The Girl Who Pesters Me (191)

Paul and Heather on the farm in June 1971 

 I am posting another story about the incident between Paul and Carolyn Mitchell.  And again, I am going to remind you all to be kind about what you say because Carolyn has been known to visit this site.   Reminder: This occurred 55 years ago—this didn't just happen.  Carolyn was a 24-year-old girl and was finding her way in the world.   She did a reckless and stupid thing by going to Paul's farm in Scotland.  She deserved to be treated poorly by Paul.  Whatever Paul said to her was justified.  

However, many fans at that time came to the UK from America and other countries to see the Beatles and ended up staying for an extended period.  No one would ever have told Lizzie Bravo she was a crazed stalker, and she did the same thing -- she came to the UK from Brazil and lived there for many years to see John Lennon.  As an adult, Carolyn has admitted that she was in the wrong.  She regretted all her actions.  And yet I know that many of you will say in the comments how she was a crazy stalker.  You will insult her and lump her in with John's murderer because she made a very bad decision 55 years ago.  

At the end of the day, Paul and his family were not hurt, Carolyn came to regret the entire ordeal, and it is part of the history of the time.   

I recommend anyone who wants to read about Carolyn's time in the UK as a Beatles fan to locate her book, All My Lovin' 

The Girl Who Pesters Me

By Alisdar Buchan

Daily Record

July 2, 1971

    Former Beatle Paul McCartney spoke bitterly yesterday of the girl fans who still make his life misery.

     In particular, he spoke of a 24-year-old American girl called Carolyn Mitchell. Carolyn is a tall blonde Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is also a Beatles fanatic who has shadowed the group's ex-members for two years, and she also happens to be accusing Paul McCartney of breaking her finger and making her nose bleed. 

    Carolyn claims that her former idol assaulted her as she sat on a hill overlooking his farm at Campbellton, Argyle.  But Paul, 29 denies the attack. He says that Carolyn left unharmed after he had told her bluntly to go at the farm yesterday. 

    He said, "For years now, I've been asking her politely, pleading with her to leave me and my family alone. She refuses to recognize that I am married with a family, and when I saw her sitting looking down on us, that was the end. This time, I told her to go away, and not politely.

     "I admit it, I was rude. You've got to understand, when you tell girls like her to push off, it's as though you had jilted them. Maybe she would have liked me to assault her. Obviously, when I told her to push off, something snapped.

     "The words I used were very rough, but there was no rough stuff. Whatever happened must have happened after she left here."

     When he spoke to me outside his farm high in the hills above Campbelltown, Paul denied that he did not want to speak to any of his fans.  He said, "I don't mind fans, but I object when they become fanatics, you know, the movie scene where you look out the window and see the spy in a trench coat under the lamppost? Then the next night, then the next night after, until you start to go psycho? Well, that's what it's been like for the past two years.

     "There are one or two girls like this. I have one who writes all the time from America, like she's my wife. She calls herself 'Paula McCartney'. She writes and says, 'I got the money', and 'Thanks for the new record', and 'I will be over when I can'.

     "Look, I don't mind talking to genuine fans. There were a couple of American girls here recently, and they were okay. We had a very nice, friendly talk together."

     The millionaire idol of millions explained how he had changed the direction of his pop career and his attitude toward young girl fans. "It's all right for Tom Jones doing that bit at the end of his act, where he goes and shakes hands and kisses the girls in the front row, but I have made it clear that that's not what I want to do.

     "I haven't been part of that for over three years. Even if I wanted to go around making love to other girls, which I don't, I couldn't. I am married with a family, and I'm very happy."

     Yesterday, Carolyn, who says she came to Scotland for a holiday, described her two years as the Beatles' number one fan. She said, "I know and have spoken to all the Beatles. At first, Paul was very friendly, but now he just won't speak to me.

     "I came over to England two years ago to be near the Beatles. I've seen them at Apple HQ and at their homes. I was never invited in, but spoke to them at the door," she said.

     She added, "Since Paul got married, he has changed completely. She (Paul's wife, Linda) has changed him. She's very possessive."

     Then Carolyn, who was writing a book on the Beatles from a fan's point of view, told of the walk which ended her liking for the Liverpool pop star. She said she had not gone to Campbelltown with the intention of speaking to Paul. She added, "I had gone up to the farm next to Paul's and sat on the hillside watching him farm from a distance. Paul came out of the house and drove up in his Land Rover. He jumped out and began shouting and swearing. I don't remember much about what happened, but my nose was bleeding, and my hand began to swell."

     A Campbelltown police spokesman confirmed that a complaint had been made and that a report would be sent to the prosecutor's office in due course,