Hall of Mirrors: Virginia Hall—America’s Greatest Spy of WWII
In World War II France, she went by the name of Marie. Or Brigitte. Or a half other names. Some saw her as a middle-aged newspaper reporter. To others, she was a doddering old woman. To the Nazis, she was an elusive enemy, “The Lady Who Limps.” Her real name was Virginia Hall. She had a wooden leg she nicknamed “Cuthbert,” and she was a spy. As the Allies’ first agent to live behind the lines in Vichy France, she organized resistance groups, directed sabotage operations. Nazi wanted posters called her, “The most dangerous Allied agent.” She survived suicide missions and became the only civilian woman of the war to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. This is the story of Virginia Hall, based on hundreds of formerly classified documents, but told in first person, as Virginia would have told her own story—how she courageously broke through the barriers of physical limitation and gender discrimination to become America’s Greatest Spy of WWII.
To see photos and learn more about Virginia's life of espionage, click here: Virginia Hall blog.
REVIEWS
Virginia Hall's Escape Across the Pyrenees Mountains
In the winter of 1942, the Allies' first female resident spy in France, Virginia Hall, was discovered by Gestapo Chief Klaus Barbie—"The Butcher of Lyon." Hall's only avenue of escape was across the rugged Pyrenees mountains. For three days and over 50 miles Hall dragged her prosthetic limb, nicknamed "Cuthbert," through deep snow and ice. My wife Janet and I discovered Virginia Hall's Freedom Trail in September 2017 and took this video of the mountains Virginia scaled to reach freedom in Spain. The video was taken on the Spanish side looking northeast into the town Mantet, in France.
Photo courtesy of Lorna Catling
Read and hear more about Hall of Mirrors:
“She was a legendary spy. He worked for three CIA directors. Now he’s writing a novel in her voice.”
—Washington Post
More about Virginia Hall
Studies in Intelligence: A Climb to Freedom By Craig Gralley
As a former analyst and writer for CIA, I’ve long been captivated by Virginia Hall’s heroic story. I traveled to France, walked in Virginia’s footsteps, and discovered her escape route over the rugged Pyrenees. My story, “A Climb to Freedom,”was featured in Studies in Intelligence—CIA’s premier journal for intelligence professionals.