.

[John laughs]

[Sam] The way
he portrayed himself to others

is that like he's this undefeated person
that you can't touch.

You know, and that the world
revolves around only him.

He loses his temper really quick.

You know, so, one day,
we were, like, in the bedroom

and, you know, he wanted to... You know.

And I told him, "No, I don't want to."

And then he started cursing me
and I got so angry.

I was so upset that I just grab his gun.

And I told him, "I will kill you,
'cause I am tired of you."

[laughs] I didn't pull the trigger though.

Yeah, so I got so upset.

And he's like, "Sam, calm down.
Give me the gun. Give me the gun."

So, um, we had very intense moments.

[unsettling music continues]

[King] John says
there are people that want to kill him.

And we're at the Four Seasons
or some high-end shit hotel.

Really nice.

[indistinct chattering]

[Sam] Did you actually tell that man
this morning that you're on the run?

- [Castoro] Did he?
- [John in Spanish] Milk?

Thanks.

[King in English] At the hotel,
he checked in with a false name.

But he needed her uncle,
who's the former General Attorney.

I'm gonna meet him outside, okay?

- Is he out there?
- Yeah.

Okay.

[indistinct chattering]

- Who's he?
- He's John.

- I need a lawyer.
- Uh-huh.

And Sam tells me you are a good lawyer.

- Uh-huh.
- [chuckling]

Um, and so we came to you.

I would like to hire you, please,
to represent me.

Okay.

Do you know who I am?

No, I don't.

- Really?
- Mm.

- [in Spanish] He's the man...
- Okay. Okay.

...who created the antivirus.

[in English] Tell him.
He understand English.

- I am the man from Belize...
- [Telésforo] Uh-huh.

...that the police want to question.

[Telésforo] Why?

Because one of my neighbours was...
It's a very long story, sir.

And Samantha will explain...
We all came across together.

[Sam in Spanish] That man
wants to film me as well... [chuckles]

[King in English]
John gives him our passports

with the understanding that
we're gonna get exit stamps,

so we can leave.

I have been with Samantha
for a year and a half.

- Uh-huh.
- Um...

She is a remarkable young woman.

Um, I love her very much
and we are getting married.

So, unfortunately, you will have
a potential criminal in the family now.

- [all laugh]
- Um...

Um, and my apologies for that,
and I will do the best I can

to make it up to you.

[Telésforo] Okay.

[indistinct chattering]

We're gonna go up to, um...

[King] John's nervous.

He thinks he's a sitting duck.

In fact, I'm going to go stand outside.

[King] And he changes the plan.

[amusing music playing]

[Castoro] It's decided that
John will hold a press conference,

and at that press conference,
he's going to announce that

he's seeking asylum
in Guatemala for persecution.

He was fighting for his life, essentially.

[King] We're there to protect his ass.

He knows it.

The chances of him getting picked off
with a film crew at his side

is slim to none.

You know, under the cover of the press.

You know, and he wants
to get his story out, maybe.

Or he wants to play with the media.

[Castoro] I'm here to document it

and whatever you do,
I kind of have to go along with.

- Or I bail.
- That is true. That is true.

[King] He needs us. And we need him.

We need content.
He provides quite a bit of it.

I thought all internet moguls had,
like, a thousand-square-foot wardrobe.

Not me.

[indistinct chattering]

Don't film this.

This is my favourite part.

I am going to release all of my tapes,

all of my videos, all of my documentation
showing the internal corruption of Belize.

And that's all I'll say on that.

What's happening?

[King] You got a posse
of photographers, boy.

I told you, look,
I told you, dude, be prepared.

- Stay with me.
- [Sam] I don't wanna drop... Just hold me.

[indistinct talking]

- [Sam] Okay.
- [John] Okay?

- Ever seen this before?
- [Sam] No, never in my life.

[John] This is my life
in America, sweetie.

You'll see I am
quite comfortable with this.

Pardon me.

[Sam] I feel like I'm an artist
and everybody wants my signature.

[John] I understand fully.

Are you okay, sir? Okay.

Millionaire software company founder
John McAfee has finally turned up

after weeks on the run from police.

[Telésforo in Spanish] He is persecuted
politically by the Belizean authorities.

They've initiated
a political persecution against him

and he has had to
safeguard his integrity and life

by crossing the border
of Guatemala to seek asylum.

- What evidence do you have?
- Documents.

- Threats from the Belizean government?
- Yes.

[newsreader in English]
Now he's emerged in Guatemala City,

asking for political asylum,

saying he left Belize
to escape a witch hunt.

I had to leave,
but the story has to get out.

I have documentation that proves

the intense corruption
at all levels of the Belizean government.

Now that I am in a safe place,
I can speak freely.

revealing the truth about Belize,
thank you very much.

Thank you all and on, um, Thursday,
whenever the time is,

I will be happy to answer
any questions from any of you.

And, uh, for journalists,

you are far more polite
than American journalists.

[man] Thank you.

You're very welcome, sir. Goodbye.

[Sam] Good. All right, all right.

- Do we have our keys?
- No, you need to sign the credit card.

- [man] Your credit card, please.
- Credit card?

[Castoro] What is it?

- The ring, dude, the ring.
- Let me see.

Like that?

[Castoro] Nice.

Robert and I went to get a drink,
and really just take stock of...

We hadn't taken a second

to just stop and be like,
"What have we got?"

And then as I came out, I see him, John,

and he's like, "Go get your camera,
I'm about to be arrested."

- [King] What happened?
- [Castoro] Take out the camera.

He says if your passport is there,
you should be fine.

[John] My lawyer has my passport.

[Sam in Spanish]
Yes, my uncle has his passport.

- [man] No.
- If he has it, there's no problem, right?

No, no problem.

[in English] Can I tell him
to bring the passports?

- No, my uncle.
- Don't.

- He knows what he's doing.
- Okay.

[John] I need a cigarette.
Can you please film these gentlemen here?

[King] What's going on?

They're trying to arrest me.

This man here has harassed me...

[Sam] What did he tell you?

Well, he detained me.

I was trying to get a cigarette.
Please give me a cigarette.

[indistinct chattering]

Make sure you get a picture of them.

[King] Can we not get it in...
Bring you into the hotel?

- [John] What?
- [King] Can't deal with this in the hotel?

[John] Make sure you get
a picture of this guy.

[in Spanish] Due to his illegal status.

He's American,
how are you going to take him with you?

[John in English]
And this man right here.

- [man 1 in Spanish] What's the difference?
- [man 2] Any foreigner...

- [King in English] Is your uncle coming?
- He's coming.

He's coming, trust me.

Things will change when he gets here.

