“Was Jeanne Calment the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived—Or a Fraud? Some Researchers Have Cast Doubt on the Record of the Celebrated Supercentenarian”, 2020-02-10 (; backlinks):
[Probably not a fraud.
Summary of the state of Calment centenarian fraud accusations by Novoselov & Zak: the tax fraud theory appears to rest on wildly overestimated tax burden estimates and has been abandoned in favor of covering up a death from tuberculosis which might affect their department store’s revenue.
Locals insist they or their relatives knew the two Calments too well for a switch. Yvonne’s child would have had to be in on it as well as a local notary. More of Jeanne’s stories about obscure people she knew appear to have been validated.
Yvonne’s funeral was highly public. Jeanne’s anomalously tall late-life height appears to have been mis-measured and the real height much lower as expected from her great age. The nose fibroma argument is inconclusive. The photographs are too low-quality for proper forensic analysis. One anecdote of calling Jeanne “Yvonne” has been recanted.
The fraud theory appears to be on very shaky ground now… but the mystery of Jeanne Calment’s longevity remains.]