The black hat.

Despite believing his life to be in danger, John McAfee may have leaked digital data that revealed his location in the last days of 2012, recalling the misstep that led to his arrest in Guatemala last month.

Mr. McAfee, who rose to prominence developing antivirus software, has been on the run since November, when the Belizean police sought Mr. McAfee for questioning in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. Over the weeks that followed, Mr. McAfee often said that he would be killed if captured.

While Mr. McAfee has successfully escaped to the United States, he told Betabeat in a telephone conversation yesterday that he still fears for his life, and that there are parties that would like to "take him out."

In a blog post yesterday, Mr. McAfee claimed to offer evidence that the Belize government, the Zeta drug cartel and the terrorist organization Hezbollah were working together to smuggle weapons into the United States.

“I’m not an idiot,” he told us. “I have exposed a major plot involving the Zetas and Hezbollah and Belize at highest level, and all three would probably like to take me out.”

Given those concerns, Mr. McAfee told us he is keeping a low profile and plans to "disappear" into the Midwest.

Nonetheless, Mr. McAfee may have let his whereabouts slip on December 30, when a blogger who has been critical of the antivirus pioneer claimed to have tracked Mr. McAfee's to Las Vegas.

The blogger, who writes under the name Acapulco Kevin, said in an email to Betabeat that he once worked for Mr. McAfee and has known Mr. McAfee for 20 years.

In an introductory post to his blog last month, he explained that "first and foremost I am writing this blog because I believe John McAfee is guilty of murder, being a pedophile, drug addict and fleeing Belize to avoid prosecution."

Last week, Acapulco Kevin posted an email exchange with Mr. McAfee, and claimed that he'd traced the header in Mr. McAfee’s Yahoo address, indicating that Mr. McAfee was in Sin City on December 30:

Well I just got an Email from John McAfee and he is in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada!!!
The software genius uses Yahoo! email and is too dumb to use a proxy so I looked up his Email Header information and here's what we have:

Mr. McAfee denied the assertion, asking Betabeat, “Do you think I’m foolish enough, sir, to let people get my real IP address? I’m nowhere near Vegas, I don’t like it particularly much there.”

Betabeat can't confirm that the above screenshot hasn't been doctored, though we were able to reach Mr. McAfee through the email address the blogger said he used to track Mr. McAfee.

If Acapulco Kevin is correct, it wouldn’t be the first time Mr. McAfee's whereabouts were betrayed by his digital footprint. Vice revealed the location of Mr. McAfee's hideout in Guatemala when the magazine failed to scrub data from a published photo, perhaps leading to his arrest in subsequent days.

For his part, Mr. McAfee has often been less than credible as a source. In the case of the Vice slip, Mr. McAfee briefly claimed that he'd intentionally leaked false coordinates for the purpose of throwing authorities off his scent, and newsrooms are littered with journalists betrayed by Mr. McAfee.

Meanwhile, it's unclear that Mr. McAfee is actually in danger. He told Betabeat that the Belizean government was "running scared" after his latest blog post, and that three police officials that he has criticized in the aftermath of his supposed exposé.

It is true that Belize's top cop David Henderson announced his retirement yesterday, the journalist at 7 News Belize who reported that story told Betabeat that the police commissioner stepped down because "he is past retirement and he presided over the most murderous year in Belize's history."

"I realize that in McAfee's solipsistic fantasies—everything is about him," reporter Jules Vasquez said in an email. "Coming from that completely baseless position—It would be hard to explain how completely irrelevant he is and has been to any decision made in Belize."

Update (January 5): After the publication of this post, Mr. McAfee emailed to reiterate he was not in Las Vegas on the night in question.

"I have not been in Vegas in years," he said. "On The day in question I was in Jackson Tennessee staying with John Pool and Kathy Pickett.  There were eleven witnesses. The blog in question is a hoax.  Anyone who checked his sources would know this.  The person blogging never worked for me or even met me."

We will continue to update this post as we learn more.

