Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence that may be disturbing for some audiences. Please take care in listening. This series is based on historical characters and real events. Some dialogue has been imagined for dramatic purposes when no primary source material is available. Virginia Hall's life had changed again. She was back and occupied France, but she was no longer working for the British. She was an agent of the O S S, America's first independent
intelligence agency, the forerunner of the CIA. Virginia was living in the Cone farmhouse of a respected resistance leader named Colonel Vessroau. She was spending the majority of her existence in disguise as an old woman, decked out in multiple wolf skirts, makeshift prosthetics, and dyed gray hair, all the while constantly walking by wanded posters stabled around town with
sketches of the limping lady. But this new life promised Virginia is something she'd been waiting for since she'd had a fleet France almost eighteen months earlier, the opportunity to take the fight directly to the Nazis. After making initial contact, Colonel Vesserot got straight to the point with his newest operative. I can't let to you, Virginia, but they've got no idea what's they're doing out there? They need the structure. The Mackie was a new faction of French, British and
German freedom fighters. I called them Ragtag in the last episode. They were scrappy guerrilla warfare fighters who could blend in with the French citizen ray and sabotage German trains, trucks and tanks using weapons air dropped by the British. What actions have they been engaged in the confection a run occasional ambushes on wandering German forces. But our sizes are growing too large. It's good we have more men joining the resistance, but when now in a difficult position, if
we're too large, we attract attention. We'll never built an army big enough to beat back the Nazis, and we don't have the food or weapons to supply our current stock. The sad truth as the matter is, we work better in the shadows, and more men shrink our cover. How many just over a hundred now, Split them up, arrange about twenty five in each group, trend them and them separately. I don't know anyone who could lead the other groups while I'm off training each other. Yes, Colonel you do.
I'm Steven Talty and from diversion. This is good Assassin's Season two. Being killed would be the easy part. Being tortured would be the hard part. Our intel suggests she is behind many of the prison bricks all over the country. She's dangerous, so sabotage plus a little espionage paramilitary operations make things blow up. The message for Captain Bobby, I believe I have found the nest of the Limping Lady.
Episode nine. Agents of Sabotage in May of Virginia had split Colonel Vessero's Macki faction into smaller groups of fighters, each allowing them to continue working in secret without attracting attention from the Nazis. The Makis were ecstatic to be led by a real secret agent, though they were slightly put off by the site of Virginia in disguise as an elderly limping woman. But as Brad Catling, Virginia's great nephew, reminded us when we spoke to him, she had a
commanding presence. I mean, if she walked in the room, you knew who was in charge immediately. The words that she spoke were inevitabilities. In fact, there was one member of the Marquis that had worked with Virginia who said that she was very strict and very authoritative, and there was one instance where this band said that he had taken a home, Eric Bolloxing from Virginia because he hadn't
done the right thing. In the beginning of her work with the Maquis, Virginia felt it necessary to keep up her cover. After all, she didn't know who could be a defector secretly giving information back to the enemy, and she didn't have time to interrogate them all. She was still haunted by Robert Alesh, the only man who had
successfully burned her back in November of forty two. Alesha was still out there somewhere, likely still looking for her, and that's another reason why she split the Maquis into smaller groups. She could communicate distinct information to each and if one group was compromised, the others wouldn't be Scouting out a rat among twenty five men is difficult, but much simpler than among a hundred. Virginia's first lesson was to teach the makee man how to hail parachute drops
for supplies. She gave them appropriate times for scheduling cloudy nights in the middle of the week, as well as a list of code words for specific items. Maggots was the name for anything related to explosive materials, dough used for demolition items, and yeast for incendiaries. Virginia also provided radio codes so they could schedule the drops when they needed them, but this came with a condition. Too many drops scheduled would signal locations and routines to the Nazis.
