3 ms·

I feel like the pictures shown on the article demonstrate the opposite of the author theory. When the author writes things like "undeniable", the resemblance i

I feel like the pictures shown on the article demonstrate the opposite of the author theory. When the author writes things like "undeniable", the resemblance is more questionable than undeniable when he tries to match the pictures of Yvonne with the ones of the 122 years old women. I was not convinced at all by the article. Moreover in such a rich family in France, changing identity like this would have been spotted really quickly.

alpaca128 5y ago
I agree that some of the photo comparisons were weird. The rest however was indeed very convincing to me. Mismatched eye color, height and appearance untypical of that age, and cognitive tests that estimated a much younger age? That's not something you can just discard imho, and those are the metrics you can hardly fake. > changing identity like this would have been spotted really quickly. Unless the people close to her didn't have an interest in spilling the beans.
- phpnode 5y ago
  If it was fraud, it was likely mail fraud, at least at first. That is to say, the people closest around her would not necessarily have known that she was claiming to be Jeanne - the family only had to have a death certificate issued in Yvonne's name, everything else could have continued as normal. And when she did finally have to publicly assume Jeanne's identity enough time had passed that few people would remember her mother.
  - tsimionescu 5y ago
    But still, there is proof that people in that time believed that Yvonne had been sick, and died. Would they have buried Jeanne under her daughter's name and no one noticed?
patall 5y ago
> Moreover in such a rich family in France, changing identity like this would have been spotted really quickly. She sold her apartment for a fixed per month amount. Sure, you need to have the apartment in the first place but that doesn't sound rich to me. Further, if my neighbor dies, I do not have any insights in the paperwork. So at that point, I only know that that nice older lady from upstairs died. If you then ask me 60 years later if that older lady was the mother or the daughter, I am not sure I would know. Besides, I would probably be proud of someone like her in my neighborhood, so I might be careful to refute her. Afterall, you get a lot of prestige from having the longest lived person in your country, city or neighborhood.

alpaca128 5y ago

I agree that some of the photo comparisons were weird. The rest however was indeed very convincing to me. Mismatched eye color, height and appearance untypical of that age, and cognitive tests that estimated a much younger age? That's not something you can just discard imho, and those are the metrics you can hardly fake. > changing identity like this would have been spotted really quickly. Unless the people close to her didn't have an interest in spilling the beans.

phpnode 5y ago
If it was fraud, it was likely mail fraud, at least at first. That is to say, the people closest around her would not necessarily have known that she was claiming to be Jeanne - the family only had to have a death certificate issued in Yvonne's name, everything else could have continued as normal. And when she did finally have to publicly assume Jeanne's identity enough time had passed that few people would remember her mother.
- tsimionescu 5y ago
  But still, there is proof that people in that time believed that Yvonne had been sick, and died. Would they have buried Jeanne under her daughter's name and no one noticed?

patall 5y ago

> Moreover in such a rich family in France, changing identity like this would have been spotted really quickly. She sold her apartment for a fixed per month amount. Sure, you need to have the apartment in the first place but that doesn't sound rich to me. Further, if my neighbor dies, I do not have any insights in the paperwork. So at that point, I only know that that nice older lady from upstairs died. If you then ask me 60 years later if that older lady was the mother or the daughter, I am not sure I would know. Besides, I would probably be proud of someone like her in my neighborhood, so I might be careful to refute her. Afterall, you get a lot of prestige from having the longest lived person in your country, city or neighborhood.