Yesterday bookies round the world rejoiced at the final demise of Paul the Octopus. Today the conspiracy theorists have already begun to speculate about when the eight-legged one actually died. Was he now sunning himself on the Costa del Sol without a care in the world? Has he gone to wherever Tupac and Biggie are also hanging out, and is now recording a hit record? Will he be the face of the new Octopus Poker brand? Well we’re not sure, but one Chinese woman is leading the conspiracies with the assertion that the being didn’t die yesterday.
Jiang Xiao, who’s creating a film on the exploits of the world’s most famous dead octopus, is 60-70% sure that Paul died in July and was replaced by his keepers.
Jiang commented: “We have been keeping in touch with the German aquarium ever since the beginning of production but it seemed to me that they were afraid. The movie is about unveiling the inside story behind the octopus miracle, so they felt nervous.
“For the movie, we had done quite a lot of investigation and I am 60% to 70% sure that Paul died on 9 July [two days before the World Cup final] and the Germans have been covering up his death and fooling us for a long time.”
The Germans are understandably baffled at the woman’s claims but this would be one way to go out in style for Paul. Predicting his death, however, would have been quite the tribute to himself.
