The Sideshow Corpse Hidden in a Fun House
From Nation, For Nation - Pulse of the Nation
The Confabulation of “Elementary, My Dear Watson”
Was the World’s Oldest Person a Fraud? New Research Suggests...
French woman Jeanne Calment, who holds the title as the world’s oldest person, may have faked her age, according to Russian researchers. Calment was reportedly 122 years and 164 days old when she passed away over two decades ago in 1997.
Mathematician Nikolai Zak, a member of the Society of Naturalists of Moscow University, concluded in his paper, Jeanne Calment: The Secret of Longevity, that Calment may have stolen her mother’s identity in order to avoid paying taxes. He claims she wasn’t even a centenarian when she died.
Zak examined various documents from Arles, France, where Calment resided, including photos, archives, biographies and other information. He also conducted a series of interviews about Calment. It should be noted that his research was not peer-reviewed and includes some circumstantial evidence.
“The analysis of all these documents led me to the conclusion that the daughter of Jeanne Calment, Yvonne, took the identity of her mother,” Zak told the Agence France-Press [AFP]. Gerontologist Valeri Novoselov backs up Zak’s research. The expert on the elderly had suspicions about Calment’s age because the French woman was able to sit without support and did not exhibit signs of dementia.
One document that researchers uncovered revealed that Calment’s daughter, Yvonne, died in 1934 of pleurisy—a medical condition that causes the lining of the lungs and chest to be inflamed. Zak believes that Jeanne died and Yvonne “borrowed the identity” of her mother so she wouldn’t be required to pay exorbitant inheritance taxes.
Other evidence includes an ID card issued to Jeanne in the 1930s that features a different hair color and height than the woman had in later years.
Another discrepancy involves a maid that Jeanne said accompanied her to school. Novoselov found the maid’s birth certificate, which proved the maid was actually 10 years younger than Jeanne, meaning she “could only be taking her daughter Yvonne to school.”
The researchers were also skeptical because Jeanne disposed of most of her personal documents instead of submitting them to a local archive in Arles, which implies she may have been concealing information.
“Intentional, remote destruction of photos and family archives after moving to the nursing home suggests that Jeanne had something to hide,” writes Zak. But he also states that it’s not uncommon for centenarians to destroy personal records.
Calment was likely 99 years old when she died in 1997, not 122. Considering that the average life expectancy for Americans is 78.7 years, that’s impressive. But it’s not record-breaking.
Still, some believe the supercentenarian was telling the truth and was not an imposter, including French gerontologist Jean-Marie Robine who certified the woman’s age in the 1990s. Robine and his colleagues thoroughly investigated Calment’s background and asked her questions only she could answer, such as the name of her math teacher.
Robine points out that it would have been very difficult to keep such a secret for 80 years, noting, for example, that it is “preposterous” that Fernand Calment, Jeanne’s husband, would start passing off his daughter as his wife and no one would say anything about it.
Yvonne’s death certificate would also have had to be deliberately falsified to make the scheme work. Since neither a doctor nor coroner confirmed her death, it’s possible.
To determine the truth, Nicolas Brouard, the director of research at the French Institute of Demographic Studies, said an exhumation of Jeanne and Yvonne Calment’s bodies is necessary.
If Calment was a fraud, then who lays claim to the title of oldest person in the world? American Sarah Knauss, who died in 1999 at the age of 119.
Americans’ life expectancy has dropped over the last couple of years because of substance abuse and a decrease in emotional wellbeing. An uptick in suicides and diseases such as diabetes have also had an effect on lifespan. Meanwhile, the country with the highest life expectancy is Monaco (89.5 years).
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From Globe, For Globe - Pulse of the Planet
The crew's bodies were strewn across the decks, teeth bared staring in fear up at the Sun.
We all love a good spooky story, and nothing quite hits the spot like the tragic tale of a ghost ship. There’s just something about these mighty yet small and vulnerable vessels, adrift on a boundless ocean. The chilling story of the S.S. Ourang Medan is as fanciful as Blackbeard’s headless body supposedly swimming around his ship before sinking beneath the depths. Despite the intrigue, it’s a mystery that’s gone unsolved to this day!
This seemingly impossible event is said to have taken place in the 1940s-the precise year tends to vary from source to source. According to the story, the S.S. Ourang Medan, a Dutch vessel, was passing through the Strait of Malacca when it ran afoul of a mysterious tragedy. Nearby ships reported receiving a horrifying distress call. “All officers including captain dead, lying in chartroom and on bridge, probably whole crew dead,” it stated. Then there was an unintelligible frenzy of Morse code. The radio operator had the final word: “I die.”
A Cursed Crew
Rescuers who boarded the vessel, it’s said, found the stricken ship just as described. The crew was indeed dead, their bodies strewn across the decks. Not only that, but they were found “teeth bared, with their upturned faces to the sun, staring, as if in fear…” Even the ship’s dog was dead, frozen in this ghastly state, mid-growl at an assailant or horror unknown!
That’s just the start of the mystery of the Ourang Medan. Reports go on to suggest that, shortly after the ship was boarded, a fire broke out in its bowels, forcing those who had arrived to this grisly tableau to evacuate. Shortly after they did, the ship exploded with such force that it was lifted out of the ocean, before quickly sinking without a trace.
Naturally, this leaves us with not one but two incredible mysteries to ponder: what caused the mass demise of the Ourang Medan’s crew, and what caused the subsequent explosion? We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though, because there’s one more thing to consider: Officially, the ship may never have existed.
The Facts of The Matter?
This famous story leads to all kinds of dead ends. Most notably, there’s no mention of the S.S. Ourang Medan’s registration in Lloyd’s Shipping registers, nor has any official recording of the bizarre ‘incident’ onboard been discovered. The reason the precise date of the event has been so difficult to pinpoint is that newspaper reports tell various versions of the story across a period of time, each adding and embellishing details along the way. Nevertheless, believers swear that this impossible, fantastical tale is absolutely true.
It’s said that the ship’s registry wasn’t found because it was actually registered in Sumatra. The vessel’s name translates to “Man from Medan”-Medan being a Sumatran island. More than that, Professor Theodor Siersdorfer, a German researcher who has been poring over the fascinating case for around half a century, discovered an old German publication from 1953, entitled Das Totenschiffin der Südsee, or The Death Ship in the South Seas. This little booklet, courtesy of now-deceased scholar Otto Mielke, is believed by some to offer evidence that the ship was real, as was its tragic fate. It offers an intriguing possibility as to the cause of the explosion that sent the Ourang Medan to the depths.
Das Totenschiffin der Südsee suggests that potassium cyanide and nitroglycerine were stored in the ship’s hold. If so, this could certainly explain the vessel’s sudden accidental destruction, as well as the nebulous nature of any records connected to the ship and the incident. In the tense international climate at the close of World War II, these were super sensitive materials to be transporting and would spark quite an incident should they be used carelessly. Perhaps the details of the S.S. Ourang Medan are so difficult to find because somebody wants them to be, all this time later.
What Really Happened?
As for the unfortunate crew, various possibilities arise. A pirate attack certainly wouldn’t be out of the question, but most accounts claim that the bodies were largely unwounded. The circumstances hint towards a release of dangerous gases-another volatile and controversial, yet familiar, cargo in the international climate.
The possibility of a supernatural or otherworldly incident has been raised, and that’s impossible to verify. There are so many loose ends here, but one thing is for certain: the case is one of the most fascinating in nautical history, and much like Jack the Ripper’s identity and countless other unsolved mysteries, it’s precisely impossible nature that continues to capture our imaginations.
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