FORMER BEATLE RINGO STARR CLAIMS THE  REAL  PAUL MCCARTNEY DIED IN 1966 AND WAS REPLACED BY LOOK-ALIKE
BDTN Editor Ste Murray at 19:28
The former drummer of the Beatles, Ringo Starr, surprised the world this morning during an interview in his luxurious Californian residence, when he admitted that the 45-year old rumors about the alleged death of Paul McCartney in 1966 were actually true.
In an exclusive interview with the Hollywood Inquirer, Mr. Starr explained that the real Paul McCartney had died in a car crash on November 9 1966, after an argument during a Beatles recording session. To spare the public from grief, the Beatles replaced him with a man named William Shears Campbell, who was the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest and who happened to have the same kind of jovial personality as Paul.

When Paul died, we all panicked! claims Ringo, obviously very emotional.  We didn’t know what to do, and Brian Epstein, our manager, suggested that we hire Billy Shears as a temporary solution. It was supposed to last only a week or two, but time went by and nobody seemed to notice, so we kept playing along. Billy turned out to be a pretty good musician and he was able to perform almost better than Paul. The only problem was that he couldn’t get along with John, at all.

William Shears Campbell, better known as Billy Shears, does indeed  disappear from records in 1966 and traces of him can be found after Paul’s alleged death.
paul2
These pictures from 1966 show the great resemblance between Paul McCartney on the left, and William Shears Campbell on the right, at the time of McCartney’s alleged death.
Mr. Starr alleges that the group did send out a lot of hidden messages through the years to prepare the population for the truth.
He notably says that the entire Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album was awash with Paul-is-dead clues: the Beatles had indeed officially formed a  new band featuring a fictional member named Billy Shears, which happened to be the actual name of Paul’s replacement.

We felt guilty about the deception added Ringo Starr. We wanted to tell the world the truth, be we were afraid of the reactions it would provoke. We thought the whole planet was going to hate us for all the lies we had told, so we kept lying but sending subtle clues to relieve our cousciousness. When the first rumors finally began about the whole thing, we felt very nervous and started fighting a lot with each other. At some point, it was too much for John and he decided to leave the band.

Ringo Starr claims that he finally decided to tell the truth, because he was afraid that it was going to die with him. At age 74, he is the only other surviving member of the famous band besides Paul McCartney, and he was afraid the deception would never be revealed.
beatles
According to Ringo Starr, the cover of the Abbey Road album was a hidden message to the world, symbolising a funeral procession. John Lennon, dressed in white, symbolises the clergyman. Ringo Starr, dressed in black, symbolises the undertaker. George Harrison, in denim jeans and shirt, symbolises the gravedigger and McCartney, barefoot and out of step with other members of the band, symbolises the corpse.
The rumors of Paul’s death began more than 45 years ago, but had always been dismissed as nonsense by the band and its entourage. In September 1969, American college students published a series of articles in which they claimed that clues to McCartney’s death could be found among the lyrics and artwork of the Beatles  recordings. Clue-hunting rapidly proved infectious, and within a few weeks, it had become an international phenomenon. Rumours only declined after a contemporary interview with McCartney was published in Life magazine in November 1969.
Neither Paul McCartney nor anyone from his entourage have commented Ringo Starr’s declaration yet, but the interview has already provoked a lot of reactions around the world. Journalists and paparazzis from around the world have surrounded the residence of the musician only minutes after the interview was broadcasted and are awaiting for the star to comment the allegations.
The British MI5 also announced an investigation to determine if an impostor could have indeed posed for 48 years as the Member of the Order of the British Empire, Sir James Paul McCartney, during official ceremonies involving Queen Elizabeth II.

There are also those attempting to debunk the rumours by comparing photographs of Paul from the early 1960s to pictures of him post-1966  car crash

http://www.paulreallyisdead.com/

The break-up of the Beatles, one of the most popular and influential musical groups in history,^[1] has become almost as much of a legend as the band itself or the music they created while together.^[2] The Beatles were active from their formation in 1960 to the disintegration of the group in 1970.

The break-up itself was a cumulative process throughout 1968 70, marked by rumours of a split and ambiguous comments by the Beatles themselves regarding the future of the group. Although in September 1969 John Lennon privately informed the other Beatles that he was leaving the group, there was no public acknowledgement of the break-up until Paul McCartney announced on 10 April 1970 he was quitting the Beatles.

There were sporadic collaborative recording efforts among the band members (most notably Ringo Starr‘s 1973 album Ringo, the only time that the four  albeit on separate tracks  appeared on the same album post-break-up), although all four Beatles never simultaneously collaborated as a recording or performing group again; Starr’s 1976 album Ringo’s Rotogravure is the last post-break-up album on which all four Beatles contribute and are credited: besides Starr’s drumming and songwriting contributions, Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison all composed one track apiece. After Lennon’s death in 1980, McCartney and Starr appeared on Harrison’s single “All Those Years Ago“, and the trio reunited for the Anthology project in 1994, using two unfinished Lennon demos   “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love”  for what would be new songs to be recorded and released as the Beatles.^[3]

There were numerous causes for the Beatles’ break-up. It was not a single event but a long transition,^[4] including the cessation of touring in 1966, and the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967, meaning the Beatles were personally involved in financial and legal conflicts.^[5] Conflict arose from differences in artistic vision.^[6] Both Harrison and Starr temporarily left the group at various points during 1968 69 and all four band members had begun working on solo projects by 1970 as they all realised the likelihood the band would not regroup. Ultimately, animosity made it impossible for the group to continue working together in the years following.^[7]

1966, and the death of their manager