Mata Hari: The Spy Who Wasn't

[caption id="attachment_20012" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mata Hari[/caption] Mata Hari, who was executed by firing squad in France in October 1967, is probably the most famous spy of all time. She is renowned for her beauty, her numerous military lovers, her provocative Oriental dancing, and most of all, her espionage. Yet on fact, she was not overly attractive, Oriental or even a spy. Mata Hari was the stage name adopted by a plump, middle-aged Dutch divorcee named Mrs. Margeretha McLeod who had left her alcoholic Scottish husband in the East Indies (now Indonesia) and opted to become a dancer in Europe. The evidence of her alleged espionage on behalf of the German Kaiser is based merely on her being mistaken for a known German agent, Clara Benedix, by the British in November 1916. In that month Mrs. MacLeMacLeod was arrested in Falmouth, Cornwall and released. Later, she was arrested in France and charged with having been in contact with German intelligence in Madrid - and at her trial in Paris, her lurid lifestyle was used to damning effect.