The black hat.

The law of diminishing returns: it's the bane of bath salts enthusiasts and fabulist storytellers the world over. Sure, that first hit was good; but it takes an increasingly potent dosage to deliver a thrill that approaches your very first time.

Fortunately, global media icon John McAfee appears to understand this phenomenon. (We're not saying that Mr. McAfee is necessarily pioneering a new form of reality entertainment, but we're not saying he isn't, either.) In his latest missive, posted under the title "A Clear and Present Danger," he claims to have hired 29 "pillow talk masters" to spy on Belize officials, and in so doing uncovered links between the Central American nation and the terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Ever since Mr. McAfee's first titillating blog posts after the murder of his neighbor Greg Faull, the story spun by the antivirus pioneer has never failed to get weirder. In the first chapters of the saga, he told tales of clever disguises and held forth on his experiences in sex tourism. In what seemed like his pièce de résistance, two Vice journalists embedded with Mr. McAfee, published a photo of the fugitive that outed his hiding place.

Which seemed to beg the question, would Mr. McAfee do next to maintain our interest. Well, here's a summary of Mr. McAfee's latest bid for our attention:

• After Belize police raided Mr. McAfee's home in April, he purchased 75 cheap laptops, loaded them with keystroke monitoring software, and gifted them to various Belize officials.
• He hired 23 women and 6 men as operatives, and sicced them on Belize's two national phone companies. "These men and women were given simple training on how to access and load software on someone's computer while they slept, or ate, or made long phone calls etc. It's dead simple if you're sleeping with someone ..."
• "Eight of the women became so accomplished that they ended up living with me."
• Throughout the operation, he emailed the Belize prime minister Dean Barrow, asking for an apology for the police raid. "A simple apology, in the early stages at least, would have stopped this whole affair."
• With no apology forthcoming, Mr. McAfee says he dug into Belize's National Security and Immigration ministries, which he alleges were knee-deep in a human-trafficking schema.
• A surprising number of the new arrivals to Belize, Mr. McAfee says, were Lebanese men.
• It should be noted here that for our man behind the curtain, it's a thin line between spymaster and pimp. A phone call with an operative posted to Mr. McAfee's site begins with, "How is my favorite tart today?" and ends at, "Why don't you come home, because I miss your ass anyway." (The recording is appended to the bottom of this post.)
• Frankly, after listening to that, we got a little distracted from the allegation that started all this. “Belize is clearly the central player in a larger network whose goal is to infiltrate the U.S. with individuals having links to terrorist organizations,” claims Mr. McAfee.
• The scheme involves the Zeta drug cartel, which, ominously, may be helping Hezbollah transport "something similar, in weight and size," to the drug packages the cartel slips into the U.S.
• Luckily for us, Mr. McAfee managed to infiltrate a Hezbollah camp.

Lucky, because he's promised to write about it at a later date.

Like Romeo and Juliet. (Photo: Robert King/Vice)

American treasure John McAfee has officially returned to U.S. soil following his dramatic escape from Belize, and has immediately begun doing what he does best: messin' with tech reporters.

In an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning, Mr. McAfee appeared grizzled in a navy blue blazer, swirling a piece of candy--perhaps a Nicorette product?--haphazardly around in his mouth as he deigned to answer questions from Andrew Ross Sorkin.

His responses were as delightfully insane as they usually are. Come, journey with us through the mind of brainy paranoiac and ephebophilia enthusiast John McAfee.

On whether or not he really does bath salts:

Child, please!  "I have the resources to do good drugs," Mr. McAfee said, sounding slightly miffed that he would ever do a drug manufactured in a midwestern trailer.

On his affinity for hoaxes:

"I love elaborate hoaxes but not ones that result in my detention in Guatemalan jails." C'mon now.

But then, Mr. Mcafee added, "I did a hoax on bath salts once," negating his prior claim that he likes only fancy drugs.

