July 18, 2025 • 57 mins
Angie serves up a story so piping hot it consumes the entire episode. Come join us as she regales us with the story of Mata Hari. Whatever you think you know of this WWI spy, this wasn't it.
Angie serves up all the tea and she turns us all into fan girls as she shares her execution.
This episode pairs well with: WWII's Most Decorated Spy: Odette Samson The Outrageous Sarah Bernhardt
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast.The podcast where two crazy heads read history
because what else are we going to do in this economyand join forces and then tell each other the story
we've only recently learned. I'm host one, I'mTeresa, and that. I'm Angie, I'm host two. And just
(00:37):
before this call, Angie and I volley back and forthabout whose story is going to do what and I
threatened her with a great time. No, she didn't.She threatened me with more therapy. Tomato,
tomato. You know, I've heard it both ways. I mean, Ithink I'm winning therapy. I've gotten to the
(01:02):
point where my therapist has asked if I've seenYellowstone referred to me as Beth Denton. I feel
like I'm winning. I feel like you're winning alsoand I feel like you're winning because I know your
therapist sees a therapist because of you. Andhonestly, goals. I mean, who can ask for anything
more? I've read my goals on a post-it note beforeevery session. See, I knew earlier that I'm
(01:30):
planning ahead. I'm going to talk to them aboutthis today. And if I don't do a good job, they need
to, like if I've done it right, they are also goingto be in therapy today. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. I'm
proud of you. Way to manage that, way to handle yourdreams. Good job. Yeah. I mean, you know, okay, so I
(01:55):
said that I was going to torture you, but I think Imight have tortured you next week because
according to my spreadsheet of awesomeness.That's what it's called. That's what it's like.
That's what it's like. Yeah. Yeah. It proclaims itas your turn. And then you had said you might have a
full episode, which I may not be able to tortureyou. You may have to just sit on the solid on how I'm
(02:18):
going to undermine your mental health. My sanity.Yeah. My peace of mind. Oh, that's gone. Wait, bye,
bye. Yeah, I never, I'll be honest. It was neverhere. Now you're just giving it a friend to play
with. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I could just get, Icould just get right into it, but you're going to
(02:43):
love this because I need you. Okay. I could doeither two things, one of two things. You can
either take your headphones off and let me give mysources or I can give my sources without their
title. I'll take my headphones off because thisfeels better for me. Okay, bye. Hi, guys. No, I was
(03:05):
actually not going to cause any problems. I am justhere to tell you my sources are the Frease Museum.
PBS.org has an article on my person. There is atime.com article called Matahari, the True Story
by Ray Cavanaugh from October of 2017.History.com has a, this day in history, October
(03:30):
15th, Matahari executed. The Guardian has areally great article from 2016 by Julia
Wheelwright called Mother, Dancer, Wife, Spy,the Real Matahari. Flirting with Danger. This is a
historical documentary by Lucas Films that was onYouTube and another biography called Dancer,
(03:53):
Lever, Spy and a little blurb from GeorgetownUniversity. So, I can tell if she can come back now.
She can come back now. I'm bad. At this point, I haveto wonder if she can read, but... I mean, I looked
over at my second screen to see you mouth what Iassume was you can put your headphones back on.
(04:18):
That's true. But the whole time I was doing that, Iwas thinking there's a couple of words in here that
are really unmistakable. I wonder if she can read.Okay. So, because of the audio processing
disorder, where if I'm not looking at you and we'rein public, I can't hear what you're saying. Like, I
(04:40):
will look at my husband. He will say something and Iwill just be like, expand the tires in the wrench
sack. And he'll look at me and he'll think that I'mmessing with him and then he'll repeat what he
actually said and I'll go, oh, yes, that makes a lotmore sense. Absolutely not what you said. But for
(05:03):
like years, he assumed that I was trolling him andjust coming up with something that vaguely rhymed
with what he said. Okay, but like to be fair, youhave been trolling him for years. So, like, it's
fair to assume that could have been one of the waysthat you've been trolling him. Yeah. And I'm still
(05:26):
paying for the last time I messed with him. Well,these are things. That's why I don't, like, I do not
play practical jokes on my husband at all because Iknow for a fact I will pay for them and he will make
it. I will remember for life. So, I know I texted youthis, but I might as well publicly embarrass
myself by telling the listeners. Hubs and Itrained karate together and he invaded my space
(05:52):
during partner work. Just being playful, justbeing playful, just leaned in a little extra, a
little closer than an opponent normally would.And because I wanted to reinforce boundaries, I
just reached forward, I just stretched my neck forit a little bit, grabbed a hold of his beard and bit
down. Didn't do it. Yeah, I do. Just bit. Just lethim know, like, hey, you're in my space. And this
(06:15):
man recoiled and left my mouth with a mouthful ofhair. It felt like mouthful of pubes and it was in
between my teeth and I was having a hard time. And Idon't want to go home. And he's watching me like...
And like, dished him out in between my teeth and I'mlike having a sensory overload moment. He's
(06:41):
laughing. My instructor's dying. And then thenext day, this man who had a longish beard sees a
chunk missing because I don't know what happenedthe night before. I guess I blacked out and he's
like, you know what I need to do? I need to shorten itup. So he takes it down like several inches and then
(07:01):
walks out of the bathroom with his face wrapped in atowel because he recognizes... He's no longer
what I recognize from the nose down. And so he comesat me like a bandito. Like he's getting ready to
tell me to empty the bank vaults. And when I'm like,drop the towel. And he does. And I'm like, I don't
know. First time he looks younger, it looksbetter. I hate it's a long thing to begin with, but
(07:24):
now I don't know who the hell you are. And you are?Yeah, it's like, yeah. Yeah. And so now I get to walk
around with this strange man in my house who is everso familiar. And claims that finds a marriage
certificate, but still word out. Right. And so nowI get to deal with all of that because this is, you
(07:48):
know, sentenced its own punishment. You've donethe work? Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I am so glad you got
to retell the story in person because the text washilarious, but watching your face is even
funnier. So thank you for that. I appreciate you. Ido what I can. Yeah. But anyway, your story now that
(08:18):
you've... Yeah. I've got a banger. I am going totell you the story of Margarita Gertrudea Zell.
Are you familiar with this name? No. I want to be.What century? We're starting. We're starting in
the 19th century, but the bulk of it is going to beearly 20th. Okay. Okay. So our girl, she is born on
(08:49):
October 7th, 1876. In Livarden, which is a city inthe Netherlands. She's the oldest child. I think
I'm going to butcher her mother's name, but I amsure going to try. And Jeet. I think that's how it's
pronounced. Anyway, this checks for me. If all thevideos I watched are right, and Jeet. And Adam
(09:15):
Zell. So for a good chunk of this, I am just going tocall her Zell, because that's the most
straightforward, most pronounceable way to go.Papa is quite well off. He's a really successful
hat maker. And I'm going to be honest with you when Isay that, no, or in my mind did I equate the idea with
(09:35):
being a successful hat maker to the level ofsuccess that he was. For whatever reason in my
brain, it was like cute little old man insuspenders sitting behind his workbench that
makes some money to bring home the bacon and thenhappily retires. And like he's never rich and
famous. But this guy makes it big. This guy is likeLouis Vuitton. It's like you start out making
(10:02):
baseball gloves. Or is it baseball gloves thatLouis Vuitton made? And he could wear baseball
gloves. Is he the baseball gloves or saddles orsomething? That was coach that did saddles. No, I
think it was baseball gloves. We'll have to do thelittle bit. I think that was right. Okay. We'll let
you know. So Papa is well off. Our girl is born andspends her childhood in luxury on one of the most
(10:28):
posh streets in her city. She has three brothers.Things are going great until they don't. It's
around 1888. Zells between 12 and 13 years old.Good old dad can no longer keep up their expensive
life. So he declares bankruptcy and bounces likethis is most sources say he moved in with his
(10:53):
brother in the Hague. One source suggests thatmaybe he just left for another woman. But given
that more than one source says he moved with hisbrother. I'm going to go that that's probably what
happened. But maybe the woman showed up later. Idon't know. Yeah, I mean it could be with brother
until I really hashed out a side piece and thenright, right. Needless to say he bounces and 12
(11:16):
year old Zell and her brothers are cramped intothis little upstairs apartment with their mom and
leave on. This of course results in a separationand a divorce from mom and dad and then not too long
after her beloved mother dies of tuberculosis atonly 49. Yeah, so we're a young teen. Life is not
(11:39):
great. Up to this point. Our girl's L. She isprecocious outgoing. She's very a very confident
child who has spent her life so far at the bestschools around. She's learning to dance. She's
learning to play the piano and she speaks French.Her teachers would never accuse her of being an
(12:01):
obedient and well behaved child. So honestly goodfor her. Okay, so this is an Odette Samson is what
I'm hearing. I'm thinking somewhere betweenOdette Samson and a young Marie Antoinette. Like I
just kind of do what I want and I get by because I'mcharming. Sort of thing. Right. That's going to
(12:21):
come back later. Her doing as she pleases. Once hermom dies, the kids, they're sort of all shuffled
around other family members. Some sources saythat Zell was sent to her godfathers, but the
museum where I acquired the bulk of my story saysshe ends up with her uncle, which at the end of the
(12:43):
day, I guess you could be a godfather and an uncle.Maybe they just didn't all equate the same way in
their research. But I mean, I've heard recently ofa human whose godmother was her older sister who
was like 13, 14 years older than her. So, you know,it doesn't matter. Like the relationship doesn't
matter. He very well could have been both. So she'sliving with him and his wife in a town called Sneak.
