The first thing you need to know about Maria Isabella “Belle” Boyd (1844-1900) is that she refused to be ignored. After that, you need to know that the first thing about her informs the second thing about her, which was that she was one of the most successful Confederate spies, if not one of the [...]
“Hanna”
I’m not sure I have fully processed this movie about a genetically engineered super-soldier in the form of a teenage girl locked inside one damn twisted fairy-tale-esque nightmare, but here we go… The movie opens with a young girl in the Arctic tundra stalking an elk (or was it caribou?). She nabs her prey only [...]
Stephanie von Hohenlohe
High profile people make the most interesting spies. Their fame and subsequent connections allow them access to places everyday schmoes can only dream of (like a certain Miss Baker during WWII). It makes me wonder though about Princess Stephanie Julianne Richter zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1891 – 1972), a high-society, Austrian of Jewish descent married into German royalty and [...]
Miss Jenny
Miss Jenny is an interesting little mystery. Not as interesting nor as tragic as the drama surrounding Agent 355, but a nice little mystery all its own. Miss Jenny, as we understand, was a French-speaking Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War who infiltrated the French camps during 1781 and passed information along to the British. [...]
Judee Burgoon
I could be really teed off at this broad for dashing my hopes of what I thought would be a kick-ass thesis by accomplishing it first, but I am too in awe of her massive mental abilities, and as such, have decided to profile her instead. Judee-doll was born in Ames, Iowa in 1948. A [...]
Odile Harrington
I think we’re way beyond explaining how the media misrepresents the spy trade but the fact remains that certain people get drawn in by those little falsehoods and it has very real consequences. Odile Harrington (1961- ), a young white woman recruited by South African Intelligence in 1986, then controlled by the white minority government during the [...]
Abby Sciuto “NCIS”
Okay, I’m sooo late to the game on this one, but after a recent weekend spent on the couch with a lame back, a friend loaned me seasons 1-4 of NCIS, and now, I hate to admit, I’m hooked. The upside is that I feel like I have gotten my proverbial blogging mojo back. And [...]
Countess Markievicz/Constance Gore-Booth
Constance Gore-Booth (1868-1927) daughter of the famous Arctic explorer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, made a name for herself by jigging her way out of her father’s shadow and becoming the Matriarch of Irish female insurrectionists. Constance was born in London to a famous father who owned a large estate in County Sligo Ireland. Sir Henry was [...]
Anna “Nancy” Smith Strong
You have to appreciate that the roots of American freedom is so squarely based on an excellent intelligence system overseen by George Washington…and that a lady hanging her drawers out to dry assisting in the cause. One of the ladies involved in these efforts was Anna “Nancy” Smith Strong. The only other female member of [...]
Velvalee Dickinson
Velvalee Dickinson (1893-1980) sounds like a name more befitting a Wisconsin cheese heiress than a WWII spy, but a spy she was and her undercover monicker of “The Doll Woman” is highly appropriate for this broad’s shenanigans. Velvalee was born in Sacremento, California and educated at Stanford University. In the mid 1920′s, Velvalee went to [...]
