Did John McAfee Fake His Own Death? His Ex Claims So

Samantha Herrera, John McAfee’s ex-girlfriend, says that contrary to official reports, McAfee did not die in his prison cell but escaped and is now living in the United States.

Happily Ever After

John McAfee’s ex-girlfriend says he’s still alive.

In the new Netflix documentary, Running With the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, McAfee’s ex-girlfriend Samantha Herrera reportedly claims the notorious crypto personality faked his own death.

“After his death, I got a call from Texas [from him],” says Herrera. According to her, McAfee did not hang himself in a Spanish prison while awaiting extradition but managed to escape prison and return to the United States. McAfee asked her to run away with him, Herrera claims, and told her there were “only three persons in this world that [knew he was] still alive.” However, there was no known corroboration of Herrera’s claims at press time, and McAfee’s remains are reported to be currently held in a Spanish morgue.

Famous for creating and commercializing the McAfee anti-virus software, John McAfee’s wild and outlandish behavior made him an icon within the crypto scene during the ICO era. Among other things, he vowed to “eat [his] dick on national television” if Bitcoin failed to reach $500,000 by July 2020 (an offer he later rescinded), launched two different ICOs, and created an “unhackable” crypto wallet that was almost immediately hacked.

McAfee was arrested in Spain in October 2020 at the request of the Department of Justice for tax evasion. The Spanish National Court authorized his extradition on June 23, 2021; McAfee was found dead in his prison cell a few hours after the news. The official autopsy concluded McAfee had committed suicide, as did a Spanish court in February. McAfee, however, had repeatedly tweeted that he had no intention of killing himself.

The WHACKD token, launched by McAfee in December 2019, surged by 9% on Uniswap following reports of Herrera’s claims.

McAfee isn’t the first crypto personality around whom fake death rumors have swirled. QuadrigaCX CEO Gerald Cotten took $190 million worth of client crypto funds with him to the grave when he died in India in 2019—though crypto users were quick to point out that fake death certificates were obtainable in parts of India.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.