(13:09):
She basically stopped school at 14, but at 15, herguardians decide that she should be in training to
teach kindergarten. So she goes to this like acollege for kindergarten teachers is the only way
I understood it. I don't want to say it's like afinishing school or a prep school. The way that it
was described was like, that's exactly whatyou're going there to do. It doesn't teach
(13:32):
anything else but how to be a teacher, which is kindof cool. Right. Okay. You could say that she was
gorgeous. You could say that she was probably oneof the prettiest things you ever saw. A schoolmate
would call her an orchid among dandelions. She wasdark-eyed and had a dark complexion. And don't
(13:56):
panic because this school year's spent for herlives rather shortly. She's suspended after just
one year. Okay. Wait a minute. That was weird. Itwent from she is absolutely gorgeous. She is a rose
among thorns and she's got a school. How are thosetwo thoughts related? Because her beauty plays
into it. The rumor is she was caught in what theFreest Museum would say was an amorous state with
(14:22):
the school headmaster. Oh, that would do it.Right. So she's gorgeous. She catches his eye and
she loves the attention. At least at this point.So, I mean, there's that. And you know what? Girl
always seems to know what she wants. So get it, Iguess. There's a couple more years go by. She's
(14:45):
bored. She's kind of feeling like life is a littlebit meaningless. She's 18 years old and living in
the Hague. And she sees an ad in the paper. Anofficer is on leave from the Dutch East Indies and
he is looking for a woman to marry. This is kind ofone of those lonely articles. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
(15:12):
Yep. And it's basically like, you know, careersoldier looking for a wife and she's like, oh, that
sounds lovely. Look at her. I love uniforms. Oh mygosh, you couldn't be more accurate. So the Freeze
Museum has this to say, on a drizzly Sunday inMarch, she meets Rudolph McLeod known as John in
(15:37):
Amsterdam at the Rijksmuseum. He is 39 years old, ahardened professional soldier of aristocratic
and very likely Scottish descent. As a captain inthe Royal Dutch East Indies Army, he is
temporarily on sick leave in the Netherlands. Thecouple doesn't waste any time. Six days later,
they are engaged. And then on July 11th of 1895,they're married at City Hall in Amsterdam. Okay.
(16:06):
That was no time wasted. This is 90 day fiance oncrack. Yes. And he is several, several years older
than her. Right. Significant timeframe. And sofar, this probably sounds a lot like the beginning
of a lot of stories that we have. The here's where itstarts to go in a different direction. It's now
(16:29):
1897, just a couple of years after they marry. I'massuming he's on leave this whole time that
they're in these two years before they go back tothe Dutch East Indies, but there's no sources that
suggested anything different. So that's what I'mgoing to go with. It's 1897. They make their way
back to his post in the Dutch East Indies, which ifyou're curious, this is the area that mostly makes
(16:54):
up modern day Indonesia. Think places likeSumatra, Java, Borneo, these, these
territories, which would ultimately declareindependence on July 17th of 1945. So I think
that's pretty cool. So her husband, McLeod, is aprominent officer there. They've got the large
house, the servants, you know, the whole gig andshe's given birth to their first child, a sweet boy
(17:18):
named Norman James. It's not too long after theyarrive that she gives birth to their daughter,
Louise Jean, whom they nicknamed Nonna or Nani. Sothey've got the young family, right? Like big
house, the dream, the exotic dream of all people, Ithink at this time. It's a big time frame. At least
(17:38):
anybody that's seen it have an exotic dream. Okay,but the bad news. Her husband is a walking red flag.
He's got a temper and he is a man that is used togiving orders and then being followed. And he is
like always in debt and he is also incrediblyabusive towards her. Good. Yeah, all the things,
(18:01):
right? Our girl is stunning and she knows how towork a man and she likes to flirt, which of course he
hates. So needless to say their marriage is full ofinfidelity on both sides, but it was McLeod who
would bring home... wait for it... Sip-a-list.Sip-a-list. Yeah. Okay. ...that he likely
(18:24):
contracted from what we would call a concubinemistress, that sort of thing. Evidently at that
time and place it was... I don't want to say it wasthe in thing to do, but it was not unheard of for
soldiers of European descent to have multiplemarriages because that was like locally
(18:45):
acceptable there. But regardless, this is amistress, right? Right. So he brings home
Sip-a-list from a mistress and this is the partwhere the story just kind of goes south. It gets a
little questionable. The kids are either bornwith Sip-a-list because of hereditary passing it
(19:06):
down or an angry servant poisons them. McLeod hasno shortage of enemies. I think it's kind of more
accepted now that it was the Sip-a-list, butthere's still a lot of belief that it was poison.
Regardless of the source, the children are sick,everybody's sick, and supposedly everyone's
(19:29):
treated for Sip-a-list, which the doctors of thetime, their only care available was... Mercury?
...heredotuses of mercury. Ah! Yes. I knew it'stoo much about this. It's, you know, you're just
too comfortable with Sip-a-list. I don't know if Ilike that statement. It was delightful. Thank
(19:50):
you. We just know a lot about Sip-a-list, you know?History brings up Sip-a-list a lot. It's not us.
It's history. Okay, fair. I like the cop-out. Itjust is what it is. And we just happen to pick
stories that have Sip-a-list. What does that sayabout our algorithm? Norman, this sweet boy, he's
(20:14):
about two at this time. Sip-a-list? Yeah. Yeah. Iknow a lot of things about my algorithms, and I just
am really thankful that I have a history, a searchhistory, but at the same time, I'm honestly the one
(20:35):
that's really, the request that I've made is thatmy oldest son is the one that clears my search
history when I die, specifically so I can screwwith him in my later years. That's my client.
Norman, the sweet little guy, he's about two atthis time, and he probably has the most severe
(20:56):
case, and it is treated as such. And sadly, he diesof mercury poisoning. This is heartbreaking. I
can't even begin to fathom this because also she istrying to care for her infant daughter, right?
Like, to just go through a loss like that isunfathomable to me. But our girl, Zell, she's in
(21:19):
this exotic location, and she gets to spend timeamong the locals. She's learning their customs.
She's learning their language. She's learningall kinds of things. So she does have a couple
things going for her. It's at this point that theFreese Museum points out that, quote, the
socialite life among the high-ranking militaryis going well. As a charming officer's wife, she
(21:40):
accompanies John at dinners, parties, anddances. She is more in her element there than at
home as a mother. Marguerita is eloquent, lively,and theatrical, and has her own ambitions. For
example, she shines in the leading role of anamateur musical that receives good reviews
there. But just shortly before everyone startedshowing signs of the sickness, McLeod had retired
(22:07):
and they moved to a much more isolated village, andshe hates it. There is no one around. She is bored to
death, and I think he probably chose that onpurpose. After the little one dies, they are
completely inconsolable, but they also have tocare for their baby, and they decide that maybe
(22:30):
Indonesia is not the place to be anymore. So theyboard the boat back to the Netherlands. It's March
19th when they get on the boat and they return home,and then just about six months later on August
30th, 1902, McLeod and Zell get divorced. The lossof their son was kind of the last nail in the... In
(22:55):
November of 1903, she has this quote where shesays, I can only tell you that out of passion and
madness, he almost killed me with a bread knife on aSunday afternoon, and that I owe my life to a chair
that fell over and gave me time to find the door andget help. He was told by doctors that he suffered
(23:15):
from what one doctor called tropical frenzy andother doctors just called fade-ism. So, lovely.
Yeah, he's there, right? Okay, so she gets custodyin the divorce of their daughter, and she loves
this. However, he won't pay alimony, and at thistime and place, it's nearly impossible for a
(23:41):
divorced woman to provide for herself or a childfor that matter. But she won't go back to McLeod
because I feel like for obvious reasons. At thispoint, she realizes, though, that she has to give
her daughter to him. She had stated at one pointthat while he was a terrible and abusive husband,
he was a good father, and she knew that her daughterwould be well cared for. So, to ensure that her
(24:05):
daughter can be given the things that you need inthis life, like, you know, food, shelter,
clothing, things like that, she gives her back toMcLeod. She's got no family for the most part.
She's penniless, and she's only 26 years old.She's on the street because despite the work of her
lawyers, it is impossible to seize the pension ofsomeone who has served in the Dutch East Indies.
(24:29):
And I'm not sure why. I'd be interested to know, butit seems like there's some legal reasons why you
can't touch their pension. So, our girl does whatevery girl dreams of and goes to Paris saying, I
thought all women who ran away from their husbandswent to Paris. Kind of love that. I mean, honestly.
(24:51):
Right. I mean, for a while, she does every decentthing that she can think of from teaching piano and
German lessons to being a lady's maid. Accordingto Georgetown University, she also does these
performances on horseback like horseback shows.I don't know if that's part of the circus or
whatever that is, but I only just learned that and Inow have questions. And she does all of these
(25:17):
things with the hope that one day she can actuallyafford to keep her daughter. And she says she's
going to continue to do all the decent things untilshe simply can't anymore. Her hope is that she can
maintain a respectable life so that she could be agood mother. Like that's at the core of it. That's
what she's hoping. In slightly less respectablemoments, she sits for portraits by the artist of
(25:45):
Monarcha. And doing so secures her theatercontacts, which is going to matter in just a little
bit. Right before she sits for portraiture for thefirst time, she sends a letter to a relative. I
believe this relative is either a cousin of her or acousin of McLeod's, but he's been working as the
middleman since their divorce. So he's trying tohelp. Either way, he seems ill. It seems that way.
