Citation Needed - Virginia Hall

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

Virginia Hall Goillot DSC, Croix de Guerre, MBE (April 6, 1906 – July 8, 1982), code named Marie and Diane, was an American who worked with the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in France during World War II. The objective of SOE and OSS was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE and OSS agents in France allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. After World War II Hall worked for the Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).   Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

I don't know, Roguelites feel so grindy. No, I know, they do, but with Dave the diver, you always feel like just ahead of the power curve, it's actually really nice. There you are. Alright guys, sit down. I've got something I need to tell ya. You're dying. Cease was not coming back? No, no, no, it's worse than that. You see this week's episode is subject. It's it's no coincidence. You mean Virginia Hall the World War II spy? How so? Okay, because I am a spy for other podcasts.

Really? What do you do? I'll pass along metrics mostly, download numbers, emails, just you know all that stuff. For who though? Wait, Keith, when did you get here? What are you talking about? I've been here the whole time. I was with you outside the door. Oh, you didn't talk, so I didn't know you were here.

What? Why would you not know? Never mind, Tom, you had a thing? It was a thing you had. Yeah, see, I'm not really sure who I was spying for. They used a pseudonym. So the guy, he just, it was a thing you had. Yeah, see, I'm not really sure who I was spying for. They used a pseudonym. So the guy, he just, he calls himself the male demon. It's pretty cool actually.

He approached me a few years ago for information. I've been feeding him what I've got ever since. And this is harder, but also, I mean, we're in love. So I mean, something personal. I'm really sorry, guys. Let me see that. Yeah, that's what I thought. Tom, this is, that's male demon. really sorry, guys. Let me see that. Yep, that's what I thought.

Tom, this is, that's male demon. It means that you just had the address wrong. You've been feeding information to an error message for years. Also, how are they in love? Doesn't it just send your own email back to you? But just, you know, I thought we had a lot of common we're into the same stuff.

You know what, this track's actually, yeah, yeah. No, I see it. It does. You to talk earlier. Hello and welcome to Cytation Needed. The podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts because this is the internet. And that's how it works now. I'm Eli Bosnick and I'll be leading the buffoon platoon tonight, but I'll need some cannon fodder first up two men who are over the ridge and

Over the hill Tom and Noah over the ridge is that a thing no idea Point out that I'm old is worth sacrificing coherence for Tom Nailed it then okay, that was my strong one so get ready The boogie wogie bug a boy of company B. That's pretty good. Okay. He thin right actually. All right. I like that I like that song. I do play the trumpet. I've played that song on trumpet. This is positive Okay, I like it normally normally. Hey, maybe this is my new thing my new thing is I'm a trumpet guy No, I do a lot of trumpet. I play trumpet for a long time I'm a trumpet guy. No, I do a lot of trumpet stuff.

I play trumpet for a long time. Mom's a music teacher. I'm a trumpet guy. A photo of you during your trumpet guy. Trumpet guys I could share with our audience. Trumpet guy. You like to do the thing? Before I begin tonight, I'd like to thank our patrons.

Patrons, without you, we'd be charging into the fray of funny, unfunded. If you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be sure to stick around till the end of the show. And with that out of the way, tell us know what person placed thing, concept, phenomenon, or event, we'll be talking about today. Today, and I'm really excited about this, we're gonna talk about Virginia Hall. And Tom, you gave this gal the once-over. Are you ready to show us what she's made of? Well, if I didn't need a lie, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on. All right, Tom. So who was Virgin Yehaw?

I so- It's not going to answer right away. Okay, you said a precedent of about 100 episodes or so and everyone calls you up. You know, I've been away from writing essays for feels like a very long time while I've enjoyed the break I also kind of had this weird anxiety that while I was away someone else was gonna hear about the One-legged World War two ladies spy that won the distinguished service cross and then you guys had beat me to that story But since no one did I'm so mad. This is such a good story I

Now get to tell you guys about one of history's greatest bad asses That you probably didn't learn about in high school because she neglected to be a man and therefore wasn't worth mentioning in history books Yeah, no, I went to high school in America Tom where historical women are strictly remembered for sewing flags and fucking presidents So pretty much from her very beginning Virginia Hall was better and smarter and just more awesome than pretty much everyone you will ever meet. She was born in 1906 and Virginia Hall was an exceptionally gifted student of language. She attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and Barnard College of Columbia University where, unlike pretty much all other white Americans,

she learned not only one additional language, but three, French, Italian, and German. So, pretty much all the most important languages to know if say a massive land war was about to explode across Western Europe at any time. I mean, maybe French was useful at the beginning, but not very long. I'm really not afraid. I mean, maybe French was useful at the beginning, but not very long. We'll be talking about this later.

