Mata Hari was accused of causing the deaths of more than fifty thousand Allied soldiers by passing vital secrets to the Germans. Still intrigued by her fantastic scheme, he asked the price she would demand for such services. After all, it was her life to lose. Regardless of the truth about Mata Hari’s guilt or innocence, her fate was sealed: death by In July 1991, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, announced his retirement after 34 years. She was put in Saint-Lazare prison. – As Britain’s War Cabinet Considered Making Peace with Hitler in 1940, Churchill Remained Defiant, Operation Chariot – Inside the British Commando Raid on Saint-Nazaire, 'Shadows From the Trenches' – How Irish Veterans of the First World War Came Home to Fight for Independence. When the sentence was carried out, an official stepped forward and asked, as is the tradition, if there was anyone to claim the body. As the automobile doors swung open, all eyes were on the tall, elegant woman in the long pearl-gray dress, gloves and matching hat, who could be seen tenderly assisting an elderly nun who wept visibly as she stepped down from the running board of the second car. Hunley, the world’s first successful combat submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crew members. Still craving the old excitement, she would return to Paris like a moth to a flame several times over the next two years, no small feat in a Europe convulsed by war. Dropping names, as people often do when trying to impress beautiful women, Wurfbein offered to introduce Mata Hari to the German military governor, General Moritz von Bissing, the next time she found herself in Brussels. Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. A stone-faced sergeant-major came forward to take her by the arm and lead her the last few yards, to the spot where a makeshift wooden stake had been pounded into the damp ground. In the same year, she was put to death by the French firing squad on October 15. Ladoux continued to demur, even going so far as to tell her that there were many in Allied intelligence circles who widely suspected her of having committed espionage on behalf of the Wilhelmstrasse, and that frankly, he was one of them. The French concluded that he had been killed by the Germans as a result of the information given to them by Mata Hari, and, in February 1917, the military police arrested her, melodramatically charging her with espionage that had resulted in over 50,000 battlefield deaths. It worked. “This lady knows how to die.”. She consoled herself by becoming the consort of a wealthy banker. In January 1946, ...read more, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Cold War tensions. She was shot by the French on charges of spying for Germany during World War I. She was still leading the elderly sister gently by the arm, lest she slip in the muddy, dew-soaked grass. Orphaned at 15 by the death of her mother, the impoverished girl did have one thing going for her: At five-feet-ten, the dark-haired, dark-eyed young Amazon was an exotic specimen by Dutch standards. Seeing this, the lady returned his gaze sympathetically, bowing her head slightly as if warmed by a suitor’s compliment. Born Aug. 7, 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, Hari’s real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. Two year old Norman died in front of her. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. One thing is certain though, no soldier ever faced death more bravely than she. Like a visiting head of state reviewing an honour guard, the graceful woman in the fashionable clothes led the way past a veritable battalion of soldiers, who instinctively snapped to attention as she went by. With all those dead Frenchmen littering the battlefield, it was much easier to blame the carnage on foreign spies than on any failure of the French General Staff. But as the novelty inevitably began to wear off, maintaining the public’s fascination with her increasingly pronounced curves began to prove ever more difficult. Steinhauer, the Kaiser's Master Spy. Then she blew the firing squad a kiss. The rest of Europe beckoned, and between 1905 and 1906, the self-styled “dancer” gave several unique “performances” in Madrid and Monte Carlo. The very much married hussar provided his newest mistress with a luxurious love nest and delighted in showing her off. The warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists of all time, dies on October 15, 1880, in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso, Texas. Still hungering for the limelight, she was back in Paris by 1910, but found that as an “act” she was no longer in demand. No one did. Her generous German lover would continue to bankroll her through the end of 1909. Tanks in fact took the Germans entirely by surprise … In any case, Mata Hari had tragically lost her son, and the news of their child's death caused a scandal around the base. Worse still, the effects of the gas left him permanently blind in his left eye and in serious danger of losing the sight in his other eye as well. →, Never Surrender! Laval, originally a deputy and senator of pacifist tendencies, shifted to the right in the 1930s while serving as minister of foreign affairs and twice as the ...read more, After a bitter confirmation hearing, the U.S. Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. She Lived the High Life. He writes from Pasadena, California. These demonstrations drew 100,000 people in 40 cities across the country. Locals theorised that the boy had been poisoned either by a soldier that Rudolph had ruthlessly beaten or by the child’s own Nanny (who Rudolph endlessly harassed). Since coming to power in 1985, Gorbachev had undertaken to concentrate more effort and funds on his domestic reform plans by going to extraordinary lengths to reach foreign ...read more, On October 15, 1863, the H.L. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. With dreams of getting her celebrated hooks into somebody much more important than a lowly major like Kalle, she waited in vain for another chance to prove herself and pull off the grand intelligence coup that would put her and Masloff on Easy Street. Advancing the fiction that she merely wished to travel to Vittel to take the waters, she soon discovered that Ladoux knew exactly what she was up to. Locals theorized that the boy had been poisoned either by a soldier that Rudolph had ruthlessly beaten or by the child’s own nanny (who Rudolph endlessly harassed). In the end, Mata Hari was just another senseless casualty in a senseless war. By 1912, having almost single-handedly succeeded in bankrupting her banker lover, Mata Hari was once again obliged to take to the boards and revive her “career.” By the end of 1913, she was reduced to casting her pearls before the groundlings. Regardless of her authenticity, she packed dance halls and opera houses from Russia to France, mostly because her show consisted of her slowly stripping nude. Concerned with insulating himself from any future fallout, Ladoux disavowed any knowledge of Mata Hari. litrato of death of mata hari for fans of mata hari 18970008 She never could have imagined what would happen next. The trial took place before a military tribunal, in secret. She was right. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Upon learning that Masloff was recuperating in a military hospital near the spa town of Vittel, Mata Hari moved heaven and earth to see him. On July 25, 1917, Mata Hari was tried in a military court and sentenced to execution by firing squad. Mata Hari was arrested in a luxury Paris hotel in February 1917, and her closed-door trial took place five months later. Overnight, she became the darling of the decadent set. The story as told by himself. Collecting well-heeled lovers the way most women collect shoes, by the spring of 1905, Mata Hari (Malay for “Eye of the Dawn”), as she now called herself, was simultaneously the most famous—and infamous—woman in Paris. The rest discharged their weapons. Far from being jealous of her attentions, Kiepert, in the manner of a true German Junker, would even turn an obligingly blind eye when a number of his superiors, including, it seems, the Crown Prince himself, began conducting private “maneuvers” with the lady who had gone from the best-known performance artist in Europe to the most sought-after courtesan on the Continent. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Married at 18 to Captain Rudolf Macleod, a colonial officer 21 years her senior, she survived a decade of abuse in the Dutch East Indies at the hands of her drunken, belligerent husband by the time she returned to the Netherlands in 1902. She was executed by firing squad in France. Spain was full of German uniforms. [With plates, including portraits.]. An aging foreign woman of questionable morals made an all too easy mark. On October 15 1917, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle faced the firing squad. Mata Hari, byname of Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, née Zelle, (born Aug. 7, 1876, Leeuwarden, Neth.—died Oct. 15, 1917, Vincennes, near Paris, France), dancer and courtesan whose name has become a synonym for the seductive female spy. Robert Heege is the author of numerous works concerning all things historical. Zelle had a privileged upbringing for the first decade or so of her life. British intelligence at the time were obsessed with a woman living in Spain who went by the name of Clara Benedix. The prisoner saw twelve rifles pointing at her. Wary, Kalle began to spoon-feed her useless, outdated information during their assignations until he tired of the whole charade and denounced her. She refused a blindfold and blew one last kiss to her killers. She was twenty-one years old. 10. In response, the Zouaves lifted their rifles with a clatter and took aim. She claimed to be Spanish. The little convoy trundled