On this episode of "Expedition Files,"
in 1953, climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
are the first to summit Everest.
Or are they?
Now, climbers find a long-lost corpse
that may unlock the truth
behind who conquered the roof of the world.
Then, in 1897, one of the most extraordinary murder trials
in history, as crucial testimony is delivered by a ghost.
We explore the true story of this supernatural case.
[sinister music playing]
[Josh] And Mata Hari was one of the most famous women
in the world before she was executed as a spy
during World War I.
Was this iconic femme fatale really a double agent?
In the corridors of time
are mysteries that defy explanation.
Now I'm traveling through history itself
on a search for the truth.
New evidence.
Shocking answers.
I'm Josh Gates.
And these
are my "Expedition Files."
When I was a little kid, one of my favorite games to play
with my friends was telephone. You know how it goes.
You'd whisper a sentence like Mrs. Lawrence teaches math
and blah blah blah, and by the time it gets
whispered around in a circle and gets back to you,
well, let's just say that Mrs. Lawrence
would not be happy.
And that's the thing with some mysteries,
they tend to take on a life of their own.
Tonight, we look at three such tales.
All of them appear extraordinary,
but we have to ask ourselves
a very important question.
What's true and what's been lost in translation?
We begin on June 8, 1924,
here at almost the highest point on Earth.
This is Everest in the heart of the Himalayas.
And these two men are striving to become the first people
to ever reach the summit, British mountaineers
George Mallory and Sandy Irvine.
But just hours from now, they will both vanish.
Three decades later, Everest will finally be
officially conquered by another duo,
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
But is it possible that the history books
will get it wrong?
Could these two men, Mallory and Irvine, have died
not before, but after reaching the world's tallest peak?
A chilling new discovery at the roof of the world
may unlock the truth behind the mystery.
By the early 20th century, many of the world's
highest peaks have already been summited,
but Everest remains out of reach.
The tallest mountain on Earth towers at 29,031 feet,
or 20 Empire State Buildings.
Located along the border of Nepal and Tibet
in the Himalayas, a 1,500-mile stretch
of rugged mountain range spanning from India to Pakistan,
the peak's remoteness only adds to its allure.
In 1921, no one has dared a serious attempt,
but that's about to change.
[epic music playing]
[Josh] After the horrors of World War I,
Britain is looking for a symbolic achievement
to reclaim national pride.
Climbing Everest becomes a kind of noble quest,
especially for a generation traumatized by trench warfare.
Enter British veteran Lieutenant George Mallory.
Born in 1886, this son of a clergyman is
introduced to climbing by a schoolmaster
at Winchester College and quickly becomes obsessed.
During World War I, he survives the Battle of the Somme,
one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history,
where over a million men were killed or wounded.
[shooting and explosions]
Forward!
[Josh] When the fighting stops, Mallory's drive to climb
only increases, a way to rise, quite literally,
from the chaos of war.
Mallory turns his attention to Everest,
joining the 1921 reconnaissance expedition
to chart a path up the mountain's northern face.
In 1922, he returns and takes part in two
bold summit attempts.
On the second trek, an avalanche kills
seven of the team's porters, Sherpa guides
indigenous to the region.
It's the first ever recorded deaths on Everest,
and a tragedy Mallory never forgets.
But his dream to summit the mountain remains resolute.
In 1924, the 37-year-old Mallory
gets another shot at Everest.
This time his team includes 22-year-old Oxford student
Andrew Sandy Irvine, a star athlete
and rowing champion with a mind for machines
and a taste for adventure.
What Irvine lacked in mountaineering experience,
he more than makes up for in engineering genius.
He gets the expedition's temperamental oxygen systems
to work effectively.
That's vital for survival above 26,000 feet,
where the air holds just a third of the oxygen
found at sea level.
At those heights, Everest doesn't just challenge you,
it actively tries to kill you, earning this unforgiving
elevation its grim nickname, the Death Zone.
The team of eight British climbers, their support staff,
and a network of more than 100 local porters
establish base camp at the Rongbuk Glacier
around 16,500 feet.
From there, they ascend the north face
of Everest in stages.
Camps one, two, three, four, each one perched higher.