My uncle is coming.
You'll see, they will walk away.

I just can't wait to take off my shoes
'cause it's gonna be Hollywood.

[Castoro] Federal army.

[both] It's the Federal army.

Federal army.

- [King] Federales.
- Federales.

- [Sam] Federales.
- We don't mess with Federales.

[Rocco] From the federal district.

Make sure you get a picture.

[Castoro] Guys with submachine guns,

and just out of nowhere,
the literal equivalent of the FBI.

Here's Interpol, here's a guy
with a DEA jacket on or whatever.

Uh...
Yeah, that's where things got weird.

[playing upbeat melody]

[playing random notes]

[musician playing flute]

[Sam] Blow from here.

[in Spanish]...but right now
is not the moment.

[King in English] We're filming
and he's playing the flute.

It was crazy, because there was...

There didn't seem to be anybody there

that was willing
to de-escalate the situation.

[rousing music playing]

[Castoro] We called Sam's great-uncle,

who, like, really his job just seemed
to be like being "Oh, I don't understand."

"I don't know. I don't know anything."

And it's like,
"Dude, you're the..." [chuckles]

"You're literally the highest lawyer
in the land, get some answers."

[in Spanish] Look, we're just following
orders from our superiors.

[Telésforo] I know.

The thing is, as I'm telling you,
this situation we have...

[in English] I will go with you.
I will go with you.

Very good. Okay.
And one more before we go.

- [Castoro] So what do we do?
- Do not worry.

[Sam] Where do you want me to go?

We are going to speak
with the Vice Minister.

Okay?

[man] Telésforo?

[officer in Spanish] Can I come in?

[King] Where are they taking you, John?

[Sam] Would they kill him?

[King] John, where are you going?

To jail.

- [King] When will you be out?
- I'm going here with you.

[Sam] Would they kill him?

"John, where are you going?"
[imitates John] "To jail. To jail."

It was a great soundbite,
I fucking loved it.

But it was...

It was crazy
because we didn't know if we were next.

[sirens wailing]

I was like, "I'll get a massage.
We're gonna go to jail."

"Erm, I'll be sleeping
on a floor for a bit,

so I might as well, you know, whatever..."
Just get... Fuck it.

And the phone's ringing.
Like, "I'm not gonna answer."

"I'm getting a massage, Jesus Christ."

Phone keeps ringing.

Ring, ring, ring, ring for about a minute,

and so I picked it up and it's Rocco,
"They stole everything."

Everything in my room's gone.

Everything. Computer, clothes, everything.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Castoro] I watched the cameras.

Security guys walked down
the hallway to my room,

go in my room, come out with my stuff.

I think all of our rooms are bugged.

I think my phone's bugged,

my internet has been weird,
my email's been weird.

There's weirdos downstairs
looking at us all the time.

We don't know the extent of this,
like, how gnarly could things get?

I hear from colleagues
that the State Department's involved.

I don't know who to believe.

[King] What's going on here, Rocco?

We're trying to get
the fuck out of this country.

We don't know John's status.

[King] But, hey, tell me,

- why can't we walk to the embassy?
- [line rings]

I'm afraid they'll pick us up
as soon as we walk outside.

They're sitting out there.

[King] Who? Who's sitting out there?

The fucking Federales.

Look, man, I'm telling you,
the Federales are right outside.

[man] Yeah.

Last night, John walked up
and they surrounded him.

They are gonna do the same thing to us,
and we're fucked.

- Can't they come in the hotel?
- They can't.

- They can't come in the hotel?
- No, we're safe here.

[King] Do you feel trapped
like a bird in a cage?

[Castoro] Hmm.

[sighs]

Maybe we should get all, uh...

McAfee and put some disguises on.

[King] Yeah,
walk out like we just had strokes.

And I'm sure... [chuckling]
I'm sure that they'll believe it.

I'm sure that we can fool them.

[Castoro] Best-case scenario,

McAfee would be stuck
in the limbo of deportation

for at least a couple of weeks,
maybe even longer.

Um...

And what we didn't expect is for...

[siren wailing]

[newsreader] Silicon Valley
entrepreneur John McAfee

seen here in the back of an ambulance

after a suspected heart attack.

Then, an extraordinary scene.

Cameras pursue McAfee across
Guatemala City in search of the story

right into the emergency room.

[mellow Latin music playing]

[in Spanish] I need
to work on the patient!

[urgent chattering]

[in English] We missed
him having the heart attack.

[mellow Latin music continues]

[Castoro] That gets him into
the medical transfer unit at the hospital

and puts him in a position where,

you know, through,
I don't know, magic or bribes

of someone in Guatemala who was like,

"I think John McAfee should just be
let out and sent back to America."

"That sounds like a good plan."

John McAfee played every card he could
to get himself back to the US

and, boy, did he ever play a lot of cards.

[reporter] Once he landed in Miami,

he took a cab to the world-renowned
nirvana of night life, South Beach,

checking into an art deco hotel
right on Ocean Drive.

I'm tired. I'm exhausted.

We're kind of getting cut off
by the company.

You know, VICE is putting the brakes on.

So I'm counting days,
going, "How much did I earn?"

I'm figuring out how much to bill 'em.

- [line beeping]
- [King] Can you ask about our question?

[Castoro] That last night we spent there,

thinking it was gonna be
the last opportunity I had to ask him.

On the night of the murder,

what is his recollection
of events that night?

- [John on mobile] Hello?
- Hey, John.

- Yes, how are you?
- It's Rocco. Good.

I just wanted to ask you one thing.

Jeff, uh, keeps emailing me,

um, and wants me...

- Wait, who's Jeff?
- Uh...

The... Your neighbour.

You know, he said
the night of the murder, uh...

You... I'm sorry.
Not the night of the murder,

the night that your dogs were poisoned,

that you were shooting guns in the air

and saying,
"I'm gonna kill the motherfucker."

That's what he said, quote, unquote.

And he knows that for a fact,
like, what do you think about that?

[mobile beeps]

Hung up on me.

[Sam] Some part of me believed that,

"Yes, I would actually
have a real life with him."

You know, that's why I stuck to his side

and, you know, went through
all that we went through together.

You would think if somebody loved you,
they won't hurt you.

And I guess with him,
it was like mostly lies and false hope.

You know?
But I still care for him, because he, um...

You know, he was a big part of my life.

Never for a second did I think
they're not gonna run the story.

I finished it. We laid it out.

Um, literally a day away from press,
"We're not running it."

That was a bunch of bullshit.

Not only was I a laughing stock,

because my company refused to put out
my work after they made me do it.

On top of that, um... [smacks lips]

You know, I had no way to answer people.