She also attended classes at George Washington University, likely because the other nearby college is just like, ran out of courses she hadn't taken. And there she added economics to her repertoire of expertise. While at George Washington University, Virginia decided she wanted to explore the world and her options and travel Europe to complete her voluminous education, so she traveled across Europe studying in France, Germany and Austria before getting work at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland as a clerk by

1931, though she didn't stay there over long and transferred to Izmir Turkey shortly after. Jesus fuck a great, a woman living in a time where she could just barely vote and crossing the Atlantic was risking a James Cameron level disaster is more widely traveled at 25 and my 46 year old ass was only excuses figuring out trains as a whole thing. And a brilliant as she undoubtedly was, she was not, it must be said, spectacularly graceful as she shot her own fucking leg after tripping on a fence while out hunting birds. And since it was 1933 and medicine was still pretty much shit, she ended up getting gangrene and nearly died before surgeons decided to amputate her leg. So birds won for genia zero, I guess. All right, I got to say though, I love that she's going to become a spy somehow with one leg, just like a bush with a peg leg, a newspaper walking behind a Nazi general, normal leg whistling.

One leg. So I'm too late with this, but if she ends up with a leg that's actually a machine gun Leg whistling. Yes, sir. One leg. So I'm too late with this. But if she ends up with a leg that's actually a machine gun by the end of this, that was not a documentary you were watching. Undeterred by the loss of her pin, Virginia, ever the badass, availed herself of the high tech prosthetic options available to time and ended up with a wooden appendage that she nicknamed Cuthbert. Cuthbert and Virginia returned to Embassy work and she took up positions in Venice and then

Estonia. Because I guess, clerking jobs required a lot more travel than I would have imagined back then. I'm sorry, why did she feel the need to name the leg? Did she have a big problem with people walking up and being like, and who is this? So I feel like I'd name my prosthetic leg though, right? I would, yeah. Like Pag or something.

But Virginia didn't study all these languages and show up for work in Estonia with one damn leg just to be a clerk. So she applied to US Foreign Service to be a diplomat. Problem being, it was still 1937 and she still did not have a penis. So there was pretty much no chance that she was going to get the job. Though to the credit of the US Foreign Service, they didn't acknowledge their misogyny, instead referring to a horrific ableist rule against hiring diplomats with disabilities.

This despite a recommendation to be hired by none other than Eleanor Roosevelt, who it must also be noted was a woman and therefore pretty easy to ignore. And so Virginia quit the department of state because fuck those guys. Well, yeah, wait till these motherfuckers hear about Eleanor's husband to Jesus. That's a weird policy.

Like I'd want my diplomats to be missing as many limbs as possible. Like, that's just a better strategy to have missing limb diplomats. No better way to have an upper hand in negotiation than to not have any. But what? When World War II broke out, Virginia

had made her way to France, and she worked as an ambulance driver for the French Army, though that job didn as an ambulance driver for the French Army. Though that job didn't last much longer than the French Army itself, and so by June of 1940, she found herself in Spain. While in Spain, Virginia chants to meet George Bellows, a British intelligence officer who knew a goddamn genius when he saw one. As a George put Virginia in touch with Nicholas Boatington or Baudington, who

worked for the Special Operations Executive or SOE. The SOE was a, I love this so much. This was a secret British organization created for the purpose of espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance against the Axis powers, and it was sometimes referred to as the Ministry of Ungentlemintly Warfare, which is about the most British thing anyone has ever said. So Virginia was all in. After training on spycraft, badassery, double-07, shit, Virginia was sent to Vichy France in 1941. A Vichy France was kind of mostly unoccupied and quasi-independent at the time, but then also not really,

because any freedom of self-governance that Vichy France had was provisional and supervised by the Germans. A Virginia took up a cover job as a reporter for the New York Post. Okay, good stuff. That's actually, that's good cover to infiltrate Nazis even today. Yeah, that's a good stuff.

That's a good stuff. Now this job gave her license to interview people without seeming to sus, and to file stories and gather intel under the guise of research and reporting. Still, this was fantastically dangerous work of the 41 female SOE operatives stationed in France during the war, only 26 would survive the job. Virginia readily became adept at changing her appearance on the fly through makeup and disguises to avoid being identified and killed.