The air thinner, the stakes deadlier.
They push upward to camp five, just above 25,000 feet,
4,000 feet from the summit.
No other climbers have ever reached this spot.
Now suffering the effects of extreme altitude,
every step feels like a marathon.
Then comes camp six, a tiny ledge perched at 27,000 feet.
This is the last stop before their hardest obstacle,
three sections known as Step One, Step Two,
and Step Three,
a series of sheer rock faces
that lead directly to the summit.
On June 8th, 1924, Mallory and Irvine begin
their fateful final climb less than a half a mile
from the peak.
They suit up, each carrying oxygen canisters that add
30 pounds of additional weight to their already
cumbersome load.
They're now each hauling around 80 pounds of gear.
Amongst that equipment is a Kodak vest pocket camera.
It's crucial for documenting the summit.
Now, it's up to Mallory and Irvine to bring back
the first photographic view from the top of the world.
Mallory also carries a photograph of his wife, Ruth.
He's promised to leave it at the summit,
a romantic tribute where the earth and heavens meet.
And so they climb.
[dramatic anticipation music playing]
[Josh] At 12:50 PM, Noel Odell, stationed near Camp Five,
scans the upper ridge.
He sees two black specks moving together,
ascending the second step, a prominent rock feature
on the northeast ridge at approximately 28,200 feet,
less than 1,000 feet from the summit.
But then the clouds close in and the view vanishes,
and with it, so do the climbers.
Hours pass with no sign of Mallory or Irvine.
The team launches an all-out rescue mission.
After two days of searching, the rapidly worsening weather
forces the expedition to turn back.
Mallory and Irvine are declared dead on the mountain.
Back in England, the grief is overwhelming.
Britain is in mourning for their fallen heroes.
Mallory had become a symbol of post-war resilience,
of everything the nation hoped to be again.
At the Mallory home, the loss cuts deep.
Ruth is left to raise their three children alone.
At Sandy Irvine's house, the family leaves a light on
and the door unlocked, just in case he finds his way home.
But an Everest-sized question looms like a storm cloud.
Before they died, did Mallory and Irvine succeed
in their quest and summit Mount Everest?
The one thing that could prove it is the remains
of the climbers themselves, not least because those remains
should include the Kodak camera the pair was carrying.
If they summited, it may contain a photo
of them at the peak.
This film could settle one of the greatest questions
in the history of exploration, but Everest fiercely
guards its secrets.
For the next decade, no sign of the climbers is found,
but then, in 1933, there's a breakthrough.
A British expedition stumbles across an ice axe in the snow
at 27,700 feet, just below the first step.
It's later identified as belonging to Irvine.
The discovery offers a glimmer of hope,
yet no other trace of the duo is uncovered.
And the 1933 expedition also fails to summit,
a feat that will remain out of reach
for another two decades.
It isn't until 1953, 29 years after Mallory
and Irvine disappeared, that Tenzing Norgay,
a Sherpa climber from Nepal, and Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper
turned mountaineer from New Zealand,
become the first to officially stand on the summit of Everest.
[reporter] 35 miles from Kathmandu, capital of Nepal,
Hillary and Tenzing were welcomed and congratulated
by their fellow members of the expedition.
Two unassuming men had climbed the 29,000-foot monarch
of the Himalayas.
[camera clicks]
It is heralded as one of the greatest
human accomplishments of all time.
To pull it off, Norgay and Hillary scaled
Everest from the mountain's south face in Nepal.
Mallory and Irvine had attempted their ascent
decades earlier from the much more exposed
north face on the Tibetan side.
Did Mallory and Irvine reach the top first and do it
via an even more challenging route?
There's still no proof.
Then, in 1991, a startling new lead emerges.
An oxygen canister with the markings of Mallory
and Irvine's expedition is found close to 28,000 feet,
near where the ice axe was previously discovered.
In 1999, an American expedition led by legendary mountaineer
Conrad Anker sets out to find
Mallory and Irvine's bodies at last.
On the Tibetan side below the mountain's north face,
they discover a body preserved by decades of cold and ice.
They reach inside the frozen clothing
and find something jaw-dropping, a name tag reading
George Mallory.
