Billy Shepherd
editBilly Shepherd | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Shepherd in 1967 | |
| Born | William Percy Webb 13 August 1937 Lochgilphead, Scotland |
| Disappeared | 20 January 1988 London, England |
| Status | Declared dead in absentia |
| Other names | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1966–1970, 1980–1988 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
William Forrest Shepherd (born William Percy Webb; 13 August 1937 – disappeared 20 January 1988, declared dead 20 January 1995) was a Scottish accountant and musician who impersonated Beatles singer-songwriter Paul McCartney from McCartney's 1966 death in an automobile accident until 1969.
An orphan from Scotland, he worked as an accountant for EMI's London office starting in the late 1950s. After McCartney died in a car accident in November 1966, Shepherd assumed his identity in an elaborate plot with the Beatles' involvement. He was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison for fraud after the ploy was uncovered in 1969 but was granted early release on appeal in 1980 when his attorneys argued he was coerced. He gained some success as a solo musician under his real identity until his disappearance in 1988. He has been legally presumed dead since 1995, although his cold case remains open with law enforcement.
The revelation of Shepherd's replacement of McCartney is considered by historians and sociologists to be the deciding factor in the end of the rock and roll era of modern music and the subsequent shift of the generation's youth culture towards a more cynical direction.
Early life
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Shepherd was born William Percy Webb on 13 August 1937 in Lochgilphead, Scotland. His father Bernard Webb was killed in a factory accident six months before his birth and his mother Ramona died of internal bleeding hours after giving birth to him. His birth name was given in honor of his paternal uncle, a sailor who died in a shipwreck in 1934. He was adopted by Eddie and Martha Shepherd, who renamed him William Forrest Shepherd, at the age of 3 and grew up at their home in Campbeltown. Martha died of a stroke in 1968 and Eddie passed away after a battle with Parkinson's disease in 1993. Shepherd was educated at a boarding school in Paisley from the age of 12 to 18 before studying at the University of the West of Scotland to become an accountant. After graduating university, he moved to London in search of job opportunities and was hired by EMI in 1958.
As Paul McCartney
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Shepherd was employed at EMI's London office when Paul McCartney was killed in an automobile accident in Paris, France, on 9 November 1966. Shepherd later recalled that a "sullen-looking" Mal Evans telling him "I want you to come with me" and leading him into a room where he met with John Lennon and several members of the Beatles' entourage including Brian Epstein and Neil Aspinall who explained the idea of replacing McCartney with him. Who originally proposed the plot remains a mystery with conflicting accounts attributing it to Lennon, Epstein, EMI executives, and even MI5. Shepherd agreed to the plan after hesitation, later stating he was intimidated into accepting it. Over the next few weeks, he was trained to mimic McCartney's musical style and mannerisms and was flown to Kenya to undergo experimental cosmetic surgery by Dr. Maxwell Edison, an English expatriate who had fled from the United Kingdom to avoid charges after defrauding several of his patients.
Ian MacDonald in his 1994 book Never Could Be Any Other Way: The Strange Death of Paul McCartney and the End of Rock and Roll records George Harrison stating
I at first misheard his name as Billy Pepper. The first thing he bought when he got a royalty check was this ridiculous, bright blue marching band jacket and so we would say "Oh, there goes Captain Pepper again." That's where the title came from and we came up with "Billy Shears" as a cipher for "Billy's here." ... During the sessions, though, I was fiddling around and I said to him "Paul, could you hand me that?" We both sort of froze in place for a moment before carrying on. That whole time, I had never had such an uncomfortable and surreal feeling in my life and I was actually relieved when it was over.
On 29 August 1969, an underground newspaper based in San Francisco, California, titled The Tangerine Galaxy Tribune published a story reporting on rumors of Paul McCartney's death based on accounts from musicians who had been present at the Beatles' ill-fated "Get Back" sessions. The rumors exploded into the mainstream the next month when a University of Michigan student newspaper compiled supposed clues of McCartney's death and replacement planted in Beatles songs and album covers and audio of an explosive argument between Shepherd and the Beatles from the "Get Back" sessions were leaked on several radio stations. Producer Glyn Johns recalled being present during the argument:
Things had come to a head before during the sessions, but nothing like this. John and George were laying into Paul– or Billy, sorry, and Ringo just sat at his drum set sobbing. None of the studio staff knew about Billy and we just stood there in shock trying to figure out what the hell they were talking about.
Also leaked was a telegram to Apple Corps from Edison who was furious at his name being used on the Abbey Road track "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". On the evening of October 9, Lennon called Harrison and stated his intention to come clean in an interview the next day. The following morning, Lennon was shot dead by an assassin outside the BBC Radio Broadcasting House on his way to the planned interview. Who ordered the hit has never been definitively determined as those involved in the coverup all blamed each other during interrogation. Harrison recalled:
I had never heard him so quiet before. He was scared as all hell. I called Neil [Aspinall] and told him we should probably follow suit. I don't know what happened from there. I didn't think they would kill him, honest to God I didn't.
Three days later, Shepherd, Harrison, Starr, Evans, Aspinall, George Martin and others involved were arrested and charged with fraud, bribery, and conspiracy to commit murder. Kenyan authorities intended to extradite Edison to the UK but found his home and office abandoned, Edison being discovered dead in a ravine five weeks later.
The murder charges were dropped due to law enforcement being unable to determine who was actually involved in the hit and those convicted were sentenced to prison, Shepherd receiving a thirty-year sentence in 1973. He filed an appeal later that same year, his attorneys arguing he was coerced into the plot and pointing to Lennon and Harrison as the main instigators, and his conviction was overturned in January 1980.
Solo career and disappearance
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Shepherd initially intended to return to private life as an accountant, however, after being recognized he started performing music in bars and began a solo career upon realizing how much interest in him there still was. He founded his own independent label, Mockingbird Records, and his debut album Let Me Introduce To You... was released in May 1981 to moderate commercial success.
On the evening of 20 January 1988, Shepherd and his friends went to a bar in London to celebrate his recently-signed recording contract with Prometheus Records. His brother Jack Shepherd had been present and was the last person known to have seen Billy, recounting that at about 3:00 a.m. the party had died down and Billy declined a ride home from Jack, stating he had "something to deal with right quick" before leaving the bar and walking onto a dimly-lit street in search of a taxi cab. Other witnesses claimed to have seen a man matching Shepherd's description in Soho's red light district, some also recalling him being followed or talking with a man wearing a black derby and trench coat, although law enforcement was not able to uncover any evidence from these leads. Shepherd's girlfriend filed a missing persons report on 23 January