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Mata Hari: Courtesan Turned WWI Double Agent? · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you, as always, so
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer, Max,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: hold the line, Williams.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: What, what, what? I am actually a double agent. I
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: actually work for Jonathan Strickland, the Quister.
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  Speaker 1: I know, I know. But that's, you know, you keep
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: your friends close.
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  Speaker 2: Close.
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  Speaker 1: You keep your podcast bros closer.
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  Speaker 2: The closest. Yes, yes.
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  Speaker 1: And that is none other than the legendary Mr. Noel Brown.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: They call me Ben Bolin. Noel, you and I were
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: talking with Max off mic about a little film by
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  Speaker 1: a guy named Quentin called Inglourious Bastards.
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  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Quentin Tarantella.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Tagliatelle.
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  Speaker 2: I love that. That's way better. That's way better. I
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: love pasta puns.
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  Speaker 1: In that film, Noel, there is an infamous bar scene
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  Speaker 1: where several spies are assembled, right, in German-occupied territory. And
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  Speaker 1: they're playing a party game where they put a little
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  Speaker 1: index card on their heads with a character, right? And
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  Speaker 1: one guy gets King Kong. Another person gets a character
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  Speaker 1: named Mata Hari.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's also a scene like that, and I think
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: you should leave, in the episode with Tim Heidecker where
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: he's the irritating jazz guy. Oh, no. You know, Tommy
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the Worm! Tommy the Worm!
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Colgate Hour?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my God, this gets special.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: It's not that exact game. It's a very similar one.
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  Speaker 2: I think it was not in the next card game.
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  Speaker 2: I think it was, but the Mata Hari, Ben. Let
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  Speaker 2: us get to the point, shall we?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Mata Hari, a real... Perhaps most famous for
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  Speaker 1: the way that she allegedly died, reputedly died, facing a
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  Speaker 1: French firing squad, no blindfold. According to the legend, she
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  Speaker 1: blew her executioners a kiss.
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  Speaker 2: Did they give her a cigarette at least? In France,
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  Speaker 2: I would hope so.
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  Speaker 1: I always picture it that way, too. Are you and
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  Speaker 1: I being unfair to French firing squads?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, man. They love ripping darts over there
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  Speaker 2: in Paris.
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  Speaker 1: They sure do.
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  Speaker 2: Even to this day.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And we are speaking from firsthand experience there. Merci beaucoup
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to the good people of France. Noel, this person, Mata Hari,
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  Speaker 1: the subject of today's episode, is fascinating because it combines
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  Speaker 1: so many things that you and Max and I just
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  Speaker 1: adore and remain obsessed with. She's a courtesan, she's a spy,
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  Speaker 1: she's traveling around the world. She gets into, what was
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: that thing, what was that word we learned a few
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: years ago, situationships or entanglements?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure. You always be getting into situations, Ben.
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  Speaker 2: Is that the same as a situationship or is that different?
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  Speaker 1: Well, Noel, you and I definitely get into any number
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  Speaker 1: of situations.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and some situations require situationships.
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  Speaker 1: That is true, especially if you're playing reindeer games and
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  Speaker 1: spy games. From what we understand, Mata Hari took money
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  Speaker 1: from one side of a conflict, agreed to spy for another,
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  Speaker 1: and people are still right now divided on how much
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  Speaker 1: espionage Mata Hari actually performed. So, Noel, you, Max, and
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  Speaker 1: I are going to riddle ourselves this in today's episode.
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  Speaker 1: Was Hari a double agent?
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  Speaker 2: Don't threaten me with a good time.
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  Speaker 1: Was Hari a double agent or was she the worst
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  Speaker 1: spy in history or was she a scapegoat?
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  Speaker 2: An exceptionally glamorous one at that. And this one comes
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  Speaker 2: to us by way of our brand new research associate, Natalia. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Natalia, because gosh knows we did not have
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  Speaker 1: the full breadth of a profile about Mata Hari. It's
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  Speaker 1: a strange name for a lot of people because this
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  Speaker 1: is a person born in the Netherlands who And obviously
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  Speaker 1: her birth name was not Mata Hari. It was, help
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  Speaker 1: me out here, Noel. You're a little better with this
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  Speaker 1: language than I am.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, let's see. Margareta Getaruda Zella. Auf Leuarden. Auf Leuarden.
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  Speaker 2: Nailed it. Okay, nice. Zella. You think her family came
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  Speaker 2: up with the popular payment platform?
