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Jan. 18, 2023 - Jim Fetzer
01:36:23
The Last Testament of George Harrison: Paul Really IS Dead!
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Time Text
The End
Now am I dead!
Now am I dead.
George, there's been some remarks accredited to the Beatles that you aren't too appreciative of all the jelly beans being thrown at you on your tour. there's been some remarks accredited to the Beatles that you No, it's a bit dangerous, you know.
Because, uh, jelly beans traveling about 50 mile an hour through the air, if they hit you in the eye, well, you're finished, you know, you're blind, aren't you?
So we've, you know, we've never liked people throwing stuff like that.
We don't mind them throwing streamers.
But jelly beans are a bit dangerous.
I'm Joel Gilbert from Highway 61 Entertainment.
On July 1st, 2005, we received an unsolicited package at our offices in Hollywood, California.
There was no return address, but it was postmarked in London.
Inside was a mini-cassette player and two mini-cassette tapes.
The tapes were labeled, The Last Testament of George Harrison.
On the tapes was the voice of a man claiming to be Beatle George Harrison.
He told an incredible story.
For five years, we tried to authenticate these tapes using three different forensic labs, but each test proved inconclusive.
During this time, our researchers, using information on these tapes, unearthed shocking new evidence, which is included in this film and presented alongside the narrative, to tell an incredible story in what may prove to be the most important document in rock to tell an incredible story in what may prove to be the most
Today is Thursday, 30 December, 1999.
The End Michael Abram believed he was on a mission from God to kill the former Beatle George Harrison, and he very nearly succeeded.
Behind the gates of the Harrisons' home tonight, police forensic teams are still gathering evidence at the scene of the attack.
Abraham unleashed a frenzied attack on the musician and his wife at their luxury home.
The house sits in fatty acres of garden on a hill overlooking Henley-on-Thames.
Police say the intruder broke in through a kitchen window.
He was carrying a seven-inch knife.
I am at this moment in the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, England.
Lucky to be alive.
Last night was my worst nightmare.
How can you imagine you wake up in the middle of the night after hearing Breaking Glass, you go downstairs and there's a man there screaming, shouting, waving a knife at you.
A madman entered my home and attacked me.
I desperately tried to stop him.
He tried to calm Abram down by shouting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna at him.
That didn't work.
The men grappled.
The man stabbed Harrison several times.
He was full of hatred and violence when he came into our home.
Harrison said he remembered lying on the floor, feeling the knife going into his chest, feeling his mouth filling with blood, and he thought he was going to die.
Somehow, apparently, I've survived.
The chest is full of main blood vessels and arteries, and the lungs are full of main blood vessels as well.
So, as I say, it is just by chance that it wasn't more serious.
I don't know why I was attacked, but I have my suspicions.
Who knows?
It could be a number of things.
It could be an obsessive fan.
It could be somebody who simply didn't like him.
I don't know.
I asked my wife Olivia to fetch me mini cassette recorder so I can put this story on tape in the hopes that the cassettes will protect me.
It was almost exactly 20 years ago that John Lennon was also attacked but killed by a lone assailant.
John Lennon Was brought to the emergency room at the Roosevelt site, St.
Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, this evening, shortly before 11 p.m.
John was always reckless, greeting fans daily outside his New York apartment.
He was dead on arrival.
This individual fired five shots from a .38 caliber Charter Arms pistol.
But there's much more to the story.
Twenty years ago, John rang me.
It was around 1 December 1980.
And told me he was going to go public and tell everything about Paul.
Eight days later, he was dead.
For me, it was only two weeks ago that I saw the man known as Paul McCartney.
And told him I was going to tell the truth about what we had done.
That I couldn't keep up the deception any longer.
It seems John's fate was also intended for me, even though so much time has passed.
For it was many years ago, in 1966, that my mate and I promised never to tell the story that I'm about to tell.
It's been a terrible burden of guilt, being part of this great deception, even though there were important reasons for it, which I'll explain.
But first of all, I want to say how much I loved Paul.
How much we all loved Paul.
The real Paul McCartney.
In order for it to be understood why we did what we did, I'll have to back up a bit.
Most everyone knows the story of the Beatles.
I met Paul McCartney in school when I was 14 and he was 16.
He told his friend, John Lennon, I could play guitar.
But John considered me too young.
However, I was allowed to join soon enough.
But I was looked upon as the kid for years to come.
We started in Liverpool as the Quarrymen.
Our two years in Hamburg is legendary, as it helped formulate our sound.
At first, the recording industry considered us to have limited appeal.
We were bubblegum.
But within a few years, the Beatles were a worldwide phenomenon.
We put out five albums and toured the world.
3,000 screaming teenagers are at New York's Kennedy Airport to greet the Beatles.
This rock and roll group has taken over as the kingpins of musical appreciation.
There are rumors around that this is Britain's revenge for the Boston Tea Party.
Did you get a haircut at all?
No.
No.
I had one yesterday.
That's no lie.
You know, I think he missed.
No.
No, he didn't, no.
We love you.
Frenzied crowds greet us everywhere.
Oh, yeah.
Who are you?
Eric.
Eric?
Eric, here is 40 million American viewers.
I'm John.
You're John?
I remember all the girls screaming and crying.
It was so strange.
People look back on the Beatles as a time of fun and joy.
I thought if they'd come down there and we could see them.
Is there anything to cry over?
When you wait two and a half years, yes.
People look back on the Beatles as a time of fun and joy.
But I recall a great deal of controversy and anger directed toward us.
At midnight, we call the curfew.
We completely shook down the fifth floor, doing this with the aid of pass keys, knocking on doors.
What was their reaction to this enforcement?
They told us that Minneapolis is a very narrow-minded town, as were its police officials.
Paul was always quite the ladies' man.
I remember he got us into trouble in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We did, however, get the manager of the Beatle Troop to, uh...
Announce himself at Mr. McCartney's room and tell him that the girl would have to leave or we would have to force entry into the room.
Are you a Beatle fan?
No, sir.
I hear the music around my house, but I'm not a Beatle fan.
How would you define Beatlemania?
I couldn't define it.
You know, a lot of people have tried.
Leave it to the psychologists.
What makes the Beatles so good?
I don't know.
They're just great.
They're adorable.
They sing great.
Even the songs that are crummy, they sing great.
We felt as though we were gods.
Unfortunately, in 1966, John took the feeling too far when he told the reporter that we were more popular than Jesus.
In the United States, a furor is developing over comments John Lennon made.
Christianity will go.
It will vanish and shrink.
We're more popular than Jesus.
Religious controversy.
I know you don't want to say too much about it, but does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the stage?
Well, it worries me, yes, but I hope everything will be all right in the end, as they say.
Do you think this is going to be a controversial tour, like the Philippines was?
Oh, no, no.
No, it's going to be fine.
Good Lord, hello, fellas.
I'm sorry about what you said.
We meant more to kids than Jesus did.
