Illinois student newspaper retracts 1969 story on false rumors of Paul McCartney's death
CHICAGO (CBS) – The Northern Star, the student newspaper for Northern Illinois University, issued an apology and a retraction this week for publishing a report that music legend Paul McCartney was dead all the way back in September 1969.
Back in the late 1960s, there was a conspiracy theory that the member of The Beatles had died in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced by a very convincing look-alike.
It was said the band then hid messages about McCartney's death in their records, which could be deciphered by playing them backward or reading into some cryptic lyrics.
It was, of course, a bunch of nonsense.
The Northern Star published all the rumors in a column that is still cited by conspiracy theorists. It turned out, that not only was the column full of bad information, but it was plagiarized.
The current editorial staff wrote an apology to McCartney, 81, writing, "We truly apologize for our contribution to supporting an unfounded conspiracy theory."