I'VE SPENT 4 MONTHS WITH JOHN MCAFEE, SUCKERS
.....well, following his blog.....
11-11-12 to 12-3-12
It was a confusing time............John and Sam were on the run, with JM blogging and feeding us story after story.....we got 29 posts between Nov. 17th & 25th, and more than 1500 comments. We learned about Sam, the corruption in Belize, the April raid, JM's life since moving there, the Girls, the locals he had befriended/hired, and the very real danger he knew he was in. That Belize was tarnished, and not the shiny little Jewel it claimed to be was becoming very clear. Comments continued to confuse, often saying things that few people understood......that is, until there was clarification or a direction to another news story. The Police continued to say JM was a person of interest, the Prime Minister (whose actions since becoming PM are nothing short of criminal), Dean Barrow went on TV and called McAfee "Bonkers" for fearing the GSU. John in turn gave us info about his actions, what was happening at his house, what disguise he had worn, and more. In other words, he kept the cops running in circles, completely unaware of his location while providing more and more of his story to the world. There was media everywhere, and although they proved to be useless in the end, they served the original purpose of bringing attention to the story, which was crucial to survival. The blog was fast paced and full of opinions.
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| On the run FT article |
Between Nov. 26th and Dec. 1st, there were 18 more posts, 1 from Sam, 1 from the Alex Jones Interview, 1 from the Joe Rogan interview, and 15 from John, each one shedding more light on the corrupt behavior, and shocking us just a bit more. There were the incriminating recordings of Politician Anthony Rhaburn (1) & (2) , the sad story of the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary , the two interviews, a shocking revelation about possible government action, the joy of knowing we overloaded the Belize Gov't website trying to get JM's friends freed, a raid on his AC compound (it took 10 minutes for cops to break into the padlocked garage), which interestingly enough we were informed of (this GSU raid) by John, and there were witnesses. Of course the GSU denied it, and we went through another round of liar liar, but in the end, the papers all printed the story, and the only deviation was that it had been a different branch of the GOB Police who had been there. Then, and most sadly, the news that one of JM's dogs, Tiger, had been killed by the police while raiding his home. Bastards.
The newspaper stories being printed were getting stranger by the minute. John's life had been (up to the point he ran) controversial to say the least, and this was just adding fuel to the fire. The dogs, bodyguards. guns, girls, continuous flow of taxi-cabs and more had become a bone of contention for many (expats) along the beach. John didn't fit into their little mold, and this deviant behavior was a good excuse to complain. And according to public records, GF did just that. The city council had not had time to inform or discuss any of this with JM. According to people who call themselves his 'friends', GF, tired of waiting for official action, said he was going to take care of the dogs himself, and later boasted that he had. I say 'Friends', because there was no need to throw a dead man under the bus, tell Dateline NBC that Greg admitted to the poisoning, or that they had found the poison in GF's house upon arriving after his murder. So either they're really crappy friends, or they were lying in an effort to make JM look guilty. No matter what, getting out of AC looked more like a blessing all the time.
John will tell you with great pride that he had 5 (or was it 51/2?) young girlfriends at the same time, but that he wasn't foolish enough to think they were with him for much more than his money. Regardless of his revelation, the blog shifted and flowed between cheers and jeers regarding his involvement with girls so young. There's no doubt in my mind that money played a big role........young girls living in poverty whose choices in life are limited look at a gringo like JM as a way out. But Sam was different, and we knew it from the minute JM wrote about her. That he was able to give her so much credit for their safe departure from Belize is very telling.....many women wouldn't survive escaping through the jungle without whining constantly (sorry ladies), let alone get kudos for the huge part they played in its success. Yep, Sam had 'it'....a spitfire, take no prisoners, don't mess with me, true survivor mentality, plus, in her own words 'she had balls' . Most importantly, they sure seemed to make each other happy despite a 50 year age gap. Yes, I said 50. Not everyone was overjoyed by this, but neither of them care what anyone thinks.
It was however, great fodder for the news agencies, and most were sure to add salacious teasers about the girls to their reports. They did their best to make JM look unhinged and completely nuts......and he helped, all the while laughing. The more media and the bigger the circus the better seemed to be his mantra. He knew exactly what he was doing.
What happened next has been all but erased from history. At some point Dec 1st, maybe early evening, someone posted an article stating JM had been apprehended at the Mexican border. The blog blew up.....literally. Chad posted too, letting us know he knew nothing of these events, and was waiting for news just like us. Comments started posting without moderation, trolls were running wild.....some claiming to be John, others Chad, and a couple who claimed to have seen JM at the police station in Belmopan. Finally, sometime after midnight, I had to tweet Chad to let him know the blog was a 'cluster fuck' that needed some supervision. If I recall correctly, they originally tried to remove the ridiculous and the sublime, and leave the rest of the comments up. Somehow in the process of cleaning out the troll comments, my IP was blocked. O M G ....NOOOOOOOO. An email sorted that out, and I was able to comment again......but we still didn't know where JM was. On Dec. 3rd @ 3 am, URM posted this on wim, and thanks to The John McAfee Story, there is a screen shot. It was pretty frightening to have them say neither they nor Chad knew where John was, and we were left to speculate and worry. Later that day, all hell broke loose again, when Vice posted this to their website, 'suckers'.
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| Short lived smile |
It didn't take long for the bubble to burst, and within minutes pictures of JM's location were all over the net. The Vice guy had forgotten to remove the exif data from the photograph, meaning anyone who knew how, could figure out exactly where they were.....In Guatemala. John put up some bullshit posts about it not being true, or being a prank. Vice too put out a blurb, but neither of them worked and looked silly (the location article touches on this). Eventually, all record of these 3 days was erased completely from wim. The previous posts of his capture at the Mexican border, then freedom, the hundreds of comments, then the snafu with the exif data outing their location, all removed. It really bugs me that such a crazy, wild, important time was wiped out, as if it never existed. It's a big part of the story...... hmmmmm. Could that be why it was removed?