The drops were lifelines to the resistance. If they were abused, the Marquis would be obliterated in a few weeks and the Allies would lose one of their most important resistance groups. So Virginia counseled the Marquis on how to keep their actions under the radar literally. She also taught them how to suss out bad intel broadcast by undercovered Germans. By this point in time, the Nazis were doing everything in their power to sabotage the growing Marquis line. By late
May of forty four, French resistors were getting ANTSI. They've been told to expect the arrival of the Americans, who are planning their invasion of Europe, but had been given no confirmed timeline. The message was clear reinforcements were coming, but the time and day that was a different, ambiguous story, and every day of waiting saw the Nazis become more and more brutal as they upped their retaliations against the
French citizenry. The Germans were expecting the American invasion too, and they wanted to dwindle French forces as much as possible. Seeing this escalation, Virginia made the call that the Maki would halt all major operations for a time. She wanted to attack right before the Americans crossed the border. That way they could sabotage German equipment and give the Nazis less time to repair or restrategize. Richis London callings in
the European news service of the British postcast incorporation. Every evening, the resistance operatives would huddle around the radio and listen to broadcasts made by the BBC France. They were waiting for the message that the Americans had arrived and the invasion had begun, so most evenings were disappointing as the notice wasn't given the little call, the little call, the American novel lamp, because the American girls lacrobello for the few.
All the truth direct me who. Of course, the English didn't rule the airways alone. During this period, there was another voice broadcasting, and she was taunting the Allied forces from the safety of Berlin. I left on the side of profit her work here. I'm not on the side of Aldabelt and his Jewish fairness and his British fairness, because Anton brought up to be one under decent American.
There of everything Americans constable thing, concerts of our enemies and the elomy complicie to those people who are taking against Germany today and include angels ling in the highly against America town. Her name was access Sally, and her goals were simple, to infuriate and demoralize the American troops who were waiting to invade. She had tried time and time again to become an actress of Summary now and
on Broadway, and fails every time. That's Richard Lucas. He wrote access Sally, The American Voice of Nazi Germany, the first biography of Mildred Giller's also known as access Sally Gillers was born in the United States but moved to Germany in the nineteen thirties and the hopes of finding fame. She was just languishing until she got to Germany. She found that she was instead of at the bottom, she was near the top, mixing with people who had some
influence in the German film industry. She was also determined to be a success at any cost. In y Geller's got a job at the German State Radio Corporation as a broadcaster for Reich Radio. She would speak directly to American soldiers fighting abroad and their sweethearts back home, and she would say, I'm speaking to the women of a miracle, the women of America. Don't you wish that you had your your husband's home now? Instead they're off fighting for
the Jewish and the British. She would talk to the American fighting and she would insinuate that their wives and sweethearts were fooling around behind their back with the fore ASTs. Her broadcasts became extremely popular. I think they are popular because of the music and because she was playing jazz, which was illegal in Germany. She was playing things that no other person on Berlin radio was able to play, and it was immensely popular with most of the soldiers said,
we never paid any attention to the political content. We just listened to the music. And it was kind of a joke too. Because Geller's remained in the American Citizen, she was tried as a trader after the war. She was discovered because she couldn't bear to part with the tape recordings of her broadcasts. A lot of it was her ego, her arrogance, her overwhelming desire to be remembered. At the end of the trial, she was convicted. Our
only one count, and that counts treason. Finally, on June one, at nine o'clock at night, the broadcast of Resistance was waiting for arrived first year as the messengers country the Long Sobs of the Violet per formula long in Real, Long Off. It came in the form of a poem written by the famous nineteenth century French poet Paul Verlaine, the lines the long Sobs of the Violence of Bottom. We're broadcast by the BBC France channel. It was code
for the Americans are coming. The Resistance was instructed to remain by their radios and await another broadcast the second part of the poem that would signal the forty window in which the Americans would arrive. And then four days later, on June five, the second half of the poem came wound my heart with a monotonous languor. That was a signal D Day was coming. Ladies and gentlemen, we may
be approaching a fateful hour. All night long. Bullet must have been pouring in from Berlin claiming that D Day is here, claiming that the invasion of Western Europe has begun. Feet on the ground, on the ground, take cover, he walked days. On June, over a hundred and fifty thousand American, British and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France,
and led the invasion against the Germans. It was the beginning of the end for the Nazi occupation of France and is regarded as the turning of the tide for all of World War two. Quickly here the tides turning against the Nazis meant it was time for Virginia Hall to get her hands dirty again. Keep your voice down, speak only when required goo. While Allied troops were storming
the beaches of northwest France. Virginia instructed groups of the Maquis to set bombs on railroad tracks all around hone in the center of the country, laying the groundwork for the Allies to continue beating back the German forces. While the Marquis groups split up, Virginia herself decided to chaperone two frenchmen, Robert and Hiel, on their own excursion. They arrived at their designated location and around midnight and quickly
went to work. The tracks led out of Cone about ten miles into the nearby city of sure Pray, Laire, where the Nazis would need reinforcement if the Allied forces kept pushing forward. Packet in here under the steel niece is what needs to take the brunt of the explosion. I can't see anything. We need to light to know lights. There are patrols outlook out sail walk in my books. Take it off of me. I don't volunteer boats in
my lap. Just as Virginia and her men were placing the explosives on the tracks, a two man Nazi patrol strolled down the other side. We'll find out what happens after the break. Hi This is Stephen Talty, host of Good assassins. The folks that helped me bring you the show have just launched another podcast that we think you'll like.