(26:13):
And in this letter, she basically says, if McLeoddoesn't hold up his end of their arrangements,
which to this point he hasn't, shocking, shebasically says it won't be her fault when his name
gets dragged through the mud because she takes upless than respectable job of modeling. It's in
this letter that she also says, quote, I'm tired offighting against my life and I want one of two
(26:37):
things, either not me with me and to be a decentmother or I'm going to live as I'm so wonderfully
offered here. She is tired of trying to know a bell.And around this time, she does go back to the
Netherlands. She's desperate. She does want to bea mother and she has no money. So she's still
(27:00):
struggling. She's still trying. And this is whenshe realizes she's probably going to have to
resort to prostitution. It's at this point thather what's left of her family leave leave her high
and dry. So she heads back to Paris. Back in Paris,she picks herself up by her bootstraps, uses all of
(27:21):
her charm and knowledge that she's gained over theyears and she creates this amazing and
mesmerizing persona and begins to perform thisexotic dance and rather erotic dancer team under
the name of Mata Hari. Oh my gosh. Yep, this way Icouldn't. I couldn't share my sources. Um, so Mata
(27:48):
Hari means I have the dawn in the Malay language ofthe people she adored in Indonesia. She did dance
for a short time under the name of Lady Gresham ofCloud, but that didn't last long and I'll tell you
why in just a second. So she creates these Indiantemple dances and she performs them
passionately. It's got everything the Paris of1905 wants. It's mysterious. It's exotic. It's
(28:13):
sexy as hell and people eat it up. She tells heradoring fans that she's a temple priestess's
daughter who died in childbirth and she was raisedamong the gods. She builds this like
larger-than-life character and the publiccannot get enough of her. Fun side note, I did not
know until reading about her. Entertainers ofthis time were known to create these like alter
(28:37):
personas and build these really remarkablelives. And it was generally accepted and loved by
the fans even though they knew it was completemalarkey. But they were here for it, like dazzle us
with your story. The fantastic, we know you wereborn three blocks over but it's fine. Don't let a
lie get in the way of a good story. Exactly, right?So they're eating her stories up and she changes a
(29:03):
little bit to it here and there. The basic gist isshe was born in the temple to a priestess, a
priestess dies in childbirth. She's raised in thetemple learning all the sacred things, right? And
she does all this with the help of a man called EmileGomet. It's when she starts working with him that
she takes on the name Matahari, which she has saidin a letter to, I believe it was a cousin years
(29:28):
earlier, that one day she would like to dance underthat name. And I thought, oh, that's funny, you
were like manifesting for yourself, good for you.Emile Eating Gomet was, according to a lovely with
PE article that I read, because I was just kind ofcurious about him, a French industrialist,
travelist and connoisseur. He was an importantcollector of artifacts related to, quote,
(29:52):
Oriental religion and Asian arts. Gomet is thefounder of the Musée Gomet and he is basically
where she gets all of her costume pieces. It was, infact, it would be at the Musée Gomet where her first
big performance would be celebrated and like thewho's who of Paris are there. She, at this point, is
(30:15):
basically performing what we would know as astriptease. She wears this almost, her costume
pieces are like almost translucent. They're veryflowy. They're very sensual. And for the most
part, at least in the beginning, all of the piecesare authentic from Gomet's collection. Like he
(30:36):
basically hands her everything, these gorgeousheaddresses, the whole thing because he's just,
this is the best idea we've ever had. Let's go forit. And I'm a rich collector with nothing better to
do, right? So, like I said, these pieces, they'revery sheer and she slowly removes them piece by
piece. And even at this time in Parisian history,this would not have been allowed, but she said,
(31:02):
quote, excuse me, she said that she was onlyreenacting the sacred temple dances that the
priestesses would do. So I guess it's allowed inthe name of authentic history and performance.
Okay, so she's like, this is religious freedom. Iguess. That's pretty much how I took it. It doesn't
take long for her to just explode and she isperforming on every stage in Europe from private
(31:29):
shows to sold out theaters. Meanwhile, what'sex-husband saying? Because I have a feeling this
has got to be deeply humiliating. I'm sure it is. Iwas really curious about him. Typically, I think
when we have a story where the woman leaves thehusband, like I never really care what happens to
him afterwards, but I'm really interested in hisperspective. I know that he remarries a few times
(31:55):
and I know that he never gives his side of the deal. Ithink it's because of her actions and he was
mortified. That's the way I understand it, but Idon't have any letters from him that say how he
felt, but I'm 100% sure he was not happy. I dobelieve that there were times where she was able to
(32:21):
have her daughter, but I think she spent the bulk ofher life with her father. It kind of makes the most
sense. No, I lost my notes. She is traveling allover the place and it does not take her long to gain a
(32:43):
long list of powerful, wealthy men that arewilling to lavish gifts upon her. Around this time
is when she would also begin her career as acourtesan, but I wanted to take a moment to dispel
100 years of rumors because, let's be honest,there are tons about Motari that are not accurate.
(33:05):
Kind of like Maria Laveau's story, we're told onestory, but it is 100% not that story. Kind of on the
same line as that. I feel like Motari is oftenplayed off like this vixen for sex, right? But
she's not really into it. Like we previouslythought. She's not out there trying to get them in
(33:31):
so she can have all these magnificent love affairsand notches on the bed post. There is a letter that
she previously writes to one of her cousins, and inone of them she points out that her relationship
with the cloud was so bad that she pretty muchloathed sex, which is sad, but she knew what she
could do with it and would occasionally dabble ifneeded for one reason or another. One source
(33:56):
suggested that she would only resort toprostitution or the pain for it if her daughter
needed something, but I don't feel like that's100% true because her lifestyle was over the top.
There are lovers that are paying for castles forher. There are men that just want to be in the room
(34:25):
with her. I think it varies. But I'm not here tojudge, like girlfriend, get it. Like do what
you're doing. Whatever you feel about it, I'm hereto support it. Good for you. So one of her
gentlemen, one of the things that her gentlemencallers, they start to get really interesting,
(34:46):
right? Because we're leading up to the Warriors.And she is hot. She is sexy. She's multilingual.
She can speak fluent German, French, Italian,Spanish, and Malay. And she is dating men from all
over the board. And she loves a man in uniform. Shedoesn't care what uniform you have on. I didn't
(35:12):
realize just how right I had it with the uniformcomment. I know. I was like, oh girl, you could not
be more right. Girl loves the uniform. Her peakyears, she'd received 10,000 francs, which is
like 37,000 euros for one show. Her names used forthings like cigarettes, liquors, all sorts of
(35:33):
products. By 1907, she's a millionaire. Itdoesn't last long because she spends it as fast as
she can make it. But she is everything that everywealthy man wants. She's even in Vogue, which I
don't know why, but did you know that Vogue wasfounded in 1892? I don't know why I didn't know how
(35:56):
old Vogue was, but I was like dang, 1892. I didn'tknow either. It doesn't surprise me, but I'm just
kind of like, okay. Yeah, I guess I thought it wasthe thing that came out of the 40s, but no, 1892. So
she was even in Vogue. It doesn't matter where herlovers or her suitors come from. She may not like
(36:19):
sex, but she loves to flirt. And the men form aqueue. Like, where do I stand in line? She is fond of
high-ranking officers and the nobles as well,because why not? Now, despite the fact that her
career alone could pay the bills if she could stopspending all the money on lavish things, these men
(36:41):
are all too happy to finance her extravagantlifestyle. One of her bows is a French baker called
Rousseau. He rents a castle for her, but that's notenough, so he also rents her a villa that comes with
a carriage and riding horses and staffs. She datesa Rothschild at one point. Like, all the things. Do
(37:01):
they say Rothschild? I did. Yes, a Rothschild. Idon't know what that is. Rothschild. Another
jilted lover gives her 300 staff. I'm stuck onRothschild. Rothschild. I can't say it wrong now.
Rothschild. Another jilted lover gives her300,000 Reichs marks, which is just under a
(37:29):
million euros when they split ways. When theysplit ways, he's like, oh, you also need money.
That's a subtle bit. Hey, whatever. You know, Ithink I just needed to do breakups differently. We
have been doing it wrong. That's the way I'munderstanding it. What have we learned over the
last few weeks? We could have been being paidmonthly for life. But we can't forget that we're on
(37:58):
the eve of war, right? So it's June of 1914.Matahari is asked to perform a show in Berlin and
she can't pass it up. Lately, times haven't beengreat for her. As younger and, dare I say, perhaps
even prettier girls have figured out her story andmade it their own. And she is all too happy to take
(38:20):
this show in Berlin. So that's where she goes. Butthe Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis
Ferdinand is assassinated on June 28, 1914 by aBosnian serve. And on July 28th of 1914,
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. This isinconvenient and sad. But here we are. She keeps on
(38:43):
doing Matahari stuff. And then on August 1st,Germany declares war on Russia and she's like,
Well, I should probably get back to Paris now. Butthen on August 3rd, Germany declares war on France
and so on and so forth in the biggest bar fight inhistory. And I know I shouldn't make light of World
(39:03):
War, but every time I think of the opening of WorldWar I, I cannot help but think of a giant bar fight.
You know where we are. Right? And our girl, she'sDutch, right? So she carries what's going to be
called a neutral passport. So boom, she goes hometo the Hague because forget all of you people. I'd
like to go home. And she could have stayed and made anice, quiet life for herself. But what part of the
(39:30):
story would make you think you did that? I mean,well-behaved women sell to make history.
Exactly. So, Seidbart, and I think this is prettyinteresting, the Freestine Museum tells us,
Because she was in Berlin when the First World Warbreaks out and there she is declared a citizen of
(39:50):
the French enemy by the Germans. I don't reallyknow what that means. I've been thinking about it
all day. But what I do know is the Germans freezeher, the bank frees her assets, and to her great
indignation, Germany also confiscates herbelongings, including her precious fur coats.
