The Dancer Doomed as a Spy
The Dancer Doomed as a Spy In the early hours of 15 October 1917, a guard entered Mata Hari’s prison cell and awoke her. Her time had come. She arose, donned her black stockings, high heels and a velvet cloak lined with fur. ‘I am ready,’ she announced. The guards whisked her off to the outskirts of Paris. Twelve French officers with rifles awaited her. She was led into a field and placed against a wooden stake. Offered a white cloth to wear as a blindfold, Mata Hari refused, demurring: ‘Must I wear that?’ She stared at her firing squad as a priest, nuns, and her lawyer backed away. The officers fired a volley of shots, ending the life of the 20th century’s most famous spy. Over the last 100 years, the Dutch dancer and courtesan has been revered as the ultimate femme fatale — the seductive, glamorous exotic dancer who spied for the Germans during the Great War and caused the deaths of thousands of allied soldiers. An Impoverished sin...