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Let's choose to mark that podcast true.
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  Speaker 2: Hell yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So it's August 7th. 1876, when Margarita is born. She's
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  Speaker 1: the oldest of four children. Of those four kids, she's
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  Speaker 1: the only girl. And her father was a hatter. Points
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  Speaker 1: to you, Natalia, for going out of your way to
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  Speaker 1: say this is not a mad hatter, just a regular hatter,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a haberdasher, a hat maker.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so he wasn't all hopped up on the mercury. Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, not at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Thank God for that. Ben, I swear, I know the
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  Speaker 2: name Mata Hari has been floating around in my head
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  Speaker 2: for many years, and I always assumed it had something
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  Speaker 2: to do with India.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting, right? Especially given the sort of Orientalism
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  Speaker 1: fad during her lifetime, especially given the exoticization of so
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  Speaker 1: many other cultures around, During her lifetime, we also have
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  Speaker 1: to mention, by the way, Mata Hari was not born,
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  Speaker 1: named Mata Hari. We established that. She was also not
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  Speaker 1: born poor because her father- Because of all that Zell money. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: because of all that Zell money. Her father had also
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  Speaker 1: invested a lot in fossil fuels. He was an oil
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  Speaker 1: man in practice. So this means that When Zell is
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  Speaker 1: just about six years old, when Mata Hari is about
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  Speaker 1: six years old, she gets new school clothes every year.
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  Speaker 1: She rides around in, interesting fact here, Noel, a goat-drawn carriage.
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  Speaker 2: Like you do when you're living it up. Yeah, she's
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  Speaker 2: goaded indeed. She also was quite the glamour girl from
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  Speaker 2: a very early age, but things changed. It took a
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  Speaker 2: bit of a turn when Zell was around 13. Her
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  Speaker 2: father couldn't keep their extravagant lifestyle going, and he declared bankruptcy.
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  Speaker 2: Two years later, her mother passed away, and that was
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  Speaker 2: the end of life for Zell, a.k.a. Mata Hari, as
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  Speaker 2: she knew it, at least up to that point. Upon
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  Speaker 2: her mother's passing, the family disintegrated for all intents and purposes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it came to pass that Zell is sent
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  Speaker 1: to live with other relatives. Historians are still divided on
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  Speaker 1: exactly who those relatives were and where they were located,
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  Speaker 1: but we do know When she was 15, she was
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  Speaker 1: sent to a teacher training college, and her career would
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  Speaker 1: have been, from that point, to become a kindergarten teacher.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't last long, though, because the headmaster was a
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  Speaker 1: super creep.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he sure was, and he took quite the liking
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  Speaker 2: to young Zell, making advances on her. It is possible
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  Speaker 2: that they had a relationship, though. I mean, the power
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  Speaker 2: dynamic in this really... Kind of makes it feel like
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  Speaker 2: that was not consensual and there's no world where it
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  Speaker 2: was 100%. The whole thing became quite the scandal and
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  Speaker 2: Zell was asked to leave the school because, of course,
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  Speaker 2: she was. Because those were the days where you were
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  Speaker 2: going to always blame the victim and give her the
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  Speaker 2: boot and let the creepy headmaster creep on creeping.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And as far as we could tell, that
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  Speaker 1: did continue. she may well have not been the first
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  Speaker 1: victim booted out of the institution. Just to make that
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  Speaker 1: historical note. So if we are Zell at this point,
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  Speaker 1: it's our second time as a teenager that we're forced
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  Speaker 1: to move. This is the first scandal young Zell will encounter,
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  Speaker 1: but it's far from the last. No, in 1895, Our
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  Speaker 1: main character, our protagonist, Zell, is 18 years old and
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  Speaker 1: she's reading the newspaper as you do. And she sees
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  Speaker 1: a personal ad in the newspaper, in the classifieds, from
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  Speaker 1: a man seeking a wife. I got to pause here, man, because.
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  Speaker 2: This is how you put it out in the paper.
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  Speaker 1: This used to happen.
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  Speaker 2: This happened. I guess that track often it.
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  Speaker 1: Was it was more normalized. Can we learn a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about this guy?
