Getty John McAfee, founder of the eponymous anti-virus company, speaks to journalists at the China Internet Security Conference in Beijing on August 16, 2016.
John McAfee, former presidential candidate and founder of McAfee Associates, was found dead in his prison cell in Spain. In 2019, McAfee tweeted that he would not kill himself. Another tweet from 2020 mentioned the same. However, authorities have said that his death appears to be a suicide.
In 2019, McAfee Tweeted, ‘If I Suicide Myself, I Didn’t’
Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: “We’re coming for you McAfee! We’re going to kill yourself”. I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whackd. Check my right arm.
$WHACKD available only on t.co/HdSEYi9krq:)
In November 2019, about a year before he was arrested, McAfee tweeted that he had gotten a “$WHACKD” tattoo and wrote that he would not “suicide myself.” He then include a link to where people could buy a “$WHACKD” token.
Below are screenshots of the post in case the tweet is deleted or it does not embed on your browser.
His full tweet read: “Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: “We’re coming for you McAfee! We’re going to kill yourself”. I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whackd. Check my right arm. $WHACKD available only on McAfeedex.com:)”
Here’s the full photo that accompanied the tweet.
The Tweet Was Connected to a Cryptocurrency Token He Was Selling
The tweet was connected to a cryptocurrency token that McAfee was selling at the time on his website called McAfeedex.com. The token was called $WHACKD.
The tweet was made on November 30, 2019. Two weeks prior, he tweeted that he was about to have a token airdrop for $WHACKD.
P.S. $WHACKD will be listed on t.co/HdSEYi9krq tomorrow at midnight E.S.T.
He wrote: “The $WHACKD token airdrop is tomorrow. We are air dropping 700 million tokens out of a total supply of one billion. So far we only have 8,000 signups for the airdrop, each of which will get an equal number of tokens. Last 24 hours to get in on the action. http://WHACKDtoken.com… P.S. $WHACKD will be listed on http://McAfeedex.com tomorrow at midnight E.S.T.”
Although the associated websites are now gone, Heavy viewed their archived versions on Internet Archive. The archive from May 24, 2020, for Whackdtoken.com shows a photo of Hillary Clinton and references to the conspiracy theory Pizzagate. The website also reads: “Epstein didn’t kill himself.”
Internet Archive
McAfeedex.com screenshots from December 2019 simply show a website no longer functioning that showed price charts, depth charts, and trade history for certain coins no longer listed.
Internet Archive
Another Tweets Also Talked About How He Wouldn’t Kill Himself
This was not the only tweet where McAfee said he would not kill himself. On October 15, 2020, he tweeted: “I am content in here. I have friends. The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.”
On Twitter, one person tweeted that this was not enough to convince them that he didn’t kill himself. They wrote: “He killed himself because like Epstein, he was terrified of going to prison. He owed $4.2 million in taxes.”
@officialmcafee He killed himself because like Epstein, he was terrified of going to prison. He owed $4.2 million in taxes.
In May 2021, McAfee tweeted that he was not able to offer much help to someone asking for ideas on how to kill themselves.
Today a man facing a difficult situation asked if I knew of painless ways to kill himself. Having little experience in such, I was of not much help.
The amazing thing is that the tone of the discussion was like discussing the weather.
Prison is a strange environment.
The tweets were made before the U.S. received approval to extradite him.
According to a translated version of the local publication El Pais, McAfee was found hanging in his cell by prison guard officials. Officials reportedly tried to resuscitate him when he was found, but were not able to save him.
The New York Post reported that police are investigating his death and officials told a local publication that “everything points to suicide.”
Hours before he was found dead, Spain had approved the United States’ request to extradite McAfee, Business Insider reported.
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