But she has a peg leg. I don't understand. Like, Nazi spies are tailing her. She just like ducks into a phone booth and they're like, wait, now it's a blonde lady with a peg leg. I think we lost her. What do we do? What the fuck?

I can't get over her cover right yes then New York Post is writing an article on true positions for the society page right yeah I hope to get to disguise her true purpose of gathering information for American interest she pretends to have a job gathering information for different American interests. That's true. But the peg leg. Come on. A spa. A regardless of the peg leg, Virginia was a cracking great spy. On mission in France, she was responsible for arranging contacts between other SOE

and resistance operatives, bribing the right people and avoiding bribing the wrong ones, and supervising the distribution of wireless radios across the spy network. She founded the Heckler network of agents, including within at the owner of a prominent brothel in Leone. Please tell me that their job was to yell insults at the occupying Nazis from the back of the theater. The workers in the brothel were able to eavesdrop on German officers and pass along information back to the network because clueless misogynist fascists fleth their stupid mouths more readily in the company of women they barely recognized as human.

And I like that that resulted in many of those fascists dying as a result. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes toxic masculinity is good in this case when Nazis die from it. Like these idiots would hire a sex worker and still be so desperate to say something impressive, they'd give away military secrets to make them feel like they charmed

that sex worker with their fancy men talking about cool secrets they had. What the fuck? Heath, as someone who's watched you attempt to flirt multiple times during our career together, I thank the non-existent cons you don't have nuclear secrets. You're the same. I don't get as advanced as telling secrets with you. Also, now I want hecklers in brothels too.

I feel like that would be funny. You like your gond sounds that sounds terrifying actually I'd like to be a heckler in a brothel. Oh, it's a service we could offer there we go. Oh, oh Nobody cares about the fucking blockchain stop Paired fucking bill Get better military secrets on a minecraft server I can get better military secrets on a Minecraft server. Cups. Virginia also had an excellent intuition for danger, probably because she learned to read

people, in addition to the five other languages. And when in October of 1941, she got a bad feeling about a meeting with other SOE agents, she chose not to attend, and avoided being caught up in a sting operation that captured a dozen other agents. This sting decimated the SOE presence in France, leaving Virginia even more exposed and with vastly less support. Virginia was forced after this to smuggle her missiles in the diplomatic pouch of George Okay, if that's not code for his butt, this is a boring ending to that anecdote. You know, you know I'm bored. Well, I know that I for one will strictly be referring to my ass all as my diplomatic

pouch from now on. I despite the immense personal danger Virginia continue to operate. Those conditions were just horrid. At one point, she requested that S.O.E. find a way to smuggle to her a bar of soap, so that she might be, quote, very happy and very much cleaner. This was not glamorous work, nor was it free from its own internal politics, squabbles, and assholery. While she assisted in missions with famed spies, Peter Churchill and Benjamin Cowburn, both of whom lavished her with high praise, other spies and Virginia did not mix.

To survive in France, Virginia was scrupulously careful, and she refused to work with other operatives, who she regarded as Lacks or Vanglorias. One of Hall's most important jobs for the S.O.E. at this time was to lead an underground railroad out of occupied territory for Downed Airmen. So using her network of safe houses, which were frequently brothels, Virginia was able to move these men out of France into neutral Spain and eventually back to England. So just imagine the luck of some guy who survived an airplane crash after being shot at only to find out that you're now being rescued by hopscotching your way across France, one cat house at a time. Alright, well, we've got a badass spy with a wooden leg and no tolerance for Tom Fouley.

But will she do other things? Is there more stuff? We'll find out after a little apropos of nothing. Are you agent Francois? Yes, yes, agent Marco. Indeed, and this is Commandant Wilhelm. It's pleasure. Now, we're supposed to be meeting Agent Hall this evening, but I don't see her anywhere. Um, she's a lady with the peg leg. Dude!

Not cool. What? Is she a lady with the peg leg? Yes, yes. But she's a master of disguise, so she could be anyone in this bar. No, no, pretty sure that's the lady right over there with a peg leg that you're probably talking about right? Mm, perhaps, but with a master of disguise like Hall you can never know. Feel like we know.

Psst. Feel like we know. Gentlemen, it's me! See, it's her. Sorry, Madam, I don't believe I know you. What? Yes, we're meeting a friend so. Oh, of course I forgot. I was disguised. How about now?

Ha, Agent Hall! You truly are the devil! She's took off a hat! No, gentlemen, I don't have much time. The V. Swal ends tonight, and I plan to disguise myself as his loyal butler of 13 years, Sminkins. Okay, does Sminkkins have a wooden leg? Uh, no, why do you ask?