Or religion, at that time.
I wasn't knocking it or putting it down, I was just saying it.
The Beatle boycott is still in effect.
We haven't forgotten what the Beatles said.
No, I'm not saying the word better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person, or God as a thing, or whatever it is.
You know, I just said what I said, and if it was wrong, or was taken wrong, then I was all with it.
John is deeply concerned And regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way whatsoever.
The Beatles for a long time have been able to say whatever they wanted to without any regard for judgment or maturity or the wisdom of it.
There was some redneck wanker DJ named Tom Charles who organized our fans to burn our records.
But are you burning your people's records?
Yes sir, I burn them.
It was quite shocking really.
Our church took a firm stand.
It doesn't matter about people not liking our records, or not liking where they look, or what we say.
And they firmly believe in everything that can be done for just about ruining the Beatles.
I'm sure you've all heard of the many Beatle burnings and Beatle bonfires.
And I was wondering, do you think American girls are fickle?
All girls are fickle.
Mr. Lennon, is it true you're planning to give up music for a career in the field of comparative religion?
Got a couple of the jokes going on.
The Ku Klux Klan was after us.
I believe they accused us of being Negroes in disguise.
It's hard for me to tell through the mop heads and all of the collaboration that they have, whether they're even white or black themselves.
I couldn't produce a view whether they're white or black.
We're known as a terror organization.
I think we have... A terror organization.
We have ways and means to stop this.
Do you think we've got a church?
Nope, not lately.
But why should they ask you about it, George?
Because Americans and all of that, uh, show good people what they're thinking of it.
Show good?
You don't have to.
Come on, just keep quiet about anything that's going on in the world.
I've met you in a month.
Oh, in a month?
I didn't mean it.
I meant actually.
If that weren't enough, he managed to get the Jews mad at us too.
Gentlemen, the New York Times Magazine of Sunday, July 3, carried an article by Maureen Cleave, which she quotes the Beatles, not by name, as saying, show business is an extension of the Jewish religion.
Would you mind amplifying that?
I've said that to her as well.
No comment.
Come on, John.
I mean, you can read into it what you like.
Bookily, by November of 1966, the storm in the world against the Beatles, instigated by John's notorious comments about Jesus, seemed instigated by John's notorious comments about Jesus, seemed to have finally calmed. .
Paul had recently had a sudden burst of extraordinary creativity, perhaps as a reaction to all that happened in America.
On 9 November 1966, we began a recording session at Abbey Road Recording Studios around midnight.
However, Paul became more and more agitated as he and John disagreed over song lyrics.
Paul wanted the chorus to be kitschy, while John wanted more vague, more Bob Dylan-esque, as he put it.
I understand you're Dylan fans.
We all are.
All of us are.
You're all Dylan fans.
All of us.
Even George.
Even me, yeah.
Even George and Ringo Larkin.
Even the non-musical members of the group.
I read in the papers that George Harrison spent a lot of time on stage.
He's learned a lot from George.
Tell me about the mamas and papas.
Bob, I believe you're backing them very big, Leo.
I knew it would get to that.
I knew it would get to that.
I remember Paul shrieking, We're the Beatles!
We make radio hits!
While John insisted that because the Beatles had the public's ear, we needed to say something for a change.
After more heated words, Paul stormed out of the studio just before 5am.
5 a.m. I recall it was raining heavily as Paul drove off in his white Austin Healy.
At about 6 a.m., John Ringo and I gave up and exited the studio.
Still a bit shaken from Paul's row with John.
Just then an official looking black van pulled up in front of us.
A man wearing an officer's uniform emerged and flashing a badge stated, There's been a terrible accident involving Paul McCartney.
You must come with us.
He identified himself only as Moxwell.
And we quickly poured into his van and drove off.
Maxwell explained he was dispatched from MI5, the British Intelligence Service, because it was a high-profile situation.
He said his officers were at the scene of a fatal accident involving a white Boston Yeeley.
And that a woman named Rita was insisting the dead man was Paul McCartney.
We were needed to verify if in fact the corpse was Paul McCartney.
We were in absolute shock.
I prayed this was only some cruel prank Paul was playing on us.
We drove just three miles and exited the van where we saw a mangled white car.
Moxwell pointed to a woman in a light blue dress sitting in the rain and crying hysterically.
That's Rita, he told us.
She claims she was walking on the pavement in the cold rain and Paul McCartney offered her a lift.
She accepted and quickly realised he was a Beatle and went into an hysterical fan frenzy.
Grabbing and hooking him, and causing him to lose control of the vehicle, smashing into a lorry and flipping over.
Rita says McCartney was strapped inside, but she managed to exit the vehicle to call for help.
When she returned, the car had exploded, and McCartney was decapitated.
Oh, please let this be a dream, my father.
This is old, this is tomb.
All covered in blood.
Must die, I.
Must die, I.
Die, die, die.
Asleep, my love.
Die, die, die.
Was that my girl?
Dare to do must cover thy sweet eyes.
Now am I dead.
Now am I dead.
Maxwell led us to a draped body and slowly raised the cover.
Bye.
John was sobbing uncontrollably.
What we saw was ghastly.
It was a body with a decapitated head next to it in a pool of blood.
We stood in disbelief at the horrific sight.
The head was split open, had an eye missing, and the hair was burnt off, and there were no teeth.
But for two molars sticking through the cheeks.
But, it was unmistakable.
Is this Paul McCartney?
Moxwell asked somberly.
Yes, we confirmed.
Now all crying.
Moxwell then said, He kind of looks like a walrus, doesn't he?
John raised his fists and began pummeling Moxwell, screaming, No!
I am the Walrus, not him!
I am the Walrus!
I am the Walrus!
A swift punch to the gut left John gasping for air on the ground.
We gathered him up and walked back to the van in utter disbelief.
Maxwell drove us to an MI5 safehouse and left us in the living room bawling while he made phone calls in the next room for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, Moxwell emerged and stated that Her Majesty's government believed that if Paul's death were made public, a rash of suicides would likely follow.
What is there about the Beatles that you like?
They're gorgeous!
They're beautiful!
They've got that certain something.
And the name of it is A Sprout of a New Generation.
It shows Paul McCartney coming up from the earth like a sprout, a sprout, a start, a new dawn.
If you notice, he's like growing.
So I would like to give Paul this, and show him I'm a true fan, and that he's really the greatest showbiz artist.
It sounds like you have sort of a crush on Paul McCartney.
Yes, that's true!
Therefore, it must be kept a secret for as long as possible.
We knew this to be true.
Hundreds of our fans worldwide would kill themselves, making Paul's death a tragedy of unimaginable proportions.
We passed two days in the safe house, desperately aware that the Beatles were also finished.
But our despair made us think.
The Beatles were at the top of their creative peak.
John said he had a backlog of songs he and Paul had written, as well as unfinished ideas.
