A look back at the life of John McAfee and his ties to West Tennessee

WEST TENNESSEE — John McAfee, a well-known software guru and Henderson County resident, has died.

He is the creator of the McAfee Antivirus Software and is known by some people as the world’s biggest hacker.

“I’ve offered the FBI that my team and myself will decrypt that one phone. Give us the phone. We’ll decrypt it for you, and tell you what’s in it,” McAfee said in a 2015 interview.

McAfee was found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona on Wednesday.

McAfee had ties to West Tennessee. He moved to Lexington in 2015 after being connected to a murder case in Belize, according to government officials.

That wasn’t the end of his run-ins with the law. According to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office McAfee served time in the Henderson county jail for a DUI and gun charges in August 2015.

While a Lexington resident, the software guru said he moved to Henderson County because he loved the small community.

McAfee said in a past interview with WBBJ that he didn’t plan on leaving Lexington.

McAfee said, as a hacker, he felt he was better than the government and the FBI. He stood on that platform when he ran for president in 2016 and again in 2020.

McAfee was 75.