Long-liver or swindler: the oldest woman in the world was suspected of ordinary fraud (4 photos)
She outlived all her relatives, including her daughter and grandson, and lived to be 122 years old. Then it turned out that it could all have been a scam. 
Zhanna Kelman is the oldest person on the planet. Her age is allegedly documented, and she lived to be 122 years old. 
Jeanne Kelman
Grandma was born on February 21, 1875 and became the same age as the era. She saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower, safely survived two World Wars, watched Gagarin's flight and saw the collapse of the USSR.
All her relatives were dying, but she lived and lived. In 1933, her only daughter died. And when Madame turned 88, her grandson died in an accident. After that, Kelman was left alone and 47-year-old lawyer Andre-Francois Raffet joined her. The sly lawyer decided that the old lady was half dead, so he persuaded her to register the apartment in his name. In exchange, the lawyer signed a contract with her and paid Kelman 2,500 francs monthly. The man thought he had made a good deal.
But he was wrong - she outlived him by two years. 
Jeanne died on August 4, 1997. She was unique and the French were very proud of her.
And when she went to her forefathers, some began to suspect that there was a whiff of fraud here. Granny was already well over a hundred (officially), but she retained complete clarity of mind, chattered coherently and was not even particularly ill. Therefore, in 2018, geriatrician Valery Novoselov and mathematician Nikolai Zak suggested that it was not Jeanne Calment's daughter who died in 1933, but herself. And the daughter appropriated the identity of her parent in order to avoid paying inheritance tax.
That's the whole secret of longevity. 
The French were furious at this theory and declared it to be vile slander. Then our scientists suggested that they exhume Kelman's remains, examine them and determine her exact age. They flatly refused. They allegedly did not dare to disturb the peace of the oldest person on Earth. Although the explanation is rather murky.
So the story of Kelman's longevity remained unsolved. Either she really did hobble to 122, or she died before reaching 60.
