Top 10 Woman Spies In History
These female spies were the best in the biz. For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the most cunning and courageous women in espionage throughout history.
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00:00 Compared to most other female agents who were often quickly caught, Christine evaded capture
00:05 and never compromised other agents in the field."
00:09 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 10 Woman Spies.
00:14 "Harriet Tubman is the Moses of our people.
00:17 She was a wanted woman.
00:18 She was a hated woman reviled by the white South."
00:22 For this list, we're looking at some of the most cunning and courageous women in espionage
00:26 throughout history.
00:27 Do you know about any other woman spies who deserve to be on the list?
00:30 Please tell us in the comments.
00:32 Bonus points if you write in code.
00:35 Number 10.
00:36 Sandra Grimes.
00:37 Sandra Grimes was a CIA agent for over 20 years, but her most famous achievement occurred
00:42 toward the end of her career.
00:43 "How much damage did Rick Ames' treason create?"
00:48 "He basically wiped out all the US government's human source collection."
00:53 "He wiped out your ability to have eyes and ears on the ground."
00:56 "Exactly."
00:57 In the late 1980s, the CIA realized that several US agents in the USSR were compromised.
01:03 One of their own spies had betrayed them, but who?
01:05 "Back at the CIA, no one knew exactly what had gone wrong, that they'd been betrayed."
01:11 They assigned a team to catch the mole, including Grimes, who had previous experience in the
01:16 Soviet bloc.
01:17 In 1992, she made a crucial discovery.
01:20 One particular agent had been secretly making large bank deposits right after meeting his
01:25 Russian contact.
01:26 "To this day, she is angry about the people Ames betrayed, including General Polyakov."
01:32 "He knew full well what fate awaited them, and he did it basically for money."
01:40 That agent was Aldrich Ames, a man with alcohol use disorder who was struggling to pay off
01:45 a huge divorce settlement.
01:47 After confessing his treasonous acts, Ames went to prison for life and Grimes to a well-earned
01:52 retirement.
01:53 Number 9.
01:54 Edith Tudor Hart.
01:55 Edith Tudor Hart was a British-Austrian photographer committed to documenting the hardships of
02:00 civilians in World War II.
02:02 "I knew that my aunt Edith was an important photographer, but 20 years after her death
02:08 it surfaced that she had played a significant role in the Soviet secret service."
02:15 She just so happened to be one of the Soviet Union's best recruiting agents in England.
02:19 Tudor Hart found other young idealists and won them to her cause, while staying under
02:24 the radar.
02:25 She was the catalyst for the Cambridge Spy Ring, a group of highly placed British agents
02:29 who sent information to Russia for decades.
02:31 "She was one of the most important talent scouts for the KGB, and was one of the architects
02:38 of the Cambridge Five, the Soviet Union's most successful spy ring in Great Britain."
02:46 Due to her idealism, Tudor Hart refused payment for spying throughout the war, and unlike
02:51 most foreign agents, she was abandoned by the USSR afterwards.
02:55 She died alone and impoverished in 1973.
02:58 "So it's this dichotomy of being proud and happy with her work as a photographer, with
03:05 her work as a secret agent, and unhappy with everything private."
03:11 Number 8.
03:12 Noor Inayat Khan The "old boys" of England mostly scoffed
03:16 at the idea of employing women as spies, but when World War II broke out, they were desperate.
03:21 They especially needed wireless operators to transmit messages.
03:24 An incredibly vital, incredibly dangerous job.
03:27 "Noor was the first female radio operator sent in undercover to Nazi-occupied France,
03:32 a perilous task where she hid undetected and sent vital knowledge to the Allies."
03:36 So Noor Inayat Khan, a shy young writer whose musical training gave her an edge in tapping
03:41 Morse code, was parachuted into occupied France.
03:45 But her mission did not last long.
03:47 The agents of her section had been betrayed, and the Nazis were after them.
03:51 Despite the danger, Khan decided to remain.
03:53 She managed to evade capture for several months, but in October of 1943, her luck ran out.
03:59 She was arrested, interrogated, and eventually executed, along with several other British
04:04 agents.
04:05 "The Germans captured her in 1943.
04:08 She was classified as highly dangerous.
04:11 She was shackled in chains most of the time.
04:14 And on September 13, 1944, Noor was executed."
