Who was Don McAfee? John McAfee's alcoholic father 'beat him mercilessly', later killed himself
Technology tycoon John McAfee was found dead in his prison cell in Spain on June 23, shortly after his extradition to the United States was approved. Preliminary investigation indicates suicide and it is believed that the 75-year-old killed himself by hanging. However, there are certain curious aspects of his unnatural death that are baffling the public. From his old tweets foreshadowing a murder in the guise of suicide to the mysterious Q posted on his Instagram after his death. As people still seek answers, McAfee's tragic death is being mourned by thousands across the world.
John McAfee was widely recognized as the founder of McAfee antivirus software and the tech mogul behind McAfee Associates. However, his popularity and wealth saw a drastic downfall during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. In 2013, he was wanted for questioning in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull in Belize. In 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain for tax evasion charges in the US and was held in a prison cell in Barcelona, where he died by suicide a year later. In a strange parallel, his father had also died by suicide when John McAfee was barely 15 years old.
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Who was John McAfee's father?
John McAfee was born on September 18, 1945, in Cinderford, Gloucestershire in the UK. His father, Don Harold McAfee was an American while his mother Joan Ellen Williams was British.
Don McAfee was an American soldier of the 596th Ordnance Ammunition Company who was stationed at the US Army Base in Gloucestershire. He originally hailed from Wise County, Virginia where he was born in 1914, according to Geneanet. He lived through two World Wars and presumably served in the Army during the Second World War. In fact, John McAfee was born just sixteen days after the Second World War ended on September 2, 1945.
In the UK, Don McAfee met Joan Ellen Williams, and later the two welcomed their only son John. Later in life, John McAfee had said that he always felt as much British as he felt American.
He grew up in Roanoke, Virginia after his parents moved there. There, his father worked as a road surveyor. But John did not have a happy childhood, due to his father's alcoholism and abuse. In fact, his father used to "beat him mercilessly" and often. In 1961, when John was 15 years old, his father killed himself with a gun.
The memory of his father's suicide has haunted him throughout his life. In his later interviews, John McAfee opened up about his childhood trauma due to his father's untimely death and even cried while talking about it to Steve Morgan. Despite all his struggles and global success, John McAfee's life ended tragically, in a strikingly similar manner to his father.