I had Gregory Faull's parents' attorney,

calling me up, "Where's the story?
You have blood on your hands."

"You've helped a murderer escape."

It's been a real ride. I've loved it.

I mean it was a... [sighs]

It was one of the funnest times
in my career.

So I do love the video a lot.

I'm gonna make some more coffee.

[grunts]

Yeah, I'm gonna come back.

[ambient music playing]

[man] I've always loved a good story.

[birds chirping]

If you have a fascinating tale,
I want to hear it.

My name is Alex Cody Foster
and I am a ghostwriter.

We are the background guys

who write books for celebrities,
politicians, rock stars.

Uh, all the people who are so busy

or not talented enough
to write their own shit.

That's what I do.

It was, like, 8:00 in the morning

and I'm dead until I drink coffee,
like most people.

So I was really, like,
hankering for that cup and...

- [mobile ringing]
- ...I get a phone call.

[imitates John] "Hello, Alex,
this is John McAfee speaking."

I was like...

"Hello." And he said,

"Well, son, uh,
Jimmy's been telling me a lot about you,

and we want to fly you down here."

"I want to see you."

I said, "Okay. I'll see you Monday."

And he hung up on me.

And I was like,
"What the fuck just happened, man?"

- [mellow music playing]
- [animal hooting]

After he escaped from Guatemala in 2012,

John became way more famous
than he had ever been.

[Larry King] John McAfee,
cybersecurity expert,

founder and developer
of the famed McAfee Antivirus software.

And now also a possible
2016 Libertarian presidential candidate.

90% of the American population
would perish in a cyberwar with China,

and you tell me, who is running today
who can fix this problem?

You went to Belize.

You were a person of interest
in the murder of a neighbour.

You're still technically a fugitive,

though they don't seem
that interested in grabbing you.

[audience cheering and laughing]

[Foster] At that time, Greg Faull's family
were still pursuing John

through the US courts,

seeking $25 million
in a wrongful death suit.

Maybe he had a hand
in what happened to Greg Faull.

Maybe there is something more
to this story.

I wanted the story,
I wanted the truth. Yeah, I did.

- ["The McAfee Effect" plays]
- [rapping] ♪ Genius ♪

♪ Yeah. Coin bro ♪

[Foster] John was enjoying
his newfound notoriety.

♪ Hey, yo, John, how the hell do I get
This damn antivirus off my PC, dawg? ♪

[hype-grunting] ♪ Whoo! ♪

- [beat drops]
- ♪ What you know about the streets? ♪

♪ What you know about Belize? ♪

♪ What you know
About faking your own heart attack ♪

♪ Just to ditch the police? ♪

[song continues indistinctly]

[Foster] I got there very late.

They showed me my room.

Slowly all the sounds just faded away
and people retreated to their rooms.

- [crickets chirping]
- [dog barking]

At the end of the night
it was just me,

alone in this living room.

[door opens]

I heard this door open
from the far end of the... the mansion.

And intuitively I just knew that was John.

He saw me, and he went like this.

He was in this, like, bathrobe.

He pointed at me
and he said, "You must be the writer."

I said, "You must be John."

He was like, "Yes, sir, I am."
He said, "What are you drinking?"

I was like, I'm drinking
a Glenfiddich 12-year or something.

[sniffles] He was like, "Oh."

I said, "Do you want one?"

He said, "Yes, son, I'd like that."

He sat down.

I asked him this question about Belize.

And he was very cooperative,
he told me everything.

He told me things
that weren't even in the public domain.

Like, people thought
they knew what happened.

John went, like, ten steps further
than what people think.

Like, he was wiretapping people,
he was using keystroke software.

[John] By the end of May,

I had every computer wired
in the government, listening.

I'm in your office.
I'm hearing everything you're saying.

They didn't anticipate...
They forgot who I was.

I can get inside your computer
and screw with you.

And so that's what I did.

[upbeat music playing]

[reporter] In California,
computer security expert John McAfee

gathered information
from around the world on destruction

blamed on the Michelangelo computer virus.

You will find that this virus
will now be mutated by additional hackers.

It's happened with every strain of virus
that we have found.

[Foster] John told me
that he had created software

which enabled him
to spy on anyone in the world.

[dial-up line beeping]

The CIA,

FBI,

the KGB,

NSA,

even the White House.

Everyone.

John had access to information
on virtually everybody in the world.

[on speakers]
I keep reading Hillary Clinton's name,

you know, in the material.
She keeps popping up.

- [John] I can't comment on that.
- [Foster] All right. Fair enough.

[John] Can't comment on that.

What I was told is that

some powerful entities
were trying to set John up,

and trying to get him arrested.

Not because of the death of Greg Faull,

but because of
all the information that he possessed.

[John] Nobody knows except for me,
because I was listening in.

[static]

...puts hundreds of millions of dollars
a year away in American and Swiss banks,

and not just that, a brutal gangster.

dating... [static] with his sister,
on the government payroll.

I was now a serious threat.

That's when they decided
that I had to be silenced.

[Foster] So he had the idea that
there was a whole conspiracy against him.

The cartel was after John,
according to John.

[John] I carry armament
because I believe in my heart

that the Sinaloa cartel
is trying to kill me.

The largest cartel in the world. The most
powerful organisation on the planet.

[on speakers] When I'm having sex,
I'm having sex with a gun in my hand.

When I shower,
I shower with a gun in my hand.

It's because I have all the data.

Uh, I tapped all the computers
of all the government ministers...

- [Foster] I'm gonna turn this off.
- [John] Why?

- [beep]
- Special request.

Uh, in this movie, can you, um...

I know I'm talking about, like, the cartel

and I'm talking about the Clintons
and, like, whatever whatever.

Can you just like make it so
that I'm not authoritatively stating this

to be factual maybe
and just so that I don't get, like, offed?

One thing I know,
is that you don't fuck with the cartel.

[crickets chirping]

[clucking]

[whirring]

[King] After I stopped filming John,
I resigned from my job.

I wanted to wind down.

I'm 50-something years old.

I'm a redneck.

I wanted a goddamn small little jon boat
with a outboard motor and a farm.

[camera whirring]

I thought the story was over.

- [camera beeps]
- And in January,

he tweeted that the IRS was after him.

I have not paid taxes in ten years.

I will never ever pay taxes again.

Neither should you,
neither should anybody in America.

If I have to run forever,
they will not ever get a penny from me.

He hasn't told me anything yet.

[John on speakers] It's a long
fucking story that you will not believe.

It's the story
of all fucking stories, Robert. [chuckles]

I mean, seriously,
you won't fucking believe it.

