18 Days of McCartney Day 4- Paul Is Dead

 Have you ever wondered why Paul was barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road? Do you think it's a coincident that The Beatles are crossing Abbey Road wearing different colored clothing and the order they're walking? What about the blue blur on the back of the album cover? Or even wondered who the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band leader, Billy Shears, is? What if you found out that our beloved Paul McCartney was dead this whole time and was replaced by a look-a-like?

On November 09, 1966 at 5:00 am, it's said Paul was killed in a car accident. The Beatles were recording for the Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (read about the album here)  the band-mates started arguing leaving Paul to storm off in his Aston Martin. As he was driving, a women, said to be named Rita, had caught his eye causing Paul to miss the changing of traffic lights. The car hit a store fence and burst into flames, the burning body of "McCartney" was difficult to make a positive ID which leads to the various discussions of whether Paul is dead or not. To cover up these death rumors that began to spread, The group held a McCartney Look- A-Like contest to find a new Paul where William Shears Campbell (also known as William Shepard), an actor was chosen- who with a little plastic surgery made twin of Paul. William Shears Campbell, also known as "The one and only Billy Shears" from "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

The story was rumored on  January 07, 1967. Paul was with Mick Jagger on their way to Jagger's house to have a party with Keith Richards,  Brian Jones, Christopher Gibbs, and Mohammed Hadiij. Mohammed Hadjij, who was working as an assistant to Robert Fraser, a London gallery owner, was driving Paul's black mini cooper  to Mick Jagger's house when he crashed, leading people to believe that Paul was killed in the accident.

"Stories about the Beatles are always flying around Fleet Street. The 7th January was very icy, with dangerous conditions on the M1 motorway, linking London with the Midlands, and towards the end of the day, a rumour swept London that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car crash on the M1. But, of course, there was absolutely no truth in it at all, as the Beatles’ Press Officer found out when he telephoned Paul’s St John’s Wood home and was answereed by Paul himself who had been at home all day with his black Mini Cooper safely locked up in the garage."- Beatles Book Monthly, February 1967

The rumors started again on September 17,1969 when a student, Tim Harper, at Drake University, Iowa published a story on the rumor. He claims that he wasn't the one who came up with story, his friend Dartanyan Brown gave it to him, said he heard it from a musician from California. The paper was just written for entertainment reasons as the rumors started to spread widely across school campuses. On October 12, 1969 Russ Gibb, a DJ on WKNR-FM in the state of Michigan,  received an on-air phone caller who only went by the name "Tom", who encouraged Russ to play The Beatles "Revolution 9" backwards only to reveal a message, "Number 9, Number 9.. Turn me on dead man. Turn Me On Dead Man". Russ started to tell his fans to go out and buy these Beatles albums and records to find out evidence for themselves. November 7, 1969 the press got a hold of it and soon it appeared in big magazines such as  Life . But how did The Beatles handle this?

"Recently we've been getting a flood of inquiries asking about reports that Paul is dead. We've been getting questions like that for years, of course, but in the past few weeks we've been getting them at the office and home night and day. I'm even getting telephone calls from disc jockeys and others in the United States."- Beatles Press Officer, Derek Taylor

"Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated," paraphrasing Mark Twain. "However," he continued, "if I was dead, I'm sure I'd be the last to know." -Paul McCartney

How did Sgt. Pepper's play into the rumor?

drum head with mirror reflecting "1 One IX DIE"

The Beatles were a bit mad at the rumors but found the situation humorous. The whole idea of people saying that one of their members had died was a laugh and they went along with it. You can hear more Beatles confess the loss of their band  member at the end of "Strawberry Fields" when John's says "I Buried Paul". On the Sgt Peppers Album cover, if you hold a mirror to the drum head the reflection will read "1 One IX He Die" which is " 11-9 He Die" or November 9th, the day he crashed his car. Also, the red flowers on the album cover spells "PAUL".

Doll

In the corner of the cover there is a doll dressed in red and white that reads  "Welcome Rolling Stones". Since Paul's dead, it's now obvious that The Rolling Stones will become the worlds number one band. Also, take a close look in the dolls right hand; a bloody toy Ashton Martin toy car, the car Paul crashed in.






In a famous SGT Pepper's photo Paul is wearing a patch on his left arm that reads "OPD".

"It is all bloody stupid. I picked up that OPD badge in Canada. It was a police badge. Perhaps it means Ontario Police Department or something."- Paul McCartney

"Ontario Police Department" or  took it as "Officially Pronounced Dead"? The sudden change in Beatles looks growing the mustache is another clue to the hoax saying it is due to Billy Shears surgical scars needing to be hidden.


Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band gives a lot of clues to this death, another one being that on the back cover Paul is facing away as John, George, and Ringo face the camera. The background color is red, symbolizing the blood from the crash. Where the lyrics to "She's Leaving Home" are you can find George's giving a thumbs- up to the line "Wednesday Morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins" the time Paul died in the crash. Not only does "She's Leaving Home" contain lyrics to the conspiracy but "A Day In The Life" might give out the biggest hints.

"I read the news today oh, boy About a lucky man who made the grade

And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh I saw the photograph." 

 John reading the paper when he found out.  "He blew his mind out in a car"- the car crash - "He didn't notice that the lights had changed".

I Was

The next album that was released was Magical Mystery Tour (read about it here ) where in "Glass Onion" you hear the line "Well here's another clue for you all, The Walrus was Paul". It's said that the walrus in Nordic-Viking culture represents death. Also, in the "I Am The Walrus" video, you can find Paul standing next to a bloody pair of shoes and the Drum head that says "Love" has a hidden "3" in it; the 3 original Beatles.

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If you've ever seen the film "Magical Mystery Tour" you probably remember the scene where  Paul is paired with Victor Spinetti portraying military men. But have you ever noticed the sign infront of Paul's desk reading "I Was"?




28IF

Aside from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover,  Abbey Road reveals more. Ever noticed how they all dressed and the reasons they walk in that order? George is in all jeans, Grave digger- Step one. Paul is dressed nicely and has bare feet, it's told in a Greek myth that bare feet represent death. You can also find a cut in his head between his hair and a cigarette in his right hand, when Paul was left; The corps- Step two. Ringo dressed in dark clothing as the undertaker and John in white as the God or Jesus figure- Step Three, either he's going to heaven or hell. The white buggy in the background has the license spelling "28 IF" Paul would of been  28 IF he survived that car crash.
On the back cover of Abbey Road you see a blue skirt and a ladies outline, "Lovely Rita" who is said to be the one Paul was distracted by. Some stories even say "Maxwell Silver Hammer" has another clue to the rumor. Maxwell, from British intelligence unit MI5 was suppose to be watching the boys making sure they won't tell anything about the Paul Is Dead Rumor. The song being about Maxwell's license to kill.

After The Beatles Break-Up

"I don’t know where that started, that was barmy. I don’t know, you know as much about it as me… No, that was bullshit, the whole thing was made up. We never went for anything like that. We put tit-tit-tit in Girl. It would be things like a beat missing or something like that, see if anyone noticed – I know we used to have a few things, but nothing that could be interpreted like that."- John Lennon on the rumor with Rolling Stone magazine, 1970

John Lennon released his album Imagine in 1971 with a song called "How Do You Sleep", a slam towards his ex-writing partner,

"Those freaks was right when they said you was dead, the one mistake you made was in your head"

We all know that tragic day, December 8, 1980 when our the worlds hero, John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman. The conspiracy says that in 1980 John was going to make the final cover-up about the rumor before his sudden passing. Mark Chapman claimed he was "tormented" by evil and hypnotized and conditioned to kill Lennon by MI5's Maxwell.

Paul Is Live released in 1993 shows Paul and his beloved dog, Martha crossing Abbey Road. Where on the buggy behind him now reads on the license plate "51 IS".
 But even later in 2007, 46 years after the Paul is dead Rumor songs like "Gratitude" played backwards comes out as "Who is this now?" and "I was Willy Campbell".

Rebuttle

It may be silly to think that Paul is dead and here are the facts on why Paul is not dead based on the rumors. For instance why The Beatles grew their mustaches in 1967 was not to hide William Campbell's scars but to hide Paul's scar. In 1965 Paul had been involved in a moped accident where he had chipped his took, as seen in the promo videos for "Rain" and 'Paperback Writer".

"In fact that was why I started to grow a moustache. It was pretty embarrassing, because around that time you knew your pictures would get winged off to teeny-boppery magazines like 16, and it was pretty difficult to have a picture taken with a big fat lip. So I started to grow a moustache - a sort of Sancho Panza thing- mainly to cover where my lip had been sewn."- Paul McCartney, Anthology

 If you heard John say "I Buried Paul" at the end of  "Strawberry Fields Forever", open your ears once more and you'll find that John cleverly said "Cranberry Sauce" instead.
On the day Paul was said to be killed, November 09, 1966, Paul was infact on vacation  with his girlfriend, Jane Asher, from November 6 to November 19.

George Harrison, John Lennon, Pete Best, staging Paul McCartney's funeral.

But is Paul dead or Alive? I personally don't believe it but  I'll leave that up to you.
Buy the albums and see for yourself.


Check out more about The Paul Is Dead Rumor in both Beatles and Solo songs played backwards Here and the full version of  "Let It Be" Backwards