It's called War Queens. Every episode of War Queens tells the story of a fearless, powerful female leader from history, from Elizabeth Tudor and Golden my Years, high stakes, wartime gambles, Twain goal is Queen Najinga's willingness to shed and occasionally drink blood, to defend her kingdom, to endear A Gandhi's war, to solve a refugee crisis, and so many more are These are super engrossing stories told by expert historians in
a way that's successible and interesting. It's great listening. Every episode of War Queens brings you the stories of extraordinary leaders, all of them legends. War Queens is out now. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, and wherever you listen to podcasts. It wasn't supposed to business cold, but supposed to yourself. Virginia and her two Makia operatives, Robert and Ngiel, rose as they watched two German patrol guards stroll their way down the train tracks.
They had just tied two packs of plastic explosives to the rails, and there was no time to remove that. If the Nazis saw them, there was no doubt the explosives would be discovered and the trio would be shot on site. We can shoot them now before they see us. If you shoot the noise, will you just bring more gods? It will give us time to run and run. Where do you plan to just lead them back to camp? They'll luck us down like dogs, do not shoot hid.
As the Nazis approached, Virginia appeared the worst. It was practically a certainty that they'd be seen and shot. But as the German soldiers got closer, she noticed posing to stumble against the brush. Their mutterings were nonsensical, and she realized they were drawn. Maybe they had a chance on to throw these when they done roll under that bush this way. One of the Germans stumbled, the other, catching him. In this brief window, Virginia tossed a rock, which clattered
on the ground behind the soldiers. As they turned, Virginia and her men managed to roll under nearby shrubbery covered by the leaves and the darkness. What was that? It's the Americans? The inision has started. The Nazis approached the area where Virginia and the others were hiding. Yeah, let him come. Uh the lit bullets just as well as the Roopers. They're going to see us. Don't shoot the shields. Wait do you see that? Just something? Don't uh give
I don't see anything place. You're not getting your promotion tonight. I'm ordne guy us made the Nazis didn't find them. Virginia let out a sigh of relief. Robert asked her if they should finish setting up the explosives. Virginia was adamant. How else do you expect to win this war? Virginia supervised Robert and Gil as they finished their work. They tied the pack of explosives to fog signals, two small breakable tubes that were glued to the top of the tracks.