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  Speaker 2: We sure can. And Ben, for my purposes, calling her
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  Speaker 2: Zell is weirding me out because I just keep thinking
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  Speaker 2: I need to pay a bill. So I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: call her Margarita from this point forward, and then we'll
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  Speaker 2: get to Mata Hari eventually. That man that you mentioned,
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  Speaker 2: the man in question, was one Rudolph John McCloud. He
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  Speaker 2: was a Highlander. And there could only be one, and
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  Speaker 2: it was him, Rudolph John McCloud. Don't Fact check us
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  Speaker 2: on that. An officer on home leave from the Dutch
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  Speaker 2: East Indies where he'd been stationed for 16 years. He
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  Speaker 2: was in his late 30s, around 38 or 39. And
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  Speaker 2: the personals ad, okay, it's a personal ad. It's not
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  Speaker 2: as weird as we may have made it seem. At
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, we're all seeking companionship that
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  Speaker 2: may or may not lead to becoming a spouse, right?
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  Speaker 1: No, that's a good point. You're right. You're right. And
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  Speaker 1: he's been on the road for quite some time. Like
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  Speaker 1: you said, he's a military man. He served his time
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  Speaker 1: for 16 years in the Dutch East Indies. At this point,
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  Speaker 1: John is about 38 or 39 years old. And he
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  Speaker 1: would later claim that this personal ad was a prank
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  Speaker 1: by one of his buddies. Well, we certainly know that
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  Speaker 1: the personal ad prank is a classic. Sure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It's up there with the whoopee cushion.
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  Speaker 2: Or the prank phone call. Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Or swatting someone's home. So the exact same thing.
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  Speaker 1: No one fact check us. So these folks just, you know,
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  Speaker 1: whatever the providence of this ad could be, Manohari and
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  Speaker 1: John get connected and they do decide to get married.
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  Speaker 1: So they move out to Indonesia and they live in
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  Speaker 1: this opulent house. They've got servants, but they're still struggling
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  Speaker 1: with money. They're feeling very isolated. They fight all the time.
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  Speaker 1: In between fighting, they have two children.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, had to get it in somewhere. They had two children,
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  Speaker 2: Norman John McCloud and Louise Jean McCloud. It's very creative.
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  Speaker 2: But in the summer of 1899, we've got further unfortunate
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  Speaker 2: events that transpire. The children die. sadly became ill under
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  Speaker 2: suspicious circumstances. Norman John passed away at the age of two,
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  Speaker 2: and Louise Jean, who was just a baby, barely survived
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  Speaker 2: the same malady. The story is to be believed the
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  Speaker 2: children were poisoned by a disgruntled nanny or staff member.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and there's also the possibility that these unfortunate children
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  Speaker 1: were sick from syphilis treatments, and syphilis may have been
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  Speaker 1: Some historians speculate that syphilis was passed on to them
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  Speaker 1: via Zell herself, via Mata Hari.
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  Speaker 2: And that would have happened if she, in fact, likely
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  Speaker 2: would have happened if she was afflicted with that.
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  Speaker 1: And a year after, a year and a half after
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  Speaker 1: they moved to Indonesia, the family says, forget this. We're
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  Speaker 1: going back to the Netherlands. So we're going to hop
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  Speaker 1: on a boat. We're going to sail back to Europe.
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  Speaker 1: And as Not as soon as they return, but very
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  Speaker 1: shortly after they make it back to the Netherlands, they
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  Speaker 1: get a divorce.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. And Margareta is given custody of Louise Jean,
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  Speaker 2: referred to as Nan or Nonny, which I think is cute.
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  Speaker 2: But McCloud refused to pay her any kind of child
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  Speaker 2: support or alimony. Without any money, Margareta had to give
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  Speaker 2: her child up. She ends up unhoused at the age
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  Speaker 2: of 26. Um, and apparently her lawyer, she has a
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  Speaker 2: lawyer still can't do anything because it is impossible to
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  Speaker 2: seize the pension of someone who has served in the
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  Speaker 2: Dutch East Indies. Is this like the, the, this is the, uh,
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  Speaker 2: Dutch East India trading company or bad guys. They're the
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  Speaker 2: real bad guys, like super duper political machine, like controlling
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  Speaker 2: world events, you know, uh, iron fists of capitalism. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Colonialism, very powerful. state-sponsored corporate entities in play. And Mata Hari, Marguerite,
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  Speaker 1: is begging for custody of her daughter. And then she
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  Speaker 1: also threatens. When a carrot doesn't work, a stick will do.
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  Speaker 1: She says, look, if you don't give me custody of Nani,
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  Speaker 1: then I will have to pursue a less decent lifestyle.
