‘Distraught’ John McAfee ‘was alone in his cell for two HOURS before he was found dead’
JOHN McAfee spent the final two hours of his life alone in a jail cell stressing over a ruling that said he’d be extradited back to the US.
The anti-virus software creator, 75, appeared to die by suicide alone in a cell in Barcelona on Wednesday, just hours after the decision to extradite was handed down.
McAfee had complained to Spanish authorities that he was in poor health and should not be sent back to the US to answer charges for tax evasion, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.
He also reportedly claimed he was being “politically persecuted” for his “activism” against the US tax system, which he believed to be corrupt.
Despite these claims, the decision was made Wednesday morning to extradite McAfee back to the US.
The inmate asked to be brought back to his cell around 4pm that day. McAfee normally had a cellmate, but he was not there at the time.
Guards found McAfee hanging in his cell two hours later in what is being investigated as a suicide.
The inmate had not been considered a suicide threat, and his behavior had been considered “exemplary” by prison staff in the nine months that he was behind bars, according to the outlet.
“We were the first to be surprised,” one of the guards said.
McAfee was arrested in October 2020 while attempting to travel from Spain to Turkey and was facing tax evasion charges.
Prison sources described him as “a financial crimes prisoner with an absolutely normal life.”
While McAfee’s death came as a shock to prison employees and his family, the eccentric tech mogul has publicly stated in the past that he would never kill himself.
Weeks after he was arrested in October, he posted a tweet referencing the suicide of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“I am content in here. The food is good. All is well,” he wrote of the prison.
“Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.”
Conspiracy theorists have suggested Epstein was murdered by high-profile authority figures who feared he would implicate them.
Also, a year before his arrest, McAfee tweeted that US officials were out to get him after he spoke out against alleged corruption.
“If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whacked,” he wrote in that post.
McAfee’s lawyer Javier Villalba said “nobody expected” his client’s death.
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He said it “did not come in the heat of the moment” as McAfee had already learned of the extradition ruling.
He said McAfee had been preparing a case to try to block his return.
The Spanish authorities have ordered an autopsy.