He believed he could complete as many as 50 songs written by Lennon-McCartney to keep the Beatles going for a long time.
We had a meeting and agreed.
We would not stop.
We would not give up.
Nobody had to know what had happened to Paul.
The only question was how.
Moxwell suggested a solution.
MI5 had expert cosmetic surgeons at their disposal who could create a double from a person of close resemblance in their secret labs.
But we had to swear to secrecy.
Because of MI5's involvement, the penalty for revealing what we did would be death.
We all agreed, and the deal was done.
The next day, it was confirmed to the press that the Beatles would stop touring and work only in the recording studio.
This would give us breathing space.
Next, at our best, the American Teen Magazine, Tiger Beat, in conjunction with Dick Clark's American Bandstand, held a pool look-a-like contest.
The judges were unaware of the seriousness of their task.
No winner was ever announced.
But, there was a winner.
His name was William Campbell.
and he would become the new Paul McCartney.
Although it meant several operations, William Campbell was thrilled with the opportunity to actually become Peter Paul McCartney. William Campbell was thrilled with the opportunity to actually become Peter He literally couldn't believe his good fortune.
Although William looked a lot like Paul, a number of imperfections needed attention.
Improvements including fattening up the top lip, whilst the eyebrows, jaw and ears were also worked on, and eventually the chin.
William also underwent speech therapy to acquire the trademark Liverpoolian accent.
I'm bold.
Though he was right-handed, he would be playing bass guitar only in the studio, so no one would be the wiser.
After the first plastic surgery, John gave William the nickname False Paul.
He quickly shortened that to just Fall, in case he was overheard.
But, we were worried.
What if the deception failed and our fans found us out?
We would be hated, worldwide, forever.
John recalled a book by author Stephen Crane called The Open Boat.
It was a tale of four men trapped in a lifeboat at sea, and one dies.
When the remaining three reached shore, they covered up the death, but wrote about it in poetry.
So, John suggested we place visual clues on our album covers.
And write hints about Paul's accident and song lyrics.
If the truth ever emerged, we could say we were forced into silence by MI5 under the threat of death.
But we had tried to signal our fans.
This might allow us to survive the public outrage.
Paul was hired on salary, and we did not wish to share royalty earnings with him.
So a publishing company was formed by John Ringo and myself.
John wanted to make a strong reference to Paul, and proposed it be named a Paul Corporation.
To be less obvious, he agreed to Apple Corporation.
Our sorrow over Paul's death was immeasurable.
Thank you.
Though we needed Paul to continue the Beatles, it was still strange replacing our friend.
Ringo began calling Paul, Rubber Paul, because of the plastic surgery.
John felt this would be a perfect name for our first album without the real Paul McCartney.
I said this name would be way too obvious.
So Jones suggested instead, Rubber Soul, to indicate the false soul in what was becoming Paul's body.
None of us could get Paul's lonely funeral at Blackpool out of our minds.
So we had the banned photograph taken from the perspective of Paul looking up from the grave.
To help hide Paul's differences, a distortion lens was used to give a distorted image, so we all looked different.
And Fall would not stand out as the bloody imposter he really was.
The press adored our mock-top look, but in reality, the long bangs were used to cover up Fall's scars from surgery.
John shaped the album title as an upside-down heart, commonly associated with a lost love.
Ringo, a card player, loved this because it was also the shape of a spade.
And the Ace of Spades was known as the Dead Man's Card.
On the Rubber Soul back cover, though we all smoked, Fall was the only Beatle shown smoking a fag.
In England, back in the 60s, cigarettes were known as coffin nails.
So we thought this to be an appropriate clue.
In fact, Fall took up smoking marijuana, which he said helped him ease his stress over the surgeries.
For the Nowhere Man single cover, we add Fall look in a different direction than the real Beatles.
And you can see his right eye swollen from cosmetic surgery.
In the song lyrics, obviously, Paul is our Nowhere Man.
He's a real Nowhere Man, sitting in his Nowhere Land.
Nowhere Man, can you see me at all?
Paul's death made us contemplate the afterlife.
Ringo had remarked that Paul, a perfectionist, might be a ghost amongst us.
So we called to him to go in peace.
Nowhere, man, don't worry.
Leave it all to somebody else.
William Campbell would carry on for him.
Girl was about Jane Atcher, Paul's girlfriend.
What about you and Jane Asher?
What's the story on you and Jane Asher?
I haven't said anything to anyone.
People keep writing about me.
I'm getting to believe it.
We had a full breakup with her by way of typewritten letter.
Because we felt she couldn't be trusted to keep the secret.
Another song was about looking at fall.
I'm looking through you.
You don't look different, but you have changed.
I'm looking through you.
You're not the same.
You could see Paul for an instant, and then you realize... ...he's full.
We named the next album Revolver to represent the revolving door through which Paul left the Beatles, and William Campbell, four, had entered the band.
William emerged from a second facial surgery with face swollen and sporting new scars.
So, for the album cover, a band photograph was deemed too risky.
Instead, a drawing was used.
Paul is the only beetle facing away, symbolizing his separateness.
And showing only one eye, the way we last saw Paul on that awful night.
Next, we placed an open palm next to Paul's head.
The common misconception is that this is an Indian symbol for death, but no such Indian sign exists.
The open palm is in fact the final position of the hand gestures made by priests to bless a body before burial.
At Paul's funeral, the priest held his hand in that position whilst we lowered Paul's coffin.
Next, we placed a photo of Paul screaming in agony as we imagined him in the accident.
Finally, coming out of Paul's ear, John put a strange little fellow who was signaling the audience to listen closely for clues.
The press didn't understand that we played pop music.
We were not musical virtuosos.
How highly would you rate your own music?
We're not very good musicians, you know, and we never claim to be very good musicians.
We're adequate, but not very good.
It's because we admire your talent.
Well, I don't know, you know, maybe they admire adequate music.
Fall was improving his bass playing and singing, but it still wasn't the same.
So I suggested we add new effects and experimental sounds to help cover up Fall's voice and bass work.
All the while distracting the public with our new sounds.
John and Paul had written most of the Beatles' songs, becoming one of the most revered songwriting teams in pop music, so I was never asked to contribute much.
However, now I was needed, and John asked me to do whatever I could.
I added Indian music and backward-recorded guitar phrases, whilst Sean concentrated on studio effects.
I also penned a new song called Taxidermist, to whom Paul had gone after the accident.
This time it was Ringo who pointed out my song title was too obvious a clue, and suggested the title be changed to Just Taxman.
We shout the word Paul at the end of every phrase.
If you drive a car, Paul.
If you get too cold, Paul.
In the end, you have to see the taxidermist to preserve your remains for the funeral.
My advice to those who die.
Eleanor Rigby is about Paul's secret funeral near Liverpool, an abandoned church graveyard in the town of Blackpool.
It was attended only by myself, Ringo and John, and Paul's parents.
A small and lonely gathering for a man who was loved by so many.
