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Fred LaBour invented most of the ‘Paul is dead’ clues as a joke and was stunned when the world believed them

Mark Frauenfelder
Jun 29, 2026
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photo credit: meunierd / Shutterstock.com

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. Un…

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