After 75 years, one of history's greatest
missing explorers had been found.
But did this man summit Everest first?
And will his remains provide the answer?
[Josh] Near Mount Everest's unforgiving peak,
a staggering discovery is made, the body of George Mallory,
face down at 26,760 feet, 2,000 feet from the summit.
Seventy-five years after Mallory went missing,
he is finally found.
Historian Matt Breen has spent years analyzing the discovery.
The body of George Mallory had injuries consistent
with him attempting to stop himself
from falling down the mountain.
He had many broken bones, including an absolutely
shattered leg, which would have been consistent
with falling a long distance.
Also, he had an injury to his forehead
believed to be caused by his own ax.
And what happens with that is a person starts to go
down a slope, and they take their ax, they try to grab it
into the mountain, sort of get a bite to keep them
from going down.
The problem is, is if it falls, the axe can rebound,
and it can hit you right back in the forehead.
So the condition of Mallory's body
gave us a lot of answers.
[Josh] There's no sign of climbing partner Sandy Irvine,
and there's no sign of the Kodak camera that
could hold proof they summited, though some experts believe
Irvine would have been the one to carry it.
But there are other clues.
Mallory's dark snow goggles were found in his pocket,
a possible indication that the fall could have occurred
at night after the two had summited
and were descending down.
And the photo of Mallory's wife, Ruth,
the one he promised to leave at the top,
is nowhere to be found.
Was the photo left at the summit?
Then, in 2024, a full century after Mallory and Irvine
vanished into the clouds, Everest offers up more answers.
A team led by acclaimed climber and filmmaker Jimmy Chin
uncovers a haunting clue.
A single boot, still laced, containing a human foot
in a woolen sock.
Faded but legible, the name stitched
into the fabric reads A.C. Irvine.
After 100 years, Mallory's climbing partner
has been found, or at least part of him.
[Matt] What's believed to have happened is that they fell together,
the rope snapping, and both of them
going down the mountain.
Mallory's body ended up lodged not that far
from where they had fallen.
But Irvine's went down the mountain further,
and it landed at the Rongbuk Glacier.
A glacier is a living, breathing entity.
It moves all the time, very slowly, and it is like
a meat grinder.
Things go into it, and they just get churned
and churned, so his body was transported further and further
down the mountain, getting chewed up
and probably ripped apart along the way.
[Josh] With the discovery of Irvine's body so far from the summit,
Breen and other experts argue Mallory and Irvine must have
aborted their attempt, turning back somewhere
around the Second step,
the penultimate sheer rock face below the summit.
The Second Step is the most difficult part of the climb
to the summit, and that is because it is a sheer
vertical climb.
It is really, really hard.
It's so difficult that it was not actually climbed until 1960.
In 1924, the gear was rudimentary at best.
Could they have done that part of the climb?
It's possible, but probably unlikely.
It is really at the edge of George Mallory's ability
as a climber.
In my opinion, I don't think they reached
the summit of Everest.
It's a tragedy, without question,
but what these men did is an inspiration.
It is the willingness to try to do great things.
To many, the position of both bodies closes the case.
But others continue to argue that the men may have
achieved their goal, falling on their way
back from the summit.
After all, Mallory's daytime goggles were discovered
tucked in his pocket.
And there's that missing photo of his wife that he intended
to leave at the top.
And speaking of photos, there's also whatever images
were snapped on their missing camera.
The Kodak company has even issued special instructions
for processing the film in case it's ever found,
which means that somewhere near Everest's icy peak,
a definitive answer to the world's
coldest cliffhanger is just waiting to be developed.
[epic music playing]
We descend from the heights of Mount Everest
to the valleys of Appalachia to discover a somehow
even more haunting mystery.
It's 1897, and I'm in a small country farmhouse
in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.
It's a day of sorrow, a wake for a young woman gone
much too soon.
Zona Shue, just 23 years old, died suddenly.
Heart failure, they say.
At the coffin stands Zona's husband, Trout,
refusing to leave her side.
But not everyone is convinced his sorrow is sincere.
And soon, a chilling accusation surfaces, not from a witness,
but from beyond the grave.