Ah, look at all the lonely people.
Ah, look at all the lonely people.
John wanted to call the priest Father McCartney in reference to Paul's dad, but it was too obvious a clue.
Father McCartney had started to recount Paul's life, but abandoned the effort when he realized the few of us already knew everything.
Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear.
No one comes near.
The grave was dug in advance so no workers would recognize us.
The priest made hand gestures from side to side, then held up his hand as we lowered the coffin and covered up the grave ourselves.
Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave.
No one was saved.
We called our next album, Yesterday and Today, to delineate the new from the old band.
I believe John was feeling guilty about our great reception.
Now he began insisting on stronger clues for the album cover.
So we used bloody meat and baby dog parts to represent the horrific nature of Paul's accident.
John placed two decapitated dolls on Paul's shoulders, pointing toward his head.
A reference to Paul's decapitation.
On Paul's right arm he placed Paul's teeth, knocked out by the car crash.
And John told Paul not to smile, since his teeth were on his arm.
I am holding a baby doll head next to Fall's head.
Complete with burnt off hair and no teeth.
This cover photo was submitted to Capital Records.
The very next day, John burst into the studio screaming.
That wanker Maxwell showed up at me flat this morning with one of his bloody goons.
He punched me in the side and put me in a headlock.
Maxwell said he'd snap off me head and I'd look just like Paul, but we don't change the album cover.
I told John, sounds like a good idea, John.
It was going a bit fast.
He did not try to stop me as I called Capitol Records and withdrew the cover.
A new photo shoot was hastily arranged later that day.
This time we put four inside a trunk representing a casket.
In fact, when the cover is turned on its side, Fall appears to be lying in a coffin.
I also remember a scar could be seen on Fall's upper lip from plastic surgery.
Meanwhile, John was steaming about being forced by Maxwell to do a new cover, and was holding his right side where he'd been punched.
I suggested to John that we use the song names as clues to Paul's death, and he loved the idea.
Drive My Car was what Paul was doing when he was killed.
I'm Only Sleeping is what Paul looked like dead.
Dr. Robert was the plastic surgeon who turned William Campbell into Paul.
Yesterday was about John's sorrow.
Act Naturally is what we all tried to do so Paul could pass as Paul.
Finally, we can work it out.
It was about our decision not to give up.
John wrote yesterday for Paul, but agreed to change it to she instead of he.
Why she had to go, I don't know.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.
John was still overridden with grief over the row he had with Paul, in which Paul left the studio in such a haste.
Dr. Robert's surgeries on William were amazing.
In ongoing procedures, William was becoming a convincing force.
You're a new and better man.
He does everything he can.
No one can succeed like Dr. Robert.
John was growing increasingly frustrated with the deception.
And at the same time, Paul's absence in his life as a creative force left John feeling incredibly lonely.
His great companion had been gone for over a year.
It was clearly affecting him.
Thus, John named our next album, Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Parks Club Band.
And he would flood Sgt.
peppers with clues.
Both Ringo and I warned him it was a dangerous game.
That too many clues might be noticed, and the Beatles would end.
Not to mention the threat of death we were under from MI5.
But our arguments fell on deaf ears.
In Paul's absence, it was Jon's band, and Jon had the final say.
Do you have a curious acknowledged leader of the group?
Not really.
John designed the front cover as a funeral scene.
The foreground is a freshly dug piece of earth, complete with floral decoration and a beast-brum gravestone facing the grave. complete with floral decoration and a beast-brum gravestone facing the The crowd was made up of the people that Paul would have wanted at his funeral.
John even went a step further.
Every member attending was dead, had a mere death experience, or had portrayed death.
Edgar Allan Poe died an awful death.
Marilyn Monroe was a suicide, and Bob Dylan had claimed a near-fatal motorbike crash in the summer of 1966, even though that was just an excuse to enter drug rehab.
On the bass drum gravestone, John created a clue requiring a mirror.
In the middle of Lonely Arts, you get the message, one, one, one, axe eat die.
The three ones represented the three live Beatles, and Paul was the axe, meaning he had been crossed out.
Dead.
Cleverly enough, it also showed the date of Paul's demise.
The first two numbers being 11, for the month of November, and the next two digits IX, the Roman numeral for nine.
November 9.
To the left, we are depicted as we were at Paul's funeral.
Ringo had been crying, but said he could feel Paul comforting him as we peered down into the grave.
Next, John placed an arrangement of yellow flowers to form Paul's left-handed bass guitar.
With three wires and strings to signify only three remaining Beatles.
The bass also formed a P for Paul when turned on its side.
Another clue started with the word ear in the bass drum.
Just under that, Paul's rugby trophy served as the letter I, spelling lies.
While the arrangement of yellow flowers spelled Paul.
Here lies.
On the far right, Joan placed a doll, and on her lap was a model of the white Austin Healy Paul was driving when he had the fatal crash.
The doll was placed in the lap of a deathly looking shrouded figure.
To represent the Angel of Death, who wore a bloodstained driver's glove in his left hand.
Just above the bee, John placed another doll, but split the head open to symbolize Paul's head injury.
The priest's open hand was again above Paul's head, but this time it belonged to Stephen Crane, author of The Open Boat, that helped inspire us to pull off the cover-up.
John Ringo and I posed for the photo, but for Fall, a cardboard cutout was used, propped up by the rest of us, just like in real life.
Next to Diana Dawes, John placed a mirror image of a walrus, to illustrate Fall's final state of being.
The inner sleeve looks quite innocent until you realize it's soaking up red blood.
On the back cover, we face Paul away to again symbolize he was not a real Beatle.
John made sure the lyrics without you were printed on Paul's head.
While I'm pointing at the lyric Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock indicating the time of Paul's death.
Finally, Paul is wearing a badge on his left arm with the initials O.P.D.
Officially pronounced, Dead.
Despite all the album cover clues, John was not satisfied.
In fact, he invented a new way of hiding clues.
By inserting audio messages in reverse.
Hidden by the original recording, so they could only be heard by playing the album backwards.
Thus John coined the term, Backwards Masking.
I thought this silly at first, but then realized it was not as risky as album cover clues.
Record players only played forwards.
Perhaps if John were encouraged in this direction, he might completely stop with album cover clues before we were caught.
In the title track, the line about Billy Shears is a play on words.
Let me introduce you to the one and only Billy Shears.
We're introducing William, Billy's here.
Because we didn't want the Beatles to end.
I don't really want to stop the show.
On the reprise, John reveals the truth about Foal's disguise, using backwards masking.
It was a fake mustache.
Once false surgeries were complete, he was eager to appear on telly.
I remember he gave an interview with his fake moustache covering his scar and tried to sound smart, but he didn't know anything.
It's just a straightforward endeavor kind of thing, to do something.
Other than what's been done before, because what's been done before isn't necessarily the answer.
In Getting Better, we're encouraging Paul, who was in fact mastering his Paul imitation.
