I'm looking at
these early Quarry Men/Beatles pix.
And, boy, does that Paul look like Faul...
What if Faul
is "the real" Paul? And the familiar, Beatlemania til Pepper menagerie of small, dark, humble, charming, bedroom eyed, possibly bald & bewigged Pauls were all the ringers?
I have no idea why Paul would have been replaced, only to return...
Maybe he was in an accident that destroyed the left side of his face...which might help to explain the fake ears.
Maybe he quit after a fight with John or left in solidarity with Pete or Stu or maybe John kicked him out or maybe Brian thought he was a liability, whatever.
Maybe he wouldn't go along with the boy band plan or got sick of Brian hitting on him or maybe he just got sick.
Whatever happened, he resurfaced around the time Brian and one of the Fauls died.
Maybe Brian didn't even know there was an "original" Paul. John was certainly bright and capable and weird enough to have orchestrated a revolving door of replacements.
Some may disagree, but it has looked to me like Fohn came on the scene around the time the kid smoking the cigarette in the above pic rejoined the band.
I think we need to know more about what happened in Hamburg. I find Stu's death extremely suspicious.