On how much money he actually has:

"I have no clue what I am worth, probably around $5 million." :(

On what he'll do to make money after this whole hooplah dies down:

"I'll do something... I'll shine shoes." A noble profession!

CNBC also reported that Mr. McAfee's girlfriend has escaped Belize, but did not clarify whether it meant the 20-year-old or the 17-year-old. Godspeed, Sam and Amy!

McAfee and Vice editor in chief Rocco Castoro. (Vice.)

They most recent chapter in the fantastical tale of John McAfee's escape from Belize is coming to a close, as the software pioneer was released from a Guatemalan detention center and is being expelled from the country.

Mr. McAfee, who has been on the run from Belize police since the murder of his next door neighbor last month, will be boarding an American Airlines flight bound for Miami later this afternoon, Mr. McAfee said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Cory Johnson.

"I'm being expelled, I will have to leave today" he told Bloomberg. "I'll be leaving on the 3:40 flight for Miami on American Airlines, and I have no choice in the matter, however, I'm perfectly happy with the decision."

Mr. McAfee's flight back to the United States may be the most ordinary event in the month-long drama, which has seen Mr. McAfee concoct strange disguises, carry on a never-ending string of media interviews from hiding, and blog at length about his ordeals and about the humanitarian conditions in Belize.

In a recent twist, Mr. McAfee accused Vice magazine, which had two journalists embedded with the fugitive, of intentionally exposing his location so they could get exclusive video of his arrest.

When asked whether he thought the Belize government would continue to seek him for questioning, Mr. McAfee fell back on a familiar refrain, averring that the police in the Central American nation intended to harm him.

"I've offered to talk to the police numerous times on the phone," he said. "This is not an issue of talking about a murder. It's a matter of putting my hands on the person."

Nor did he miss the chance his deportation offered to funnel traffic back to his blog: "If you go to my blog at whoismcafee.com, it's all described there, there's 4 million words of text and a few pretty pictures."

With that, Mr. McAfee bid Mr. Johnson adieu. "But sir, the officers are here with guns and I must leave."

Mr. McAfee and Mr. Castoro (Photo: Vice)

The twisted saga of John McAfee continues, much to our great entertainment. The newest installment of this bizarre tale? Mr. McAfee now believes that highers up at Vice orchestrated the release of his location via iPhone metadata so that they could film his inevitable capture and arrest.

According to a post on his blog:

Mr. McAfee is terminating his relationship with Vice Magazine.  Due to information just received, It is no longer clear to Mr. McAfee that the “accidental” release of his co-ordinates due to Vice Magazine’s editorial department’s failure to remove location data from their now notorious photo, was indeed an accident.  This incident led directly to Mr. McAfee’s arrest.  The reason, possibly, was that Vice wanted exclusive access to Mr. McAfee’s arrest, which they in fact obtained and broadcast.  This, and subsequent developments, including a breach of verbal contract, has led Mr. McAfee to terminate all contact with Vice.

We suppose it could be true, but Mr. McAfee isn't exactly a trusted source at this point. He also claims in the post that the "two reporters" embedded with him didn't know of the plan to out him; this seems unlikely, given that Vice's own editor in chief Rocco Castoro was with him the whole time. That kind of nefarious scheme seems a little too complex to keep from the person in charge of the magazine's editorial mission. Of course, Mr. McAfee could've used the term "reporters" specifically to hint that the editor Mr. Castoro did know (at this point we're starting to feel like we're on bath salts ourselves).

Mr. McAfee has an extensive history of burning reporters, using them as pawns in a tightly-controlled game of mass media manipulation. He originally showered his attentions on reporter Jeff Wise, but that relationship also soured. In the comments of his most recent post, "Harold M."--who is supposedly a close friend of Mr. McAfee's but could be the man himself--jokes Mr. Wise is "acting like a jilted lover :)." Ouch.