I have to admit, it's getting better.
A little better all the time.
On the reverse, John describes Paul's crash scene.
Many other clues to Paul's car accident were placed throughout the album.
Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day began.
When I caught a glimpse of Rita, I took her home.
On the evening, the news was rather sad.
He blew his mind out in a car.
He didn't notice that the lights had changed.
A crowd of people stood and stared.
They'd seen his face before.
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords.
Nothing to do to save his life.
You are on your own.
You are in the streets.
Never glimpsed the truth they only knew.
We were talking about the love that's gone so cold.
And the people who gain the world lose their soul.
Life flows on within and without you.
We missed Paul so much, we decided to try something desperate.
it. .
We sought the help of Maharishi Mahasayogi.
When through the practice of Transcendental Meditation, the mind goes deep within to the source of thought, transcends the thought, and gains bliss consciousness, and is capable of maintaining that even when it comes out into the worldly experience of objective nature.
It is called spiritual life.
We wanted him to direct Paul's soul to enter and take over Paul's body.
This is life in eternal liberation.
And without this, life is in bondage.
A great loss.
Loss of eternal bliss consciousness and gain of everly fleeting joy.
He agreed to try if we came to his ashram in India.
So we went.
Mia Farrow was there for some reason, having just left Frank Sinatra.
Mia Farrow was there for some reason, But if the waves could deepen and incorporate more silent levels of the water, the waves could become the waves of the ocean, the mighty waves.
This is what happens in Transcendental Meditation.
The surface activity of the conscious mind deepens and incorporates within its fold the depth of the subconscious.
Of course the idea to put Paul's soul into fall didn't succeed.
Yes, I know, it was a crazy idea.
But we were going out of our heads with grief.
Paul enjoyed the trip.
I remember Paul smiled and picked his nose a lot.
We never told him why we went.
Because if it had worked, William Campbell would have ceased to exist.
He thought we were there to learn Transcendental Meditation or something like that.
He was so stupid.
He really had no idea.
When we realized it didn't work, we flew back to England, disappointed, never to return.
John had pushed the idea of dropping clues of Paul's death much further on Sgt.
Pepper's.
Of course it would be a disaster if someone put the clues together.
Our fans would hate us for the deception and the Beatles would be finished.
And then there was the nasty little matter of MI5 promising death would come knocking on our door.
As we began a new recording session, I was summoned to the telephone.
It was Maxwell.
He told me straight up this Sergeant Pepper's cover was obviously a funeral for Paul.
I know you wankers are up to something.
You best be careful.
And then he hung up.
I went to John and begged him to discontinue all clues to Paul's death.
That Moxwell was on to us and we'd given enough clues already.
However, John's placing clues now seemed to be the driving force inspiring him to write music.
But now I thought it was reckless.
How could we sell millions of albums and the clues not be discovered?
Paul was becoming a better singer and bass player, and the surgeries were coming to an end.
Perhaps that would dispel the clues if they got noticed.
So I hoped.
Paul turned to marijuana to ease the anxiety over the cosmetic surgeries.
But then he experimented with LSD a few times, and was stupid enough to tell reporters.
How often has he taken LSD?
About four times.
Somehow Paul did not understand how the medium works.
Do you believe that this was a matter which you should have kept private?
The thing is, you know, that I was asked a question by a newspaper.
And the decision was whether to tell a lie or to tell him the truth, you know.
I decided to tell him the truth.
I'll keep it a personal thing.
If he does too, you know, if he keeps a question.
He wanted to spread it, so it's his responsibility, you know, to spreadin' it.
Not mine.
The whole bit about how far it's gonna go and how many people it's gonna encourage is up to the newspapers and up to you, you know, on television.
I mean, you're spreading this now, at this moment, which is going into all the homes, you know, in Britain.
And I'd rather it didn't, you know.
I'm quite prepared to keep it as a very personal thing, if you will do.
On the Magical Mystery Tour album cover, Paul was dressed as a hippopotamus with a gaping hole in his chest.
John said it was to depict Paul as having no heart and no soul, since he wasn't real.
John dressed himself as the walrus to again identify with Paul, who really was the walrus.
The grotesque, decapitated head on the side of the road we'd all witnessed.
Next, John designed the Beatles so when the album was turned upside down, it became a phone number.
537-1438.
John had secured this number on the London phone exchange and forwarded it to a funeral home.
In the gatefold, Paul's drawing is the only one whose face is covered and eyes closed.
A reference to his burial.
Meanwhile, Capitol Records accidentally used an inside sleeve photo that exposed fall, looking very little like Paul McCartney.
The back cover was designed to appear as a random pattern, but when turned 90 degrees, the white figures spell out the letters R.I.P.
John telling his comrade to rest in peace.
John also added a grisly image of a decapitated man with a clean cut above the shoulder, Paul's last state of being.
At the beginning of the album, John inserted a screeching of tires and a loud explosion.
Car crash!
I was furious!
I reminded John that MI5 was watching us.
I threatened to quit, as I figured we'd be dead anyway.
He grudgingly acquiesced.
However, when the album was published, I discovered the car crash backwards masked with the right stereo mix in the middle of the first song.
I am the walrus was inspired by John screaming the same at Maxwell at the scene of Paul's accident.
On the single, John placed I Am The Walrus right across Paul's head.
He was wearing a fake moustache to hide the scars on his upper lip.
The Eggman is Humpty Dumpty, who had cracked his head open, just like Paul.
The Oompa phrases at the end are actually us gloating over how we succeeded in replacing Paul, and no one was the wiser.
I say bury me, bury my body, oh untimely death at the end of the song. oh untimely death at the end of the song.
In Strawberry Fields the lyrics are directed at the fans.
Living is easy with eyes closed.
It was easy for them to enjoy The Beatles.
But we were incredibly stressed at maintaining the deception.
It's getting hard to be someone.
Nothing is real.
At the very end of the song, John says, I buried Paul.
Hello, goodbye.
He's four speaking to the ghost of Paul.
Hello.
You say goodbye, and I say hello.
In Blue Jayway, Paul is depicted trapped in the burning car.
Please don't be long, for I may be asleep.
On the reverse, is a reference that Paul was going to the gods.
He said, get me out.
Paul is R.A.
Christian, it seems.
On the day of the Magical Mystery Tour release, Moxwell appeared at Abbey Road Studios with four tough-looking MI5 agents.
Moxwell put his foot right through Ringo's bass drum head as Ringo fell backwards.
He ordered us come.
John, Paul, Ringo and I silently followed with the four Tufts in behind.
We once again piled into Moxwell's large black van and sped off.
Arriving at a warehouse.
The agents exited the van, each dragging one of us by the hair, and then slamming us against a wall.
Paul begged them not to punch him in the face.
Moxwell wailed, Listen, you cunts!
I told you to stop this stupid game of dropping clues about your dead comrade.
My agents called the number and got the funeral home.
