Famous Spies: Virginia Hall, CIA Spy
NPR
Known by her moniker “Artemis” in Germany, Virginia Hall was a U.S. spy who worked with the Special Operations Executive during World War II and later for a division of the CIA. Her efforts included helping the French Underground in Vichy, and the Gestapo referred to her as “the most dangerous of all Allied spies.”
Her earliest ambitions had nothing to do with espionage; she was interested in the diplomatic service. To that end, she traveled Europe, learning languages and taking on positions at U.S. embassies. A hunting accident in Turkey changed her plans — she accidentally shot herself in the leg, resulting in amputation and a prosthetic, which she named “Cuthbert.”
Figuring her chances of a diplomatic career were ruined, she set her sights on adventure: after a stint with France’s Ambulance Service before Paris fell to the Germans in 1940, she volunteered to work for the British and was sent back to Vichy France to coordinate the underground movement there while posing as a journalist.
When France fell, Hall only narrowly escaped. Undaunted, she returned in 1944 to plan drop zones for supplies, identify safe houses, and train battalions of guerrilla fighters. It comes as no surprise that she was recruited by the CIA when the war ended. We can only assume her adventures continued — but sadly out of the public eye.
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Famous Spies: Shi Pei Pu, Chinese Spy
Back Of The Cereal Box
This bizarre story of clandestine sex, scandal, and an opera-singing spy began in Beijing in 1964. Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu met French embassy clerk Bernard Boursicot while Boursicot was teaching English to diplomats’ families.
Shi Pei Pu convinced Boursicot that he was a woman dressed as a man, and the two began a love affair that spanned 20 years. Shi Pei Pu even pretended to have had Boursicot’s baby (in actuality a child he purchased from a hospital).
The affair led Boursicot to hand over as many as 150 French embassy documents to the Chinese secret service before he returned to France in the early 1980s. Boursicot brought Shi and his “son” to France, at which point the deception was revealed.
Both Shi and Boursicot were arrested and charged with espionage, serving six years in prison. They were released after 11 months, and Shi’s story inspired the play and film M. Butterfly.
Want more tales of scandal after learning about the most famous spies in history? Check out these famous inventors who don’t deserve credit for their best-known creations, or read up on the surprising history of prostitution around the world.