Oh, this is going to matter like a lot in just alittle bit. Now, it's wartime and everywhere she
(40:18):
goes, she attracts the looks of powerful men, andthis is no different, right? Only this time they
are looking at the fact that she carries a Dutchpassport, so she can basically move freely around
Europe as she pleases, and she is alsomultilingual. So, people aren't at this time in
(40:39):
war. They're not really interested in seeing hershows, so she is super dependent on her wealthy
friends for her upkeep. So we kind of have to keepthat in mind. The British, French, and German
intelligence communities are all paying closeattention to her for any reason they want. On the
eve of May 16th, Monta Harry gets called on by theGerman Council Cramer in the hog. Now, excuse me,
(41:05):
the Hague, he in other sources is listed as one ofher boyfriends. I'm not entirely sure if he really
is only because the spelling of the names are just alittle too variant to really confirm he is the same
man as some of the other sources suggest. Buteither way, he calls on her, and I can only imagine
(41:29):
he's got flowers in hand, and he believes that sheis soon going to Paris, and he wondered if he could
recruit her as a spy. So he asks. He wants her tocollect all sorts of intelligence and gives her
the code name Agent H21. He offers her 20,000francs, which is about 50,000 euros, and she takes
(41:54):
them, even though she thinks that's not nearlyenough. But she never plans to do any spy work for
the Germans because remember, they already tookall her stuff, and she's just seeing this as
payment for their earlier actions. And Ipersonally live for this type of audacity, like as
(42:14):
it turns out, no, I'm not going to do any work foryou, but I am going to keep all the money that you
hand, because do you remember a couple years agowhen you inconvenienced me by freezing my bank
accounts and taking my furs? Thank you. No, but shedoes, in fact, go back to Paris. On the boat on her
way back, it stops and docks in an English porttown, and the British intelligence question
(42:39):
everyone on board. The comments about her are asfollows. She speaks French, English, Italian,
Dutch, and probably German, handsome, bull typeof woman, well and fashionably dressed, not above
suspicion, and she should be refused permissionto return to the UK. Honestly, I want to live in a way
(43:03):
that I am viewed as not above suspicion. I mean,we've said living above approach, but not living
above suspicion is the opposite side of that coin,but more fun. Right? When she finally makes it back
to Paris, she falls right back into her delightfullittle life of being well kept. But the French want
(43:26):
her to, but the thing is she has fallen in love, likefor real real, like the love of her life kind of
love, with a young Russian officer calledVladimir Demoslav. I'm not clear how they met or
when they met, but what I do know is he is wounded inthe eye, but that doesn't stop her from falling
(43:48):
head over heels for this guy, and when he proposes,she excitedly accepts. And then he sent, like,
immediately back to the front line. So she wantstwo things, money to start a nice life with this new
bow, this love of her life, and she wants to be nearhim. So she is looking for safe passage to the
(44:12):
front. So she asks a former fling of hers for help,and he sends her to the immigration office because
she needs some sort of special permit to be in thearea that's near the front line, and even to go
there. So this immigration office, it's locatedat 282 Boulevard Saint-Germain, which also
happens to be where the headquarters of the Frenchintelligence service is located. Surprise,
(44:37):
surprise. Shocking, I know. Here, Montaharimeets Captain Lado, the head of French
intelligence service, and he knows all about herfrom the British. He's been waiting for a chance to
meet her. In fact, he's been shadowing her for amonth. Lado is stoked when she walks through the
door, and he gives her exactly what she wants, thetravel documents. Even though there is no proof at
(45:03):
all, surveillance or otherwise, he thinks thatshe's spying for the Germans, and he's going to
catch her in the act. Like, that's what he thinks.When she returns from the front, he pounces, and he
makes her think he also wants to recruit her as aFrench spy working in the Belgian area. And she's
(45:25):
like, well, for a million francs, yeah, I'll do it.And for a penny and for a pound. Right? That'd be
like 2.2 million euros today. So at this point, Ithink they're happily playing each other. She's
told she will receive more instructions fromLado, and when the mission is complete, payment
will be handed to her. So she goes to work. And thisis where everything just takes a dive. She can't
(45:55):
complete her original mission becauseinstructions are lacking. This is where it gets a
little bit wonky because here is where the legendand the lies and the truth meet. So we're still kind
of muddling through that. It hasn't been that longsince the French unsealed her documents. I don't
remember what year it was, but it's only been likemaybe in the last 20, 30 years. And people are still
(46:21):
trudging through everything to figure out thetruth of it. But basically, she is lacking
instructions on what to do. And so she's going to dosomething and she thinks that it would be useful if
she goes to Madrid and seduces a one major call.He's what the freezing regime would call a dreaded
(46:45):
German. She says that she herself is a German spyand passes him some harmless information, and
then he kind of spills the beans to her. And then sheapproaches the French colonel, De Vings, who she
informs that she is a French spy, and she tells himwhatever information she obtains from call after
(47:09):
flirting with... after flirting and a couple ofafternoons in bed with him. And then she asks
him... excuse me, I have this a little wonky, butthe colonel that she meets, the French colonel,
after she is done flirting and having her littlefling with the German major, she asks the French
colonel if he'll pass all this information on tothe French intelligence community. And then,
(47:35):
because Lado has yet to contact her, she does what Iwould consider the dumbest thing ever. She sends
letters to Lado via the regular mail, which Irealize at the time may not have seemed dumb, but
like it's spycraft 101 now, right? Don't do that.And from what I understand, they're uncoded. So,
(47:56):
shouldn't do great. But the German major thatshe's seduced, he, at the same time, he also sends
some telegrams to the German intelligenceoffices, and he gives up what he thinks is H21. And
(48:17):
he then tells them the information that she'spassed on, and he asks her how he's to pay her. Like,
he asks his handler, how am I to pay her? Now, thesetelegrams, they are intercepted and deciphered
by the French. Sources are a little conflictedhere, but the clearest way I see it is that he used
(48:37):
codes he knew the French had already broke, andthey quickly figure out that H21 is our girl,
Montahari. She's caught, and she doesn't evenknow it yet. Now, all of a sudden, her contacts,
both in Germany and France, have like fallen offthe planet. Nobody responds to anything. She's
(48:58):
suspicious, and she wants to get back to theNetherlands. But just three days later, once the
ink dried on her warrant, Ladoe arrests her onsuspicion of espionage for the Germans. She goes
through several months in jail, and at least teninterrogations, when she finally comes out and
says, yeah, I took the money from the Germans, andyeah, my code name was H21, but I never spied for
(49:22):
them. Like, they owed me the money, and doesn't mywork and my letters prove that I was loyal to France
the whole time? But there's this council-martialchief investigator called Captain Bouchardon,
and he, from the get, she's guilty. Like, she has nochance. He sees no reason to even really give her a
(49:48):
trial, but, you know, here we are. It's prettyclear why, at this moment in time, France has
suffered a devastating blow, could have been up to50,000 soldiers in like one fell swoop. And France
is looking for an out. They're looking to makesomeone the bad guy, someone they can blame, and
(50:12):
so, truth doesn't really matter here. Montahariis the perfect target. On July 4th, Margarita
Groutroudia-McLeod, Zell, or Montahari, isofficially charged with pro-German espionage
(50:34):
activities. On behalf of the French state,Captain Bouchardon summons her to appear in
court. The French accuse her of maintainingcovert contact with the Germans, gathering
intelligence, passing information. Her travelis considered very suspicious to them, and her
very dubious and rather public contacts with somehigh-ranking Germans are not helping. They can't
(50:59):
prove that she actually ever spies or gives intelto the Germans, but under military law, simply
maintaining any contact with the enemy is guilt.Right? Like, she really had no choice here. Right.
Like, no chance. The Freist Museum says, quote,the French court martial passes the death
(51:19):
sentence. The seven judges ruled swiftly andmercilessly. Despite the meager evidence, the
judges found her guilty on all counts. Heraccusers smugly speak of arguably the greatest
female spy of our century. On October 15, 1917, sheis taken out to the firing range in her finest
(51:40):
clothes. She refuses to be blindfolded or tied tothe post. She says goodbye to the two nuns who have
been caring for her, and she looks defiantly at theshooters. Sources say she even blows them a kiss.
Whoa! They fire, and Montahari is dead. Theofficer, overseeing the execution, exclaim, by
(52:02):
God the lady knows how to die. George Ladoe, herhandler for French intelligence, was later
arrested and tried himself as a double agent. Holycow! I didn't see that coming. I know. He was not
found guilty, basically gets a slap on the hand,and lives till 1933. I genuinely believe he set her
(52:30):
up from the beginning to take the fall for whateverhe was doing. Whether he genuinely was not a double
agent and just saw the writing on the wall that theyneeded some sort of fall guy and a woman of loose
morals would be the perfect one. Or he really was upto something, and he needed someone to take the
(52:53):
blame for his actions so he could continue withwhatever he was doing. She was the perfect target.
And that is the story of Montahari. Wow! I told you,I had a little bit of everything, including
syphilis and tuberculosis. She had kind of been onthe list, but every time I'd see her, I'd say, you
(53:16):
know what, I need to do a deep dive on her. Same.Same. And I have a topic that I really want to do, but
I'm not done reading all my stuff on them yet. Andsomething came across one of my dashboards late
last week, and the husband was like, so I'mactually kind of shocked you guys haven't done in
(53:40):
Montahari. And I was like, oh my gosh, I did theMontahari of the East? Why have I not done the
original? Right. So I have spent every waking hourobsessing over this woman for the last week. Time
well spent, I would say. I think so. I learned a lot.I didn't... I don't think we've really talked
(54:04):
about World War I at all. And... Francis PeggyMcGovern. Was World War I? I guess I just need to say
like, not a ton. I think we get a lot of World War II,right? I think we had a couple from World War II that
were also in World War I. Yeah. But I guess I don'tknow if I just am stuck on World War II. I think it's a
(54:30):
couple of things, right? Like I think media kind ofcame into its own. Oh yeah. I think there were
just... there are just more sources. It's fresherin history. So I think that that's why we get a lot of
World War II. There's just a lot out there, right?I'm sure if we dug, we could get to World War I, but it
(54:54):
would require digging as opposed to just lookingbelow the surface. I'm here for a good deep dig. It
was a lot of fun to learn about her and like learnabout just the way society saw her as opposed to
being totally against this erotic, exotic dancethat she was doing. They welcomed it
(55:16):
wholeheartedly and then immediately, once offit, just tossed her out the window. Like that's so
unfair. You loved her and treated her sobrilliantly for so long and then we're like, ah,
actually, bye. You know, but that checks though.It really, really does. I guess I was impressed
(55:37):
because it was just another point where humanityproves we've always been the same. Yeah, like
cancel culture is not new. Oh, no, no. And they, Ithink, dragged her through the mud given the
opportunity. They blamed her for the death ofthose 50,000 soldiers without question. And she
(55:57):
didn't have any information on them to begin with.So I really, really, I don't have the historical
background on George Lido to give an honestanswer, but my heart answer says he was a double
agent. But the war is over by the time he gets, youknow, he gets arrested. So it doesn't really
(56:19):
matter after the fact. Well, honestly, thank youfor bringing her up because it might be another 50
episodes before I get around to her. You'rewelcome. You just think the fact that I haven't
finished this book yet and have to keep taking sidequests. I'm here for it. I truly am. That's the
(56:44):
story of Montahari. Well, if you've enjoyed thestory of Montahari and you're thinking, oh, holy
cow, what is Tresa going to torture Angie with nextweek when she takes a full hour? Great review.
