Paul Is Dead

The Story

In the autumn of 1969, according to the Columbia Journalism Review, a woman at a party at Drake University in Des Moines told a student she had heard that Paul McCartney had died in a crash and been replaced by a double. On 17 September, the Drake Times-Delphic published 'Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?'

On 12 October 1969, a caller told Detroit DJ Russ Gibb, on his WKNR show, to play the 'number nine' intro from 'Revolution 9' backwards. Rolling Stone says that when Gibb did, he heard the words 'Turn me on, dead man.' CJR reports that Gibb called Apple Records in London, where a publicist denied that Paul was dead.

Rolling Stone called it 'a genuine folk tale of the mass communications era,' quoting the writer Nicholas Schaffner.

One listener, University of Michigan student Fred LaBour, had been assigned to review the new album 'Abbey Road.' According to the Ann Arbor District Library, his satirical review appeared in The Michigan Daily on 14 October 1969. CJR says he added new 'clues,' including a name for the supposed substitute (William Campbell). He also read the album cover as a funeral: John as the officiant, Ringo as an undertaker, George as a gravedigger, and a barefoot Paul as the dead man. A Volkswagen's '28IF' plate was said to show the age Paul would have been 'if' he had lived. He was actually 27.

The rumor spread to radio stations and newspapers across the country. Fans heard 'I buried Paul' at the end of 'Strawberry Fields Forever.' Rolling Stone says Lennon was actually saying 'cranberry sauce.'

McCartney was at his farm in Scotland. CJR reports that he gave interviews and posed for photos, and that Life magazine put him and his family on its cover. CJR gives the headline as 'Paul is still with us'; Rolling Stone gives it as 'Paul McCartney Is Still With Us.' At the end of November, WOR-TV in New York aired a one-hour special in which attorney F. Lee Bailey led an inquiry.

McCartney later joked about the rumor himself, and Rolling Stone notes that he named one album 'Paul Is Live.' Russ Gibb died in April 2019. McCartney is still alive and still performing.