In blog McAfee denounces murder accusations
Software company founder John McAfee denies he killed a neighbor in Belize but says he won't turn himself in for questioning because he fears a police anti-gang unit wants to kill him.
Belize police have said they want to question McAfee, who they describe as a "person of interest" in the slaying of fellow American Gregory Viant Faull. Faull, 52, was shot to death over the weekend on the Caribbean island where both men lived.
McAfee told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Thursday that he is in hiding with a young woman somewhere in Belize. He says he is unarmed and has been changing locations frequently to stay one step ahead of police.
In recent days the software company founder has extended himself to various media, and has even launched his own blog, whoismcafee.com, in which he protests his innocence, attacks Belizean government officials and security forces, and slams journalists who have written critical pieces:
"With lots of time on my hands and very little to do with it, I've been reflecting on the recent detour my life has taken. How did I end up as a murder suspect on the lam?"
Chad Essley, an animator and graphic artist and director of the Portland, Ore.-based Cartoon Monkey, confirmed to CBS News that he set up and hosted the blog for MacAfee, whom he referred to as a friend, but said that McAfee is posting material himself.
In his blog posts McAfee affords special attention to journalist Jeff Wise, who has written about McAfee for National Geographic Explorer, Gizmodo and other outlets."Jeff has made a life work out of smearing my character," McAfee blogged, alluding to alleged indiscretions on the writer's part as a possible reason. "The net result of his stories, however, has made my life appear much darker than the mere 'eccentricity' that most people, including myself, ascribe to me."
Wise, who appeared on "CBS This Morning" last Tuesday, said when he first got to know McAfee, "He was just a larger than life, very charismatic character. Famous, wealthy. The world was really his oyster, and in the five years that I've known him, he's followed a downward trajectory.
"He has some dark aspects to his character, and in a sense, being able to do whatever you want can be a curse at times," said Wise, who added that the last time he met with McAfee he was concerned for his own safety.
Asked what he's capable of doing, Wise replied, "I don't really know what he's capable of doing. He's a very strange man. He's one of these people who the more I've gotten to know him, the harder it is for me to pin (him) down exactly."
McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus program, has led a life of eccentricity since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company that is named for him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.
He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as calling that claim "not very accurate at all."
Of his neighbor, McAfee told the AP that Faull was an "annoyance." He acknowledged he had differences with the dead man, but he denies killing Faull, who was found Sunday morning with a gunshot wound to his head inside his two-story home.
"I barely knew him, I barely spoke ten words to him in the last three years," McAfee said, speaking on a cellphone. "Certainly he was not my favorite person and I was not his."
"He was a heavy drinker and an annoyance. But the world is full of annoyances; if we killed all of our annoyances, there would be nobody left," McAfee said.
The dispute apparently involved several dogs that McAfee kept at his beachside villa and that drew complaints from neighbors. McAfee said that four of his dogs were poisoned late last week, but that he didn't initially suspect Faull of having killed them, though he knew Faull didn't like the dogs.
"He did threaten to shoot them once or twice," McAfee said of Faull, adding that his neighbor was "always angry at them."
Other expat residents of the island of Ambergris Caye, where San Pedro is located, have described Faull, the owner of a construction business in Orlando, Florida, as peaceful and well-liked.
San Pedro Mayor Daniel Guerrero said Faull had given the town council a letter complaining that McAfee's dogs were running loose, chasing cyclists and attacking people, and that McAfee's security guards trespassing on other homeowners' property.
Still, Guerrero said there wasn't enough evidence for him to say McAfee is a suspect.
On Friday McAfee told CNBC that he was avoiding talking to police because when people in Belize are put in jail, "They just simply disappear," he said.
McAfee also told the AP Thursday that he feared that Belize's Gang Suppression Unit - a paramilitary-style squad accused of rough treatment, which raided another property McAfee owns in Belize last April - would beat him and that he would later die in custody.
"I am innocent of everything that they're accusing me of, except probably foolishness for staying here in the country, although I still intend to stay," McAfee added. "I'm not going to leave this country. I love this country. This is my home."
CBS News
John McAfee 'In His Compound In Belize'
Millionaire software mogul John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning over the death of his neighbour, claims he has been in his home in Belize all along.
Mr McAfee told CNBC he has been hiding in his compound for the last week - not on the run as previously believed.
