Mata Hari innocent?

Was Mata Hari, whose name is synonymous with "female spy", innocent of espionage? A new biographer, Pat Shipman, claims that the evidence against her was bogus, according to this Reuters report in El Mundo, Desmontando a Mata Hari 08.08.07.

The article also notes that Mata Hari at the time of the First World War enjoyed international fame of a kind comparable to that of Marilyn Monroe.

Her full name was Margaretha Geertruida Zella MacLeod; Mata Hari was a stage name.

Here's an English version from Reuters, Mata Hari was a scapegoat, not a spy - biographer 07/07/07.

Shipman says of her subject, "She had a magnetism that was incredible."

The staid Encyclopedia Britannica 2007 says cautiously that "the nature and extent of her espionage activities remain uncertain".

Tags: mata hari, pat shipman