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)