WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Undetected: Mata Hari

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Megan and Alessia explore the story of one of the most famous female spies in history, Mata Hari.

The reporter had no idea what to expect. He had heard plenty, of course, but the exotic Hindu dancer that had taken Paris by storm was now in Vienna, filling the saloons with crowds every night she performed, Matahari. The reporter picked up his pace and hurried into the saloon half an hour before Madahari's performance was scheduled to begin. Even now, he had an elbow viciously through a quickly growing crowd. After what seemed like in eternity, the stage finally lit up and sudden silence fell across the entire saloon. That was when the music began. The curtains fell away to reveal a woman lying on the stage, straped in translucent veils.

Slowly, like a cat, she stood. A golden headdress, thickly dangling with pearl and gemstone beads, was tucked into her dark hair. Her head lifted up to look at the audience, and the reporter saw that she was very beautiful, in a foreign way, unlike anything he had ever seen. The reporter stared and stared. Then remember to snap a picture at the very last second, and Madahari began to dance. The reporter distinctly felt that he shouldn't be seeing this, but he could not look away. He managed to snap one final photo before the dance ended and the crowd roared with applause and cheers.

So this, he thought, was Matahari. Welcome to Undetected on Radio Free Hillsdale. Go undercover with your hosts, Alessia Sandala and Megan Lee, as they uncover the stories of spies from every country and time. The most thrilling, yet the most secret of lives in history. Welcome back to Undetected, everyone. I'm Megan, and this week's episode is about another iconic figure in the spy world. Alessia, can you introduce us to Madahari? Wait, Matahari?

But wasn't she the dancer we talked about in the intro? She was that, and a spy, too. Her story is full of intrigue and secrets, earning her the title of Femphetal, alongside our old friend Anna Chapman. Matahari's real name was Margaratha Zell, and she was born on August 7, 1876 in the Netherlands. Her father was a prosperous hat merchant who unfortunately made some bad financial investments and went bankrupt when Madahari was a teenager. Their parents divorced as a result and her mother later died of illness when Madahari was 15 years old. Matahari went to live with her relatives and attended a teachers college in Leiden. In 1895, she married Captain Rudolph MacLeed, an officer in the Dutch colonial army and also a man 21 years older than her.

MacLeed turned out to be an abusive husband. They moved from Java to Sumatra and then back to Europe. throughout their rocky nine-year marriage, which also produced a daughter and a son who later died. The two divorced in 1906 and Matahari moved to Paris after McLeod took their remaining daughter and left. That was where Matahari began to dance professionally and renamed herself Matahari, a Malay expression literally meaning eye of the day. Her beauty and skill at the East Indian dance style, as well as her willingness to appear basically naked, gave her instant popularity.

She traveled around Europe, taking on many lovers, including military, officials in exchange for money and influence. Around 1915 and 1916, Matahari was supposedly approached by the French army with an offer to spy for them, using her connections. Matahari said she had planned to do so, but once she was in German territory and started giving the German officers bits of information to convince them to talk, she was named as a German spy in their later communication with her, which was intercepted by the French. Some sources say Madahari was in fact working for the Germans, and the sense that she had accepted payment from them, 20,000 francs, to relay the French's information,

but Matahari insisted she was innocent. She never intended to turn against the French, despite taking the money. Her plans were actually to help the allies by securing the aid of a German Duke. Would you consider that an active betrayal, Alessia, accepting money from a foreign power? Well, Megan, I'm pretty sure that is a crime today, but even if you don't act on it, it looks really suspicious. And Matahari definitely looked suspicious. On February 13th, 1917, the French arrested Matahari as a double agent responsible for the death of many Frenchmen and threw her in a rat-infested cell at a French prison. Throughout the interrogation process, Matahari didn't help her alibi much and her inconsistent explanations of what happened. In July, she was executed by firing squad.

Some sources say she refused to wear a blindfold. But today, many years after Madahari's death, her guilt as a double agent has been contested. In 2017, several documents were released by France about Madahari, and she seemed to be the scapegoat of the French government, who was looking for someone that could be blamed in the wake of France's setback during World War I. With her controversial reputation as a mistress and a dancer, Madahari would have been a good choice. So true, Megan. I suppose we will never know for certain whether Matahari was actually guilty of turning traitor,

but with all the connections her dancing had brought her, she was certainly in a position to to collect information. Whether she did anything with it might never be known, but that doesn't make her story any less interesting. She is perhaps one of the most famous female spies known today, and her tale of intrigue, performance, and espionage is a tale that won't grow old. I'm Megan. And I'm Alessia. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Undetected. Tune in next week to hear us talk about Richard Sorge, the daring Russian spy that worked right under the nose of Germany's ally, Japan, on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.