Subscribe. Send this to your favorite would be agreat double agent because we all have that one
person in our life who is trustworthy to a point.And if you don't, maybe it's you. Yeah, or maybe 470 00:57:10,210 --> make a friend. There you go. Maybe your mom was right. And on that note, goodbye. Bye.
Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast.The podcast where two crazy heads read history
because what else are we going to do in this economyand join forces and then tell each other the story
we've only recently learned. I'm host one, I'mTeresa, and that. I'm Angie, I'm host two. And just
(00:37):
before this call, Angie and I volley back and forthabout whose story is going to do what and I
threatened her with a great time. No, she didn't.She threatened me with more therapy. Tomato,
tomato. You know, I've heard it both ways. I mean, Ithink I'm winning therapy. I've gotten to the
(01:02):
point where my therapist has asked if I've seenYellowstone referred to me as Beth Denton. I feel
like I'm winning. I feel like you're winning alsoand I feel like you're winning because I know your
therapist sees a therapist because of you. Andhonestly, goals. I mean, who can ask for anything
more? I've read my goals on a post-it note beforeevery session. See, I knew earlier that I'm
(01:30):
planning ahead. I'm going to talk to them aboutthis today. And if I don't do a good job, they need
to, like if I've done it right, they are also goingto be in therapy today. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. I'm
proud of you. Way to manage that, way to handle yourdreams. Good job. Yeah. I mean, you know, okay, so I
(01:55):
said that I was going to torture you, but I think Imight have tortured you next week because
according to my spreadsheet of awesomeness.That's what it's called. That's what it's like.
That's what it's like. Yeah. Yeah. It proclaims itas your turn. And then you had said you might have a
full episode, which I may not be able to tortureyou. You may have to just sit on the solid on how I'm
(02:18):
going to undermine your mental health. My sanity.Yeah. My peace of mind. Oh, that's gone. Wait, bye,
bye. Yeah, I never, I'll be honest. It was neverhere. Now you're just giving it a friend to play
with. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I could just get, Icould just get right into it, but you're going to
(02:43):
love this because I need you. Okay. I could doeither two things, one of two things. You can
either take your headphones off and let me give mysources or I can give my sources without their
title. I'll take my headphones off because thisfeels better for me. Okay, bye. Hi, guys. No, I was
(03:05):
actually not going to cause any problems. I am justhere to tell you my sources are the Frease Museum.
PBS.org has an article on my person. There is atime.com article called Matahari, the True Story
by Ray Cavanaugh from October of 2017.History.com has a, this day in history, October
(03:30):
15th, Matahari executed. The Guardian has areally great article from 2016 by Julia
Wheelwright called Mother, Dancer, Wife, Spy,the Real Matahari. Flirting with Danger. This is a
historical documentary by Lucas Films that was onYouTube and another biography called Dancer,
(03:53):
Lever, Spy and a little blurb from GeorgetownUniversity. So, I can tell if she can come back now.
She can come back now. I'm bad. At this point, I haveto wonder if she can read, but... I mean, I looked
over at my second screen to see you mouth what Iassume was you can put your headphones back on.
(04:18):
That's true. But the whole time I was doing that, Iwas thinking there's a couple of words in here that
are really unmistakable. I wonder if she can read.Okay. So, because of the audio processing
disorder, where if I'm not looking at you and we'rein public, I can't hear what you're saying. Like, I
(04:40):
will look at my husband. He will say something and Iwill just be like, expand the tires in the wrench
sack. And he'll look at me and he'll think that I'mmessing with him and then he'll repeat what he
actually said and I'll go, oh, yes, that makes a lotmore sense. Absolutely not what you said. But for
(05:03):
like years, he assumed that I was trolling him andjust coming up with something that vaguely rhymed
with what he said. Okay, but like to be fair, youhave been trolling him for years. So, like, it's
fair to assume that could have been one of the waysthat you've been trolling him. Yeah. And I'm still
(05:26):
paying for the last time I messed with him. Well,these are things. That's why I don't, like, I do not
play practical jokes on my husband at all because Iknow for a fact I will pay for them and he will make
it. I will remember for life. So, I know I texted youthis, but I might as well publicly embarrass
myself by telling the listeners. Hubs and Itrained karate together and he invaded my space
(05:52):
during partner work. Just being playful, justbeing playful, just leaned in a little extra, a
little closer than an opponent normally would.And because I wanted to reinforce boundaries, I
just reached forward, I just stretched my neck forit a little bit, grabbed a hold of his beard and bit
down. Didn't do it. Yeah, I do. Just bit. Just lethim know, like, hey, you're in my space. And this
(06:15):
man recoiled and left my mouth with a mouthful ofhair. It felt like mouthful of pubes and it was in
between my teeth and I was having a hard time. And Idon't want to go home. And he's watching me like...
And like, dished him out in between my teeth and I'mlike having a sensory overload moment. He's
(06:41):
laughing. My instructor's dying. And then thenext day, this man who had a longish beard sees a
chunk missing because I don't know what happenedthe night before. I guess I blacked out and he's
like, you know what I need to do? I need to shorten itup. So he takes it down like several inches and then
(07:01):
walks out of the bathroom with his face wrapped in atowel because he recognizes... He's no longer
what I recognize from the nose down. And so he comesat me like a bandito. Like he's getting ready to
tell me to empty the bank vaults. And when I'm like,drop the towel. And he does. And I'm like, I don't
know. First time he looks younger, it looksbetter. I hate it's a long thing to begin with, but
(07:24):
now I don't know who the hell you are. And you are?Yeah, it's like, yeah. Yeah. And so now I get to walk
around with this strange man in my house who is everso familiar. And claims that finds a marriage
certificate, but still word out. Right. And so nowI get to deal with all of that because this is, you
(07:48):
know, sentenced its own punishment. You've donethe work? Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I am so glad you got
to retell the story in person because the text washilarious, but watching your face is even
funnier. So thank you for that. I appreciate you. Ido what I can. Yeah. But anyway, your story now that
(08:18):
you've... Yeah. I've got a banger. I am going totell you the story of Margarita Gertrudea Zell.
Are you familiar with this name? No. I want to be.What century? We're starting. We're starting in
the 19th century, but the bulk of it is going to beearly 20th. Okay. Okay. So our girl, she is born on
(08:49):
October 7th, 1876. In Livarden, which is a city inthe Netherlands. She's the oldest child. I think
I'm going to butcher her mother's name, but I amsure going to try. And Jeet. I think that's how it's
pronounced. Anyway, this checks for me. If all thevideos I watched are right, and Jeet. And Adam
(09:15):
Zell. So for a good chunk of this, I am just going tocall her Zell, because that's the most
straightforward, most pronounceable way to go.Papa is quite well off. He's a really successful
hat maker. And I'm going to be honest with you when Isay that, no, or in my mind did I equate the idea with
(09:35):
being a successful hat maker to the level ofsuccess that he was. For whatever reason in my
brain, it was like cute little old man insuspenders sitting behind his workbench that
makes some money to bring home the bacon and thenhappily retires. And like he's never rich and
famous. But this guy makes it big. This guy is likeLouis Vuitton. It's like you start out making
(10:02):
baseball gloves. Or is it baseball gloves thatLouis Vuitton made? And he could wear baseball
gloves. Is he the baseball gloves or saddles orsomething? That was coach that did saddles. No, I
think it was baseball gloves. We'll have to do thelittle bit. I think that was right. Okay. We'll let
you know. So Papa is well off. Our girl is born andspends her childhood in luxury on one of the most
(10:28):
posh streets in her city. She has three brothers.Things are going great until they don't. It's
around 1888. Zells between 12 and 13 years old.Good old dad can no longer keep up their expensive
life. So he declares bankruptcy and bounces likethis is most sources say he moved in with his
(10:53):
brother in the Hague. One source suggests thatmaybe he just left for another woman. But given
that more than one source says he moved with hisbrother. I'm going to go that that's probably what
happened. But maybe the woman showed up later. Idon't know. Yeah, I mean it could be with brother
until I really hashed out a side piece and thenright, right. Needless to say he bounces and 12
(11:16):
year old Zell and her brothers are cramped intothis little upstairs apartment with their mom and
leave on. This of course results in a separationand a divorce from mom and dad and then not too long
after her beloved mother dies of tuberculosis atonly 49. Yeah, so we're a young teen. Life is not
(11:39):
great. Up to this point. Our girl's L. She isprecocious outgoing. She's very a very confident
child who has spent her life so far at the bestschools around. She's learning to dance. She's
learning to play the piano and she speaks French.Her teachers would never accuse her of being an
(12:01):
obedient and well behaved child. So honestly goodfor her. Okay, so this is an Odette Samson is what
I'm hearing. I'm thinking somewhere betweenOdette Samson and a young Marie Antoinette. Like I
just kind of do what I want and I get by because I'mcharming. Sort of thing. Right. That's going to
(12:21):
come back later. Her doing as she pleases. Once hermom dies, the kids, they're sort of all shuffled
around other family members. Some sources saythat Zell was sent to her godfathers, but the
museum where I acquired the bulk of my story saysshe ends up with her uncle, which at the end of the
(12:43):
day, I guess you could be a godfather and an uncle.Maybe they just didn't all equate the same way in
their research. But I mean, I've heard recently ofa human whose godmother was her older sister who
was like 13, 14 years older than her. So, you know,it doesn't matter. Like the relationship doesn't
matter. He very well could have been both. So she'sliving with him and his wife in a town called Sneak.
