Frisian Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden to a then well to do family, the eldest child of Antje and Adam Zelle. The family's fortunes would decline before she was a teen.
She'd become the famous/infamous Mata Hari, in some ways an early, well, Sydney Sweeney, but also with scandalous romance attached. Those escapades ultimately lead to charges of espionage, based on what she was acquiring from her French male associates.
Frankly, she was not unattractive, but was never the great beauty of legend. She was a surprisingly old 41 years of age when she was executed in 1917, and the mother of two.
Margaretha on the day of her arrest.
Her daughter Nonnie would die two years later age age 21.
Last edition:
Sunday, August 6, 1876. The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves.
Labels: 1870s, 1877, 1880s, 1885, Army, Battle of Little Big Horn, Heroes, Kentucky, Montana (Rosebud Creek)