What follows is arguably the most sensational
murder trial in America's history,
because the prosecution's star witness will be none other
than a ghost.
Is this really a case of supernatural justice,
or is there a much more earthly explanation?
[banjo playing]
[Josh] This story of the Greenbrier ghost,
as it will come to be known, begins three months earlier
in October, 1896.
Zona Heaster is a beautiful young woman with dreams
of getting married and starting a family.
Enter 35-year-old Erasmus "Trout" Shue.
A blacksmith by trade,
the ruggedly handsome Trout is hard to miss.
Zona falls for him fast, and the feeling is mutual.
Despite her mother's objections, Zona and Trout elope
after a whirlwind courtship.
[Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" playing]
[Josh] For Zona, her new life feels like a dream come true.
The newlyweds settle into a house not far
from the blacksmith shop.
From the outside, everything appears to be perfect,
until tragedy strikes.
On January 22, 1897,
three months into their marriage,
Zona has apparently fallen ill.
Trout must go to work and asks a neighbor, Andy Jones,
to check in on Zona and see if she anything from the market.
But upon approaching the house,
Andy spots a trail of blood on the steps.
[ominous music playing]
[gasp]
[Josh] Inside, sprawled on the floor, is Zona Shue, dead.
[Andy] Please, help!
By the time the town doctor, George Knapp,
arrives at the Shue house, Trout has already rushed home.
The doctor finds Trout on the bed,
cradling his dead wife's head.
Knapp examines Zona as closely as the grieving husband
will allow,
determining the cause of death to be heart failure,
or what he terms an everlasting faint.
At the wake, Trout appears grief-stricken,
but people notice something strange.
He refuses to leave the coffin unattended and keeps propping
Zona's head up with a folded bedsheet.
Trout also prevents Zona's own mother, Mary Jane,
from getting too close to the coffin.
[somber music playing]
[Josh] From the start, Mary Jane felt uneasy
about her daughter's relationship to Trout.
Not only had they eloped, but even after,
she had never been invited into the newlyweds' home.
And now her daughter is dead, and the only thing
this grieving mother can do is pray for answers.
And after a few nights of intense pleading
with the heavens, Mary Jane apparently gets her wish.
She claims a darkened figure appears to her,
a figure that turns out to be her daughter, Zona,
a vision from beyond the grave.
But there's something even more shocking
than the appearance of Zona's ghost.
Mary Jane says Zona reveals the unthinkable,
that she was killed by her husband, Trout,
in a violent fit of rage.
So, Mary Jane contacts Greenbrier County Prosecutor
John Preston and asks him to open an investigation
into the potential murder of her daughter.
Preston pays a visit to Dr. George Knapp,
hoping to get clarity on Zona's mysterious death.
Though the official record lists natural causes,
Dr. Knapp reveals a troubling detail.
Trout had refused to let him fully examine the body.
Concerned, the prosecutor orders Zona's body
exhumed for an autopsy.
-[mysterious music playing] -[crows cawing]
[Josh] When Dr. Knapp carries it out, he uncovers a chilling truth.
Zona's neck was broken. She had been strangled.
Trout is swiftly arrested and charged
with murdering his wife.
Five months later, on June 30th, 1897, the case goes to trial.
The judge hears the evidence against Trout, how he prevented
the original examination of the body,
potentially covering up injuries he was responsible for.
Witnesses follow, telling suspicious stories
about Trout's controlling, erratic behavior.
Then, the prosecutor drops a bombshell.
Not only has Trout been married twice before,
but his second wife also died under suspicious circumstances.
It turns out that when Trout was fixing the roof
of their home, a brick slipped from his hand and fell
right on top of his second wife's head.
What are the chances?
And with that, the stage is set for the dramatic arrival
of Zona's mother, Mary Jane.
I know who the killer is, and he is in this room
right now.
[Josh] She does something totally unprecedented
in an American court of law, testifying her daughter's ghost
convinced her of Trout's guilt.
Trout takes the stand in his own defense,
denying everything and swearing his innocence.
It doesn't work.
After only an hour and 10 minutes of deliberation,
the jury finds Trout guilty of first-degree murder.