04:18 Number 7.
04:19 Ursula Kuczynski
04:21 Kuczynski was a German-born spy with many aliases, but not for the reason you might
04:25 think.
04:26 In fact, for most of her career, she was known simply as Agent Sonia.
04:30 Her name changed several times because she married several times.
04:33 "Her best disguise was her femininity.
04:37 A housewife and mother of three who was sharing Britain's secrets with Russia."
04:42 So while completing difficult and dangerous work for the Soviet Union, Kuczynski also
04:46 had to deal with pregnancy and then keep her children safe.
04:50 But that didn't hold her back.
04:51 "This was where, in the back garden, she built a powerful radio transmitter that was tuned
04:57 to Moscow."
04:58 "After putting her children to bed, Agent Sonia would work through the night communicating
05:03 with Russia."
05:04 Kuczynski recruited British, German, and American agents who were willing to share information,
05:09 and she carried messages between the USSR and high-profile scientists, including Klaus
05:14 Fuchs, a physicist and double agent who helped develop the atomic bomb.
05:18 Not many people were tough enough to be spies during World War II, let alone wives and mothers
05:23 too.
05:24 "You've got to admire someone like Sonia for having conducted undercover work for as long
05:29 as she did.
05:30 Also coupling that with her family life is quite extraordinary."
05:34 Number 6.
05:35 Mata Hari
05:36 Even though she died over a century ago, Maharetta Zella, better known by her stage name Mata
05:41 Hari, still captivates storytellers.
05:43 "She knows that mystery has great power.
05:47 She leaves it unclear who she is, where she is from."
05:51 The idea of an unhappy young woman recreating herself as an exotic dancer in Paris, then
05:56 becoming a French spy in World War I, is certainly worthy of a romance.
06:00 But the mysteries surrounding Mata Hari are even more intriguing.
06:04 While spying for France, she apparently gave up some information to the Germans.
06:09 Whether she was truly a double agent or just trying to gain their confidence is unknown.
06:13 "Mata Hari is arrested and taken straight to the examining magistrate, Pierre Bouchardon.
06:24 She's accused of spying for Germany, of betraying state secrets."
06:29 To French authorities, however, she was a murderous traitor, and perhaps a handy scapegoat.
06:34 She denied the accusations, but it did no good.
06:37 Mata Hari was executed in October 1917.
06:39 "On the day of the execution, she was brought out, stood in front of the firing squad, and
06:46 she refused to be blindfolded.
06:50 And she met her death head on."
06:52 Her story survived.
06:54 Number 5.
06:55 Josephine Baker
06:56 Although she was a famous African-American performer, decorated war veteran, and civil
07:00 rights activist, Josephine Baker is largely unknown in the US.
07:04 "Despite the attention Josephine was starting to receive, she sensed she had progressed
07:09 as far as a black woman could in 1920s America.
07:13 So when she was offered the opportunity to join an all-black review show opening in Paris,
07:18 she jumped at the chance."
07:19 She only became successful after moving to France, which made her a huge asset to the
07:24 French resistance in World War II.
07:26 None of the high-ranking officials she mingled with at parties suspected the alluring singer,
07:30 dancer, and actress was secretly gathering information for the Allies.
07:34 "More than anything else, she gave them her fame because they were able to travel with
07:38 her undercover, because they traveled with her as her band, and so they could move around."
07:44 She even carried messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music.
07:48 After the war, she went back to the US to fight for civil rights, but eventually grew
07:52 discouraged and returned to France.
07:54 That may explain why few Americans remember this remarkable woman, who deserved recognition
07:59 in her homeland and never got it.
08:01 "But in the US, she said she faced hostility and racism at New York's Stork Club in 1951,
08:08 ignored for an hour."
08:10 Number 4.
08:11 Christina Skarbek
08:12 Christina Skarbek had the qualities of a movie star, and a life that made movies seem tame.
08:17 She was called Britain's most glamorous spy, and the bravest of the brave.
08:21 "What made her a great spy was her ability and inclination to take risks."
08:26 Winston Churchill even named her his favorite agent, after she sent him evidence that Hitler
08:30 planned to invade the Soviet Union.
08:32 Skarbek achieved many of her greatest feats with words, starting with a mission proposal
08:36 that convinced skeptical British officials to make her their first female spy in the field.
