Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in the Netherlands in 1876.  She attended exclusive private schools until she married at the age of 18. She answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Colonial Army officer Rudolf John MacLeod, who was searching for a wife. They were married in 1895 and moved to the Dutch East Indies, where Margaretha had two children. In the East Indies, the alcoholic MacLeod treated her badly and kept both a native wife and a concubine. As a release, Margaretha found enjoyment in studying local culture and took the name Mata Hari, Indonesian for "sun," literally "eve of the day."



After moving back to the Netherlands, the couple separated in 1902 and later divorced in 1906. Without custody, Mata Hari moved to Paris and found success as an exotic dancer. Following her debut at the Musee Guirmet in 1905, she became the mistress of its owner, millionaire Emile Etienne Guimet. Mata Hari's act was flirtatious and sensuous, and she was often pictured in semi-nude poses. She had relationships with several other prominent men, including the German crown prince. During World War I, Mata Hari traveled extensively between European countries, which caught the attention of British intelligence. She claimed to have been a spy for France, but this has never been confirmed. In 1917, Mata Hari was arrested as a double agent for Germany, found guilty, and executed by firing squad at the age of 41. Biographers have since argued that she was used as a scapegoat or pawn.



Interestingly, Mata Hari's body was donated to science and her head embalmed. The head was kept at the Museum of Anatomy in Paris, but, in 2000, archivists discovered it had disappeared, as had the rest of the body, which had later been donated after medical study. Mata Hari's remains are still missing.