(13:09):
She basically stopped school at 14, but at 15, herguardians decide that she should be in training to
teach kindergarten. So she goes to this like acollege for kindergarten teachers is the only way
I understood it. I don't want to say it's like afinishing school or a prep school. The way that it
was described was like, that's exactly whatyou're going there to do. It doesn't teach
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anything else but how to be a teacher, which is kindof cool. Right. Okay. You could say that she was
gorgeous. You could say that she was probably oneof the prettiest things you ever saw. A schoolmate
would call her an orchid among dandelions. She wasdark-eyed and had a dark complexion. And don't
(13:56):
panic because this school year's spent for herlives rather shortly. She's suspended after just
one year. Okay. Wait a minute. That was weird. Itwent from she is absolutely gorgeous. She is a rose
among thorns and she's got a school. How are thosetwo thoughts related? Because her beauty plays
into it. The rumor is she was caught in what theFreest Museum would say was an amorous state with
(14:22):
the school headmaster. Oh, that would do it.Right. So she's gorgeous. She catches his eye and
she loves the attention. At least at this point.So, I mean, there's that. And you know what? Girl
always seems to know what she wants. So get it, Iguess. There's a couple more years go by. She's
(14:45):
bored. She's kind of feeling like life is a littlebit meaningless. She's 18 years old and living in
the Hague. And she sees an ad in the paper. Anofficer is on leave from the Dutch East Indies and
he is looking for a woman to marry. This is kind ofone of those lonely articles. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
(15:12):
Yep. And it's basically like, you know, careersoldier looking for a wife and she's like, oh, that
sounds lovely. Look at her. I love uniforms. Oh mygosh, you couldn't be more accurate. So the Freeze
Museum has this to say, on a drizzly Sunday inMarch, she meets Rudolph McLeod known as John in
(15:37):
Amsterdam at the Rijksmuseum. He is 39 years old, ahardened professional soldier of aristocratic
and very likely Scottish descent. As a captain inthe Royal Dutch East Indies Army, he is
temporarily on sick leave in the Netherlands. Thecouple doesn't waste any time. Six days later,
they are engaged. And then on July 11th of 1895,they're married at City Hall in Amsterdam. Okay.
(16:06):
That was no time wasted. This is 90 day fiance oncrack. Yes. And he is several, several years older
than her. Right. Significant timeframe. And sofar, this probably sounds a lot like the beginning
of a lot of stories that we have. The here's where itstarts to go in a different direction. It's now
(16:29):
1897, just a couple of years after they marry. I'massuming he's on leave this whole time that
they're in these two years before they go back tothe Dutch East Indies, but there's no sources that
suggested anything different. So that's what I'mgoing to go with. It's 1897. They make their way
back to his post in the Dutch East Indies, which ifyou're curious, this is the area that mostly makes
(16:54):
up modern day Indonesia. Think places likeSumatra, Java, Borneo, these, these
territories, which would ultimately declareindependence on July 17th of 1945. So I think
that's pretty cool. So her husband, McLeod, is aprominent officer there. They've got the large
house, the servants, you know, the whole gig andshe's given birth to their first child, a sweet boy
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named Norman James. It's not too long after theyarrive that she gives birth to their daughter,
Louise Jean, whom they nicknamed Nonna or Nani. Sothey've got the young family, right? Like big
house, the dream, the exotic dream of all people, Ithink at this time. It's a big time frame. At least
(17:38):
anybody that's seen it have an exotic dream. Okay,but the bad news. Her husband is a walking red flag.
He's got a temper and he is a man that is used togiving orders and then being followed. And he is
like always in debt and he is also incrediblyabusive towards her. Good. Yeah, all the things,
(18:01):
right? Our girl is stunning and she knows how towork a man and she likes to flirt, which of course he
hates. So needless to say their marriage is full ofinfidelity on both sides, but it was McLeod who
would bring home... wait for it... Sip-a-list.Sip-a-list. Yeah. Okay. ...that he likely
(18:24):
contracted from what we would call a concubinemistress, that sort of thing. Evidently at that
time and place it was... I don't want to say it wasthe in thing to do, but it was not unheard of for
soldiers of European descent to have multiplemarriages because that was like locally
(18:45):
acceptable there. But regardless, this is amistress, right? Right. So he brings home
Sip-a-list from a mistress and this is the partwhere the story just kind of goes south. It gets a
little questionable. The kids are either bornwith Sip-a-list because of hereditary passing it
(19:06):
down or an angry servant poisons them. McLeod hasno shortage of enemies. I think it's kind of more
accepted now that it was the Sip-a-list, butthere's still a lot of belief that it was poison.
Regardless of the source, the children are sick,everybody's sick, and supposedly everyone's
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treated for Sip-a-list, which the doctors of thetime, their only care available was... Mercury?
...heredotuses of mercury. Ah! Yes. I knew it'stoo much about this. It's, you know, you're just
too comfortable with Sip-a-list. I don't know if Ilike that statement. It was delightful. Thank
(19:50):
you. We just know a lot about Sip-a-list, you know?History brings up Sip-a-list a lot. It's not us.
It's history. Okay, fair. I like the cop-out. Itjust is what it is. And we just happen to pick
stories that have Sip-a-list. What does that sayabout our algorithm? Norman, this sweet boy, he's
(20:14):
about two at this time. Sip-a-list? Yeah. Yeah. Iknow a lot of things about my algorithms, and I just
am really thankful that I have a history, a searchhistory, but at the same time, I'm honestly the one
(20:35):
that's really, the request that I've made is thatmy oldest son is the one that clears my search
history when I die, specifically so I can screwwith him in my later years. That's my client.
Norman, the sweet little guy, he's about two atthis time, and he probably has the most severe
(20:56):
case, and it is treated as such. And sadly, he diesof mercury poisoning. This is heartbreaking. I
can't even begin to fathom this because also she istrying to care for her infant daughter, right?
Like, to just go through a loss like that isunfathomable to me. But our girl, Zell, she's in
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this exotic location, and she gets to spend timeamong the locals. She's learning their customs.
She's learning their language. She's learningall kinds of things. So she does have a couple
things going for her. It's at this point that theFreese Museum points out that, quote, the
socialite life among the high-ranking militaryis going well. As a charming officer's wife, she
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accompanies John at dinners, parties, anddances. She is more in her element there than at
home as a mother. Marguerita is eloquent, lively,and theatrical, and has her own ambitions. For
example, she shines in the leading role of anamateur musical that receives good reviews
there. But just shortly before everyone startedshowing signs of the sickness, McLeod had retired
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and they moved to a much more isolated village, andshe hates it. There is no one around. She is bored to
death, and I think he probably chose that onpurpose. After the little one dies, they are
completely inconsolable, but they also have tocare for their baby, and they decide that maybe
(22:30):
Indonesia is not the place to be anymore. So theyboard the boat back to the Netherlands. It's March
19th when they get on the boat and they return home,and then just about six months later on August
30th, 1902, McLeod and Zell get divorced. The lossof their son was kind of the last nail in the... In
(22:55):
November of 1903, she has this quote where shesays, I can only tell you that out of passion and
madness, he almost killed me with a bread knife on aSunday afternoon, and that I owe my life to a chair
that fell over and gave me time to find the door andget help. He was told by doctors that he suffered
(23:15):
from what one doctor called tropical frenzy andother doctors just called fade-ism. So, lovely.
Yeah, he's there, right? Okay, so she gets custodyin the divorce of their daughter, and she loves
this. However, he won't pay alimony, and at thistime and place, it's nearly impossible for a
(23:41):
divorced woman to provide for herself or a childfor that matter. But she won't go back to McLeod
because I feel like for obvious reasons. At thispoint, she realizes, though, that she has to give
her daughter to him. She had stated at one pointthat while he was a terrible and abusive husband,
he was a good father, and she knew that her daughterwould be well cared for. So, to ensure that her
(24:05):
daughter can be given the things that you need inthis life, like, you know, food, shelter,
clothing, things like that, she gives her back toMcLeod. She's got no family for the most part.
She's penniless, and she's only 26 years old.She's on the street because despite the work of her
lawyers, it is impossible to seize the pension ofsomeone who has served in the Dutch East Indies.
(24:29):
And I'm not sure why. I'd be interested to know, butit seems like there's some legal reasons why you
can't touch their pension. So, our girl does whatevery girl dreams of and goes to Paris saying, I
thought all women who ran away from their husbandswent to Paris. Kind of love that. I mean, honestly.
(24:51):
Right. I mean, for a while, she does every decentthing that she can think of from teaching piano and
German lessons to being a lady's maid. Accordingto Georgetown University, she also does these
performances on horseback like horseback shows.I don't know if that's part of the circus or
whatever that is, but I only just learned that and Inow have questions. And she does all of these
(25:17):
things with the hope that one day she can actuallyafford to keep her daughter. And she says she's
going to continue to do all the decent things untilshe simply can't anymore. Her hope is that she can
maintain a respectable life so that she could be agood mother. Like that's at the core of it. That's
what she's hoping. In slightly less respectablemoments, she sits for portraits by the artist of
(25:45):
Monarcha. And doing so secures her theatercontacts, which is going to matter in just a little
bit. Right before she sits for portraiture for thefirst time, she sends a letter to a relative. I
believe this relative is either a cousin of her or acousin of McLeod's, but he's been working as the
middleman since their divorce. So he's trying tohelp. Either way, he seems ill. It seems that way.