Hacking the Belizean military,

giving 'em computers
with keystroke software,

so I don't know
any of why he's really running.

But, you know, obviously
that's enough to get you moving quick.

[dog barking]

And then I'm like,
"Hey, why don't we continue it?"

"You're on the run again. I'm here."

- And he's like, "Okay, come on."
- [barking]

So, our lawyer said,
after reviewing everything,

that I am being hounded
by the government, illegally.

And I should somehow press charges.

But we're not gonna do that.
That's not my style.

- [man coughing]
- My style is simply to go away,

[coughs] get in a safe place
where I can access the Internet

and trash my opponent into oblivion.

But in my position, I cannot afford
to land on any sovereign territory

that might extradite me
on behalf of the US.

So we have that in hand.

They will put me in jail
and say I am a flight risk,

which clearly, I am a flight risk.

I specialise in flighting.

[King] And now you're
about to start a new chapter.

[John] I am. Yes, indeed. And who knows
what this chapter will bring?

[suspenseful music playing]

[King] When you have those numbers
in your bank account.

They were plush with cash.

[John] $1.2 million. Is that correct?

- [woman] Yes. Mm-hmm.
- [John] Thank you so much.

- [woman] You're welcome.
- Bye-bye.

[coughing]

So now we're gonna have money to live on.

- We just gotta get out of Dodge.
- [woman] Yep.

[entry bell jingles]

Do you need this immediately?

Yes, ma'am,
I need it immediately, unfortunately.

[King] Oh, it's gorgeous. Who is that man?

- Wait a minute.
- [King] I like it.

- [man] That looks awesome.
- [King] Yeah, I think it's better.

[woman] Are you an entertainer?

No, ma'am. [chuckles] No.

[woman] Well, I do a lot of Broadway.
I do a lot of entertainers.

Do you?

- [woman] Wait, what are you...
- [John] Maybe you've seen me on TV.

[woman] I have seen you.
He looks familiar.

John McAfee. Just google me, you'll see.

All right, let's see.

What's your last name? McAfee?

McAfee. M-C-A-F-E-E.

You're McAfee?

I am McAfee. Yes, ma'am.

I'm in your shop, believe it or not.

- Well, this...
- I use you for my, um... To protect...

For your antivirus.
It's on yours and everybody's computer.

- That's you?
- Yes, ma'am. What do you think?

- Does this disguise me more?
- I like that one.

[King] Yeah, completely.

I know why.
Are you gonna be on Undercover Boss?

- Am I gonna be what?
- Undercover Boss?

No, ma'am, it'll be far worse than that.

You'll say, "That man was in my shop."

I promise you,
a week from now, you'll say that.

You won't get in trouble, right?

I am always in trouble, good God...

[King] He tells everybody who he is.

"I'm John McAfee,
maybe you've heard of me."

"Don't tell the police,
but McAfee's in town."

- I like this one.
- I like this one too.

- Can you cut my bangs?
- Yeah.

Some big-ass sunglasses, I'll be fine.

[laughs]

- Hi.
- Hello.

There we go. Do you sell these?

No, those are my Pradas.

- Where'd you get 'em?
- I mean anywhere.

- How much were they?
- Probably three hundred bucks.

I'll give you five for 'em.

- Okay.
- Deal.

[John chuckles]

- We can't publish this, just so you know.
- I won't do anything with it.

- Don't put it on Twitter.
- No, I won't.

I'm not on Twitter or Facebook.

- Nobody can know what I look like.
- Here, one more.

- Bye-bye.
- Cheers. Bye.

- Y'all have a good day.
- [King] See you later.

[laughs] It's getting crazier
and crazier, man.

[ambient music playing]

He got rid of everything.

Moved all assets.

Cars, house, he sold.

Yeah, he packed up and left.

I love your hair.

- So do I. I've been growing it for years.
- [King] It's gorgeous.

I thought he was pretty entertaining.

I thought this is gonna be fun.

I didn't know where we were going.

He told me Nova Scotia.

Then he mentioned that, uh, he had a yacht

that he bought
from the Wolf of Wall Street.

[John grunts]

[engine whirring]

[John] This is perfect.

[woman] Holy shit.

[John] No, baby.
This is ours. I'm sorry.

Nice. Very nice.

You happy?

Yeah, fuck me. Ain't bad.

[mysterious music playing]

[King] Janice.
Janice is John's new wife.

He fell in love with Janice
when he got to Miami.

Right after Guatemala. The same day.

[laughing]

[Janice] I first met John in Miami.

I was working as a prostitute there.

Um, I had been working as a prostitute
for the previous ten years.

I was at that point in my life
where I was sick of the bullshit.

I was sick of the shit that I was doing.

I was just tired
of not going anywhere, you know.

[King] Was it love at first sight when...

Fuck, no.
It was not love at first sight. [chuckles]

I love you, baby, now,
but no, it wasn't love at first sight.

So after meeting him,
I spent the night with him.

Um, I just saw an opportunity.

Not to, um, scam or anything.

I saw possibly someone that

if I could be charming enough,
or entertaining enough,

or... or if he in the slightest
just believed that

I might have a future
outside of my current occupation,

I saw someone
that could possibly help with that.

So, um, yeah, things were pretty...

I was pretty aware of the serious nature,

or maybe I should say

I was pretty aware of what exactly
I might be signing on to

by agreeing to stay with him.

- Hey, guys?
- [man] What's up?

Will you bring the weapons onboard first?
Thank you.

[upbeat music playing on speakers]

[John] Right, this is cabinet storage.

Now we have plenty of storage.
Let me show you.

Put mine in my state room.
It's on the right.

Right. Let me show you
the rest of the boat.

[John] Yes, sir.

He said bow out, stern in.

So lines on port. Lines on port.

[rousing music playing]

[John] You take your chances
when you leave national waters.

We're carrying armaments.
We would not be easy prey.

This boat itself has got
eight layers of fibreglass,

three layers of Kevlar,

so the hull itself
is virtually bulletproof.

[King] We're heading to the Bahamas.

So we go across the Florida Straits,
much like Hemingway used to do.

[dogs barking]

And we get there
and there's a real fucking problem.

This gentleman is immigration.

Okay.

And these other gentlemen are customs
and this is the police officer.

[John] Okay, let me explain who I am.
I'm John McAfee.

And all of my staff
are ex-military special forces.

[King] John has to register his weapons.

He had brought about 17 too many.

[official] You're allowed three weapons
and 250 rounds of ammunition.

[John] Okay.

And we gotta pick three.

I... I need to be armed.

[official] You can call them

so you can make the reservation
and this is the number.

And then it was getting crazy.