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  Speaker 1: And they're pushing me toward it. You all are pushing
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  Speaker 1: me toward it if you don't help me financially. That
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  Speaker 1: less decent lifestyle can mean any number of things. We
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  Speaker 1: know in 1903, she relocates to Paris, France, and we
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  Speaker 1: want to thank the journalist Julie Wheelwright, writing for The Guardian,
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  Speaker 1: who supplies us the following quotation. She, Mata Hari, tried
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  Speaker 1: every means to earn money respectably, giving piano lessons, teaching German,
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  Speaker 1: applying to work as a ladies' companion and as a
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  Speaker 1: model at a department store. Less respectable, but more lucrative,
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  Speaker 1: was sitting as an artist model for Montmartre painters such
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  Speaker 1: as Edouard Besson, Octave-Denis-Victor Guionet, and Fernand Corbon, where she
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  Speaker 1: made important theatrical contacts. So what they're saying here, Noel,
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  Speaker 1: is that she might have been a nude model.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Okay, well, you know, it ain't bad work if
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: you can get it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We also know that after this, she returned for a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: time to Holland and then again returned to Paris in 1904.
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  Speaker 1: This is where we see the emergence of her alter ego,
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  Speaker 1: Mata Hari.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. She used her experience in Indonesia to create
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: this persona. Again, to your point earlier, Ben, kind of
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: trading on that exoticism and mysticism that she knew would
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: get folks talking because it was kind of, I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: in vogue, I guess, right? Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, to have the mysteries of the East.
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  Speaker 2: Of the Far East, yes. I mean, and, you know,
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  Speaker 2: of course, there's a certain amount of dismissiveness and racism
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  Speaker 2: involved in that, but at the very least, it was
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  Speaker 2: a fascination. So you could kind of capitalize on it
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: to a certain extent, even if you weren't actually of
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Asian descent.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, right. And this is arguably what could be called
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  Speaker 1: yellow face. So Margarita is... understandable here we can empathize
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  Speaker 1: with this she's doing anything she can to get enough
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: money to have custody of her daughter nani so she
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: starts dancing professionally in paris in the early 1900s 1905
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: or so uh and she like we're saying she's all
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: about branding what uh what persona do we present to
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  Speaker 1: the world that's where she starts calling herself matahari which
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: is an expression in malay for The Sun. It transliterates
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: in English to Eye of the Day. And as far as,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: not speaking for ourselves, as far as the audience of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the time found her, they loved it. They thought she
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  Speaker 1: was awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Indeed, she was tall, quite attractive, you know, surface level
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  Speaker 2: acquainted with East Indian traditions and dances and all of
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: that stuff. Again, this is all kind of offensive, but
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  Speaker 2: what are you going to do? She was doing her best,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: willing to appear virtually nude in public. Mata Hari was
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: an instant smash in Paris, which has always been a
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: bit of a baldy town, as well as other larger,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: more metropolitan areas.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And she was also, again, very good at the PR side.
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  Speaker 1: So she never explained her actual provenance or life story. Instead,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: she let rumors swirl around, and she fed the fire
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: with innuendo, right, and ellipses. So people were asking, is
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Mata Hari a Javanese princess? Has she been trained in
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the art of sacred Indian dance from childhood? We don't know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: but we'd love to get tickets for the show.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm, we sure would. Soon she started to kind of
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: make her way on a bit of a tour to
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: all of the famous opera houses and theaters in all
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: of Europe. It is then when she begins to kick
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: off quite a the successful career as a stage performer. Again,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: we're talking respectable joints. You wouldn't have called them that,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: I suppose. But places like La Scala in Milan or
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: the Olympia in Paris or the Opera of Monte Carlo.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is definitely making some waves with the
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: upper crust.
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  Speaker 1: A hundred percent. And it's not just the action of
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the dancing. There is a big spectacle here. She has
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: this extravagant hairdress style. She's got a ton of exotic jewelry.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And we'll say it honestly, she's a bit out there
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  Speaker 1: with the translucent veils. You know, there's an aspect of
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: burlesque around her performance. And at this point, she is
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: receiving 10,000 francs for a show. If we could inflation calculate.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: A boot.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: That is around 37 000 euros now which uh full
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: disclosure folks is uh more than noel and max and
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: yours truly have ever made for a live show so
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: maybe we just need like more veils you know what i.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Mean i think i'm down with it well yeah speaking
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: of The sexy dances. You know the dance of the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: seven veils that Salome did? Yeah. Yeah, it just reminds
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: me of that. But what year– were we talking here?
