Mata Hari

Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle on August 7 1876, the only daughter of a Dutch hat-maker, she seemed unlikely to later become the Mata Hari, the most infamous double agent in spy history. She answered an advertisement in the local paper placed by Rudolph MacLeod, a career military man in need of a wife.

Enchanted by the tall, dark, and lovely Margaretha, MacLeod married her in 1895, and moved her to Dutch-controlled Java. His wife fell in love with Java, and wore native sarongs, learned the local language, and watched local dancers. MacLeod's philandering and bad temper strained their marriage, and even the birth of their second child could not repair the damage done. After their move to Sumatra, a terrible tragedy occurred that would finally end their marriage.

Two children: Norman John (30 January 1897 - 28 June 1899) and Jeanne Louise MacLeod (2 May 1898 - 10 August 1919)

While getting ready for bed on June 27 1899, Margaretha heard her children screaming. Racing to their nursery, she found her son and daughter had been poisoned, probably by an angry servant. While their daughter Jeanne Louise (called "Non", a Malay name) survived, her elder brother Norman was not so fortunate. Margaretha fell into a deep depression that was only worsened by MacLeod's blaming her for Norman's death. Finally, the tension exploded, and MacLeod beat Margaretha brutally before kidnapping their daughter and fleeing to Europe. She obtained a divorce and had her child returned to her, but MacLeod refused to pay any support. Unable to care for Non, Margaretha reluctantly left the girl in her father's care and left for Paris. There she became an exotic dancer, choosing the Malay term "matahari" (Eye of the Sun) as her stage name.

Concocting a fanciful tale of being a half-Javanese temple dancer devoted to the god Shiva, Margaretha first appeared on stage as her alter-ego Mata Hari in 1905. Her erotic dancing (that included shedding veils, sarongs, and most everything else in the course of her performance) made her an instant sensation, and traveled all over Europe. She also made several unsuccessful attempts to regain custody of her daughter Non, even plotting with a servant to kidnap the girl from her school in Velp. While trying to visit her lover, a Russian officer named Vadim Maslov, Margaretha was approached by Georges Ladoux, a French army captain, who asked her to spy on the Germans. She agreed and planned to seduce a German General and get him to spill military secrets. However, she was arrested by British intelligence and interrogated by Scotland Yard, who were convinced she was actually a spy for the Germans.

Was watched by British secret government agency MI5 from 1915-1917. However, her files note there was never any evidence that she passed on anything of military importance to German intelligence.

Finally she was released, and as 1916 drew to a close Margaretha made her way to Spain where she romanced a German Major called Kalle. He caught onto her and sent false messages claiming that she was in fact a German spy.

The French arrested Margaretha on February 13 1917 and imprisoned her. She was convicted that summer of spying for an enemy nation and sentenced to death.

Her husband Rudolph MacLeod was a son of Baroness Dina Louisa Sweerts de Landas, whose cousin, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was the mother of Audrey Hepburn. He died in 1928.

It was claimed at her trail that her activities caused the deaths of 50,000 Allied soldiers. However, historian Wesley Wark stated to the Toronto Star in a 2014 interview that she was made a scapegoat for French military failures. Likewise, historian Julie Wheelwright stated in the same interview: "She really did not pass on anything that you couldn't find in the local newspapers in Spain". She was recruited in 1916 by agents from the Deuxième Bureau, who promised she would be allowed to visit her wounded lover, Russian Expeditionary Force Captain Vadim Maslov, at the front only if she agreed to seduce Crown Prince Hohenzollern; the French believed mistakenly that he was a commander in his father's army. She would later take money from German intelligence, which would reveal her to the French deliberately as a double-agent because the intel she was supplying was deemed to be worthless. Maslov would later turn against her at her trial, stating that he didn't care if she was convicted or not.