"I am where I am most of the time. I am certainly inside my compound," he said.
Police want to question him as a "person of interest" about the murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull, who was shot last Saturday in the Central American country.
Belize Police Department spokesman Raphael Martinez told FoxNews.com the local police were aware of the latest claims from Mr McAfee and were investigating.
"That has been passed on to the police in San Pedro," Martinez said. "They are checking it out right now."
Police said McAfee has several buildings on his ocean front compound on Ambergris Caye, a stretch of island just off the Belizean shore dotted with resorts.
Mr McAfee earlier told Wired he hid out while police combed the property, burying himself in sand with a cardboard box over his head to breathe.
He denies killing Mr Faull whose body was found by his housekeeper in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to the head.
A dispute between the neighbours apparently involved several dogs that Mr McAfee kept at his beachside villa and that drew complaints from neighbours.
Asked if he knew anything about the murder, he told CNBC, "I had absolutely nothing to do with it and I did know him but just barely. We'd spoken perhaps 50 words in five years."
The tech guru said his relationship with the government has "never been good" and believes he's being targeted by police for this reason. He said he refuses to hand himself to police for fear of being killed.
"I simply refuse to play by the rules. I am a foreigner, a rich foreigner, and I am expected to pay my dues which is to contribute to campaigns and give my dues. I don't like extortion and refuse to do that," he said.
The Belizean prime minister Dean Barrow expressed doubt about the 67-year-old's mental state, saying he was "extremely paranoid, even bonkers".
Describing the last week in hiding, he said, "They've been OK. You know, I don't have a lot of freedom of movement. The food is not the best. I have no television, I would like a television."
The McAfee founder now plans to dodge police until Mr Faull's killer is found.
"The ultimate goal is they will figure out who killed the man, they will have nothing to do with me, they will leave me alone …"
He said he hadn't contacted the US embassy because he didn't want to follow the same track as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who has been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
"What would happen? They will offer me some type of sanctuary where I will spend my days living in the embassy like poor Julian Assange was. Or when I leave the embassy I will be nabbed by police.
Source
John McAfee Would Rather Not Compete with Drug Gangs/Choke On His Own Vomit in Belize Jail
Also, he'd like us all to Google a couple of things.
John McAfee has been pretty chatty for a guy who’s running from the law. The anti-virus software pioneer has been on the lam since the weekend, when he was sought for questioning following the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. But running from the Belize police hasn’t stopped Mr. McAfee from talking with the press.There was the telephone call to Wired reporter Joshua Davis, in which Mr. McAfee claimed that he evaded police by burying his head in the sand with a cardboard box over his head; his chat with the editor of the local San Pedro Sun; a televised phone call with ABC News’ Matt Guttman; and our favorite, a message board post seeking advice on how to avoid cellphone triangulation.
Now there’s an interview with CNBC’s Street Signs, in which Mr. McAfee makes a couple of pretty sane points for a supposedly paranoid man.
On reports that he was manufacturing methamphetamine out of his Belize compound:
I would not have the vaguest idea how to make meth or sell meth, especially in a part of the world where I would have to compete with the Mexican Zeta gangs, and it's not the type of business i would choose, sir.
And on his willingness to “go all the way” to avoid the fate of those who go into Belizean jails:
They just simply disappear. They choke on their own vomit, or hang themselves, or are beaten to death by fellow prisoners. If you found any research on Belize and the legal and police system you would have discovered this fact yourself.
Logic, on both counts, that we can wrap our heads around. Mr. McAfee’s answer when asked by CNBC’s Robert Frank to explain his recent media blitz, on the other hand, fairly boggles the mind:
Well, I think that the world has largely ignored Belize and the political situation and the plight of its people, because it’s one of the smallest countries and, in terms of the world economy, one of the least significant. I would ask anybody who truly is interested in my plight to google a couple of things. Google the take over of the Belize telecommunications company, it was owned by Lord Ashcroft. The Supreme Court ruled that the take over was illegal and ordered the government to return it. On the day it was supposed to have been returned the government sent in its soldiers to prevent Lord Ashcroft and the rightful owners from reclaiming it. This is the type of government we live in. Number two, please Google the abuses of the gang suppression unit, I think if you do that, you will the position I am in and you will understand my reluctance to turn myself in.
(We Googled. We understand less than we did before.)
Source
AmbergrisCaye.com 
