World War I Spy Mata Hari Did Not Flinch in Final Moments: Report

New York Daily News ^ | Monday, April 28, 2014 | Joel Landau

[PapaNew]

Long time ago I heard the story that she pulled open her outer garment to show her naked body just before being shot. (Worth a try? Might have worked.)

[JoeProBono]

Mata Hari's execution, October 15, 1917

[Veto!]

...would rather have as her lover a poor officer than a rich banker,"

Ah, the cost of boy-toys has always been high…too high, some might say.

[tumblindice]

“she was a Dutch exotic dancer”

She learned Pole dancing in Krakow.

[Southack]

The irony is that the intel gleaned from the French officers who slept with her was worth nothing to the Germans because they didn’t need to change anything that they were doing based on it.

The French tactics were horrid, and far more damaging to millions of doomed French soldiers, than to the Germans.

64% of all French males were casualties in WW1.

French tactics obliterated their Warrior Class.

[skeeter]

Its probably easy to be stoic in your final moments when your brain is wracked by Syphilis.

[familyop]

There was once a 600+ lb. sow named Gertude in the Ozarks.

[familyop]

...Gertrude, even.

[Billthedrill]

The FR Pun Police render a verdict.

[colorado tanker]

Her story was certainly a strange one. Most historians seem to think she was not a spy and I tend to agree. Almost a century later something surely would have turned up in some archive or some person's papers had she been one.

I almost wonder if she was shot to keep secret the full list of French officers she had slept with.

[wideawake]

France had a population of 40mm in 1914, probably 20mm males. 6.2mm WWI casualties among the military. To me it seems more like a third than two-thirds.

Still an inconceivable number. At least one out of every ten men was killed - the country was literally decimated.

[tumblindice]

Careful or I’ll tell the story of the remarkable young man from Koblentz. I’ve got a limerick and I’m not afraid to use it!

OK, If Mata Hari married a Hairy Krishna, would they name their daughter Hairy Mary?

[Vermont Lt]

If you consider military aged men, the original figure is closer. Oh to be a older teenaged boy in post war France...

[Talisker]

I almost wonder if she was shot to keep secret the full list of French officers she had slept with.

[PLMerite]

“She learned Pole dancing in Krakow.”

And Lap Dancing in Lapland.

[PLMerite]

“She learned Pole dancing in Krakow.”

And Lap Dancing in Lapland.

[JT Hatter]

The French shoot a woman.

Quelle domage.

[righttackle44]

I like the information. Thank you.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

" Oh to be a older teenaged boy in post war France..."

Or England or Germany or one of the many countries involved in this mess.

If you were born from 1903 to 1907 life should have been very well indeed.