The 14 Most Beautiful Female Intelligence Officers in History

In March 1862, the trial of famed spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow took place. She was accused (justifiably) of passing information to the Confederacy during the American Civil War, informing the South about Union troop deployments. But there was no evidence against Rose O'Neal. Before her arrest, she ate all the incriminating documents. After the trial, she went to Richmond, where Confederate President Davis Jefferson awarded her a $2,500 reward.

Two years later, Rose O'Neill drowned. She was said to be a brilliant spy, knowing her enemy's plans better than President Lincoln. What would the Allies have done without her natural charm and modest feminine beauty?

Success often comes easier to women—and all thanks to their looks. In this collection, you'll find the world's most beautiful female spies, who have also achieved great things in their respective fields.

1. Christine Keeler (1942-2017). The "Mata Hari of the 1960s." The former British model also worked as a prostitute, but she was more useful to intelligence. While working in a topless cabaret, she had an affair with British Secretary of State for War John Profumo and naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov.

But Christine didn't need her lovers for personal gain: she extracted secrets from the minister, then sold them to another lover. In the ensuing scandal, Profumo himself resigned, followed shortly by the prime minister, and then the Conservatives lost the election.

After the scandal, Christine became even richer than before: the beautiful spy was incredibly popular with journalists and photographers.

2. Leontine Therese Cohen (Helen Kroger) (1913-1993). She was a member of the Communist Party of the United States and a labor activist. In New York City, at an anti-fascist rally in 1939, she met Morris Cohen, who later became her husband. Cohen collaborated with Soviet foreign intelligence.

It was on his tip that she was recruited. Leontina, however, had an inkling of her husband's connections. Without hesitation, she agreed to assist the state security agencies in the fight against the Nazi threat.

During the war, she served as a liaison agent for the Foreign Intelligence Service's New York station. Until her final days, she continued to work for the clandestine intelligence agency. She is buried at Novo-Kuntsevo Cemetery.

3. Irina (Bibiiran) Alimova (1920-2011). A veterinarian by profession, Alimova became an actress due to her beauty. After playing Umbar's love interest in the film of the same name, she became famous. She continued to study acting.

With the outbreak of war, Bibiiran wanted to go to the front and ended up in the military censorship office. After the war, she received an offer to work for local counterintelligence. In 1952, under the pseudonym Bir, she went to Japan to work illegally in the Soviet intelligence service, which was being revived after the death of Richard Sorge.

Her superior was our intelligence officer, Colonel Shamil Abdullazyanovich Khamzin (alias Khalef). They entered into a fictitious marriage, and Alimova became Mrs. Khatycha Sadyk. But within a few years, their relationship had evolved from legend to true romantic love.

4. Nadezhda Troyan (1921-2011). During the war, finding herself in occupied Belarus, Nadezhda Troyan joined the anti-fascist underground. She served as a liaison, scout, and nurse in partisan units. She participated in operations to blow up bridges and attack enemy supply trains.

Her most significant feat was the assassination, along with Elena Mazanik and Maria Osipova, of the Nazi Gauleiter of Belarus, Wilhelm von Kube. The women planted a mine under his bed.

After the incident, Hitler declared women his personal enemies.

5. Anna Morozova (1921-1944). In the 1930s, a major military airfield was built in Seshche, where Morozova grew up. Anna Morozova worked there as an accountant. When Hitler captured the airfield, she fled with the Soviet troops and later returned, allegedly to her mother. She stayed on to work for the Nazis as a laundress.

Thanks to the information she transmitted, two German ammunition depots, 20 aircraft and 6 train trains were blown up.

In 1944, the girl was seriously wounded, and to avoid being captured, she blew herself up with a grenade along with several Germans.

6. Mata Hari (Margarita Gertrud Zelle) (1876-1917). From a wealthy family. She lived for seven years in an unhappy marriage on the island of Java with a hard-drinking and promiscuous husband. Upon returning to Europe, she divorced.

She was recruited by German intelligence before the war, and during it, Mata Hari began collaborating with the French. She used the money she received to cover her gambling debts.

The young woman had numerous connections with high-ranking French politicians, who feared a damaged reputation. Some historians believe that Mata Hari's performance as a spy was not particularly impressive.

In 1917, she was declassified by the French military and sentenced to death. The sentence was executed on October 15. It's possible this wasn't even because of her work as an intelligence agent.

7. Violette Jabot (1921-1945). At 23, she became a widow and joined British intelligence. In 1944, she went to occupied France on a secret mission to transmit information about the number and location of enemy forces to headquarters, as well as to carry out a number of sabotage operations.