[John] We gotta get out of here, people.

We're being chased
by bad people, all right?

Yeah, where's the vodka, sir?

Listen, we're at life and death here.

Leave immediately.

- [man] Whoo. That was a little fast.
- Yes.

Well, you know what?
[sighs] I'm taking no chances.

[upbeat music playing]

[man] I'm going back in.

We are just so... God.

[John] Builds up.

[King] It was very difficult.

He's 70-something years old
on the run again.

Janice is away from her kids,

doesn't know when the fuck
she's gonna be back.

No one had settled into their new life.

It was bad, but they had the open ocean.

They had freedom.

They had a boat. They had each other.

Love...

is when you lose yourself completely.

Meaning you are not even
aware of your own existence.

And the only existence
is the one that you love.

Yeah, I mean,
what more do you want really?

- Thank you.
- And scene.

[laughs]

You know, I was living hotel to hotel
with my pimp when I met John.

Everything was fine up until
about April-ish, we got into a huge fight.

And so of course, ha-ha, me being me,
I called my pimp, right?

Okay, because that's just what I knew.

When I called my pimp, he said,
"I got a guy that could come and see you."

[ominous music playing]

So the gentleman comes and sees me.

He tells me
he's a representative of a cartel

and has been tasked with collecting John.

I was fucking scared.

And I remember them talking about
the things that they wanted to do,

like poison him or have me make a key
so that they can get into the place.

And I remember saying,
"I'm not doing that."

And I remember one of the pimps said,
"Man, tell that bitch I'mma kill her."

"That bitch is dead. Her family is dead."

And so, he was serious.

[King] Did they say why
they wanted to collect him?

He had all the goods
on the nefarious activities

that the government of Belize
was involved in,

and that actually involved
other American high-up politicians

within our American government.

And so why they would want
to keep those things secret,

like human trafficking,
drug trafficking, money laundering,

all those very bad things.

They had given me some poison.

I don't know what it was,
it was a grey grainy substance.

And they wanted me to cook him dinner
and to put it in his dinner.

Given the situation I was in,

I couldn't say, "Fuck you, I won't do it,"
and expect to continue breathing.

Right, and I remember I had it in my hand,

actually in my pocket, I kept it on me,
'cause I didn't want him to find it.

I took it out my pocket
and as I'm cooking, I'm looking at it.

And I was like, "I'm not doing this shit."
And I threw it in the trash.

And I closed the garbage up
and I set it out in the hallway.

John knows these things that happen,
and on some level,

I knew these things happen.

But only in the movies.

Like, this is only shit
that you watch on TV.

Like, this doesn't happen
to people in real life.

Of course he's a threat.
Of course they want to take him out.

Of course they want to silence him
and discredit him.

Of course they want
to call him crazy and paranoid.

But people are after him.

I was once a part of that.

So I know for true that people
are after him and want to silence him.

[suspenseful music playing]

You know, all relationships are weird,
but they were happy. They were.

I mean, it was fun. Cameras, exciting.

Romance and alcohol, sex.

Man, there was
a lot of alcohol on that boat.

God damn, I forgot about that.

There was more alcohol than water.

And everybody was pouring
their shitty fucking stuff

into whatever they could find.

All these drugs.

And that fucking bath-salt shit
makes you go fucking wicked mad.

It's like meth times ten.

It enhances your psychosis, paranoia.

And John's had quite a bit.

[soft psychedelic music playing]

I was so fucking scared.

John was fucked up.

The security guards would sleep
balled up in a corner with a gun.

And they weren't pointing the gun at me.

They knew where
the trouble was coming from,

and it was coming from
John's room and Janice's room.

This is our host that we're talking about,
that's gone mad.

He's shooting the gun in the boat.

[gunshot]

And scaring people,
because he's not telling them

he's discharging the weapon in the boat.

[gunshot]

And it got really bad.

People were paranoid,

thinking that
there was evil people on the boat.

[squeaking]

You think people can hide under there?

[John] If people were
to hide down here, fuck me,

they'd be the stupidest people
in the world.

[King] It's probably mostly rats,
you know?

[John] Too often.

I didn't even know
there was storage space,

let alone another whole door
that leads to somewhere,

and so, if you don't mind, sir.

[tense music playing]

And then they come out blazing with guns

that there are people
hiding under their fucking bed.

[Janice] I got you.

There's a hatch in the bottom of it.

[indistinct chattering]

- [Janice] Shit.
- [man] Almost there.

- [John] There's what?
- Get your flashlight.

[indistinct chattering]

[King] What the fuck?

That goes into the engine room?

[John] No.

[Janice] So for the viewers out there,

this is what happens
when you purchase a boat

and you do not clear it.

[King] Do you want me
to hold the flashlight for you?

[John] That's why I didn't want mine.

[commotion]

- Whoa! Whoa!
- [gun cocks]

Thank you. Are you okay?

[man] We're good. We're good.

- We're good.
- [Janice] Sorry.

I had to put the cameras down.
She would have shot me.

There's Robert, okay.

Should I shoot him?

I would willingly do so right now,
because honestly...

I've been out there
for half an hour talking to him.

- Yes? Where? In the foot?
- You don't have to shoot him.

- [Janice] In the dick.
- I won't shoot him in the dick.

He might bleed to death. We're on a boat.
I'll shoot his toe off.

[Janice] I've never seen
someone's dick shot off.

[King exclaims] Oh, John, that's not nice.

But that to me was enough.

I'm not gonna fucking take,
you know... [scoffs] Fuck that.

You're not gonna put
a bullet in my fucking head.

I'm just gonna come get some fresh air.

I just don't wanna die.

Yeah.

[tense music continues]

Fuck.

I jump in the taxi and I said,
"Take me to the fucking airport."

That's when I realised
maybe John is capable of murder.

[John] Madman, psychopath,
paranoid, drug-addled millionaire.

Call me what you want.

No sense in trying to dance around it.

You have to tell the truth now.

[music ends in flourish]

I'm Darryl Williams.
I'm John's first cousin.

And we both basically,
um, were born in the same area

in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

[whirring]

John went to the US
at a very young age.

[rousing music playing]

I'd moved to California in '86,

and one of my other cousins
was living there.

I said, "Have you seen John McAfee?"

She said, "Yeah, he's doing something

with this thing
called antivirus or whatever."

A computer virus is a program
with a goal, and the goal is survival.

[Williams] He'd made his money.

John had been free of drugs and alcohol
for 20 years at that point, I believe.

Although John liked to live
quite a reclusive lifestyle,

John always wanted to be somebody.

He had his yoga thing going on.

