Henry Wales was a British reporter who covered the execution. She was the eldest of four children of Adam Zelle (2 October 1840 – 13 March 1910) and his first wife Antje van der Meulen (21 April 1842 – 9 May 1891). [1] Howe, Russell Warren. "Griet," short for Margaretha, would change her Dutch name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod to the exotic title Mata Hari (Malaysian for Eye of the Dawn of Eye of Day) and become a colorful, veil-whirling Javanese dancer who would eventually attain notoriety throughout Europe as an erotic dancer and alleged espionage agent. In order to maintain her lifestyle she turned into a courtesan and for a long time she depended on this profession as a source of her income. The MacLeods were a military family, whose patriarch, John, bore the title of Chief Netherlands Military Officer, the garrison commander for the local Dutch Colonial Army. When their mother, Griet MacLeod, discovered the horror, a Dutch doctor was summoned but he could save the life only of Juana-Luisa - Norman, just two-and-a-half years old, was dead. Two children: Norman John (30 January 1897 - 28 June 1899) and Jeanne Louise MacLeod (2 May 1898 - 10 August 1919) It was claimed at her trail that her activities caused the deaths of 50,000 Allied soldiers. Juana-Luisa wrote to her stepmother that while she lived in The Hague she passed by the house where her mother lived and "there were no men around but lovely curtains in front of the windows." Adam Zelle was a "prosperous and handsome" hatter and haberdasher who suffered … The Deathmakers / Children of Mata Hari / Pill of Death. Mata Hari, whose real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands on August 7, 1876 to Dutch parents with ancestry from … In 1899, two-year-old Norman died after reportedly being poisoned by a … Author Waagenaar rates the most absurd story associated with Mata Hari as Kurt Singer's (Spies Who Changed History) assertion that Mata Hari's daughter Juana-Luisa (whose nickname was "Non" but Singer for some unknown reason names her "Banda") received a letter from her mother just before her execution that stated Juana-Luisa was an orphan. Her father went bankrupt, her parents divorced, and her mother died all by the time Zelle was 1… She was found guilty of espionage on July 24 and on October 15, 1917, at the age of 41, after several trials, she was executed by the firing squad. During World War I, at the age of forty, she used to frequently travel between France and the Netherlands. His film "Spirited Away" won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature … Juana-Luisa, who had grown into a tall and beautiful young woman with an appearance that resembled her mother's, had graduated from teacher's college in The Hague and spent a year as a kindergarten teacher in Velp while she lived with her father in De Steeg and rode by streetcar to the school with her lunch stored in the Mata Hari biscuit tin. She was the eldest of four children. Two stories subsequently circulated through Medan. We all know her as a dancer and courtesan, but before that she was a wife and a mother who led a disastrous family life for nine long years until fate took her to Paris where her beauty and exquisiteness was well-received. But that isn't Hari's whole story. She moved to Indonesia with her husband where she gave birth to two children, Norman-John MacLeod and Louise Jeanne MacLeod. She was sent to live with her godfather in Sneek, where she was trained to become a kindergarten teacher, but later went to live with her uncle in The Hague. Her father owned a hat shop, made successful investments in the oil industry, and became affluent enough to give Margaretha a lavish early childhood that included exclusive schools until the age of 13. Donate now and help me provide fresh news and analysis for my readers, © 2023 by "This Just In". Mata Hari in 1906, soon after the Dutchwoman reinvented herself as an exotic dancer. The other version, and believed to be less true, was the theory that MacLeod had made successful advances to the nurse and the native lover discovered this and subsequently added poison to a sauce that was poured over the children's rice. 144 years ago, on August 7th, 1876, one of the most mysterious women of the 20th century was born — Mata Hari. She never woke up. It was known in the community that he had given a terrible beating to a native soldier who was in love with the MacLeod household nurse. After moving to Java in Indonesia, Mata Hari had two children with Captain MacLeod (Norman-John and Louise Jeanne). He called MacLeod "unbalanced," and Griet claimed that he had threatened her with a pistol. She had always been fascinated with the romance of Paris and finally decided she would go there. She moved to Indonesia with her husband where she gave birth to two children, Norman-John MacLeod and Louise Jeanne MacLeod. She Lived the High Life. She had three brothers. Like what you read? You're signed out. A lot of researchers believed that there was not enough evidence to prove the espionage charge and that she was wrongly convicted. A Feature film by Jean Delannoy. Mata Hari - The True Story, Dodd, Mead and Co., 1986, New York, p. 43. 'In 1915, she was briefly arrested while in England by British counter intelligence, MI5. MacLeod was transferred to Java and Griet and her daughter lived separately from John in a legal separation. What is definintely known of Juana-Luisa MacLeod, the undisputed daughter of Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, is that in September of 1914 Margaretha desperately wished to see her daughter again and wrote a letter to MacLeod requesting a meeting. She was accused of acting as a double agent for … The tragedy weighted heavily on an already strained marriage. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/mata-hari-4002.php. She married Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod on July 11, 1895, at the age of 19 – her husband was 21 years older to her. Produced by Les Films Copernic. The reason for the beating was never known. MacLeod requested her to come back but she found that her husband had not changed. She was a feminist in her own right who pursued her dreams and lived on her own terms. Someone had slipped into the house and poisoned the two MacLeod children, Norman and Juana-Luisa. Tap to unmute. In 1897, she revealed her artistic name of Mata Hari, Malay (Indonesian as a standardized register did not exist in 1897) for "sun" (literally, "eye of the day"), in correspondence to her relatives in the Netherlands. The family doctor noted to a writer that Mrs. MacLeod was always patient and well behaved despite insults John MacLeod directed toward her. She was called many names: dancer, courtesan, spy, traitor, but nobody ever really found out who this great woman was. Mata Hari was an immediate sensation, not least because her daringly sensual dancing involved throwing off the veils she was wearing, one by one, until she was naked but for a … Her father divorced her mother in 1889. Women in Espionage - A Biographical Dictionary, © 2023 by "This Just In". Women in Espionage - A Biographical Dictionary, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 1993, pp. Juana-Luisa and the False Stories of her Espionage Life. 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