The "Paul is dead" rumor spread from college gossip in 1966 to an international phenomenon by October 1969. The first published article ran September 17 in the Drake Times-Delphic student newspaper in Des Moines, Iowa. Two days later, Detroit DJ Russ Gibb spent an hour on air exploring the theory with callers. University of Michigan student Fred LaBour then published a satirical review of Abbey Road in The Michigan Daily that identified dozens of supposed clues to McCartney's death. LaBour later said he had invented many of the clues and "was astonished when the story was picked up by newspapers across the United States."
The theory held that McCartney had been decapitated in a car crash on November 9, 1966, and secretly replaced by a look-alike. The Abbey Road cover supposedly depicted a funeral procession: Lennon in white as a heavenly figure, Starr in black as the undertaker, Harrison in denim as the gravedigger, and McCartney — barefoot and out of step — as the corpse. The Volkswagen's license plate read "28IF," allegedly McCartney's age "if" he'd still been alive. Playing "Revolution 9" backwards yielded "turn me on, dead man." Lennon later said the actual words at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" were "cranberry sauce," not "I buried Paul."
McCartney told Life magazine in November 1969 the rumor was "bloody stupid." His candid family portrait on the cover finally wound down the hysteria. Capitol Records reported Beatles catalog sales that November were "the biggest month in history." Abbey Road comfortably outsold every previous Beatles album.