We used our best plastic surgeons on this problem.
If we are found out, it's going to jeopardize support for the intelligence service.
In case you didn't know, we are facing down the KGB all across Europe.
We can't allow you kunts to endanger our operations, nor Her Majesty's Kingdom, nor the free world for that matter.
If we see any more clues, we'll have no problem arranging a car accident, or for a deranged fan of the lot of you.
Maxwell nodded, and each of us got a hard punch to the stomach from our personal goon.
We were driven back to the studio, not saying a word.
Deeply shaken, we agreed the new album would simply be called The Beatles, with a blank white front and back cover to satisfy Moxwell.
However, John insisted that as Moxwell had mentioned merely the album covers, we could still place clues in songs.
Despite everything, John clearly designed the title so that when holding a mirror to the Beatles, it reveals the message, he be ice for Paul, alongside the number three for the three remaining Beatles.
With no album cover to place clues on, John created a collage postal that was included with the LP.
At bottom, appears the passport photo of William Campbell, used for his Paul McCartney lookalike competition entry form.
At bottom right, is an old photo of Paul dancing, and two skeletal hands reaching for him.
Just to right center, John placed a strange photo of a dead looking Paul in driver's cap and scarf.
Another photo of Paul was symbolic of his decapitated head floating in blood.
Four individual photos of the band also came along with the LP.
We purposely made very somber faces to show we were in mourning.
One can see a scar on Paul's upper lip from plastic surgery and the shining new nose that turned William Campbell into a Paul McCartley double.
On the White Album lyrics, John wrote Paul's death into most songs and added more backwards masking than ever before. John wrote Paul's death into most songs and added more I worried the lyrics were becoming way too obvious and was afraid Moxwell would take notice and make good on his promise.
However, John insisted he would likely just smile and toss out the album when he saw the cover.
In Glass Union, I told you about the walrus in me.
Well, here's another clue for you all.
The walrus was Paul.
Everyone thought John was referring to the walrus on the cover of the Magical Mystery Tour album, as they didn't know about the accident.
In the fade-out of my guitar, I cry out for Paul.
I'm so tired was gibberish played forward.
But in reverse, it tells how we felt.
In Revolution No.
9, the number 9 is used for nine letters in McCartney.
And in reverse, the phrase recognizes Paul's continuing inspiration.
Honey on the money.
Then, John loses a car crash and a cry for help as another clue.
Honey on the money.
John wrote U.S.S.R.
because of Moxwell's comments about the KGB.
In Indie Road, Backwards, it's the truth.
Don't pass me bar.
You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair.
Don't make me cry.
Revolution No. 9.
His eye was on, and his eyes were closed.
My fingers are broken, and so is my hair.
He hit a pole.
We'd better get him to see a surgeon.
My wings are broken.
He'd be called naked.
As we'd heard nothing from MI5 after the White Album, John decided to place a few clues on the Yellow Submarine album cover.
On top of the mountain is the Sergeant Peppers Band.
Once again, Paul appeared with an open palm and above his head.
But this time, John makes the sign of the priest.
The rest of us are pointing toward the ground, showing what's buried.
The old group, right next to the submarine.
A metaphor for Paul's coffin.
All of this as the Lord Mayor pulls upwards to the sky to signify one of the group has gone to heaven.
If Mystery Tour puts you off making a film completely yourself.
Yeah, we're only ever gonna be cartoons forever.
Wow.
Because they really put us off those.
It's a new career piece.
No good dance critic.
The yellow submarine represents a coffin.
We all live in a yellow submarine.
As we were standing in the cemetery, it looked like a land of coffins, in the land of submarines.
They were buried beneath a sea of green grass, underneath the blue sky.
Sky of blue and sea of green in our yellow submarine.
On All Together Now, on reverse, we mention Paul's funeral.
Man of Ages Law!
John's Northern Song was too obvious a clue.
You may think that the band is not quite right.
The band is a little dark and out of key.
You're correct.
There's nobody there.
I began to worry more and more that John was on a reckless path.
Emboldened again by lack of reaction from Maxwell, John decided to push ahead once more with album cover clues.
I advised against it, but again it landed on deaf ears.
The Abbey Road album cover was made to emulate a funeral scene.
John, in pure white, was Jesus.
Ringo, dressed in full black, was the pallbearer.
I was in scruffy denim jeans and shirt, the grave digger.
Paul was, of course, the corpse, dressed in a shabby, outdated suit, with eyes closed and barefoot.
In the original photo, John had poured red paint as bloodstains and even drew a body outline on Abbey Road.
However, these were retouched as best possible when even John realized he'd gone too far.
As before, we showed Fall out of sync with the band.
Ringo, John and I have our left leg forward.
Only Fall is stepping with his right.
Paul is also holding a cigarette, a coffin nail in his right hand, rather than left-handed as the real Paul would.
Behind me, John arranged for a VW Beetle with a number plate LMW 28 IF, because Paul would have been 28 IF he had survived.
Outside the Abbey Road Studios entrance, John placed three people dressed in white to indicate the presence of only three righteous Beatles.
Meanwhile, a black police van is parked on the right side of the street with a man playing Moxwell watching over us.
Beginning with the Beetle, a line could be drawn connecting the right wheels of four cars running straight through Paul's head.
Referring to the head splitting easily.
On the back cover, on the left of the name Beetles, were eight dots which made the number three for three Beetles.
With a crack through the letter S, Next, the grim reaper can be seen from his skull head to his long black gown when the cover is turned to the left.
The girl in the light blue dress is Rita, rushing off from the crash scene to call for help.
MI5 have given Rita a new identity, including plastic surgery for life and money to buy her silence.
John had Paul sing Oh Darling, but backwards in he lives me.
But we knew this was wishful thinking because the India trip didn't work.
Pulled Together is a composition about a dead person and what happens to a corpse.
One and one and one is three.
He got monkey fingers.
Here come old Flattop.
He got juju eyeball.
He wear no shoeshine.
He one spinal cracker.
Got to be good looking, cause he's so hard to see.
Come together right now over me.
Our worst nightmare was set into motion on 12 October 19th.
Russell Gibb, a radio disc jockey in Detroit, announced that Paul McCartney was dead.
Paul McCartney was killed in an automobile accident in early November 1966 after leaving EMI Recording Studios tired, sad, and dejected.
Well, the Beatles are still a quartet.
throughout the Beatles' album artwork and song lyrics.
He played Revolution 9 backwards on the air, and everyone heard, Turn Me On, Dead Man.
Well, the Beatles are still a quartet.
Rumors for the past few days that Paul McCockney was dead came to a head yesterday.
Newspaper and television reporters picked up the story and the news quickly spread.
Across America, and it gained critical mass across the world as international media picked up the story.
.
There was even one report that McCartney was killed three years ago in an auto accident and a double put in his place.
Uh, have you ever trained or used beetle doubles as decoys?
No, uh, no.
