Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was born in 1904 in Baltimore, Maryland. Hiss was an active spy for the communists in the U.S.A. Alger Hiss denied the charges that he was a communist and he was asked to take a lie detector test. The man who wanted to have Hiss take the test was Whittaker Chambers. Hiss then denied the charges and called Chambers “a filthy liar”. Chambers then claimed he found pictures that Hiss was prepared to hand over to the Soviets. Hiss was found guilty and was sentenced to 44 months in prison.
Mary Elizabeth Bowser
Mary Elizabeth Bowser was born as a slave to John Van Lew. After, John Van Lew died, his daughter freed Bowser. After being released as a slave, Bowser earned a university degree at Penn St. Then when the Civil War broke out Bowser joined forces with Ulysses S. Grant’s troops of the Union. When she worked with him she became a spy for the group. She spied on the Confederacy and played a key role in the victory for the Union. Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a hero to African Americans all around the world.
CIA
The CIA is the main spy company in the United States of America. It stands for Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA was founded in 1949. It was originally known as the Office of Strategic Services. The CIA is known best today for its ability to catch terrorists in Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad. They also try to assassinate important fugitives like Osama Bin Laden. The CIA is an integral part of protecting the United States and the rest of the world.
Lydia Darragh
Lydia Darragh was born in 1729, in Dublin, Ireland. As Lydia grew older she became a teacher. After she became a teacher, she moved to Philadelphia to become a nurse. Lydia Darragh was not a spy for long, but when she was, she played a key part in the war. The British Headquarters were across from Darragh’s house in British occupied Philadelphia. She listened through their keyhole and learned that they were to attack George Washington and his troops in two nights at Whitemarsh. She told Washington’s assistants and the plot was foiled. So, for that reason Lydia Darragh is considered to have saved George Washington’s life.
Sarah Edmonds
Sarah Edmonds was born in 1842. She was born in a town in Nova Scotia, but she then moved to Flint, Michigan. After spending some time in Flint, she moved to Washington to train to become a spy. Because she was in Washington DC, she was going to be a spy for the Union Army of the north. When she went to the south she took on the role of a man named Frank Thompson. She learned about how many troops they had and, the fact that they didn’t have many cannons but they painted logs, black, that from afar looked like cannons. Sarah Edmonds was an integral part of the Union victory.
FBI
The FBI is the head of investigations in the United States of America. The FBI also does work outside of the country like in Iraq and Afghanistan. The FBI is mainly for investigation, but they also do some spy work. For example, if someone is breaking the law, the FBI will set up a dirty car outside the person’s house and monitor them. The FBI will also disguise themselves as someone else and get a job at the place where the person is breaking the law. When they are there, they will take notes on what the person is doing. Then they will catch the person just like in the spy movies.
Rose Greenhow
Rose Greenhow was born in a town called Port Tobacco, Maryland. Rose Greenhow was born in 1817. Rose Greenhow, unlike most of the spies I have been talking about was working for the confederate states. When it was suspected that she was a spy, she was imprisoned by the Union. But, while she was there she, was somehow able to continue to get information out to the southern states. After getting out of jail, she went to Europe in 1864, where she suddenly died.
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut. He was a school teacher when the Revolution broke out. He was given the duty of an officer in the Connecticut militia. While he was an officer his job was to disguise himself. His disguise that he used was to be a schoolmaster. The place he went to was Long Island, New York, which was part of the British Colony. Because he was inexperienced, he told a British man of his disguise and was captured and hanged. His dying words were “I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country”. This is probably one of the saddest quotes I have ever heard.
Julius Rosenberg
Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12th, 1918 in New York City. In 1939 he graduated from NYU with an electrical engineering degree. It was then, that he met Ethel Greenglass, his future wife. In 1945 he became a civilian inspector for the US Army but was dismissed because it was thought that he was a member of the communist party. In 1949 a British nuclear physicist was arrested for spying on the UK for the USSR. He singled out Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as being spies. In 1950 they were both sentenced to death for treason and were executed. Many believe that it was all a conspiracy because Julius Rosenberg was Jewish.
Noor Khan
Noor Khan was a member of the French resistance. Noor was able to get key information about the Germans by being a nurse. Every once in a while, she would escape to a new safe house in France with her resistance. When she was in the safe houses, she would go by the name of Madeline. When she would escape to these houses, it would be because she was trying to run away from the Gestapo. Unfortunately, she was captured by the SS and was killed by the Gestapo.
Madame La Force
Madame la Force was a French lady who went to the US every now and then. Most slaves were spies because they were so desperate for the Union to win that they would do everything in their power to help. Madame La Force helped sneak slaves onto ships and send them down to the south to spy on the confederacy. Madame La Force would also flirt with confederacy people and let the black spies steal their weapons while she was flirting. Madame La Force was a key distraction and was a major reason why the Union was able to win the Civil war.