No, no reason. Sorry, nothing. Anyways, Jensen, I must be off! Whippah! My goodness, she's vanished into the crowd! Nope, just put the hat back on. She's put the hat back on. I feel crazy! Alright, well, when we left off, Virginia was using guts and gusto to smuggle the troops

through cat houses. What happened next, Tom? Well, war isn't all smuggling men from brothel to brothel, unfortunately. Recall the raid that resulted in the arrest of the bulk of the SOV agents that were operating in France. Hall learned that those agents were being held at the Mausac prison near Bergerac, and so he immediately began plotting for their escape. The prisoners were allowed some visitors, including spouses, which I have to say seems insane

to me. But there you have it. A halt recruited the wife of one of the prisoners to help in her plan. Gabby Block, wife of Jean Pierre Block, began to smuggle food and other items to her husband. Did you smuggle in her diplomatic pouch? This included tins of sardines. Okay, so no, so asked an answer. No, she didn't.

Yep. Inside the tins of those sardines, hall put small tools among the oily fish, which enabled one of the assowy prisoners to fashion the tin from the cans into a key. And although Virginia, known to the Germans only as the limping lady, was too well known to visit the prisoner herself, she arranged again for safe houses, for vehicles and other supports, and arranged for a priest to smuggle in a two-way radio into the prison. Okay, yeah, that's a good move. You go hollowed out Bible, but inside it's just a smaller Bible, right? And then the guards feel bad about checking your diplomatic pouch for a walkie-talkie.

Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, I don't mean to criticize, but once again, you've got this spy disguised as an investigative reporter type situation. So, so she had a disguised the contraband as different contraband, which she's like in. All right. On July 15th, 1942, the 12 SE prisoners escaped into the woods while an intense manhunt was underway for the recapture. And the men managed to evade capture traveling by night and through thick woods until they met up with Virginia nearly a month later on August 11th. Hall in her context smuggled the operatives out of France and into Spain and ultimately

back to England. And several of the SOE agents were able to return to France and lead further SOE networks. This jailbreak has been noted by some historians as one of the war's most useful operations of its kind. And as you can imagine, Colonel Klinken associates were none too pleased with having captured and then lost a dozen spies. So they flooded Vichy France with Gestapo and other similar assholes to try to destroy the French resistance and the SOE.

And they focused their efforts on Leone, which was unfortunate since that's where Hall was most well connected, and she was no longer protected by her relationships within the local French police community. Luckily, Cuffbert still held his Kind of guy you could always lean on that And may through in the crutch fuck if so slow I still working so hard for my my nose is bleeding I got a three in there nailed it.

Tom, go ahead. In May of 1942, Hall was working with the Gloria Network, a French resistance network transmitting messages to London. Roman Catholic priest assisted the Nazis because that's pretty much what the Catholics just did at this time, and the German obir captured the leader of the Gloria Network. That same priest made contact with Virginia, and although she had first doubted his veracity, she was ultimately, unfortunately, persuaded that he wasn't a Nazi piece of shit. And as a result, her contacts were compromised, and her wireless operators were captured, though

haul herself remained elusive. Gestapo chief, close Barbie, is quoted as saying, quote, I would give anything to get my hands on that limping Canadian bitch. I know she was not in any way from Canada. Okay, Mattel Company, quick thing, side note. You came out with Barbie in 1959. So what the fuck?

Like, was it between Hitler, Dal, Mangle, Adal, in 1959, so what the fuck? Was it between Hitler, Dal, Mangle, Dal, or Barbie Dal, and it had to be one of those, what happened there? You couldn't have any other name for that. It's in November of 1942, Hall learned that the Allied invasion of North Africa was about to take place. And she correctly concluded that this would cause the Germans to take over Vichy France

completely, and that operating under the radar of the Gestapo would become impossible. So Hall needed to get out of France and quick. She took a train from Leong to Père-Pignon, and then walked across the 7500 foot pass through the Pyrenees to Spain, a distance of 50 grueling miles covered on foot in two days on one foot in two days. Oh, but to be fair, for her, it was only a 3,750 foot. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, no, right, right. Cuthbert gets credit for 25 of those. Once in London, Hall requested they find a way to send her back to France, but S.O.E. leaders

thought her identity had been compromised. You don't say. And so the risks to her safety were just too high. So Hall learned yet another language. This time, that of the wireless communications operation and contacted the American Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. Hall was hired by the Special Operations Branch and she was returned to France.