He is sentenced to life in prison,
where he dies three years later.
Today, over a century on, the story of the Greenbrier
ghost remains the only case in U.S. history
where testimony from a supposed spirit
helped secure a murder conviction.
Now we can reveal the true story
behind this so-called paranormal witness.
According to legend, a young woman's spirit returns
from beyond the grave to name her killer,
leading to one of the most unforgettable convictions
in criminal history.
But what's the truth behind the ghost story?
[Molly] During the trial, Mary Jane insisted that this ghost
was in front of her and it was talking to her,
and it was telling her all the details about the murder.
Well, as it happens, the day that the Greenbrier
Independent Newspaper published Zona's obituary,
there was also a story right there on the front page
about an Australian man who had solved a murder
with the help of a ghost.
A man in New South Wales told authorities
he claimed to see the ghost of a missing man,
which led police to the location of the body.
In reality, he may have been an accomplice to the crime
and used the ghost story to avoid implicating himself.
[Molly] Mary Jane, Zona's mother, quite possibly saw that story,
and it just became part of her subconscious.
And it probably planted the seed of this idea
of Zona's ghost coming to her.
She had to know something terrible had happened.
And when she put it all together,
Trout's suspicious behavior at the funeral,
his unwillingness to let the doctor examine her body...
Moms know.
They know when something's wrong, and they have
to protect their children.
Even if it's too late to save her life,
she had to protect her memory.
Was this a true case of ghostly confession,
a grief-induced hallucination, or perhaps something
even more intentional?
A grieving mother who would do anything for her daughter,
including spinning a mesmerizing ghost story
to see justice served.
Today, a historical marker in West Virginia
commemorates the ordeal,
affirming the spectral evidence, which ensures that the legend
of the Greenbrier ghost will live on forever.
It's dawn, October 15th, 1917, just east of Paris,
and a woman is being led before a firing squad.
She stands tall, facing her fate with a dignity
few could summon, because this is Mata Hari,
and she is nothing short of a global sensation.
She is famous for being an exotic dancer
and a courtesan, catering to some of the most influential
and wealthy men in Europe.
But she's also something else, a spy.
Branded a double agent, the French say she passed
secrets to the Germans, an act which has
sealed her fate.
A soldier offers her a blindfold,
but she refuses.
In moments, she will die for her crimes.
But is she actually guilty?
A century later, new information will finally
unveil the truth behind the woman
who seduced the world.
Born on August 7th, 1876, in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden,
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born
into a life of privilege.
Her father, a wealthy hat maker, enrolls his daughter
in the finest schools, where she learns multiple languages
and spoils her with lavish gifts.
But in 1891, when Margaretha is 15,
the fairy tale is shattered.
Her mother suddenly dies from tuberculosis.
Her father goes bankrupt and abandons the family.
By the age of 18, she finds herself
alone in the world.
She answers a newspaper ad from a wealthy army officer
named Rudolf MacLeod.
Yes, back then, instead of swiping right,
you could simply flip through these spouse-wanted ads.
They quickly marry, move to the Dutch East Indies,
and have two children, Norman and Louise.
But her husband turns out to be a violent drunk and unfaithful.
And when their young son tragically dies in 1899,
he takes their daughter and refuses to give Margaretha
a cent of his money.
But showing a strength that will define the rest of her life,
she uses her charm and beauty to begin again.
It's March 13th, 1905.
And the who's-who of Paris have packed into the prestigious
Art Institute, the Musée Guimet, for a very exotic performance.
The museum's library has been adorned with flowers
to give the appearance of a Hindu temple.
And, as the lights dim, the crowd is transfixed
by the reinvented Margaretha, who takes the stage.
[soft foreign music playing]
[crowd applauds]
[Josh] Inspired by her time in the Dutch East Indies,
she calls herself Mata Hari,
meaning, "Eye of the day" in Indonesian.
She transfixes audiences with her exotic dancing,
uniquely incorporating elements of Southeast Asian
and Indian traditions.
Barefoot, with bejeweled transparent costumes
that reveal more than they conceal,
she becomes an instant sensation.
