Why did people think Paul McCartney was dead?

James Paul McCartney was born in the Walton General Hospital in Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary, had worked as the nursing sister in the maternity ward. His brother, Michael, was born nearly two year later (7 January 1944). Paul was baptised as a Roman Catholic, but was raised non-denominationally; his mother was a Roman Catholic and his father, James 'Jim' McCartney, was a Protestant. Like many in Liverpool, McCartney has some Irish heritage, owed to his maternal grandfather, Owen Mohin/Mohan who was born in 1880, in Tullynamalrow, County Monaghan, Ireland, and who married Mary Theresa Danher (from Toxteth, Liverpool) in 1905.