Paul McCartney Died in 1966 and Was Replaced by a Double

This is one of the strangest conspiracy theories ever to have found support. The idea is that Paul McCartney died in a car crash back in 1966 and was replaced by a look-a-like who has continued in the role to the present day. Naturally there is nothing you’d call proof to support this theory, no record of an accident, no obvious differences between Paul pre- and post-1966 and the band and everyone who knows him dismiss it as a daft hoax.

The rumour was started in 1969 and publicised on a radio show broadcasting from Michigan where a caller got the D.J. to play Revolution 9 backwards because he heard the line ‘Turn me on, dead man’. This radio show seemed to capture the public imagination and soon the rumour was spreading with a horde of obsessive fans and writers out to turn a fast buck investigating the band for further evidence.

What they came up with were supposed clues on Beatles album covers, such as the barefoot McCartney on the cover of Abbey Road and various lines from different songs such as the line ‘He didn’t notice that the lights had changed’ from ‘A Day in the Life’. There were even claims that Lennon said ‘I buried Paul’ at the end of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ despite that he claimed to have said ‘cranberry sauce’.

According to theorists McCartney was replaced by William Shears Campbell, the winner of a look-a-like contest who had cosmetic surgery and musical training to take McCartney’s place. Luckily for the band Campbell turned out to be a supremely talented musician and nobody who knew the real McCartney was bothered about him being replaced. It doesn’t seem very likely, does it?

One of the rumours is that the hoax was actually perpetrated by the band themselves either as a joke or in order to drive more album sales, but every one of them has denied this strongly. More likely it was a rumour started in 1969 and exposed to the public via the radio. People seized on it and built on it, some in a joking fashion and some serious, and over the years people came to believe it.

There are numerous Internet websites dedicated to the debate including one which purports to have photographic evidence that McCartney’s face changed, his eye colour changed and he grew several inches after 1966. There is nothing that can’t be explained by stretched or reversed images or, worse yet, a Photoshop job, and for each claim of evidence there is an equally convincing refutation elsewhere.

Fans of the theory are convinced, and as with most conspiracy theorists outright denials by those involved and a complete lack of any evidence are not enough to dissuade them from their beliefs. The rumour has been referenced in a number of places over the years and Lennon himself joked about it in his dig at McCartney with the 1971 song “How Do You Sleep?” If you enjoy theories and need some extra disk space on your computer, look at this site before you decide.