(26:13):
And in this letter, she basically says, if McLeoddoesn't hold up his end of their arrangements,
which to this point he hasn't, shocking, shebasically says it won't be her fault when his name
gets dragged through the mud because she takes upless than respectable job of modeling. It's in
this letter that she also says, quote, I'm tired offighting against my life and I want one of two
(26:37):
things, either not me with me and to be a decentmother or I'm going to live as I'm so wonderfully
offered here. She is tired of trying to know a bell.And around this time, she does go back to the
Netherlands. She's desperate. She does want to bea mother and she has no money. So she's still
(27:00):
struggling. She's still trying. And this is whenshe realizes she's probably going to have to
resort to prostitution. It's at this point thather what's left of her family leave leave her high
and dry. So she heads back to Paris. Back in Paris,she picks herself up by her bootstraps, uses all of
(27:21):
her charm and knowledge that she's gained over theyears and she creates this amazing and
mesmerizing persona and begins to perform thisexotic dance and rather erotic dancer team under
the name of Mata Hari. Oh my gosh. Yep, this way Icouldn't. I couldn't share my sources. Um, so Mata
(27:48):
Hari means I have the dawn in the Malay language ofthe people she adored in Indonesia. She did dance
for a short time under the name of Lady Gresham ofCloud, but that didn't last long and I'll tell you
why in just a second. So she creates these Indiantemple dances and she performs them
passionately. It's got everything the Paris of1905 wants. It's mysterious. It's exotic. It's
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sexy as hell and people eat it up. She tells heradoring fans that she's a temple priestess's
daughter who died in childbirth and she was raisedamong the gods. She builds this like
larger-than-life character and the publiccannot get enough of her. Fun side note, I did not
know until reading about her. Entertainers ofthis time were known to create these like alter
(28:37):
personas and build these really remarkablelives. And it was generally accepted and loved by
the fans even though they knew it was completemalarkey. But they were here for it, like dazzle us
with your story. The fantastic, we know you wereborn three blocks over but it's fine. Don't let a
lie get in the way of a good story. Exactly, right?So they're eating her stories up and she changes a
(29:03):
little bit to it here and there. The basic gist isshe was born in the temple to a priestess, a
priestess dies in childbirth. She's raised in thetemple learning all the sacred things, right? And
she does all this with the help of a man called EmileGomet. It's when she starts working with him that
she takes on the name Matahari, which she has saidin a letter to, I believe it was a cousin years
(29:28):
earlier, that one day she would like to dance underthat name. And I thought, oh, that's funny, you
were like manifesting for yourself, good for you.Emile Eating Gomet was, according to a lovely with
PE article that I read, because I was just kind ofcurious about him, a French industrialist,
travelist and connoisseur. He was an importantcollector of artifacts related to, quote,
(29:52):
Oriental religion and Asian arts. Gomet is thefounder of the Musée Gomet and he is basically
where she gets all of her costume pieces. It was, infact, it would be at the Musée Gomet where her first
big performance would be celebrated and like thewho's who of Paris are there. She, at this point, is
(30:15):
basically performing what we would know as astriptease. She wears this almost, her costume
pieces are like almost translucent. They're veryflowy. They're very sensual. And for the most
part, at least in the beginning, all of the piecesare authentic from Gomet's collection. Like he
(30:36):
basically hands her everything, these gorgeousheaddresses, the whole thing because he's just,
this is the best idea we've ever had. Let's go forit. And I'm a rich collector with nothing better to
do, right? So, like I said, these pieces, they'revery sheer and she slowly removes them piece by
piece. And even at this time in Parisian history,this would not have been allowed, but she said,
(31:02):
quote, excuse me, she said that she was onlyreenacting the sacred temple dances that the
priestesses would do. So I guess it's allowed inthe name of authentic history and performance.
Okay, so she's like, this is religious freedom. Iguess. That's pretty much how I took it. It doesn't
take long for her to just explode and she isperforming on every stage in Europe from private
(31:29):
shows to sold out theaters. Meanwhile, what'sex-husband saying? Because I have a feeling this
has got to be deeply humiliating. I'm sure it is. Iwas really curious about him. Typically, I think
when we have a story where the woman leaves thehusband, like I never really care what happens to
him afterwards, but I'm really interested in hisperspective. I know that he remarries a few times
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and I know that he never gives his side of the deal. Ithink it's because of her actions and he was
mortified. That's the way I understand it, but Idon't have any letters from him that say how he
felt, but I'm 100% sure he was not happy. I dobelieve that there were times where she was able to
(32:21):
have her daughter, but I think she spent the bulk ofher life with her father. It kind of makes the most
sense. No, I lost my notes. She is traveling allover the place and it does not take her long to gain a
(32:43):
long list of powerful, wealthy men that arewilling to lavish gifts upon her. Around this time
is when she would also begin her career as acourtesan, but I wanted to take a moment to dispel
100 years of rumors because, let's be honest,there are tons about Motari that are not accurate.
(33:05):
Kind of like Maria Laveau's story, we're told onestory, but it is 100% not that story. Kind of on the
same line as that. I feel like Motari is oftenplayed off like this vixen for sex, right? But
she's not really into it. Like we previouslythought. She's not out there trying to get them in
(33:31):
so she can have all these magnificent love affairsand notches on the bed post. There is a letter that
she previously writes to one of her cousins, and inone of them she points out that her relationship
with the cloud was so bad that she pretty muchloathed sex, which is sad, but she knew what she
could do with it and would occasionally dabble ifneeded for one reason or another. One source
(33:56):
suggested that she would only resort toprostitution or the pain for it if her daughter
needed something, but I don't feel like that's100% true because her lifestyle was over the top.
There are lovers that are paying for castles forher. There are men that just want to be in the room
(34:25):
with her. I think it varies. But I'm not here tojudge, like girlfriend, get it. Like do what
you're doing. Whatever you feel about it, I'm hereto support it. Good for you. So one of her
gentlemen, one of the things that her gentlemencallers, they start to get really interesting,
(34:46):
right? Because we're leading up to the Warriors.And she is hot. She is sexy. She's multilingual.
She can speak fluent German, French, Italian,Spanish, and Malay. And she is dating men from all
over the board. And she loves a man in uniform. Shedoesn't care what uniform you have on. I didn't
(35:12):
realize just how right I had it with the uniformcomment. I know. I was like, oh girl, you could not
be more right. Girl loves the uniform. Her peakyears, she'd received 10,000 francs, which is
like 37,000 euros for one show. Her names used forthings like cigarettes, liquors, all sorts of
(35:33):
products. By 1907, she's a millionaire. Itdoesn't last long because she spends it as fast as
she can make it. But she is everything that everywealthy man wants. She's even in Vogue, which I
don't know why, but did you know that Vogue wasfounded in 1892? I don't know why I didn't know how
(35:56):
old Vogue was, but I was like dang, 1892. I didn'tknow either. It doesn't surprise me, but I'm just
kind of like, okay. Yeah, I guess I thought it wasthe thing that came out of the 40s, but no, 1892. So
she was even in Vogue. It doesn't matter where herlovers or her suitors come from. She may not like
(36:19):
sex, but she loves to flirt. And the men form aqueue. Like, where do I stand in line? She is fond of
high-ranking officers and the nobles as well,because why not? Now, despite the fact that her
career alone could pay the bills if she could stopspending all the money on lavish things, these men
(36:41):
are all too happy to finance her extravagantlifestyle. One of her bows is a French baker called
Rousseau. He rents a castle for her, but that's notenough, so he also rents her a villa that comes with
a carriage and riding horses and staffs. She datesa Rothschild at one point. Like, all the things. Do
(37:01):
they say Rothschild? I did. Yes, a Rothschild. Idon't know what that is. Rothschild. Another
jilted lover gives her 300 staff. I'm stuck onRothschild. Rothschild. I can't say it wrong now.
Rothschild. Another jilted lover gives her300,000 Reichs marks, which is just under a
(37:29):
million euros when they split ways. When theysplit ways, he's like, oh, you also need money.
That's a subtle bit. Hey, whatever. You know, Ithink I just needed to do breakups differently. We
have been doing it wrong. That's the way I'munderstanding it. What have we learned over the
last few weeks? We could have been being paidmonthly for life. But we can't forget that we're on
(37:58):
the eve of war, right? So it's June of 1914.Matahari is asked to perform a show in Berlin and
she can't pass it up. Lately, times haven't beengreat for her. As younger and, dare I say, perhaps
even prettier girls have figured out her story andmade it their own. And she is all too happy to take
(38:20):
this show in Berlin. So that's where she goes. Butthe Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis
Ferdinand is assassinated on June 28, 1914 by aBosnian serve. And on July 28th of 1914,
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. This isinconvenient and sad. But here we are. She keeps on
(38:43):
doing Matahari stuff. And then on August 1st,Germany declares war on Russia and she's like,
Well, I should probably get back to Paris now. Butthen on August 3rd, Germany declares war on France
and so on and so forth in the biggest bar fight inhistory. And I know I shouldn't make light of World
(39:03):
War, but every time I think of the opening of WorldWar I, I cannot help but think of a giant bar fight.
You know where we are. Right? And our girl, she'sDutch, right? So she carries what's going to be
called a neutral passport. So boom, she goes hometo the Hague because forget all of you people. I'd
like to go home. And she could have stayed and made anice, quiet life for herself. But what part of the
(39:30):
story would make you think you did that? I mean,well-behaved women sell to make history.
Exactly. So, Seidbart, and I think this is prettyinteresting, the Freestine Museum tells us,
Because she was in Berlin when the First World Warbreaks out and there she is declared a citizen of
(39:50):
the French enemy by the Germans. I don't reallyknow what that means. I've been thinking about it
all day. But what I do know is the Germans freezeher, the bank frees her assets, and to her great
indignation, Germany also confiscates herbelongings, including her precious fur coats.
