Was Mata Hari Really a Spy?

She refused a blindfold and by some accounts even smiled at her executioners. Margaretha Zelle, a.k.a. “Mata Hari,” an exotic dancer and convicted spy, met her end at age 41 at the hands of a firing squad outside Paris 100 years ago on Oct. 15, 1917.

She's been portrayed as a femme fatale archetype and one of history's greatest spies, and her life has inspired films, musicals, a ballet and books, including Paulo Coelho's recent The Spy: A Novel of Mata Hari.

However, some contend that — regarding military matters — she was little more than a gossip with a thing for officers on both sides of the WWI battlefront. In the view of Russell Warren Howe, author of Mata Hari: The True Story, “The legend far surpasses the woman.”