20 Of History’s Most Famous Spies And Their Secrets

To everyone else, including her patrons, Mata Hari was a performing artist, nothing more. Yet she was accused of being a German spy, and was known to mix closely with high-ranking members of the military. Today, historians are doubtful that she ever supplied valuable military or political information. Yet, in 1917, French authorities found her guilty and carried out a sentence of death.

The 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg is still considered one of the most controversial espionage cases in U.S. history. They were arrested for leaking top secret information that helped the Soviets create an atomic bomb.

Richard Sorge was a Soviet intelligence officer who operated in Japan around World War II under cover as a German journalist. His intelligence on Nazi plans was important in allowing Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to transfer Soviet forces to the Eastern front at a critical moment: the battle for Moscow.

Regarded by the Gestapo as one of their most dangerous enemies, American spy Virginia Hall conducted her World War II operations primarily in Nazi-occupied France. Despite being an amputee, Hall set up numerous Resistance groups and sabotage operations and provided valuable intelligence to Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). An evasive adversary, she successfully eluded the Nazis time after time.

Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent and senior member of the Cambridge Five spy ring, was a damaging traitor to Western intelligence during the Cold War. He and other members of the Five passed highly sensitive intelligence to the Soviets. Under increasing suspicion about his loyalty, Philby defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.

Sidney Reilly was a British secret agent who worked undercover in Europe and Russia. The subject of countless spy stories, Reilly is considered to be the inspiration for James Bond. Reilly performed many industrial and military intelligence operations, including a failed one in 1918 that was designed to overthrow the Bolshevik government.

Nathan Hale is remembered best for the words traditionally attributed to him: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” These words are unconfirmed by contemporary witnesses. Hale was a young American officer who volunteered for intelligence duty during the American Revolutionary War. He was captured and executed as a spy in New York by British soldiers.

Arnold is probably best known in American history as an infamous American traitor. During the American Revolution, he was a general in the Continental Army. He plotted to turn over the strategic fortress of West Point to the British in exchange for £20,000. His British collaborator, spy Major John André, was captured and hanged for treason, but Arnold successfully escaped.

Elizabeth Van Lew was born into a wealthy Virginia family and was a supporter of the Union during the American Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant, head of the Union army, received military intelligence reports from Elizabeth Van Lew, who headed one of the largest espionage networks in Richmond, the Confederacy’s capital. Van Lew’s network collected valuable information about the Confederacy’s military operations and Union prisoner escapes.

Belle Boyd was a renowned American spy during the Civil War. Charming and clever, Boyd collected intelligence on Union troop movements, passed it along to Confederate generals, and was repeatedly arrested throughout the war. She would always continue her work when released, however.

Noor Inayat Khan was the first female wireless operator sent by Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) into occupied France during World War II. As her support network crumbled and her comrades were rounded up, she continued sending vital messages for the French Resistance. When the Gestapo captured Khan, she steadfastly refused to reveal any information during her interrogation and was executed at Dachau concentration camp in 1944.

Nancy Wake was an operative for Britain’s Special Operations Executive during World War II. She worked with Resistance fighters in occupied France, and was so difficult to catch that the Gestapo dubbed her the “White Mouse.”

Juan Pujol García was a remarkable double agent during World War II. Working for British intelligence, he fed Nazi Germany so much disinformation that the Germans believed the Allies were going to land at Pas-de-Calais, not in Normandy — and they fell for it.

Oleg Penkovsky was a Soviet military officer who was arrested in 1962 and later executed by the Soviet government. He secretly passed thousands of documents from the Soviet government to British and American intelligence, providing valuable information during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A CIA employee, Aldrich Ames secretly sold U.S. intelligence to the Soviet Union, resulting in the capture and execution of at least ten Soviet informants working for the U.S. He was arrested in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison, in what was one of the biggest blows to the CIA in its history.

Robert Hanssen was an FBI counterintelligence agent who secretly spied for the Soviet Union for over two decades, making him one of the most damaging spies in American history. Hanssen was arrested in 2001, and his court case ended with a sentence of life imprisonment.

Klaus Fuchs was a physicist working on the Manhattan Project. He covertly supplied critical information on atomic research to the Soviet Union. His assistance greatly sped up the development of nuclear weapons in the USSR, helping Moscow develop its first atomic bomb sooner than it otherwise would have. He was subsequently arrested and imprisoned in Britain.

Donald Maclean held high-ranking positions in the British Foreign Office, which allowed him access to highly classified Allied intelligence. Maclean passed this material, including details about Allied nuclear policy and postwar diplomatic strategy, directly to the Soviet Union during and after World War II.

Guy Burgess was a member of the Cambridge Five and a spy in Soviet intelligence who passed British and American secrets to Moscow during the early Cold War. He worked as a British diplomat and journalist.

In June 2010, the FBI arrested Anna Chapman and later expelled her back to Russia in a prisoner swap. Chapman was a sleeper agent in a Russian program that covertly embedded agents, using fabricated identities, throughout the Western world, and sent her into the United States.

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