Oh, this is going to matter like a lot in just alittle bit. Now, it's wartime and everywhere she
(40:18):
goes, she attracts the looks of powerful men, andthis is no different, right? Only this time they
are looking at the fact that she carries a Dutchpassport, so she can basically move freely around
Europe as she pleases, and she is alsomultilingual. So, people aren't at this time in
(40:39):
war. They're not really interested in seeing hershows, so she is super dependent on her wealthy
friends for her upkeep. So we kind of have to keepthat in mind. The British, French, and German
intelligence communities are all paying closeattention to her for any reason they want. On the
eve of May 16th, Monta Harry gets called on by theGerman Council Cramer in the hog. Now, excuse me,
(41:05):
the Hague, he in other sources is listed as one ofher boyfriends. I'm not entirely sure if he really
is only because the spelling of the names are just alittle too variant to really confirm he is the same
man as some of the other sources suggest. Buteither way, he calls on her, and I can only imagine
(41:29):
he's got flowers in hand, and he believes that sheis soon going to Paris, and he wondered if he could
recruit her as a spy. So he asks. He wants her tocollect all sorts of intelligence and gives her
the code name Agent H21. He offers her 20,000francs, which is about 50,000 euros, and she takes
(41:54):
them, even though she thinks that's not nearlyenough. But she never plans to do any spy work for
the Germans because remember, they already tookall her stuff, and she's just seeing this as
payment for their earlier actions. And Ipersonally live for this type of audacity, like as
(42:14):
it turns out, no, I'm not going to do any work foryou, but I am going to keep all the money that you
hand, because do you remember a couple years agowhen you inconvenienced me by freezing my bank
accounts and taking my furs? Thank you. No, but shedoes, in fact, go back to Paris. On the boat on her
way back, it stops and docks in an English porttown, and the British intelligence question
(42:39):
everyone on board. The comments about her are asfollows. She speaks French, English, Italian,
Dutch, and probably German, handsome, bull typeof woman, well and fashionably dressed, not above
suspicion, and she should be refused permissionto return to the UK. Honestly, I want to live in a way
(43:03):
that I am viewed as not above suspicion. I mean,we've said living above approach, but not living
above suspicion is the opposite side of that coin,but more fun. Right? When she finally makes it back
to Paris, she falls right back into her delightfullittle life of being well kept. But the French want
(43:26):
her to, but the thing is she has fallen in love, likefor real real, like the love of her life kind of
love, with a young Russian officer calledVladimir Demoslav. I'm not clear how they met or
when they met, but what I do know is he is wounded inthe eye, but that doesn't stop her from falling
(43:48):
head over heels for this guy, and when he proposes,she excitedly accepts. And then he sent, like,
immediately back to the front line. So she wantstwo things, money to start a nice life with this new
bow, this love of her life, and she wants to be nearhim. So she is looking for safe passage to the
(44:12):
front. So she asks a former fling of hers for help,and he sends her to the immigration office because
she needs some sort of special permit to be in thearea that's near the front line, and even to go
there. So this immigration office, it's locatedat 282 Boulevard Saint-Germain, which also
happens to be where the headquarters of the Frenchintelligence service is located. Surprise,
(44:37):
surprise. Shocking, I know. Here, Montaharimeets Captain Lado, the head of French
intelligence service, and he knows all about herfrom the British. He's been waiting for a chance to
meet her. In fact, he's been shadowing her for amonth. Lado is stoked when she walks through the
door, and he gives her exactly what she wants, thetravel documents. Even though there is no proof at
(45:03):
all, surveillance or otherwise, he thinks thatshe's spying for the Germans, and he's going to
catch her in the act. Like, that's what he thinks.When she returns from the front, he pounces, and he
makes her think he also wants to recruit her as aFrench spy working in the Belgian area. And she's
(45:25):
like, well, for a million francs, yeah, I'll do it.And for a penny and for a pound. Right? That'd be
like 2.2 million euros today. So at this point, Ithink they're happily playing each other. She's
told she will receive more instructions fromLado, and when the mission is complete, payment
will be handed to her. So she goes to work. And thisis where everything just takes a dive. She can't
(45:55):
complete her original mission becauseinstructions are lacking. This is where it gets a
little bit wonky because here is where the legendand the lies and the truth meet. So we're still kind
of muddling through that. It hasn't been that longsince the French unsealed her documents. I don't
remember what year it was, but it's only been likemaybe in the last 20, 30 years. And people are still
(46:21):
trudging through everything to figure out thetruth of it. But basically, she is lacking
instructions on what to do. And so she's going to dosomething and she thinks that it would be useful if
she goes to Madrid and seduces a one major call.He's what the freezing regime would call a dreaded
(46:45):
German. She says that she herself is a German spyand passes him some harmless information, and
then he kind of spills the beans to her. And then sheapproaches the French colonel, De Vings, who she
informs that she is a French spy, and she tells himwhatever information she obtains from call after
(47:09):
flirting with... after flirting and a couple ofafternoons in bed with him. And then she asks
him... excuse me, I have this a little wonky, butthe colonel that she meets, the French colonel,
after she is done flirting and having her littlefling with the German major, she asks the French
colonel if he'll pass all this information on tothe French intelligence community. And then,
(47:35):
because Lado has yet to contact her, she does what Iwould consider the dumbest thing ever. She sends
letters to Lado via the regular mail, which Irealize at the time may not have seemed dumb, but
like it's spycraft 101 now, right? Don't do that.And from what I understand, they're uncoded. So,
(47:56):
shouldn't do great. But the German major thatshe's seduced, he, at the same time, he also sends
some telegrams to the German intelligenceoffices, and he gives up what he thinks is H21. And
(48:17):
he then tells them the information that she'spassed on, and he asks her how he's to pay her. Like,
he asks his handler, how am I to pay her? Now, thesetelegrams, they are intercepted and deciphered
by the French. Sources are a little conflictedhere, but the clearest way I see it is that he used
(48:37):
codes he knew the French had already broke, andthey quickly figure out that H21 is our girl,
Montahari. She's caught, and she doesn't evenknow it yet. Now, all of a sudden, her contacts,
both in Germany and France, have like fallen offthe planet. Nobody responds to anything. She's
(48:58):
suspicious, and she wants to get back to theNetherlands. But just three days later, once the
ink dried on her warrant, Ladoe arrests her onsuspicion of espionage for the Germans. She goes
through several months in jail, and at least teninterrogations, when she finally comes out and
says, yeah, I took the money from the Germans, andyeah, my code name was H21, but I never spied for
(49:22):
them. Like, they owed me the money, and doesn't mywork and my letters prove that I was loyal to France
the whole time? But there's this council-martialchief investigator called Captain Bouchardon,
and he, from the get, she's guilty. Like, she has nochance. He sees no reason to even really give her a
(49:48):
trial, but, you know, here we are. It's prettyclear why, at this moment in time, France has
suffered a devastating blow, could have been up to50,000 soldiers in like one fell swoop. And France
is looking for an out. They're looking to makesomeone the bad guy, someone they can blame, and
(50:12):
so, truth doesn't really matter here. Montahariis the perfect target. On July 4th, Margarita
Groutroudia-McLeod, Zell, or Montahari, isofficially charged with pro-German espionage
(50:34):
activities. On behalf of the French state,Captain Bouchardon summons her to appear in
court. The French accuse her of maintainingcovert contact with the Germans, gathering
intelligence, passing information. Her travelis considered very suspicious to them, and her
very dubious and rather public contacts with somehigh-ranking Germans are not helping. They can't
(50:59):
prove that she actually ever spies or gives intelto the Germans, but under military law, simply
maintaining any contact with the enemy is guilt.Right? Like, she really had no choice here. Right.
Like, no chance. The Freist Museum says, quote,the French court martial passes the death
(51:19):
sentence. The seven judges ruled swiftly andmercilessly. Despite the meager evidence, the
judges found her guilty on all counts. Heraccusers smugly speak of arguably the greatest
female spy of our century. On October 15, 1917, sheis taken out to the firing range in her finest
(51:40):
clothes. She refuses to be blindfolded or tied tothe post. She says goodbye to the two nuns who have
been caring for her, and she looks defiantly at theshooters. Sources say she even blows them a kiss.
Whoa! They fire, and Montahari is dead. Theofficer, overseeing the execution, exclaim, by
(52:02):
God the lady knows how to die. George Ladoe, herhandler for French intelligence, was later
arrested and tried himself as a double agent. Holycow! I didn't see that coming. I know. He was not
found guilty, basically gets a slap on the hand,and lives till 1933. I genuinely believe he set her
(52:30):
up from the beginning to take the fall for whateverhe was doing. Whether he genuinely was not a double
agent and just saw the writing on the wall that theyneeded some sort of fall guy and a woman of loose
morals would be the perfect one. Or he really was upto something, and he needed someone to take the
(52:53):
blame for his actions so he could continue withwhatever he was doing. She was the perfect target.
And that is the story of Montahari. Wow! I told you,I had a little bit of everything, including
syphilis and tuberculosis. She had kind of been onthe list, but every time I'd see her, I'd say, you
(53:16):
know what, I need to do a deep dive on her. Same.Same. And I have a topic that I really want to do, but
I'm not done reading all my stuff on them yet. Andsomething came across one of my dashboards late
last week, and the husband was like, so I'mactually kind of shocked you guys haven't done in
(53:40):
Montahari. And I was like, oh my gosh, I did theMontahari of the East? Why have I not done the
original? Right. So I have spent every waking hourobsessing over this woman for the last week. Time
well spent, I would say. I think so. I learned a lot.I didn't... I don't think we've really talked
(54:04):
about World War I at all. And... Francis PeggyMcGovern. Was World War I? I guess I just need to say
like, not a ton. I think we get a lot of World War II,right? I think we had a couple from World War II that
were also in World War I. Yeah. But I guess I don'tknow if I just am stuck on World War II. I think it's a
(54:30):
couple of things, right? Like I think media kind ofcame into its own. Oh yeah. I think there were
just... there are just more sources. It's fresherin history. So I think that that's why we get a lot of
World War II. There's just a lot out there, right?I'm sure if we dug, we could get to World War I, but it
(54:54):
would require digging as opposed to just lookingbelow the surface. I'm here for a good deep dig. It
was a lot of fun to learn about her and like learnabout just the way society saw her as opposed to
being totally against this erotic, exotic dancethat she was doing. They welcomed it
(55:16):
wholeheartedly and then immediately, once offit, just tossed her out the window. Like that's so
unfair. You loved her and treated her sobrilliantly for so long and then we're like, ah,
actually, bye. You know, but that checks though.It really, really does. I guess I was impressed
(55:37):
because it was just another point where humanityproves we've always been the same. Yeah, like
cancel culture is not new. Oh, no, no. And they, Ithink, dragged her through the mud given the
opportunity. They blamed her for the death ofthose 50,000 soldiers without question. And she
(55:57):
didn't have any information on them to begin with.So I really, really, I don't have the historical
background on George Lido to give an honestanswer, but my heart answer says he was a double
agent. But the war is over by the time he gets, youknow, he gets arrested. So it doesn't really
(56:19):
matter after the fact. Well, honestly, thank youfor bringing her up because it might be another 50
episodes before I get around to her. You'rewelcome. You just think the fact that I haven't
finished this book yet and have to keep taking sidequests. I'm here for it. I truly am. That's the
(56:44):
story of Montahari. Well, if you've enjoyed thestory of Montahari and you're thinking, oh, holy
cow, what is Tresa going to torture Angie with nextweek when she takes a full hour? Great review.
Subscribe. Send this to your favorite would be agreat double agent because we all have that one
person in our life who is trustworthy to a point.And if you don't, maybe it's you. Yeah, or maybe 470 00:57:10,210 --> make a friend. There you go. Maybe your mom was right. And on that note, goodbye. Bye.
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