Maria Duval

Independent psychic Gamba was born in Milan, Italy. First living in Callas, Var, then traveling extensively, "Maria Duval" was able to build a growing reputation as a psychic throughout the 1970s and 1980s, doing consultations and horoscope newspaper columns. She did media interviews and appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris. Old newspaper clippings she keeps in her home indicate she brushed shoulders with celebrities, although her claim to have psychically found Brigitte Bardot's lost dog was debunked by Bardot herself.

Gamba had a son, named Antoine Palfroy,

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice shut down the North American arm of the "Psychic" Mail Fraud scheme.

Gamba made several public appearances over the years, including a news conference in Moscow in 2008. She left Callas in the late 1990s, although retaining ownership of the property. She moved back in 2008. She was still residing there in 2018 when French police searched her home and when an investigating team from CNN visited her.

According to her son, Gamba suffered a stroke in 2010 and was diagnosed with dementia in 2013.