08:41 "Nobody really expected her to succeed.
08:44 Christine, though, had other ideas."
08:47 However, Skarbek's most famous feat involved rescuing two agents from a German prison,
08:52 where they were about to be executed.
08:54 After hours of argument, she persuaded the warden to release her comrades, in return
08:59 for a bribe and preferential treatment after the Allied invasion.
09:02 "This extraordinary action summed up Christine's war, which combined exceptional courage with
09:07 audacious and sometimes foolhardy bravery."
09:10 Number 3.
09:11 Virginia Hall
09:12 Virginia Hall was nothing if not determined.
09:15 She applied to work for the U.S. State Department, but was rejected.
09:19 They almost never hired women, let alone women with disabilities, and Hall had lost part
09:24 of her leg in an accident.
09:25 "She and some friends went snipe hunting one day, and she somehow, climbing a fence,
09:34 pulled the trigger and shot herself in the foot."
09:37 "Missing a leg back then meant no State Department posting abroad."
09:41 So, when World War II began, Hall became an ambulance driver in France, where British
09:46 intelligence recruited her to help form spy networks.
09:49 "Fluent in French and an expert on the French countryside, Hall was recruited by a secret
09:54 British espionage unit."
09:56 Yet somehow, Hall ended up doing far more than that.
09:59 She organized recruitment, supplies, and communication across German-occupied France, and in doing
10:05 so, became a primary target for the Gestapo.
10:08 Hall eventually had to flee over the Pyrenees Mountains, a highly dangerous journey even
10:12 for people with two good legs.
10:14 "In 1942, they found her.
10:17 But Hall fled to Spain on foot through the snow-capped Pyrenees Mountains, scaling altitudes
10:23 of 7,500 feet on her prosthetic leg."
10:26 However, she returned undaunted to organize final support for the Allied invasion.
10:31 2.
10:32 Vera Atkins
10:34 Vera Atkins was not just a spy.
10:36 She was a spy master.
10:38 During World War II, she was the head intelligence officer for the French Division of British
10:42 Intelligence.
10:43 "At the heart of this struggle was one woman, Vera Atkins.
10:49 Skillful, meticulous, and dedicated."
10:53 She recruited spies, trained them, and monitored them in the field.
10:57 In fact, Atkins worked with several agents on this list, including Hahn, Skarbek, and
11:02 Hall.
11:03 After sending them into France, Atkins would personally meet each agent to discuss any
11:07 last concerns.
11:08 "She knew what their background was, she knew where they lived, she knew if they needed
11:11 more money.
11:12 And so they felt very confident in her because they felt she was very much looking after
11:16 them."
11:17 She also made sure they knew the odds.
11:19 Only about half of those who went in survived.
11:22 Those caught by the Nazis were usually interrogated and killed.
11:26 After the war, Atkins personally tracked down her missing agents and found out what happened
11:30 to them so they could be recognized for their service.
11:32 Atkins stood as a vital witness at two war crimes trials.
11:39 Her evidence saw those who had harmed her girls sentenced to death and executed.
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12:02 Number 1.
12:03 Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman, the American hero who rescued
12:07 so many enslaved people, was also a spy?
12:10 She sure was.
12:11 "Tubman did lead dozens of slaves to freedom, but her experience also made her a valuable
12:17 military asset."
12:19 During the Civil War, Tubman used those same stealth and tracking skills to lead covert
12:23 missions behind enemy lines.
12:25 Her information about underwater mines enabled Union Army ships to safely navigate the Combahee
12:30 River and mount surprise attacks on plantations in South Carolina.
12:34 "In 1863, the Union command sent her deep behind enemy lines in South Carolina to lay
12:40 the groundwork for a daring plantation raid."
12:44 Soldiers from the ships were aided by enslaved people on the ground, who had been warned
12:48 ahead of time.
12:49 Tubman led the Black soldiers, making her the first woman to lead U.S. troops in an
12:53 armed assault.
12:54 Sadly, however, like many of the agents on our list, Tubman was abandoned by her government
12:59 after the war was over and died in poverty.
13:02 "Although Tubman was widely well-respected during her lifetime, she was impoverished
13:07 and died of pneumonia in 1913."
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13:17 [Outro]
13:28 (upbeat music)