Netflix’s latest documentary Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee debuted on the streamer today, the ending of which sees McAfee’s former girlfriend make an explosive claim about the software engineer.
While McAfee was reported to have died last June, having taken his life in a Spanish jail cell after his extradition back to the US had been approved, McAfee’s ex-girlfriend Samantha Venegas claims in the documentary that he is still alive.
In the last interview clip that features in Running with the Devil, Venegas is asked when she was last in touch with McAfee, to which she responds: “I don’t know if I should say.
“But two weeks ago, after his death, I got a call from Texas. ‘It’s me, John. I paid off people to pretend that I am dead, but I am not dead.
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“‘There are only three persons in this world that knows that I’m still alive.’ And then he asked me to run away with him,” she added.
Footage of Venegas features in the first half of the documentary, during which a camera crew follows McAfee and Venegas as they flee Belize and head to Guatemala.
Shortly after McAfee made it back to the United States, he broke off his relationship with Venegas and married Janice Dyson.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview, McAfee’s ghost writer, Alex Cody Foster – who also appears in the documentary – when asked about Venegas’s claims, said: “I have a couple of thoughts on that.”
He alleged: “Sam loved him so much. John was telling me she had no qualms lying to, like, get in his good graces many times. And I think we all are capable of that when we love somebody.
“On that basis, I don’t think she’s the most credible person but at the same time, I had a similar experience. So when I when I saw that in the film, I was like, ‘What the hell like that happened to me too!’”
He went on to say that while he didn’t receive a call from McAfee, he received a notification on the Telegram app a month after his death alerting him that McAfee’s number had signed up to the app.
“I was like, ‘What in the world? This is weird.’ So, I texted the number and I was like, ‘Hey, you’re using a dead man’s phone? Who are you?’ And they read the message and didn’t respond.”
He added: “Soon after, that number just got wiped, so I thought a number of things could have happened – like someone has John’s phone, Janice [John’s wife] has John’s phone, or maybe John has John’s phone. I don’t think I’ll ever know.”
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