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I lost track of the chronology.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: So now we're a little bit past 1905. Okay.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: That's interesting. I thought I was going to bring this up.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: That's why I wanted to confirm. This exoticism was not
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: only happening in Europe. It was massively popular. in New
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: York City. I recently was in New York, and I
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: went to this really awesome cocktail bar called The Opera House.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: And it is in the lower level of another really
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: cool cocktail bar slash restaurant called Chinese Tuxedo. in New
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: York's Chinatown. And from 1893 to 1911, this was New
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: York's first Chinese theater. And it was like Chinese opera.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: And they actually, if you go to this place, they're
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: playing Chinese opera music. And it's fascinating stuff. I'd never
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: really heard anything quite like it before. And I swear, dude,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: when we walked into this place, it was kind of
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: a random one of those nights. I was like, does
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: this not feel like that scene at the beginning of
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and or like
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: a place that would have been run by the Chinese mob? 100%
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: was the case. Red curtains everywhere.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Triad field.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, dude.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Dark wood furniture.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: They said there were actually secret tunnels in the walls
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: where they would smuggle criminals out and things like that.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: It was a fascinating place. And our server was really
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: knowledgeable about the whole history of the place. So just
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: wanted to shoot that out to you. It's on Doyer
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Street in the Lower East Side Chinatown in Manhattan. Phenomenal.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, check it out.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: It would have been right along the side of what
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: was going on in our story. Absolutely.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And it's quite possible. When did you say that was constructed?
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know when it was constructed, but it
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: operated from 1893 to 1911.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: So it is completely possible then at this point.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: She might have made her way there.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: That they were at least using Mata Hari branded merchandise
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: because she got super into merchandise. Well, companies used her
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: image if they didn't compensate her. They used her name
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: for cigarettes, liqueurs, other products of vice. So if we
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: go to 1907, Mata Hari is a millionaire for a time,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: but she keeps spending the money, at least according to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: her biographers.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Spending it as quickly as it comes in. She became
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: a bit of a socialite as well and would make
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: regular appearances in magazines. I mean, she was a star,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: including publications like Vogue. So wherever she was, she was
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: always followed around by like, I don't know, I'm just
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: going to call it a harem of dudes.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: An entourage, right, of quarters. And she's known for holding audiences.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: She wants to flirt publicly. She wants the suitors to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: line up for her. She also starts to develop what
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the media at the time sees as a type. She
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: likes high-ranking military officers. She likes aristocrats.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Love a man in uniform.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: She loves a man in uniform. And despite the fact
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: that she's making a lot of money dancing, she's relying
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: on her suitors to support her from 1908 to 1912.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: A few years after 1912, there's a funny thing that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: happens in Europe.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a funny thing happened indeed. A little old skirmish.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: What do they call it? A little dalliance called World
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: War I. That's the one. When Germany declared war on
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: France on August 3rd of 1914, yeah, the show would
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: not go on, it turns out.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no more performances for the world-famous Mata Hari, which
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: means no more life of luxury for our protagonist. She
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: is in Berlin when Germany declares war, and the bank
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: freezes all of her assets, so she starts leaning more
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: ardently on her various quarters and lovers to support her lifestyle.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Stuff is not looking great, but there is a silver
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: lining because amid this chaos, the nation of the Netherlands
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: stays neutral, which means that Mata Hari is allowed to
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: travel throughout Europe in a way that a lot of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: people cannot.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: And that would be where the Hague was, where they
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: would try war criminals because of that neutral stance. It's also.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: got to be tough at the borders right when you're
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: traveling and it's it's very much a papers please kind
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of situation and the thing is she can't really be
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: inconspicuous at this point she's kind of like a kardashian
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: level of uh pop culture.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: Cover of vogue man i mean she's huge yeah so
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: wherever she goes people are looking at her even when
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: she's not in costume they're like oh hey I think
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I know that tall lady from the cover of Vogue.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: You know, that's a good point, Ben. I mean, she
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: definitely was sort of statuesque and had a cut a
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: certain figure, but you would think she might, since she
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: was so costume-oriented, be able to disguise herself a little
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: bit better.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Ooh, that's a great point, Noel. We also know that
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: intelligence agencies from several countries were watching her every move.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: They were studying her progress, Because she was one of
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the few people that could traverse international borders easily. This
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: is where we get to, like you mentioned, The Hague.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: She was living in The Hague in May 1916. The
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Hague is a place. It's not just a building. We
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: know it's a confusing name. While she's living there, a
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: consul from Germany, a diplomatic figure, reputedly visits her and says, Hey,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: baby duck, I hear you're going back to Paris.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Right, and this man knew for a fact that she
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: was planning to travel back to Paris, and he told
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: her that he wanted to do a little job for him.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: He wanted to recruit her as a spy, and during
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: her time there, do a little bit of spying. For
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the job, he offered her 20,000 francs, or about 50,000
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: euros with today's money. She accepted the offer, though it's
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: unclear if she actually planned on doing the requested spying.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: She was just like, yeah, just put it right in
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: my fist. Yeah, just leave it. Leave the money there.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: And it was nice to meet you. You know, guten tag.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: So once she does go back to Paris, the German
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: intel is correct. And when she gets there, maybe. folks,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: may be fueled off this new infusion of cash.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Fistful of cash.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right. How much more shady can one be?