[John] You have family
and friends and people

and you didn't know you had loneliness

and you suddenly start rounding,
and what comes up? The truth of you.

That thing that you have been hiding
through your nonstop activities.

I saw it firsthand
where people worshipped him.

But like everything with John,
he got bored very quickly.

[birds chirping]

["Abatina" by Calypso Rose playing]

If you had enough money,

you could buy anything
and anybody in Belize.

John thought that was the perfect society.

There's nothing you can do wrong here
if you have money in your pocket.

♪ Who you have there
Breakin' down the door? ♪

When he moved somewhere,
he always went in like a storm,

giving things to everybody.

Guns, computers and boats for the police.

It was always important
to have the police onboard.

Thank you, my friend. How you doing today?

- [officer] Pretty good. And you?
- Excellent.

- [officer] All right.
- Thank you.

[song fades]

[Williams] It was that sort of place.

You know,
and people got murdered on the island.

[chuckling] You know?
It wasn't the safest place on earth.

- [waves crashing]
- [birds chirping]

Two hundred yards
down the beach lived Greg Faull.

I had a drink with Greg one night.

He was from Miami.

I believe he had a bar
in one of the college football towns.

And he didn't seem like a bad guy.

- [dogs barking]
- [snaps fingers]

But he had a big issue
with John's dogs.

And the only problem would have
been that parrot on his shoulder.

- [parrot squawks]
- [stirring music playing]

It was like it was hooked to his shoulder.

He wouldn't go anywhere without it.

If there's ten dogs on the beach,

you're not gonna walk by
with a parrot on your shoulder.

Pattie. Oh there's my...

[Williams] I mean, that's insane.
Dogs go after birds.

[reporter] And dogs may play
a central role in this murder mystery.

Officials say their aggressive behaviour
was a frequent source of friction

between McAfee and his neighbour,
Greg Faull, who lived here.

Last Friday, McAfee told police
someone poisoned four of his dogs,

and to put them out of their misery,
McAfee shot them.

Two days later,
somebody shot Greg Faull once in the head.

When someone says
they're gonna poison your dogs,

and the following day
your dogs get poisoned,

I don't think there's too many people

that wouldn't have a thought
in their mind about killing that person.

[Sanchez] Several of his dogs were killed,
and the area behind,

you see this big hole,
right here is where the dogs were buried.

You can still smell the stench
of some rotting animal.

And for most people,
the reason why they wouldn't do it

would be the threat of, um, prison.

But for somebody
who lived on the north shore of Belize

where the police weren't anywhere around

and the perpetrator
was 200 yards down the beach,

I would have thought
there was every opportunity.

But as I say, it seemed that
at the point when the murder happened,

John was in a different space.

Alcohol was back in his life.

Drugs.

Having experienced
all those things myself,

there's a reason they call them
mind-altering substances.

They make you do things
that you wouldn't ordinarily do.

[intense string music playing]

[John on speakers]
Anything that facilitates access to truth

is a positive thing.

Now, are you going to feel it as positive?

Probably not.

Truth hurts universally.

We all have things to hide. All of us.

I have not found a human being
who did not have a secret.

[Foster] He was a very emotionally
distraught individual, absolutely.

He hid it well.

That's why I was never allowed
to talk about his daughter. Never.

[intense string music continues]

He left her.

He stopped being a dad to her.

I think that's what filled him
with such shame,

which is why
I was never allowed to bring it up.

He moved on
because that's what narcissists do.

They can kinda lock away the truth
in this dark chasm of their mind.

And never again open it up.
Never again look at it.

And that's what he was so good at doing.

I think it stemmed back
from his own childhood.

Looking at his absent father
who had committed suicide

when John was 17 years old or something.

- [birds chirping]
- [bell tolling in distance]

The story of his dad
was that he was an abusive guy.

He used to beat the shit out of his mom,

and John was there
and had to watch and listen.

All the time as a child growing up,

he had to watch his mom
get the shit kicked out of her.

[John on speakers]
I do want to change the world.

I want my children
and grandchildren and your children

to have a better world than we had.

Where we do have some love.

And there is some humanity
that the world that I lived in,

growing up with a father who broke my arms

and abused to the point
that it was intolerable,

abused my mother.

Until the point
that I did something about it.

Whoa.

I never remembered that.
I didn't know he said that.

Holy shit.

"To the point
where I did something about it."

Wow. I feel like
that was an admission right there.

[John] If I am one-tenth
of what they find,

a man who murders his neighbours,

assassinates, uh,
officials of foreign countries.

If I am half that man,
am I the man you wanna fuck with?

[Foster] I started developing a theory.

[eerie music playing]

So I posed it one day to Jimmy.

He was John's executive adviser.

I said, "Jimmy, what about John's dad?"

He was like, "What about him?"

I said, "I have this weird feeling,
Jimmy, that John shot him."

And Jimmy looked at me,
and he had this crazy look in his eyes.

He was like...

"How the fuck did you know that?"

And I said, "I didn't, but now I do."

Jimmy told me that John confided in him

that he had shot his father
when he was a teenager.

He'd killed him,
and made it look like a suicide.

This is a dangerous man,
he's hurt a lot of people.

[eerie music continues]

[music fades]

[dog barks]

[King] Lots of data.

Here we go.

Maybe he's crazy, maybe he's not.
Let's go see.

[music plays on speakers]

- [camera clatters]
- [King] Oh, fuck.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on.

[King on speakers]
...brief moments of truth.

[off speakers] I thought it was nuts.

Who's in there, Robert?

[King] But I wasn't there to judge him.

[John] We'll take it. You want reality?

[King] We all have our demons.

[John] Throw your cell phone
out the fucking window.

[birds chirping]

[King] I was pretty fucked up
by the time I was 15.

I was kicked out
of every fucking school I went to.

[gun fires]

Fuck.

And then somebody said
I took a good picture.

That's all I needed.

I'm going with them.
I'm not gonna sit here like a duck,

that's for sure.

[weapons firing]

They send us to the shittiest places
in the fucking world.

Sarajevo, Chechnya...

[ominous music playing]

...Afghanistan,

Syria, Kosovo,

stuff like that.

After 30 years as a war photographer,
I had to get out.

And then I met John.

[yells]

[laughs]

When I started filming it,

he said,
"You're not gonna get that close to me."

- [John] If you wanna say so, then you're...
- [King] I didn't say shit...

Then you're gonna be
just like all those other idiots

that interviewed me,

uh, and made their own fucking conclusions
about a life they weren't living.

[stirring music playing]

[King] But it was just the beginning.
I saw the madness.

And I didn't have any interviews.
I didn't have any questions.

[sighs] Fuck.

