List of Famous Spys

Anna Smith Strong of Setauket, New York was an American Patriot, and she may have been one of the only female members of the Culper Spy Ring during the American Revolution. Her perceived main contribution in the ring was to relay signals to a courier who ran smuggling and military missions for General George Washington. No information has been found concerning Anna's activities after the war other than that she and her husband, Selah Strong, lived quietly in Setauket for the rest of their lives. She died on August 12, 1812.

Marthe Richard, née Betenfeld was a prostitute and spy. She later became a politician and worked towards the closing of brothels in France in 1946.

Elizabeth Van Lew was an American abolitionist and philanthropist who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, better known as Tania or Tania the Guerrilla, was an Argentine-born East German communist revolutionary and spy who played a prominent role in the Cuban government after the Cuban Revolution and in various Latin American revolutionary movements. She fought alongside Marxist guerrillas under Che Guevara during the Bolivian Insurgency (1966–1967) where she was killed in an ambush by CIA-assisted Bolivian Army Rangers.

Salah Nasr served as head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate from 1957 to 1967. He retired citing health reasons following Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Maria Petit was a Belgian woman who spied for the British Secret Service during World War I. She was executed in 1916, and became a Belgian national heroine after the war's end.

Frederick "Fred" Mayer was a German-born Jew who became an American spy as an OSS agent for the United States during World War II. He negotiated the surrender of the German Army in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1945 after he was captured in "Operation Greenup".

Ela Stein-Weissberger was a Czech holocaust survivor who became well known for her roles as a contemporary witness and intelligence officer for the Israel Defense Forces. In her later years she traveled the world discussing her time in concentration camps during World War II. She even wrote about her experiences in a book titled The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin.

Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe, born Stephany Julienne Richter was an Austrian princess by her marriage to the diplomat Prince Friedrich Franz von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, a member of the princely Hohenlohe family. She was born a commoner, allegedly of Jewish family background.

Alfred Redl was an Austrian military officer who rose to head the Evidenzbureau, the counter-intelligence wing of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army. Redl was one of the leading figures of pre-World War I espionage; his term in office was marked by radical innovations and the use of advanced technology to ensnare foreign spies.