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Bag of loose diamonds, by the way. That's the answer.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: She gets this glamorous, high-profile lifestyle again. She meets up
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: with various paramours. But she also has an appointment with
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: French intelligence agents.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they were there waiting for her. They monitor
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: her super closely, hoping to catch her in the act
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: in pro-German activities. In Paris, she came up with a
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: plan to make a trip to a luxurious spa near
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: the front lines of the war called Vittel. Um, she
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: at this point had fallen for a dashing young Russian captain.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Allegedly fallen.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Allegedly.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: That's right. And at the spa, she was able to, uh,
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: set up a meeting with him or that was where
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: they were going to have a little rendezvous under the
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: guise of, uh, her failing health. Yeah.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, I feel so poorly. I must take a constitutional
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: in the tail. It's simply the only place, uh, that
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: can accommodate my lifestyle. Uh, And then people were naturally asking, hey,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you know, Vettel is in the military zone, right? So
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: you got to get some paperwork.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: For this one. And so another one of her former
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: suitors or whatever current perhaps referred her to the immigration office.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: She get the paperwork and that's at 282 Boulevard Saint-Germain.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: But the headquarters of the French intelligence services were in
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: the same building.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Whoopsie doopsie. So this leads Mata Hari to find herself
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: in the office of a guy named Captain Ledoux, the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: head of the French intelligence service at the time. And
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: he has already been warned by his British peers about
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: this person, about Mata Hari. The warnings he got were
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: along the lines of, don't trust this person. Don't mistake
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: them for a shallow celebrity. There's deep water here. And
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: he has been shadowing her for like a month plus.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, let us imagine Captain Ladeau,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: his suspect, his quarry is thrown into his lap. Like
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you were saying, Noel, they're in the same building at
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: this point. And he says, I'm going to win her trust.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to approve your paperwork. And he tries to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: make friends with her, but he is convinced that that
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: she is spying for the Germans.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: And some of this comes from a really cool article
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: on the website of a fascinating-sounding museum in the Netherlands
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: called the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, and thank you to the excellent researchers there. This
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: captain is thinking, this is my chance to prove that
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: this person is spying for Germany, so I'm going to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: set a trap. She comes back from Vittel, And this guy,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: this captain says, you know, Mata Hari, I want to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: recruit you as a French spy for the Belgium theater.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I think you're good. I think you're famous. You can
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: travel easily. This is a win-win. Margarita Matahari senses an opportunity,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and she says, okay, I'll play your reindeer games for,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: dramatic pause, one million francs.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that's quite a bit of a raise there, huh?