We were so close,

I need to get back there
as soon as possible.

[huffs, sniffs]

[stirring music continues]

[engine whirring]

[King] Where we going,
to the boat right now?

Test, test, test.

Move it.

[indistinct chattering]

[John] My foot swelled up
like something crazy.

[Janice] Hey, buddy. How are you?

Nice to see you.

- [John laughs]
- [King laughs] Hey!

- [John] How you doing?
- [Janice] Good.

- Hi, hey, Robert.
- [King] Hey, Janice.

Put that fucking camera down
and give me a hug.

[indistinct chattering]

I've got three bedrooms for three of you
and three rooms here at the hotel.

That should fit everybody.

There's six, right?

- [King] Seven.
- Seven.

- Well, you can sleep on the floor.
- [King] That's cool.

We've done well together.
We did great shit together.

- And we still could.
- Oh, yes.

[King] We're gonna get some
establishing shots outside the boat.

[soft music playing]

But you don't know what's gonna happen.

[imperceptible]

Are you picking up our conversation?

[King] No. Uh, mic's off.

Okay, thank you.

[King] Sometimes as a journalist,
I feel like I get fed to the sharks.

[chuckles]

[man] Shit happens.

[King] Amen to that.

Here we go. Chum time! Yeah!

[birds chirping]

[man] No difference.

- No difference?
- [Janice] None at all.

[John] Hang on. Okay.

My name is John McAfee.

I'm in one of my traditional disguises,

where I wear a mask over my head
or something of this nature.

I'm in total disguise,

do not look like myself,
and let me surprise you,

- it's me.
- [King] Voilà.

[all laugh]

I just wrote us
a fucking bunch of questions to go to...

And just to get
some, like, favourite Bible verse.

In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth.

First million dollars.

When did you make
your first million dollars?

Oh, shit, I don't know.

First job.

I think it was mowing lawns.
No, shovelling snow.

Other people were confronting me,

"You need to ask this.
You need to ask that."

"You need to ask about his dad.
You need to ask about this and that."

If he wanted to tell me
about his dad, he would.

If he wants to tell me
about his daughter, he will.

Because the story was
he's running from the government.

[cackling]

- Whoo! Whoo-hoo!
- [all laughing]

[King] The last time I saw John,

he told me that
the Mexican cartel was out to kill him.

He was surrounded by more armed security.

But John didn't seem scared.

He just wanted to be filmed.

- Is everybody else out of frame?
- [King] Yes.

John said, "Why don't we
do a show where I just talk?"

All right, tell me when you start.

[King] And he started interviewing
the locals for security positions.

This is a fully
automatic weapon here, all right?

And so, what the hell are you doing
just carrying this around in the open?

- I'm sorry.
- Watch where you point that.

Spy's no stranger
to the dark side of the world.

He has been shot, how many times?

- Three times.
- Three times. He's showed us his scars.

He's been stabbed in the right eye,
so he's missing a right eye.

How many times you been arrested?

I bet I have more.

- I can't count, but a couple of times.
- He can't count.

But I was innocent in all of them.

Jamey is a very fine person,

but, um, you know,
from his neck tattoos and so on,

clearly he has a past
of some sort of interest.

He's never revealed it to me.

Lived a lifetime
a few times with no elaboration.

[King] He always said
his life was in danger,

you know, it wouldn't be safe.

They could get to him.

[interviewer]
When you say "they," who? Who?

Well, I think... I don't really know.

I mean, from what I can understand,

- it's the cartels, covert agents, CIA.
- [indistinct chattering]

Or whoever it was he was saying
that was after him.

You know, I just didn't know.

My wife may be smiling and friendly,

or may she be holding
a knife to my throat, which has happened.

It's not happened with me, actually.

- What?
- I've never held a knife to your throat.

- Sure.
- That's why we have problems now.

- Don't confuse me with no ex-bitch.
- I'm old.

How the fuck am I supposed to remember...

- Listen, okay?
- ...all these women, baby?

You're supposed to remember me,

'cause I'm that one. Okay?

[King] And then we were looking at houses.
He was gonna buy a house there.

Good morning, ma'am.
John McAfee. Nice to meet you.

Pleased to meet you.

Shall we go up? Don't worry,
he's just documenting my life.

- Let's just move on up, okay.
- [woman chuckles]

[man] Hey, how you doing?

[woman] We actually had an offer
for asking price at $1,790,000.

[John] Well, I bet that happens
a lot in this industry.

Yes, it does.

And...

- It's a nice beach.
- [Janice] Okay.

Now, there's a master bedroom
upstairs I assume?

Uh, I would call this the master,
because it's got a separate living area.

[John] All right.

[Janice] I'm heading upstairs.

I think it's beautiful.

Okay. I'd like to make a full price offer.

- Mm-hmm.
- A quarter million down.

I'll pay $5,000 a month
interest-free for 18 months

and then the remainder after 18 months.

Okay. All right.

- That sounds like a good offer to me.
- Okay.

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

- Thank you, Miss Judy.
- Nice meeting you. Bye-bye.

- [King] Thank you.
- [both chuckle]

And then there was a dinner
at some barbecue place across the street,

and then in the morning...

[audio shuts off]

- [static]
- [camera clacks]

You could have filmed it.

[King] I filmed it,
but my audio was shut off.

- Okay, all right. What's going on?
- [King coughs]

- [Janice] Yeah.
- We're leaving.

I got word that they're trumping up
charges against me for racketeering,

money laundering, murder...
[chuckling] You name it.

[King] So is it still about Belize,
or a new charge?

- What's that?
- Is it from Belize or is this a new body?

No, this is all from the US.
All from the US.

- [military music playing]
- It's serious now. It's very serious.

Okay, so it's going to be
a military intervention.

I got no time for that shit,
neither can I stop it.

- [King] Right.
- [John] All right.

Come on. Yes, sir, bring it.

On this side. You clear?

[interviewer] You ever think,
"Wait, this is bullshit,

- there's no one after us?"
- Yes.

[John] And once we get out
off this dock, we're okay.

Yeah, once you... Even if...

[King] Ain't nobody coming to get us.

I didn't believe it.

Last couple of days here, John,
have been pretty fucking crazy.

Yes.

And, um, now today, you know,
people are saying you're hallucinating,

telling me that you went crazy.

Right, I know. No, you saw the reality.

The authorities are here.

Okay, let's go.

[King] What the fuck is he thinking?

[man] Go ahead and untie it.
You can untie it. Go ahead.

Spy, untie it.

[dog barking]

[military music continues]

[King] Hi, pretty baby.

[Janice sighs]

[King] Bye-bye.

