Who Is John McAfee? Netflix’s ‘Running with the Devil’ Tells the True Story of a Programmer Turned Fugitive

The new Netflix documentary, Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, needs to be seen to be believed. And even after you see it, you may not believe it.

The documentary, which began streaming on Wednesday, tells the story of computer programmer John McAfee, whose name you may recognize from McAfee anti-virus software. But, as you’ll see from the film, McAfee’s life after he sold his tech company was far wilder than your average eccentric retired millionaire.

From being wanted for questioning for the murder of his neighbor in Belize to McAfee’s own claims that the Mexican cartel was out to kill him, it’s a car crash you won’t be able to look away from. It’s also a car crash that was almost entirely caught on film, thanks to McAfee’s own obsession with documenting himself. Read on to learn more about John McAfee and the Running with the Devil true story.

Who is John McAfee?

John McAfee was a computer programmer and eccentric businessman who was once best known for his anti-virus software developed at his company, McAfee Corp. However, in 2012, McAfee became more famous for being a fugitive on the run from the Belize authorities.

In November 2012, Belize police named McAfee a person of interest in the murder of Gregory Viant Faull, who was McAfee’s neighbor on a large island in Belize where they both resided. McAfee did not cooperate with questioning and instead went on the run from the police, claiming the Belize government was corrupt, out to get him, and that he feared police would kill him.

McAfee eventually was deported to the United States and was able live free for several years. Then in January 2019 claimed he was on the run from U.S. authorities, living on a boat in international waters because he was wanted for tax evasion. In October 2020, he was arrested in Spain on U.S. charges of tax evasion, fraud, and insider trading. He was held in jail in Spain, and before he could be extradited to the U.S., he was found dead in his prison cell. His autopsy ruled his death a suicide.

What is the true story of Netflix’s Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee?

Directed by Charlie Russell, Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee is a Netflix documentary that recounts McAfee’s years on the run, relying on footage shot by cameraman Robert King. King and Vice editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro were invited by McAfee himself to document the former businessman when he first went on the run in Belize, because, as McAfee himself says in the documentary, “it’s dramatic,” and “people love that shit.”

It’s clear that while McAfee truly does fear for his life, he also prioritizes his narcissistic tendency to want to be the star of his own crazy story over his own safety. While on the run, both in Central America evading Belize authorities and later off the coast of the U.S. evading American authorities, McAfee tells anyone and everyone they meet exactly who he is, complete with a, “Maybe you’ve heard of me.”

The longer the film goes on, the more clear it becomes that McAfee is manic, paranoid, and unstable. By the time he is living on the boat, he was drinking heavily, doing drugs (including bath salts), and pointing guns at King, threatening to shoot him. He has many stories of the people who are out to get him, from the Belize government to the Mexican drug cartel. (The cartel claim is backed up by his wife Janice, though her testimony doesn’t come off much more trustworthy than his.) But never once does he shy away from the spotlight.

After McAfee’s death, there was rampant speculation that his death was not a suicide—that McAfee had been murdered, or, perhaps, faked his own death. Running with the Devil��adds a huge stir to that pot, with a claim from McAfee’s ex-girlfriend, Samantha Herrera—who traveled with McAfee when he was first on the run in Central America—who says in the interview for the film that McAfee faked his death.

When asked when she last saw McAfee, Herrera responds, “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 know that I’m still alive.’ And then he asked me to run away with him.”

The documentary leaves viewers on this enigmatic note, with no attempt to follow up on or verify Herrera’s claim. In an interview with Esquire, the documentary director Charlie Russell said he didn’t know what to make of Herrera’s claim that McAfee was still alive.

“I don’t know what I think and I don’t think she does,” Rusell said. “She says it, then she looks at the camera, and I can’t work out whether she thinks it’s real or not. She’s someone who was very angry at John. He promised them a life together and I think they were genuinely in love, despite the huge age difference, I think he offered her a real different future, then he literally ditched her at the border and I think that’s very painful for her and it’s taken her years to get over that.”