As she had a wooden leg, she couldn't parachute in and was forced to take a gunboat into Brittany to get there a much more dangerous route. The OSS couldn't wrap their fucking minds around how awesome Hall was though, so they sent her to France with Henri Lasso, who was to be the leader of the operation. Not because he was more qualified, but simply because they couldn't imagine a woman leading the operation. Once in France, however, Hall quickly ditched Lasso and instructed her contacts not to tell him where she had gone, she viewed him as too talkative and as a security risk. Well, though, that bit like, look, if your job is intelligence officer, you're not qualified

to be the boss of anybody you can't find. A code named Diane, a hallhead forged identity papers to set up shop once again, this time working with the OSS to arm and train the marquee. This was French resistance groups conducting sabotage and guerrilla activity intended to make way for the invasion of Normandy. At this point, however, remember that Virginia was a known quantity to the Germans, who had her on their most wanted list, so she lived perpetually in disguise as an elderly woman. Her limp got lost in the slow, measured

gate that she adopted, and she even went so far as to file down her teeth to better resemble those of a woman much older. Okay, just arrest every woman in France with a peg like, how hard is this? Okay, again, it's weird. I'm giving notes to the Gestapo here. I see how that's a weird thing to do. Why aren't they? I don't understand how this is working. So impressive. How often were her teeth getting noticed that that's where she needed to make a J. Right. Right. A toothpaste catching happened, but not a leg-based one. Really? And then she fixed it with the files. Come on. Hall roamed the South of France as an elderly woman, sometimes pretending to be an old

milkmaid and even sometimes selling cheese to German soldiers to eavesdrop as they casually talked around her. Okay, so now that's how you get nuclear secrets out of heat. A lot of percent. A lot of people. A lot of people. She knows very task. She found and organized drop zones established, safe houses and made contacts within the French resistance. I'll also serve the resistance by supplying and training them with

weapons to the tune of hundreds of men armed and trained by a one-legged woman with filed down teeth. These resistance groups successfully engaged in many attacks on infrastructure and soldiers because of Virginia's help. So I'll dish share Old Lady costume to take on her next OSS assignment, which was to harass the Germans in southern France and advance the invasion of Normandy. The problem, however, was that despite her enormous balls, Virginia still no penis. And therefore, technically only a second lieutenant, a rank which didn't buy her enough credibility to do the work she needed to do. She tried to offer financial assistance in weapons if they would just fucking listen to

her, but they wouldn't until she arranged for three plane loads of supplies and weapons, at which point they shut their dumb mouths and got on board the Virginia is awesome trend. Come on. Her husband had leg. Leg. I don't know if you guys heard me. I feel like maybe just Tom Herbine. It's kind of a running joke, actually. her has a head leg. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and retreat north. That we have on it. She's finally, she's like, I literally pay you to shut up and listen. I love it because like, I'm sorry to say every woman I've ever known has probably wanted to say that to me at least once, you know, I get it.

Not just women. Haul then traveled to Austria to foment anti-Nazi resistance until the end of the war, after which she returned to the OSS and wrote reports detailing all of the contacts that helped make her work possible so that they would receive commendations. Oh, that's good, but do we need to foment a lot of that? Was that not already like fomented around your up pretty good? By now, anti-nazi stuff. Yeah, what is what is her argument that's gonna convince the fucking fence-sitter's,

whether or not they switched it or it, and they're like, this is a good pamphlet, you know what? Okay. Well, I'm a moderate, I'm a Nazi moderate. What's the report detailing the contributions of others were complete, she promptly resigned from the OSS. She did receive the distinguished service cross in 1945. She's the only civilian woman in the second world war to receive that honor. And even that combination, she accepted

without fuss, refusing an audience, and even spurning President Truman from attending the ceremony. Yeah. Do I want to meet the guy who I had to bribe to keep being a spy for his country? No, I think I'll pass. I think I'll pass on that. But combinations for her compatriots would not be forthcoming. Most of those who helped Hall throughout the war didn't survive it. Two of her closest allies, including the brothel owner Leon, were captured and sent to

concentration camps, and although they survived, they were given no recompense for their heroism aiding the war effort Hall herself managed to raise 400 pounds for her friends But this was obviously a poultry sum compared to the enormity of their actions. Damn it Tom. We were all having a good time here Over delightfully the priest who had betrayed her and nearly resulted in her capture Well, he was executed in Paris, so you know, sometimes good things happen. Okay. Nice.