A romance for the ages. (Photo: Robert King/Vice)

When not blogging from a prison cell, antivirus software creator John McAfee is reportedly busy planning the next iteration of his media blitz: The Hollywood Reporter writes that Mr. McAfee has successfully sold his life rights to a TV production company called Impact Future Media.

Mr. McAfee has skillfully played the media these past few months, getting a Wired reporter to speak on his behalf and telling his story to Gizmodo before inviting Vice to join him in his escape from Belize. That decision ended with his capture when a Vice employee published an iPhone photo still containing the metadata that revealed his location. Mr. McAfee still managed to temporarily convince Vice's photographer to lie for him.

Now, Mr. McAfee's story is one step closer to being splashed across televisions everywhere. The film will tentatively be called Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee, as a nod to the antivirus software that slows down your mom's desktop.

Mr. McAfee said that he believes Impact Future Media has a "dedication to truth" that most organizations do not these days, despite the fact that the production company has only been around for a handful of weeks. Impact is also producing a show called High on Tuna, which is about a drug dealer and not, unfortunately, about a new state school trend of smoking cat food.

Vice has also said it's developing a documentary about Mr. McAfee. We can only hope at least one film includes a dramatic tampon-up-the-nose disguise scene.

It seemed as though Mr. McAfee's saga had reached a happy ending earlier this week, when he arrived in Guatemala and expressed his intention to marry Sam Vanegas, the 20-year-old Belizean woman who has been his traveling companion throughout his recent travails. But in what was perhaps an inevitable twist to a very strange tale, Mr. McAfee was arrested and taken to jail.

Vice, which has had two journalists traveling with Mr. McAfee in recent days, posted video of the arrest in which an unconcerned Mr. McAfee appears to play a recorder with street musicians moments before piling into a police van.

It's not all bad news: Mr. McAfee's lawyer, Telésforo Guerra, who happens to be the uncle of his fiancee, was able to wrangle a stay preventing Guatemalan immigration officials from returning Mr. McAfee to the Belize border until a higher court can review the case.

Meanwhile, Mr. McAfee seems to be getting the type of treatment generally reserved for celebrity fugitives. "I am using the computer of one of the wardens, or whatever title is used here," he wrote in a blog post titled "Can't Sleep."

He is a sweet man and a gentleman.  The world is heavilly populated with gentle people.  He makes me coffee and tells tender stories about his life.  He is a good companion.  I believe I could spend weeks in the desert with him as a sole companion without once becoming irritated.

It's not exactly the type of treatment he expects if he’s returned to Belize.

Get an eyeful, suckers. (Robert King/Vice)

The sordid tale of John McAffe's flight from the Belizean police has had a little bit of everything. Poisoned dogs, automatic weapons, disgusting disguises, bath salts—to say nothing of the fake North Korean passport, benighted rants on political corruption Central America-style, even a lesson on the importance of wiping GPS data from your iPhone pics when on the lam. One thing it's lacked: True Love.

Oh sure, Mr. McAfee has blogged on Belize's bar-girl culture, and offered a seemingly honest accounting of his own relationships with young, impoverished women. ("Many have commented that these women were only with me because of my money – a fact that I have to agree with," he blogged on November 19 title "Love and Deception.")

Well, there's nothing like a few weeks on the run to let romance blossom.

According to Vice editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro, one of the journalists who accidentally outed Mr. McAfee's location when an underling neglected to wipe EXIF data off a photo of Mr. McAfee yesterday, the anti-virus pioneer is getting ready to marry Sam Vanegas, his 20-year-old girlfriend and traveling companion.

Per Mr. Castoro, Mr. McAfee had just finished a "delicious breakfast of crepes and fresh fruit juice," when he hired hired a "powerful Guatemalan lawyer" named Telésforo Guerra, who happens to be Ms. Vanegas's uncle, and made the following profession:

I have known Samantha for a year and a half. She is a remarkable young woman. I love her very much and we are getting married. Unfortunately you will have a potential criminal in the family. My apologies for that, and I will do the best I can to make it up to you.