Celebrity lawyer F. Lee Bailey hosted a television special.
We listen to the evidence and decide whether Paul McCartney is dead, and if he is not dead, whether somebody is trying to persuade us that he is.
And other radio and TV programs added to the explosion.
And others think that they may have some clues that Mr. McCartney is in fact dead, has been for some time, and that his associates, the Beatles, are constantly trying to inform us of that fact.
Now, Moxwell had certainly seen our entire array of clues from the very beginning.
And we were all dead men.
John was terrified that he and his wife and child would be killed in a car crash, courtesy of Moxwell.
So to protect his family, he announced he was divorcing and moved out of his house.
John said he would escape to America immediately.
What about the rest of us?
I ask as we huddled at Ringo's flat, trying to think of something before Moxwell came for us.
Ringo was petrified.
He just said nothing.
Ringo was the luckiest man on the planet.
He really didn't have much talent nor personality.
Are you bored of being in the meetings after all this time?
No.
I'm having a great time.
He was just happy to be there.
You gonna work now?
I think it might be tea time if anything.
I moaned at John.
We had a double!
The Beatles continued!
We made a lot of money!
Why should we be dead like Paul?
Why couldn't you just let it be?
John answered.
Okay.
I'll just let it be.
We'll make one last album to throw off suspicion.
I'm about out of material from Paul anyway.
Let's call the album, as you say, Let It Be.
We'll end the Beatles and just let it be.
You ring Maxwell, let him know we're ending the Beatles in six months.
Maybe there'll be no need for him to kill us.
This seemed the only plausible course of action.
If we ended the Beatles just now after all the public outburst of Paul's death, it would be confirmed as the reason for the band's demise.
I telephoned Moxwell and explained.
We would make a public effort to say Paul's death rumors were a hoax.
And make one last album to fool the public.
We would then end the Beatles and take the secret with us.
Maxwell replied, I never should have trusted you wankers.
You'll be joining Paul soon enough.
An unger.
Linda Eastman, a rock photographer from New York, married Paul McCartney and broke a million female hearts.
Within a week we were shocked when Paul married an American photographer named Linda Eastman.
Who had been photographing us since the early days.
When did you decide to get married, Paul?
A week ago.
We considered her dangerous because she had had a crush on Paul.
And we were terrified she might discover the deception.
Linda, how do you feel about it all?
You're obviously terribly happy.
How are you feeling this morning?
Terribly happy.
Paul explained that Linda had confronted him with photographic evidence proving he was an imposter.
She offered to keep silent in exchange for marriage.
What prompted it?
Uh, just, you know, simply decided to do it instead of thinking about it.
And if he would help her become a singer and musician?
Paul said he only had two choices.
He could tell Moxwell, who would have her killed, or acquiesce.
He kind of fancied her, so he chose the latter.
We put out the word to the press that Paul was alive and well.
On October the 22nd, I received a phone call from a man who said he was Paul McCartney.
And what did he plan?
That the whole thing was a lie or a hoax?
Well, we asked him, of course.
We were interested in the symbolism, if there was any, and why they had done certain things.
And he said that there was no symbolism, nothing intended.
It was very spontaneous.
Did not at all?
Yes, he did.
Paul, who had gone into hiding in central England, was ordered to emerge for an interview and photo shoot with Life magazine to prove Paul wasn't dead.
Why don't we have the room inside of the way?
What did you say to the sky of these rooms that have discarded me?
I would say, I can't say anything to that.
The press seemed satisfied that Paul was alive, and the frenzy subsided as we announced our return to the studio to record another album.
The Press.
Fall's chin was caving due to all the surgeries.
So it was decided he should wear a fake beard in the meantime.
The five surgeries also had Fall looking older than the rest of us.
So we all grew longer hair.
And Ringo and I grew mustaches.
So we would all look a bit older and Fall would not stand out.
On the Let It Be album cover, the black background was a sign of our continued mourning.
John Ringo and I have white backgrounds, whilst Fall's is blood red.
The real Beatles are facing left, whilst Fall looks straight ahead again, to show he's not one of us.
A microphone was used to help obscure Fall's chin and fake beard.
For the back cover, we designed a very sad atmosphere to emulate an obituary for the Beatles.
We each chose photos, including four, showing a great upset.
Was John actually bawling tears?
For the inside cover, we told four to hold his neck in a way to emulate decapitation.
On another photo of Fall, a microphone is again used to once again hide his chin and fake beard.
The end of the saga of the Beatles and the torturous cover-up was signified by the title track, Let It Be.
And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer.
Let It Be.
We knew our fans would be broken-hearted, but the only answer at this point was, let it be.
When you play it backwards, Fall says, "He's dead." In the long and winding road, one last time, we recall the terrible night Paul died and the old cry.
The wild and windy night, has left a pool of tears, crying for the day.
On Get Back, we have Paul sing, help me, help me.
me.
In Dig a Pony and I've Got a Feeling, we give a nod to fall, William Campbell, without whom the Beatles would have ended without whom the Beatles would have ended long ago. .
Well, you can imitate anyone you know.
All that I was looking for was somebody who looked like you.
John added one last line backwards.
When Let It Be was released, it was simultaneously announced the Beatles were splitting up.
Even so, John was still terrified of Moxwell and MI5.
He was certain they knew him to be the main culprit in placing all the clues.
So John latched on to a Japanese singer named Yoko Ono, and quickly moved to New York City, where he thought he would be safer.
I remember he pretended to be interested in some kind of screeching thing that Yoko did.
Can you describe your new act together?
What is howling?
An expression that's not so intellectualized as words, you know.
It's just like, uh... Pure sound.
Pure sound.
Well, anything else?
John thought that if he appeared to be some kind of note, that Maxwell would lose interest in him.
They are all the time selling their war and selling their products.
We must do the same!
You can make it, man!
We can make it!
Together!
We can get it together!
We can get it together!
Then he got into being naked with her for the public.
That bed-in was a demonstration for world peace.
He started doing peace demonstrations in bed.
You're thinking that instead of going out and fight and make war or something like that, we should just stay in bed.
Everyone should just stay in bed and enjoy the screen, you know?
One, two, three, four!
Yes, you know, I just say whatever.
Violence begets violence.
And, you know, I just don't believe in anything else.
And I don't believe there's any park or anything worth getting shot for.
You don't need all that education.
You don't need to get your whatever it is, exams that you're going to finish.
What for?
To turn into them?
Stay at home, or stay in bed, or make lunch, not war.
That's all we're saying.
I think they might think I'm going to pop up the revolution.
You know, I want to cool it down.
This money, I'm using my money and my time for most things.
And when the money runs out and the time runs out, we should have things like that.
Despite all of this, MI5 used their contacts with the CIA to try to get John deported from America and back to England, where he would be more vulnerable.
John, why are you being deported?
Well, uh, the sort of official reason is something about, uh, we overstayed, both of us, so that's the reason not to throw us out.