along the wide cobblestoned boulevards of the French capital until it reached the old Chateau de Vincennes at the southeastern edge of the city. One can only conclude that his goal was to try and trick the French into setting the dogs on one of their own. “In the name of the people of France, by order of the third war council,” he announced, “Marguerite-Gertrude Zelle, unanimously condemned to death for espionage.”, The sergeant-major offered her a blindfold. Having succeeded in captivating high-ranking German officers a decade earlier, she was sure that once in her clutches, von Bissing wouldn’t have a chance. He also approved her request to travel to Vittel. No matter how she may ultimately be judged, she deserved better. She would do it, she said, for one million francs. The abandoned daughter of a bankrupt Dutch hatter, Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, on Aug. 7, 1876. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. She told them that she was on a secret mission for French Intelligence and to contact Ladoux for confirmation. Exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari is executed, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mata-hari-executed. He was 21; she was 40. The problems were followed by her parents’ divorce and her mother’s death. Ladoux then asked her if she would consider demonstrating this loyalty by making use of her neutral status and her unique past associations in Germany by becoming a spy in the service of France. Mata Hari was put on trial, and accused of spying for Germany and being indirectly responsible for the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although he was later acquitted, on Oct. 19, 1917, four days after Mata Hari went to her death, Captain Georges Ladoux, the head of French counterespionage, was secretly placed under arrest and charged with spying—for Germany. A bullet had found her heart. Articles and Photos. 9. He turned and marched briskly past the waiting Zouaves, growling under his breath as he did so. His eyes betrayed his emotions. She refused to wear a blindfold and was killed by eleven shots from a 12-man squad (WWI spy 2001). Mata Hari during her days on the stage. Ladoux coolly grilled the aging courtesan in an attempt to determine where her sympathies lay in the Allied struggle against Germany. All Rights Reserved. Back in Paris she soon found that Ladoux was refusing to even see her. Clara Benedix, if that was even her name, was a German spy. She blew a kiss at her killers. That summer, with the outbreak of World War I, she returned to neutral Holland. Though the prosecution blamed her for the deaths of … The Premier Online Military History Magazine. She spent almost three more months in prison before she was taken out of her cell and shot by a firing squad. However, her trials and convictions have been the subject of speculations even nine decades after her death. Meanwhile, Ladoux and his intelligence network were becoming increasingly paranoid about a series of coded messages being sent by Major Kalle in Spain that the French had intercepted. She was convicted and sentenced to death. Born in New Mexico around 1809, Victorio grew up during a period of intense hostility between the native Apache ...read more, Arthur Eggers, who was convicted of killing his wife, Dorothy, because of her alleged promiscuity, is executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison. The equally infatuated Masloff was a member of an elite Russian unit, the 1st Special Imperial Regiment, which the Tsar, in a display of wartime solidarity, had sent to France to fight shoulder to shoulder with … Kiepert saw to it that Mata Hari was soon hobnobbing with generals, field marshals and the denizens of the Teutonic warrior class. There is some evidence that Mata Hari acted as a German spy, and for a time as a double agent for the French, but the Germans had written her off as an ineffective agent whose pillow talk had produced little intelligence of value. One of the Zouaves fainted dead away. Although she performed in public less and less over the course of the next six to eight years, Mata Hari found that in the boudoir, her private performances were in as much demand as ever. "I am ready." She was convicted that summer of spying for an enemy nation and sentenced to death. She wrote letters to the French Embassy defending her innocence. She was called many names: dancer, courtesan, spy, traitor, but nobody ever really found out who this great woman was. Hari’s childhood was initially very affluent thanks to the fact that her father … Nevertheless, he cryptically instructed the British not to allow her to proceed on to Holland, and to return her to Spain instead. Mata Hari caused the deaths of tens of thousands of French soldiers - except that she may not have been guilty at all There, salvation of an all too familiar sort arrived in the form of the very rich and, apparently, very susceptible Dutch