[John] I'm in exile from exiles,

moving God knows where,
and let me show you the God knows where.

We're in the middle of the fucking ocean.

[ambient music playing]

Where's the tequila?
I'm gonna make this mojito.

- [man] Under the sink.
- Okay, fair enough.

- [man] Yep.
- Whoa!

- Oh, shit.
- [man] What?

There.

Okay.

- Mic me up.
- [King] Ah!

- Tell me when you're ready, sir.
- [King] I...

[John] This video is the most important
video I have ever made.

And I said, "Why am I here, John?"

"'Cause... What is my purpose?"

"Why do you need... this?"

[John] Now, you're gonna get
lots of this, my friend.

I will fabricate whatever reality
I see fit to keep eyeballs on us, Robert.

- Are we clear?
- [King] Yes.

- Do you have a problem with that?
- I'm here to help.

If this one does not sell
your fucking footage,

nothing will, Robert. Nothing will.

Do you understand me?
I have created this gold.

- Do you understand this?
- Yes.

I have fabricated a perception
that is matched with reality.

Grand juries,
indictments, foreign countries,

guns that you have videoed.

So you tell me that this is not gold.

[King] It is gold.

I've taken this gold
and like a fine Aztec artist,

have woven it into
the most magnificent jewel.

You must see that.

And if you do, I will make you rich.

- [King] All right.
- End of story.

[Janice speaks indistinctly]

Okay, Janice.

[King] I wanted to document John
as best I could.

- [John] Are you filming?
- [King] Mm-hmm.

I'm just grateful that finally
he has some respect for the truth.

What else could I possibly accomplish?

This is it.

We are here.

[King] Congratulations.

Thank you.

[King] Let's hope
we can stay for some time.

Let's hope. I think it's a nice place.

I like mountains.

[indistinct chattering]

[King] John comes out of the boat,

holding on, looking out,
and he's got his sidearm on,

he's got his pistol.

- John?
- Yeah.

You've got your sidearm on.
Before you step off. Yeah.

[King] And so that
brought in the guards, the navy.

And so then the navy comes.

[officer] He wants to say something to...

The guy wants
to say something to everybody.

[indistinct talking]

Stop! No recording.

- [King groans]
- [camera clatters]

[indistinct arguing]

[Janice] No. Excuse me.

[King] And so they get in
and start to search.

They went through everything.

[Janice] You don't need
to handle my money.

We're told to get off the fucking boat.

We've been detained by the, uh,
Dominican Republic authorities.

They're trying to accuse us
of illegal importation of guns.

And they took us to jail.

[sombre music playing]

[indistinct chattering]

[King] Get in there.

[coughs]

[man] Pops, you all right?

[King] What's it like being in jail?

- How do I like it?
- [King] Yeah.

- [man] You can't take Ibuprofen, John?
- It's like any other place.

[King] Filming,
taking pictures, inside a jail.

It's pretty funny.

[Foster] He once told me,

"I can have
anyone, anywhere killed, Alex."

"It's as easy as picking up the phone."

You know what? I believed him.

I really did.

He just had that pull with people.

He was the most brilliant,
manipulative person that I've ever met.

And he wanted to control narratives too.

He did it expertly.

And that's really the turning point,

that's when I started
questioning everything.

I don't know about Greg Faull.
I don't know [sniffles]

about keystroke software.

I don't know about the father.

All I know is what I've heard
as the writer in these circles.

You really don't know
what's truth and what's fiction.

- [ornaments jingling]
- [grunts]

God damn it,
trying to escape captors in this world

is hard as hell.

- [upbeat music playing]
- [King] They let us go.

John used his British passport
to get deported to Europe.

Then he picked up some security of Chechen

and a couple Turks.

- [people cheering]
- Ends up in Spain.

[sirens wailing]

Tech tycoon John McAfee
has been arrested in Spain

and is now awaiting extradition
to the US for tax evasion.

The US Security and Exchange Committee

accuses McAfee of making
more than $23 million

from the promotion
of at least seven cryptocurrencies.

[brooding music playing]

[John on speakers] I have personally paid

tens of millions of dollars in US taxes.

[woman] Mm-hmm.

And my company
has paid billions of dollars.

If I am extradited to the US,

I will most certainly spend

the rest of my life in prison.

[suspenseful music playing]

Antivirus computer software entrepreneur
John McAfee has been found dead

in a prison in Barcelona.

Just hours earlier,

a Spanish court agreed
to extradite him to the United States

to face tax evasion charges.

[voice quivering]
John McAfee was not suicidal.

I spoke with him
a few hours before he was found dead.

His last words to me were,

"I love you.
And I will call you in the evening."

Those words are not words
of someone who is suicidal.

But what if there was more to this story?

The circumstances
surrounding McAfee's death are so fishy

they came with a side
of chips and tartar sauce.

[laughter]

He spoke for years
about being a hunted man

and that the charges against him
were politically motivated.

After what happened to Jeffrey Epstein
in his prison cell,

would it be surprising to learn
that McAfee didn't kill himself?

Speaking of whacked. He got a tattoo that...

He kept saying,
"If I die via suicide in prison,

- I did not die of suicide, I got killed."
- [man] Yes.

I don't know what to think.

[John on speakers] I'm sorry,
I am not suicidal, my friend, no, okay?

[chuckling] If I go down,
it will be fighting with my shoes on.

[Foster] John was the virus.

Has he ruined people's lives? Yes.

But I also saw the goodness in John.

The things that he's done to help people.

I wanted to write that story.

So I was absolutely obsessive about it.

[John] My plan is to live till tomorrow,
and to wake up breathing...

[Foster] Maybe he was a murderer,
but I just love good stories.

We all do.

[John] Ready?

[King] Hold on, no.

[John] Okay. Ready?

[King] Yup.

Hello, everyone. I'm John McAfee.

[King] I lost a good friend.

How you film somebody
for so long, you know.

How could I not honour that shit?

[audio shuts off]

[static]

Single malt Scotch.

It makes all the time with you...

[sniffles] tolerable.

[snorts]

[John and King laughing]

- [King] That's all right.
- [chuckles]

If anyone's ever watching this,

you can see that
no malice was meant by that.

[King] No.

[intense string music playing]

[imperceptible]

[music ends]

[interviewer] So when was the last time
that you were in touch with John?

Um...

I don't know if I should say.

But two weeks ago, after his death,

I got a call from Texas.

"It's me, John."

"I paid off people to pretend
that I am dead, but I am not dead."

"There are only three persons
in this world

that knows that I'm still alive."

And then, um,
he asked me to run away with him.

[dial-up line beeping]

[intense electronic music playing]