The other official reason is, uh, that I was forced in England for part And, uh, the real reason is because, uh... What immigration is asking me to do, really, is to take a decision on whether choosing my husband or my child.
The end of Fall's Road was supposed to coincide with the end of The Beatles.
But Fall didn't respect this because he loved being Paul McCartney so much.
Fall felt strongly he would be protected by MI5, so he published his first solo album.
Bye.
Paul became very arrogant.
He even went back to playing guitar right-handed for the cover of Britain's Disco Magazine.
Paul never stopped his pot-smoking that he'd started with the cosmetic surgeries.
The X-Beatle headed for Japan for a series of sold-out concerts.
He was busted in Japan.
Fall later became something of a marijuana advocate.
or he had not.
Fall later became something of a marijuana advocate.
This substance, cannabis, is a whole lot less harmful than rum punch, whiskey, nicotine, and glue.
All of which are perfectly legal.
Hello, everybody in Japan.
Hope we can come back sometime and not disappoint you next time.
McCarthy arrived at Tokyo International Airport with his wife, Linda, and four children.
pound of marijuana in his luggage.
Hello people of Japan.
Don't worry, we'll see you when we come back to your beautiful country.
Hi, Laura.
It's all on.
It's over.
Linda McCartney, the wife of pop singer Paul McCartney, was arrested at Heathrow Airport this afternoon.
Mrs. McCartney was herself charged after British cops found a small amount of cannabis in her possession.
To the McCartneys, it seems, the family that gets by stays high.
Paul went on to have a decent career, and he was respectful enough not to attend the Beatles' induction ceremony into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
We had the Hall of Fame, the reunion of you and Ringo there, and Paul McCarty didn't turn up for that one, and he sent a telegram saying that he thought it was a fake reunion and he'd feel like a hypocrite going.
Well, unfortunately, you know, Paul is a hypocrite.
He put another nail in his own coffin as Paul's wife Linda was cursing.
She wanted badly to go to that show.
Are you saddened that Paul McCartney wasn't able to appear?
It didn't spoil our night.
We still had fun without him.
On 1 August 1993, Fall rang me in terrible distress.
He said Rita had contacted him.
She demanded he divorce Linda and marry her, in exchange for continued silence.
I told Fall to ring Moxwell for advice.
But, to my horror, a week later, Rita was run over by a motorbike in London.
MI5 didn't succeed in killing her, but she had one leg amputated.
Despite this, I was sure Paul had not heard the last from Ever Mills, which was the new identity MI5 had given to Rita in 1966.
I have a box of evidence should anything happen to me.
There is such a fear from a certain party of the truth coming out.
If you top me off, the truth will come out.
Are you ready?
Let me say it first, you repeat it after me.
John!
Paul!
George!
Ringo!
I give you the one and only Fabulous Beatles!
Paul deserves an immense thank you because he sacrificed his life for the Beatles.
And he saved the lives of countless fans who would have killed themselves had Paul's death been made public.
I couldn't resist saluting Paul in my first solo album.
A backwards reference to the real Paul.
He never wore his shoes.
we all know he was dead.
I felt if I kept a high profile, it was less likely that Maxwell and his tuffs would try to off me. . it was less likely that Maxwell and his tuffs would So I made the rounds of television shows, like Dick Cavett and the Smothers Brothers.
I made a very few albums and did only an occasional tour, preferring to stay safely locked away in my estate as much as possible.
And some say hiding behind the secure walls of his country estate outside London.
Fans feel I have a reputation for being surly.
George Harrison, the youngest, was all the most uncomfortable with the Beatles' extraordinary celebrity.
And after it was over, his withdrawal was the most painful.
But in fact, I just didn't like to answer Beatles' questions and have to continue to lie.
Do you think that in the new year that you're going to be going your own way?
No.
No.
No?
What about another way?
It's hard for Australians, I'm sure, when you think of the Beatles' tours to Australia, it's hard for an Australian to believe that you three guys who remain don't get on.
We all have concepts of each other, you know?
I don't expect you to go into the finances of it, the details, but is it really, you know, question over one million dollars or a hundred million?
Is that the sort of thing?
It's not really to do with anything like that.
It's, um, the personal problem Paul had, uh, which was not actually his problem, it was mine and Ringo, because, because of what the history should show.
As soon as we do that, Paul will be free of any problem he may have of us, because I don't have time to screw around anymore, you know?
Nor did I like to answer questions about Paul, who really was just a fraud.
How did you feel when you heard the McCartney versions of the old songs on Broad Street?
I didn't notice that they were new versions.
He said that he wanted to tackle some of the other old songs, including possibly some of John Lennon's songs.
Maybe because he ran out of good wrongs of his own.
And it was 20 years ago that John rang me from New York and said he felt enough time had passed and it was time to tell the truth.
And that he'd also rung Fall about his plans.
And we all discovered that the values didn't mean a thing, you know.
I had warned him that there could be unforeseen consequences.
That I feared for his safety, as well as opening a lot of old rooms.
John dismissed my concerns, the idealist he always was.
I can't wait, you know, I just can't wait.
I'm so glad to be around.
But before he could go public, only two weeks later, he was killed, exactly as Moxwell had threatened he would be.
John Lennon was brought to the emergency room.
He was dead on arrival.
Under heavy guard, Mark Chapman was brought from prison to the State Supreme Court in Manhattan to hear the judge's sentence.
Chapman showed no emotion whatsoever when the sentence of 20 years to life was handed out.
Then, a leading psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Schwartz, was called to the witness box.
I think he's a... basically a schizophrenic who has, to a certain extent, lived in a fantasy world.
In his evidence, Dr. Schwartz said that at first Chapman had idolized the pop star.
Chapman, a loner who lived in a bizarre world of make-believe, claimed he'd received orders to kill Lennon from Satan.
I recall Fall was unsympathetic about the news.
Um, I was just listening to some stuff, you know, I just didn't want to sit at home.
Why?
Well, I didn't feel like it.
What time did you hear the news?
This morning sometime.
Very early?
Yeah.
I don't know, yeah.
What's going on?
A drag, isn't it?
How could Fall be unshaken?
It seems strange, but at the time, I recall only thinking Fall forgot to keep up the act.
Perhaps because he was never as close to John as the real Beatles.
But now that I think about it, he acted like a man who was not surprised by John's death.
Could he have known about it in advance?
When John passed, I was in Sussex, in my home in Sussex.
That's where I was.
Now, here I am, in hospital.
And last night I fear Moxwell was at work once again, trying to silence me.
And Fall was the only one I told I was going public.
I have to wonder.
I don't know now what to do, other than sort away these cassette tapes, in hopes that it will protect me.
I am George Harrison, and I hope this is not my last testament.
Bruce Clayton.
You know, in all these... Well, actually, in John's case, I was going to say, in all these tragedies.
In George's case, in that tragedy, there were some good things about it.
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