nobleman, Baron Eduard Willem van der Capellen, who installed her, according to her usual style, in a fashionable house in the Hague overlooking one of Holland’s famous canals. Marooned back in Spain, and unable to proceed with her stated mission, the amateur spy tried to figure out a way to salvage the situation. Nervously, the sub-lieutenant raised his saber. Under the military trial rules in force at the time, her 74-year-old lawyer was not allowed to cross-examine any of the prosecution’s witnesses. The vindictive Major Kalle was, as it turned out, using a code that he knew the French had already broken when he sent those messages; he wanted the enemy to read them. Mata Hari - The True Story, Dodd, Mead and Co., 1986, New York, p. 43. The cause of Norman’s death was shrouded in mystery. She soon began touring all over Europe, telling the story of how she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari, meaning “eye of the day” in Malay. The spy who loved just too many men: A look into what really lay behind Mata Hari's death MATA HARI is a byword for intrigue and glamour. Recoiling from his touch, she turned her back on him and walked alone to the place indicated before turning about to face her executioners with a theatrical flourish. The Exotic Dancer Who Became WWI’s Most Notorious Spy. In the spring of 1916, Mata Hari, the most notoriously jaded courtesan in the world, inexplicably lost her head and fell hard for a young Russian officer, Captain Vladimir (Vadim) Masloff. She was convicted unanimously and sentenced to death. He probably would have gotten away with the crime had the investigators not received a few lucky breaks. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Secret ink was found in her hotel room, and in 1917, this was all the proof the French government needed to prove her guilty as a femme fatale spy. While Mata Hari was undergoing interrogation in the prison of Saint-Lazare and being accused of causing the deaths of 50,000 French soldiers, on April 10 French General Robert Nivelle undertook the Second Battle of the Aisne. In reality, Mata Hari was born in a small town in northern Holland in 1876, and her real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. She first came to Paris in 1905 and found fame as a performer of Asian-inspired dances. Mata Hari was also accused of betraying the existence of the British secret weapon, the tank. French Intelligence was keeping an eye on her. Hiroo Onoda. Cause of Death: Execution by firing squad. Gretzky’s record-setting goal tied the game; in overtime he scored another, and the Kings won 5-4. What made them apoplectic was that in them, Kalle stated that his information was coming from an agent code named “H 21,” and one of these messages he referred to the operative with the pronoun “she.”. In the early-morning hours of October 15, Mata Hari was awakened and taken by car from her Paris prison cell to an army barracks on the city's outskirts where she was to meet her fate. Many of his pieces, including this one, have been featured in the pages of Military Heritage Magazine. Why Mata Hari Was Not the Spy You Thought She Was The controversial life and death of Mata Hari, the glamorous WWI double agent, executed in 1917, has recently been reassessed in the light of new evidence. Entertainment of one kind or another was a mainstay of such affairs in those days, and so, one evening, murmuring in Malay and clothed in little more than half a dozen diaphanous silk veils, Zelle cavorted before an audience of dowagers and dilettantes in a riotously suggestive dance of her own invention. This was done. Returning to the trenches some time after their affair began, Masloff was wounded in a gas attack, his lungs and vocal cords ravaged. After that, financial problems plagued her family. Thank you. A few yards away stood an officer and 12 men in the uniform of the 4th Zouave Regiment. She became a famous courtesan, and with the outbreak of World War I her catalog of lovers began to include high-ranking military officers of various nationalities. In New York, David ...read more, On October 15, 1989, Los Angeles King Wayne Gretzky breaks Gordie Howe’s points record (1,850) in the final period of a game against the Edmonton Oilers. In any event, the trial was a judicial travesty from its ignominious beginning to its predetermined end. READ MORE: The Exotic Dancer Who Became WWI’s Most Notorious Spy. President George Bush ...read more, On October 15, 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules that hearse manufacturers no longer have to install anchors for child-safety seats in their vehicles. Mata Hari, the most celebrated woman in the world, was dead. Cause of Death: Execution. In the spring of 1916, Mata Hari, the most notoriously jaded courtesan in the world, inexplicably lost her head and fell hard for a young Russian officer, Captain Vladimir (Vadim) Masloff. Mata Hari was executed on 15 October 1917 Arrested on 13 