Awwww? Though we can't help but note when it comes to sweeping a 20-year-old woman off her feet and across international boundaries, it's a slippery slope between true love and human trafficking.

The photo in question. (Photo: Vice)

Antivirus software king John McAfee finally admitted this morning that an "unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters" royally screwed him yesterday by accidentally revealing his top secret location to the entire Internet. Whoops!

Mr. McAfee, who's been on the lam in Central America for weeks, recently escaped Belize with the aid of a body double and a North Korean passport. Yesterday, a photo published to Vice alongside a post entitled "We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers" was not stripped of its EXIF data before publication, making it possible to see the exact geographical location where Mr. McAfee was "hiding."

Mr. McAfee quickly threw up a blog post claiming that he had manipulated the data to make it appear as if he was in Guatemala; however, photographer Robert King said on his Facebook page that Vice was in on the data manipulation, contradicting Mr. McAfee's statement. That post has since been deleted from Mr. McAfee's blog. Mr. King's Facebook status has also been deleted.

Meanwhile, Vice removed the original photo from the blog post and replaced it with a Photoshopped version void of identifiable geo tags, which seemed like an unnecessary move if they had indeed manipulated the EXIF data.

It seems our suspicions were on point, and the EXIF data for the photo was accurate. On his blog this morning, Mr. McAfee wrote:

I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days.  It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries.  I am in Guatemala and will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning.  If all goes well I will do a press conference tomorrow.

Vice Magazine reporters are indeed with me in Guatemala.  Yesterday was chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters.  We made it to safety in spite of this handicap.  I had to cancel numerous interviews with the press yesterday because of this and I apologize to all of those affected.

Suckers!

But weep not for Mr. McAfee. He's safe in Guatemala City and now prepared to wed his 20-year-old girlfriend.

(Photo: Vice)

Today, Vice announced that it had managed to track down antivirus king John McAfee after he'd safely escaped Belize while wanted for questioning related to the murder of his neighbor. In smug hipster fashion, the online mag published a post called "We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers," along with a photo showing Vice editor in chief Rocco Castoro posing sans smile next to a cross-armed Mr. McAfee.

But it turns out that Vice may have forgotten to scrub the EXIF data from the photo they uploaded. In fact, the photo's geolocation info shows that Mr. McAfee & Co. appear to be seeking safe harbor near Rio Dulce, Guatemala.

*Screenshot: Google Maps)

Vice writes that they've spent the past four days with Mr. McAfee, so the photo must have been taken during that timeframe; it's unclear whether Mr. McAfee is still in that location. The EXIF data indicates that the photo was taken today around 12:26 p.m.

After the discovery hit the web, Mr. McAfee quickly took to his blog to explain the mix-up. He claims that he manipulated the EXIF data to make it appear that they're in Guatemala, but the effect of the blog post comes off like he's covering for Vice:

I openly apologize to Vice Magazine for manipulating their recently published photo.  I have been ferocioously put my place by Mr. Rocco for “interfering” with the objectivity of their reporting.  I, for my own safety, manipulated the xif data on the image taken from my cellphone, and created a fake emrgency so that the urgency of movement led, as I knew it would, to the hasty posting on their website.  I felt that our tenuous situation demanded action, and that was the action that I chose.

I do not believe that Vice will remain with me further.  Again, my apologies.

Of course, there is a chance that Mr. McAfee did indeed screw over Vice, as it is possible to edit EXIF data. Photographer Robert King said on his Facebook page that "The GEO tag was manipulated.... To keep our location secret..."

But why would Mr. King claim he was in on manipulating the geo tag, when Mr. McAfee wrote a post apologizing for doing it behind Vice's back, effectively saying their working relationship is over? Additionally, why was the original asset photo deleted from Vice's website and reuploaded, after being Photoshopped and scraped of the geotag? Seems like a lot of ass covering for something you meant to do in the first place.

Lots o' questions. Either way, it is now much clearer who the real suckers are.