There have always been conspiracy theories and stories about spies. Ian Fleming and the James Bond franchise made these shady characters into folk heroes, but in real life they were anything but. Many died for what they believed in, but deciding whether they were right or wrong depends entirely upon your country of origin.
Mata Hari was the Dutch exotic dancer and prostitute Gertrud Margarete Zelle, who was shot by the French as a spy on 15 October 1917. Born on 7 August 1876 in the Netherlands, her name has since been associated with spying, though to this day her guilt is in doubt. Mata Hari’s attractiveness, as well as her happily appearing almost nude made her a huge hit. She had many lovers, including military officers. Allegedly, while in The Hague in 1916 she was offered cash by a German for information obtained about France. She was arrested on 13 February 1917 in Paris. Following imprisonment she was tried by a military court on 24-25 July 1917 and sentenced to death by a firing squad. The sentence was carried out on 15 October 1917 in Vincennes near Paris. She was 41.
Josephine Baker was an African American-born, French dancer, singer, and actress. She acquired full French citizenship in 1937. Nicknamed the “Bronze Venus,” the “Black Pearl”, and even the “Créole Goddess”, in France, Josephine has always been known simply as “La Baker.” Baker was the first African American to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, and for assisting the resistance in France during World War II. She was the first American-born woman to receive the Croix de Guerre for her services to France.
Most notorious Confederate spy Belle Boyd, worked the Shenandoah Valley. Born in West Virginia, she operated from her father’s hotel in Front Royal, providing valuable information to “Stonewall” Jackson during the spring 1862 campaign. He made her a captain and honorary aide-de-camp on his staff. Betrayed by her lover, she was arrested on July 29, 1862, and on December 1, 1863, she was released, suffering from typhoid, and was then sent to Europe to regain her health.. While in England she had a stage career and published Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison. She died while touring the western United States.
Joubert Duquesne was a larger than life writer, soldier, and adventurer who gained fame as a spy for the Germans during World Wars I and II. He fought against England in his native South Africa during the Boer Wars, at one point enlisting in the British army in order to sabotage missions and report on troop movements. With a lifelong hatred of all things English, Duquesne began working for the Germans as a spy at the start of WWI. Captured in 1917, he was extradited to New York, but escaped after two years by cutting through the bars of his cell and scaling the prison walls. At the outbreak of WWII, he resumed spying activities for the Germans, ending in 1942 when he and 33 other spies, were arrested in what was to become the biggest espionage ring conviction in American history.
John Andre was a British officer hanged as a spy during the American Revolutionary war. At the age of 20 he joined the British Army and moved to North America to join the occupying forces. He was a great favourite in society, both in Philadelphia and New York during their occupation by the British Army. During his nearly nine months in Philadelphia, André occupied Benjamin Franklin’s house, where it is said he took items from Franklin’s home when the British left Philadelphia. In 1779, he became adjutant-general of the British Army with the rank of Major. In April, he was placed in charge of the British Secret Intelligence. By the next year (1780) he had begun to plot with American General Benedict Arnold, who commanded West Point, and had agreed to surrender it to the British for £20,000 — a move that would enable the British to cut New England off from the rest of the rebellious colonies. Using common clothes and a false passport, Andre travelled toward New York with documents supplied by Arnold. He was stopped by three men at gunpoint. During the following conversation in which both parties were confused over the allegiance of the others, Andre admitted he was British. The three men searched him and found the papers he was hiding. He was put on trial before a board of senior officers. On September 29, 1780, the board found Andre guilty of being behind American lines “under a feigned name and in a disguised habit”, and that: “Major Andre, Adjutant-General to the British army, ought to be considered as a Spy from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion, he ought to suffer death.” He was hanged as a spy at Tappan on October 2, 1780.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American Communists who were executed for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. They met in the Young Communist League in 1936, where he was a leader. They had two sons. Julius was recruited by the KGB in 1942 and was regarded as one of their top spies. He passed classified reports from Emerson Radio, including a fuse design which was later used to shoot down a U-2 in 1960. In 1951 the case against the Rosenbergs began. Greenglass, the prosecution’s main witness, told the court that his sister Ethel had typed nuclear secrets he gave her at a meeting in their home, and that he gave Julius a sketch of a cross-section of an implosion type nuclear bomb. Both Rosenbergs were found guilty and sentenced to death. Their conviction gave fuel to Senator McCarthy’s investigations into anti-American activities. They were both executed by electric-chair in Sing Sing Prison in 1953.
Regarded as a master spy of the 20th century, Richard Sorge was a Soviet who worked all over the world before and during WWII. His cover was professional journalist, traveling to various European countries to investigate Communist sympathies. As WWII began, Sorge he visited Japan as a Nazi reporter, supplying Soviet intelligence regarding Japanese and German combat operations. Sorge was captured by the Japanese in 1944, but never admitted to spying, even under torture. He was summarily was executed shortly thereafter, but remained unrecognised by his homeland until 1964, when he suddenly became a national hero. All of these men and women believed they were right to act as they did, and they did have courage in abundance, in the midst of what they saw as enemy forces. Perhaps where espionage is concerned, there is niether right nor wrong, but simply consequences if you ever get found out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Hari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Hale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg_NYWTS.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capt_fritz_duquesne.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1985-1003-020,_Richard_Sorge.jpg