Virginia joined the CIA in 1947, one of the first women to be hired by the agency, though as a woman, she faced very heavy discrimination. In fact, the CIA itself now admits was true. She was passed over for promotions, honors, and work, and given a desk job, gathering information about the Soviets. Right. And according to the time scale of a lot of our episode, she was sitting there while several of our CIA sits on their own balls events we've already covered must have been happening. So in the 1950s, she again had an ultra-secret paramilitary operation in France as a model

for how to set up resistance groups in Europe in case of a Soviet attack. Despite the discrimination, she became a valued member of the Special Activities Division, which I like that that's abbreviated as sad, by the way, which supported undercover activity designed to halt the spread of communism. She retired from spycraft at the agency only once she was forced by age to retire in 1966. She's like, not now, as long as I finally caught up with my teeth. A CIA report, once secret and now less so, detailed that she had been sidelined, shunted into backwater accounts because she had so much experience

that she overshadowed her male colleagues who felt threatened by her, and that her experience and abilities were never properly utilized. So here's a woman who stared down the Gestapo on one leg, who filed down her own teeth like Noah before a Zelda launch, and the shriveled dick manosphere dick bags basically sent her out for fucking coffee. And as bad as that was, she relentlessly pursued her calling and spycraft and service against fascism. And when she died in 1982, she never granted a single interview. And if you had to summarize what you've learned in one sentence, what would it be?

The CIA air pussies. Afraid of pussies. And are you ready for the quiz? Let's do it. All right, Tom. Virginia Hall's amazing honey pot spy brothel was obviously called the glory mole. What was the best name for the dating app she used to find her marks? Was it a

Tindler's list Oh, KKK cupid see amputee harmony Because the legs these were a decent or D Was it stumble oh These are all peg legs. Well, I think it's secret answer E. All of the classy answers above. That is correct.

Don't skip peg day. All right. Well, I'm here to make Heath look classy. So Virginia refused to take credit for much of her work as a spy. Why was that, Tom? A, she was but one leg of their journey. B, a true patriot knows you can never do a nub for your country. What?

Oh, come on. No, it's so mad about egg candy. furious like seething about it see her boss is really went out on a limb for her okay see is the only good one on there see is the only one that I don't feel embarrassed for you so I'm going see yeah that's it that's the correct all right rather than stoop to the kind of ableist humor that my co-host just offered up, I figured I'd end this segment with something tasteful for a change.

I think we were dissabeless. We were saying it's better. Oh. So Tom, in the interest test, no. No, I'm glad we're getting canceled. I'm trying to do a hero here. But I'm going to, I'm going to, don't worry, I'm going to turn it all around.

Yeah. Which was the least popular in Mattel's original line of Nazi Barbies. Hey. Oh, good. Concentration camp counselor Barbie. Be girl, stop. Oh, Barbie. See the Barbie swast a convertible place at or D. Cyclone beekeeper Barbie. the Barbie swasta convertible place at or D Cyclone beekeeper Barbie oh

Right Secret answer E I'm not picking one of those I'm not picking one of those correct that is not That sounds correct All right, I win That sounds correct. All right, I win. Sure, because I'm me and I win. Yeah, no. And I want Noah to do an essay next week. Something about that question just really inspired you to let me talk more.

Okay. That's right. That's right. All right, well for Tom Noah Heath. I'm Eli. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week and by then Noah will be an expert on something else. Between now and then, you can listen to Heath and Tom's new show, You're Gonna Finish That on Quibi,

and you can check out Noah and I's video game podcast in a dimension where cloning is possible. And if you'd like to help keep this show going, you can make a per episode donation at patreon.com slash citation pod. Or leave us a five star review Everywhere you can and if you'd like to get in touch with us check out past show notes connect with us on social medias or check the So notes be sure to check out PytationSod.com And if you'd like to get in touch with us check out past show notes connect with us on social medias or check the So notes be sure to check out

Do that last sentence one more time. It was insane. I Thank you I like to keep it. I like that occasionally I say words that aren't English on our podcast and people just maybe just this part though Okay, and if you'd like to get in touch with us check out Connected us on motion CD You said in poch. I think you said in Putch. You smell burdose right now. What is happening? Okay, and if you'd like to get in Putch with us, check out Putch.

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Hey Tom buddy you doing okay? Yeah yeah you know I just I sent a breakup email to mail demon but well you know, I just I sent a breakup email to mail demon, but Well, you know, while I was writing mine. He was writing his I mean, it's just That's classic us, you know, Tom. We told you know what never run. I'm just I'm really sorry to hear that man I always wrote so beautifully. Okay MBC 뉴스 김