Within the next few years, Mata Hari graces
all the iconic European stages and associates with some
of the most powerful men of her day,
including an alleged entanglement
with German Crown Prince Wilhelm.
At the height of her fame, Mata Hari is what we'd today
consider a pop star influencer, her name appearing
on everything from cigarettes and liquors to luxury products.
Mata lives large.
She stays at the most exclusive hotels,
dines at the finest restaurants,
and dresses in the trendiest fashions.
But this lavish lifestyle takes a toll on her finances,
and she's in constant need of money.
Wealthy suitors, especially high-ranking officers
and noblemen, practically line up
for a chance to support her in exchange for, well,
let's just say some quality alone time.
[soft French song slowly distorts]
[Josh] In the summer of 1914, however,
the world completely unravels.
On August 3rd, Germany declares war on France
and World War I begins.
Mata Hari flees to a neutral country,
her native Netherlands.
[knocking]
[Josh] One night, she receives
an unexpected visitor,
Karl Kroemer, the German consul in Amsterdam.
He offers her 20,000 francs, about 60 grand today.
But he doesn't want companionship.
Recognizing Mata Hari's unique skills,
her fluency in several languages,
her ability to charm powerful men,
and her access to high-ranking officers,
he wants Mata Hari to use her connections and sex appeal
to spy on the French for Germany.
And he reportedly provides her with invisible ink
to pass messages undetected.
A secret pact is made, one that will ultimately lead
to her death.
But whether Mata Hari truly aided the Germans
or played both sides in a deadly game of espionage
remains one of history's most tantalizing mysteries.
Until now.
[Josh] With World War I raging and her funds running low,
renowned beauty Mata Hari is at a crossroads.
She's offered a tempting deal to spy for Germany
in exchange for a fat payday.
She allegedly accepts, but according to her,
never intends to do any actual spying.
[mysterious music playing]
[Josh] Eventually, Mata Hari leaves Amsterdam
and returns to France.
She meets Captain Vladimir De Masloff,
a handsome Russian pilot with whom she falls in love.
Their relationship deepens, and in the summer of 1916,
when Masloff is wounded near the front,
Mata Hari requests permission to visit him.
But she needs special clearance from France to travel there.
Enter Captain Georges Ladoux, head of French intelligence.
He makes Mata Hari an unexpected offer...
become a spy for France, and he will grant her
the clearance she needs to visit her Russian lover.
She agrees, but only for a massive payout,
one million francs, or more than $3 million today.
Ladoux accepts and tells her she'll get the money
once she delivers valuable intelligence.
And of course, all the while, she keeps her lips sealed
about her similar agreement to spy for Germany.
So Mata Hari reportedly embarks on a mission to spy
on the Germans for the French,
all the while, according to Mata Hari,
not spying on the French for the Germans.
Confusing.
She heads to Madrid, where she seduces
a high-ranking German official named Arnold Kalle.
Kalle divulges information which Mata Hari immediately
sends back to Captain Ladoux in France.
Mission accomplished, or so she thinks.
She returns to Paris expecting a hero's welcome,
but receives quite the opposite.
On February 13th, 1917, she is arrested by the French
and charged as a German spy.
But how did the French find out about her previous agreement?
Well, after his rendezvous with Mata Hari in Madrid,
Major Arnold Kalle fires off
a series of coded telegrams to Germany.
The French intercept and decipher these messages,
in which Kalle names a female agent known as H21,
praising her for delivering French military secrets.
The French believe H21 is the code name for Mata Hari.
Her house of cards has come tumbling down.
On July 24th, five months after her arrest,
Mata Hari's trial begins.
Under examination, she admits to taking German money
in a deal to spy for them, but swears she never shared
anything of value.
She's also accused of having been given bottles
of invisible ink by the Germans to write secret messages,
but she denies it, claiming the liquid was a beauty product
from her cosmetics kit.
Prosecutors blame her for causing the deaths
of 50,000 French soldiers, but never name a single battle,
secret, or shred of proof to justify the accusation.
The trial lasts only two days, and a verdict is reached.
Mata Hari is found guilty of espionage as a German spy
and sentenced to death.
Which brings us to October 15th.
Mata Hari is about to be executed by firing squad.