Mata Hari
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born on August 7, 1886. Her stage name was Mata Hari and she worked as a nude dancer. Mata Hari was from the Netherlands, which was a neutral country in WWI. In this war Mata Hari worked as a spy for both the French and the Germans. She used her seductive abilities from being a dancer on both the people from the German side and from the French side. To get to a place like France without going near the war, she would go from Holland to Spain, to France. Eventually, it was discovered of what Mata Hari was doing and she was captured. She was later executed on October 15, 1917 in the heart of the war.
Nuclear Weapons spies
From the 1940’s to today, there has been a major problem with spies trying to get access to nuclear weapons. In the 1940’s a British man sold nuclear secrets, to their then “allies” the USSR. Then the countries started opposing communism and then there became a threat that the USSR would bomb the UK and the US. There was a major nuclear standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. In 1962, the head of the USSR set up an army base in Cuba, which is so close to Florida. This caused great tension between JFK and the president of the USSR. This all happened because one spy gave information to a bad country about nuclear weapons.
Steven O’Neal
Steven O’Neal was born on October 23, 1839 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a slave for a man named Abraham Jackson, but was freed in 1857. When, he was freed he moved up to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While he was there he was given the assignment of being a spy. He was to go and get secrets from the Confederacy and give them to the Union. He found out many things like where the big assaults were going to be and how much guns and ammo they had. Steven O’Neal was a vital part of the victory for the Union.
Pauline Cushman
Pauline Cushman was born on June 10, 1833 in New Orleans. When she was very young she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pauline Cushman started off her life as an actress, but then she became a spy for the Union. In Union occupied, Louisville, Pauline Cushman was offered $300 by two confederate soldiers to give a toast to Jefferson Davis (confederate leader). She did so and was fired by the Union man who ran the theatre. She then began following Confederate soldiers around because she said she was looking for her brother. She then became a trusted member and was able to pass on loads of information to the Union.
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is a more correct term for spying. There are 3 definitions in the dictionary. The first one is, “an inspection or exploration of an area for military needs”. The 2nd definition is, “ to gain evidence to use against an enemy”. The 3rd and final definition is, “to sneak around an area for help with a matter”. In my opinion the one that is in the best context for this project is the first definition. I feel this way because most of the people I have been talking about like Pauline Cushman because she spied on the confederacy. Reconnaissance is a very interesting word.
Stella Goldschlag
Stella Goldschlag is by far the worst Benedict Arnold of all time. Stella was born in 1923 in the Nazi homeland of Germany. She was a Jewish person, who had all of the Aryan traits and hated her Jewish identity. She agreed to a deal with the Gestapo that she would hunt Jews and not be tortured. Her scheme was to find them and tell them she would take them to a synagogue and then bring them to the Gestapo. Stella Goldschlag was known for her lying. After the war, she was sentenced to 10 years of hard labour by the Soviets. When she was released from jail she became a professional anti- Semitist.
Ann Trotter
Ann Trotter was born in Liverpool in 1742. In 1761 she moved to the colony of Virginia. Her husband was a soldier who died in a war with the Indians. This changed everything for Trotter and she abandoned her son Will and became a spy. She disguised herself as a native and was able to learn their secrets, such as weapons. Anne Trotter is most famous for founding West. In 1791 she rode across 100 miles of wilderness to Fort Lee to give the troops ammunition to fight off the Indians. That is the reason why the highly skilled Ann Trotter is credited with having founded the beautiful state of West Virginia.
Undercover
One of the common traits of a spy is to go undercover. They must do this so they can stay away from danger. By this I mean that they will not be killed by their countries enemy because they think that the spy is their ally. This allows them to relay their info through the place where a battle is. It is a very effective way of getting information back to a place. It is common in many movies that a spy will go undercover. An example of such movies are Agent Cody Banks 2 and Team America World Police. In these movies the characters go undercover to stop terrorism. I think going undercover is the best part of being a spy.
Virginia Hall
Virginia Hall was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1906. In 1931 Hall was appointed to the staff of the United States embassy to Poland. In 1942 after the Nazis conquered France, she began to work with the French resistance. Unfortunately, by the end of they year the Nazis became suspicious of her and she had to leave the country to avoid the Nazis. On March 21, 1944, Hall returned to France. The Gestapo became aware of her and she became known as the “lady with the limp”. In 1945, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross from Harry S. Truman. After that Hall went on to work for the CIA, which she retired from in 1966. She died in 1982.
X Ray goggles
X Ray goggles are really useful for many different things. There are several ways a person can find a bomb using these special goggles. Firstly, a person can find a bomb by looking through a terrorists vest. Secondly, a man could look through a briefcase with the goggles and find a bomb and stop an attack. X Ray goggles are probably the most well known spy weapon. This weapon is of common usage in the comic known as Spy Vs Spy. I think X Ray goggles are stupendous because they are what can save lives in places and it is how spies are able to hunt down terrorists.
