The Mysterious Mata Hari

October 15, 1917 – At just after dawn on this day, a tall woman with hypnotic eyes refused a blindfold as she stood before a firing squad. Looking directly at her executioners, she blew a kiss and the guns fired. Mata Hari was dead, but her legend was just getting started

She was born in the Netherlands in 1876 with the name Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. Her father went bankrupt and abandoned the family; her mother died soon after. Desperate for an escape, she married a Dutch colonial officer and moved to Java, where she immersed herself in Indonesian dance and mysticism.

When the marriage fell apart, she fled to Paris and by 1905 she had reinvented herself as Mata Hari, a self-proclaimed temple dancer from the East. Draped in veils and jewels (and not much else), she captivated Europe’s elite, performing for generals and princes. Everyone was mesmerized by her exotic beauty and sensuality.

When war broke out in 1914, her unconventional lifestyle (bouncing around France and Germany with a long list of powerful lovers) raised eyebrows and brought all kinds of scrutiny raining down on her. Accused of being a double agent, Mata Hari was arrested by the French in 1917 and convicted on thin, circumstantial evidence.

To some, she was a manipulative courtesan; to others, a scapegoat for a nation desperate to blame its losses on someone glamorous.

Her death was meant to close the curtain on scandal — but instead, it created a mysterious martyr who still keeps us guessing.