After completing her mission, she returned to London to be with her young daughter. Some time later, she flew to France again, but this time the mission ended in failure: her car was detained, she fought back for a long time, but the enemy proved stronger.

She was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, notorious for its brutal torture and medical experiments on prisoners. The tortured Jabot was executed in February 1945. She became the second woman in history to be posthumously awarded the St. George Cross. The spy was later awarded the Military Cross and the Medal for Resistance.

8. Amy Elizabeth Thorpe (1910-1963). Her intelligence career began when she married the second secretary of the US embassy. He was 20 years her senior, and she cheated on him left and right. Her husband didn't mind: he was an agent for British intelligence, and Amy's lovers helped her obtain information.

But her husband died, and Agent Cynthia left for Washington, where she continued her intelligence work: she obtained information from French and Italian employees and officers through bed.

Her most famous espionage stunt was breaking into the French ambassador's safe. Through skillful maneuvers, she managed to do so and copy the naval code, which later helped Allied forces land in North Africa in 1942.

9. Nancy Wake (Grace Augusta Wake) (1912-2011). Born in New Zealand, she unexpectedly inherited a fortune and moved to New York, then to Europe. In the 1930s, she worked as a correspondent in Paris, criticizing Nazism.

She and her husband joined the Resistance when the Germans invaded France. During her activities, White Mouse helped Jewish refugees and soldiers escape the country.

Afterward, she organized arms supplies and recruited new members for the Resistance. Soon, Nancy learned that her husband had been executed by the Nazis because he had not disclosed Nancy's whereabouts. The Gestapo had offered a 5 million franc bounty on her head.

10. Anna Chapman (Kushchenko) (born 1982). She moved to England in 2003, and since 2006 has headed her own real estate search company in the USA.

Married to artist Alex Chapman, she attempted to obtain information about US nuclear weapons, Eastern politics, and influential figures. On June 27, 2010, she was arrested by the FBI, and on July 8, she confessed to espionage.

Moreover, it turned out that Chapman was involved with a certain peer in the House of Lords and even dated several princes. Her lavish lifestyle was financed by a business sponsored by an unknown individual. As a result, Anna was deported to Russia under the spy exchange program.

11. Josephine Baker (Frieda Josephine MacDonald) (1906-1975). The daughter of a Jewish musician and a black laundress, she became popular during the Paris tour of the Revue Negre in 1925. Baker walked around Paris with a panther on a leash, earning her the nickname "Black Venus."

She married an Italian adventurer and became a countess. She worked at the Moulin Rouge, but also appeared in erotic films. In 1937, she renounced her US citizenship in favor of France, and then the war began, in which Black Venus actively participated, becoming a spy.

Baker trained as a pilot and achieved the rank of lieutenant. She transferred funds to members of the underground. After the war, she continued dancing and singing, and also appeared in television series. For her services to France, she was awarded the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre.

12. Olga Chekhova (Knipper) (1897-1980). An actress who never admitted to having ties to intelligence. She starred in Hollywood with Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, and other stars.

She married Mikhail Chekhov in the 1930s and forever kept his surname, although in her homeland in Germany the authorities forced her to return to her maiden name.

Goebbels hated the actress because she rejected him. Yet the Führer himself sympathized with her. In April 1945, Olga was arrested by Soviet intelligence and taken to Moscow. Afterward, she visited West Berlin and then moved to West Germany. This visit was shrouded in secrecy.

The media reported that Chekhova was a Soviet spy who received the Order of Lenin for her services from Stalin himself. Those close to the Soviet leadership claimed that Chekhova was plotting an assassination attempt on Hitler.

In the summer of 1953, according to available information, she carried out her final task: connecting Beria with Konrad Adenauer.

13. Nadezhda Plevitskaya (1884-1949). An incredibly popular singer and actress of her time. She and her husband, Nikolai Skoblin, were recruited by the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars.

Nikolai Skoblin, incidentally, was the youngest general in the White Army. He was only 27 years old at the time.

Plevitskaya's most successful operation is considered to be the kidnapping of Yevgeny Miller, the head of the Russian All-Military Union. The outcome was intended to be the appointment of Plevitskaya's husband to Miller's position.

14. Margarita Konenkova (1895-1980). Nicknamed Lucas, she spent half her life in the United States as a spy. Possessing a striking appearance and a sharp mind, she managed to win the favor of Albert Einstein.

It was the scientist who helped her establish friendly relations with the creators of the atomic bomb. By seducing them, she learned details of atomic research, was kept abreast of the stages of its creation, and passed all this information on to Soviet intelligence.

The exact nature of Konenkova's relationship with Einstein remains unknown. However, messages from their personal correspondence, filled with tender words, were found among their belongings.