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 2.5 million euros for those of us playing along
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: at home.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: And she really needs it, too, for her dowry, I guess.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: I don't think she really wants to marry that dashing
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Russian captain.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And this French intelligence officer says, look, go to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the Netherlands. You'll get further instruction there and we will
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: pay you after you complete your mission. So she sets off.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: And this is where the story gets really murky. Like
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: we hear different angles about it.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it definitely bifurcates a bit in terms of
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: the telling, and one version of it is that she
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: agreed to spy for both sides, and that she was
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: a double agent, playing both sides against each other with
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: neither knowing that she'd been recruited by the other.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and, you know, it's tough to prove.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Which is badass, if you ask me.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough to prove some of this stuff, too,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: because of the nature of that skullduggery, but we do
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: know for sure on February 13th, 1917... French authorities did
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: arrest her in Paris, and they arrested her on charges
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: of spying for Germany. So this is Captain Ladeau's trap.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Prosecutors claimed that Mata Hari's espionage contributed to the deaths
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: of more than 50,000 French soldiers. This is treasonous stuff. However,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: to your point, Ben, very little evidence to support the claim. However,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: in July 1917, she was tried by a military court
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: and convicted of espionage. and sentenced to death.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: So we'll forward here after sentencing to October 15th, 1917.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: This time of year, it's autumnal, it's cold in Paris,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and most of the population is still sleeping in when
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Marguerite is taken from death row to a firing range.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: And at the execution site, the firing squad is already there,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: they're loaded up, they're ready to carry out the sentence.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: And Margarita legendarily says, you don't have to tie my hands.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: You don't have to blindfold me. This is where we
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: get the report from some eyewitnesses who said she blew
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: a kiss to the crowd one last time before they
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: opened fire. And so at this time, the firing squads
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: are pretty active. It's not abnormal to hear gunshots in
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the morning like this. And just after sunrise, Mata Hari
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: is dead by a firing squad. She is just 41
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: years old.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean, she really was kind of a heel,
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: you know, in the region. European newspapers are applauding her demise,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: referring to the situation as an unmasking, referring to her
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: as a consciousness spy, and that she deserved what she got.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: All the while, the French state is actually auctioning off
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: all of her seized possessions to pay for the cost
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: of the trial.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: That's correct. Yeah, the body, they say, is going to
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: be donated to a teaching hospital. And all of a sudden,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: you know, we see this now with the strange wave
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: of loving and hating celebrities. All of a sudden, Europe,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: which once loved Mata Hari, turns against her and says
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: terrible things about this person. We also have to mention,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: as we're closing up here, that there is a huge
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: possibility that Mata Hari was herself a scapegoat, right? Because
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: we said there are serious questions about how much spying
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: she actually did. We know that the French military had
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: very low morale in 1917. There were mutinies in the
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: armed forces.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Needed a win. Yeah.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: People needed a win. They were looking for someone to blame,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: a face that they could put to their problems, someone
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: to punish.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Well, and people also love a fall from grace story too,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: don't they? Exactly. Yeah.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: So now we've got all the ingredients for Mata Hari
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to be a perfect scapegoat. She's not from France.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: She's a foreigner. She's a foreigner.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: And she has a reputation for being seductive. So she's
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: someone that is easy for the public to hate.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: In the subsequent years, a lot more research was done
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: into the situation. Numerous books and film adaptations of her
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: life came out. And as more and more research was done,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: it became clear. pretty clear that she got a bum rap.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: The German government did eventually exonerate her after posthumously, obviously.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Doesn't really do too much good, but I get it.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: I guess it helped with her legacy in 1930. And
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: the French dossier that collected all of her supposed spying
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: activities apparently contained information that indicated that she was, in fact, innocent.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and history is so much closer than it looks
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: in the rearview mirror, folks. We can tell you that
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: as recently as 2017, France was following up on Mata Hari.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: They released various documents relating to the case, and these
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: documents led a lot of historians to believe that this
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: woman had been a scapegoat of French officials who were
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: looking for someone to blame, some kind of a societal
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: escape hatch, right? A vent for people to get their
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: frustrations out. And in addition, there were a lot of
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: people speculating that Mata Hari's disregard for the norms of
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: the day and the taboos of the day played a
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: huge role in her arrest, conviction, and execution. Because one
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: thing that is true throughout most of Western history is boy, howdy,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: the patriarch hates women.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: You got that right, Ben. And I think we've shown
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: that in plenty of episodes of this show right here.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: But huge thanks to our research associate, Natalia, for her
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: very first research brief and a subject that I was
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: woefully underschooled on. Agreed.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Natalia, and can't wait to explore more of
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: your work in the future. Big, big thanks to our
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: super producer, Mr. Max Williams. Big thanks as well to A.J.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Bahamas Jacobs, a.k.a. The Puzzler, and a tepid We know
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: what you did to Jonathan Strickland, a.k.a.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: The Quister. I know what you did last summer, Jonathan.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: It was bad. And also, gosh, Alex Williams, who composed
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: our theme. Rachel Big Spinish Lance, the doctor herself of
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: underwater big booms.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Christopher Asiotis, Eve's Jeffcoat, here in spirit. And Noel, big
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: thanks to you.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: You as well, man. We'll see you next time, folks.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.