February, Margaretha pleaded innocence; ‘a courtesan, I admit it. But was she more scapegoat than … America’s Submarine War – How the ‘Silent Service’ Quietly Brought About the Downfall of Japan, The Last to Fall – World War One’s Tragic Final Casualties. The cause of Norman’s death was shrouded in mystery. A more modern theory is that the children were being treated for syphilis (caught from dear daddy Rudolph) and were accidentally given an overdose of medication. Ignoring the slights, Mata Hari put forward the deal-maker: If she failed, she would expect to receive nothing. Exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari is executed Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is executed for espionage by a French firing squad at … Undaunted, she spent most of the subsequent summer months lobbying every bureaucrat in France, until in early August 1916, she came to the attention of one Captain Georges Ladoux, a French Intelligence officer charged with organizing counterespionage against the Germans. On March 23, 1914, the 38-year-old’s frenzied undulations on the stage of a Berlin music hall prompted a call to the local polizei and an accusation of public lewdness. But Paris was different now—a wartime capital. She could only imagine the military secrets she might pry out of him once she got him between the sheets. The equally infatuated Masloff was a member of an elite Russian unit, the 1st Special Imperial Regiment, which the Tsar, in a display of wartime solidarity, had sent to France to fight shoulder to shoulder with Russia’s allies on the Western Front. On Feb. 13, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested, charged as a German spy, and confined to a filthy cell at Saint Lazare. To discuss future projects on a freelance basis, contact Robert at: [email protected]. What she didn’t know was that British Intelligence had informed its French counterpart that she had aroused the suspicions of one of their operatives during her travels in and out of the war zone. There, on a muddy field inside the grounds, a troop of soldiers was waiting for them in the predawn chill. Margaretha Zelle or Mata Hari is known to the world as a courtesan and a double-agent who was executed by the French during World War I. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Edited by S. T. Felstead, etc. Continue Reading Below. Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is executed for espionage by a French firing squad at Vincennes outside of Paris. Giacomo Casanova. It is a final irony that the celebrated beauty who shared her embrace with so many should share the fate of the lonely impoverished nobodies of Paris, as just another cadaver on a medical school’s dissection table. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. It was a bitter blow, but Mata Hari was nothing if not tenacious. The chief clerk of the military court emerged from the assembled throng and read the official sentence. Killed by a firing squad, she's the most notorious woman spy in history. The fact that Mata Hari was both a woman and a dancer was enough to convince the British that she fit the profile. August 7, 1876; Married Life . The order was given, the shots rang out, and she was dead. She would seek out another victim. Mata Hari faced death bravely, walking with her head high and refusing the customary offer of a blindfold. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to accompany me any further, sisters,” she said, kissing the nuns goodbye. Her “trial” was held in secret and the records ordered sealed for a hundred years as a matter of national security. Pierre Laval, the puppet leader of Nazi-occupied Vichy France, is executed by firing squad for treason against France. They did, but neglected to mention, perhaps out of embarrassment, the whole absurd Clara Benedix comedy of errors. In 1917, the French arrested her for being a German spy in her Paris hotel room. The young officer trembled. It was even suggested, without the slightest shred of evidence, that she might be one of several enemy spies recruited, trained, and operating out of Antwerp, in occupied Belgium, as part of the espionage network run by the infamous “Fraulein Doktor” Elsbeth Schragmuller, one of the more shadowy figures in German intelligence. Soon after leaving her spouse in 1903, the 27-year-old caught the eye of a French diplomat. … When he eventually did meet with her, he coldly informed her that the intelligence bonanza she thought she had was utterly worthless and that she would have to do better than that if she expected to see so much as a sous. Her for espionage and imprisoned her at St. Lazare prison in Paris between the sheets troop of soldiers waiting... 15, 1917 when she was not, nor was she the flamenco! Boarded the express for France American to sit on the Supreme court, his. Told her she need not answer right away did so straight from inbox... 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