But was she truly a treacherous double-agent
responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands,
or simply a scapegoat caught in the crossfire
of politics and war?
An incredible discovery of long-lost
historical documents may finally answer the question.
-[gunshots blast] -[crows cawing]
As we have seen tonight, many great stories live
at the crossroads of fact and folklore.
For centuries, Napoleon Bonaparte has been
mocked as the archetype of the short man with a big ego.
But it turns out history got it wrong.
Napoleon stood about 5'2".
Sounds small, but here's the thing.
Historically, a French foot is 13, not 12 inches,
translating to roughly 5'6", in English measurements,
average height for men in the early 1800s.
When you combine this measurement confusion
with British propaganda, particularly that
of cartoonist James Gillray, Napoleon was cut down to size.
Well, less than size, to be exact.
And thus, the Napoleon complex was born,
with Bonaparte himself saying of the caricatures
about his height, quote, "They did more
than all the armies of Europe to bring me down."
After Mata Hari was executed by the French
for allegedly being a German spy,
some argued the trial was a sham.
And for over a century, many have defended her innocence,
saying she never actually spied for the Germans,
even if she did take their money.
Now, Dr. Julie Wheelwright, journalist and author,
has uncovered a bombshell hidden in formerly top-secret
British Army files.
[Julie] There's been new evidence that has come out
of Great Britain, including a telegram
with information which was sent in December 1916,
which I don't believe the French had,
because it doesn't show up during Mata Hari's trial.
And they have been sitting in the archives,
but they weren't indexed until recently.
I got a tip from a German historian in Spain,
and he said, "Can you go and look at these?"
[Josh] The British files contained the secret messages
of German Major Kalle.
These were the same messages that apparently outed
Mata Hari to the French as German agent H21.
Defenders of Mata Hari have long claimed
that Major Kalle knew that messages would be
intercepted and so he set her up as a false spy as revenge
for her working for the French.
They say he purposefully used a code that he already knew
the Allies had cracked so that Mata Hari
would be discovered and made a scapegoat.
But actually it turns out that that's not true
because if you look at the deciphered telegrams
at the National Archives here in the UK,
it's quite clear that Kalle continued using that same code
before and after he was sending the telegrams
that relate to Agent H21.
So that theory is kind of out of the window.
According to this version of events,
the telegrams weren't a frame job.
They were genuine attempts to funnel French secrets
straight to Germany, meaning despite her denials,
Mata Hari actually was a German spy after all.
If so, what secrets did she actually
share with the Germans?
[Julie] On the 14th of December, 1916, Kalle sends a telegram
to Berlin, which is to the German
intelligence services headquarters.
And in it, he conveys the information
that Mata Hari had given him about these two double agents.
When I first started looking into this story,
I believed that Mata Hari was innocent.
But what you finally have is really concrete,
definitive proof that Mata Hari was not only working
for the Germans, but it suggests that there's a real intention
for her to pass on hard evidence to the Germans.
And that really kind of blows out of the water
this idea of her innocence.
After years of debate, Dr. Wheelwright is now
convinced Mata Hari really was guilty of being a double agent.
But consider this.
The French never had this crucial evidence
we have today, meaning they condemned her
without knowing the full truth.
So, why did they do it?
She's the antithesis of what French women should be
at that time. She's divorced.
She also, you know, performed naked on the stage.
There's no way that a French court is going
to show her any mercy.
And this trial also takes place at a time when things are
going very badly for the French on the Western Front.
So to be able to point the finger at this German spy,
caught red-handed, I mean, it was that kind of mentality
with which they were able to convict her.
Even though they didn't have the proof, she was
an absolute ideal scapegoat, and no one was gonna
step forward to defend her, and indeed they didn't.
To a war-weary France, Mata Hari was
the perfect villain, exotic, seductive, and mysterious.
In the end, it wasn't just her mixed loyalties
that doomed her as much as what she symbolized,
a scandalous woman playing by her own rules.
And while the verdict that she was a double agent
now appears more certain, it only adds to her mystique
and her hypnotic hold on our imagination,
just as she would have wanted.
I'm Josh Gates.
I'll see you on the next expedition.