The mechanism was a pretty simple one. Once the train rode over and crushed the signals, the plastic explosives would detonate under the track, derailing the train, warping the tracks and stopping the transport of valuable German supplies. The Marquis wanted to keep the Germans either in the skies, where they'd have to deal with American and British pilots or on foot, where they'd have to congregate in large groups in order to transport supplies. By sabotaging the trains, the
resistance could poke holes in major German movements. The next morning, Virginia awoke to good news. The Machi had sabotaged five separate rail tracks the night before, derailing four trains and obliterating the only feasible pathways for the Germans to move supplies and information around France. With the American invasion quickly advancing from the northwest, the Nazis would have no choice but to retreat. As the master mind, Virginia's operations helped
turn the tide of the war in France. She went on to become a major player in an astounding seventy one rail sabotages that followed, which in turn served to inspire even greater French resistance across the country. Allied armies
of Normandy pushed closer to Eich. Other immediate objectives the port of Cherbourg and the railway town of can Ten miles Inland, an American flying wedge of parachute troops and infantrymen has cut the main line of German communications to Cherbourg by capturing the town of Saint Mara Gliza, nineteen miles away and sweeping on across the main Peninsula railway and the highway that runs parallel to it. Virginia's reputation in both the O s S and the Maquis continued
to grow. In a month's time, she reported to London that she was now leading a group of four hundred Maquis foot soldiers separated its smaller groups. She continued to ray neal London with new reports of German movements and intelligence, as well as continuing to schedule parachute drops to arm the growing resistance. She led dozens of sabotage missions, trapping Nazi soldiers with detonations that destroyed bridges, tunnels, and railroads.
The Germans were becoming boxed in supplies dwindling. This was a watershut period for the resistance. They were starting to win and other resistance leaders were starting to mimic Virginia's plots. All over France, different factions of the Maquis were driving the Nazis into embarrassing losses and at the same time growing in number. By August, Virginia was leading almost fred Maquis resistance fighters. She had come a long way in a decade, but she still found herself thinking about her
old adversary, Robert Alesh. He had receded to the back burner as Virginia took up command to the Marquis, though he consistently plagued her nightmares. At the end of the war was around the corner. She wondered if she'd ever see him again. She wondered if a leash would be brought to justice, and if she'd be the one to do it. More about the fate of Alesh after the break. After infiltrating Virginia's s OE faction of heckler In and turning over many of Virginia's operatives to the s S,
Robert Alsh eventually found himself in an uncomfortable predicament. Hello, can you hear me? This is Alesh awaiting ortis. I am on day three of radio silence. If the RASH needs me out of Paris, I really need money and transportation, but I have not received any new intent. Please uspond. In June of nineteen forty four, just days after D Day, the Germans slowly began to retreat from Paris, leaving the city torn between Allied and Axis forces. Robert Alesh was
not an idiot. He could tell that the Germans were losing this war. In a matter of three months, the Nazis were pushed out of the majority of France, beaten back by combined American, British and French forces, before the Allies regained control of Paris and liberated the city on August twenty fifth, nineteen forty four. Alesh quickly escaped the country, traveling back to his original home in Luxembourg. There, nobody knew about his association with the Nazis and he wasn't
considered a criminal, but he still needed a job. It was here he decided to officially return to the seminary, so he forged a letter from the Archbishop of Paris to a Belgian bishop. In it, the fake archbishop spoke highly of Aleshous credentials and even noted that he attempted to rebel against the Germans during the occupation. His deception was successful, and beginning in November nineteen forty four, Alash
began work as a chaplain in Brussels. What Alesh didn't know was that Virginia decided to spend her last months as an intelligence agent with O. S. S writing up a report on Alesh, his movements during the war, as well as his methods and allegiances. It was a damning article that provided a physical description of the man, as well as crediting Alesh with espionage and treason that led
to the arrests and deaths of multiple resistance members. Virginia may not have been given the latitude to hunt for Alesh herself, but she refused to let him get away that easily. Just six months later, in Robert, Lesh was discovered and identified by the Allies in Luxembourg, arrested and sent back to France. They had used Virginia's reporting to track him down. I know you as me. He is a verdict. Alesha must have wondered how exactly he'd been caught.
He's been so careful for so long. As the jury reached a consensus, he must have thought back on the limping lady. He had found her, but not captured her, damaged her network of spies, who was never able to hand her over to his superiors. He must have believed that somehow she had a hand in his arrest. Of course, we know what Aleshed didn't that. Virginia's writings painted a damning portrait of a priest who abdicated his divinical duties in order a prophet of the Nazi regime, and it
was her reporting that did him in. Mr Lee, Judge, the court finds Robert Alsh guilty of high treason. He turned out to be the worst of all possible characters. That's bread Catling again, Virginia's grand nephew. She was right, she was right to to not trust him completely, but unfortunately the rest of her network did, and you know, they paid the price. There was only one resolution for a lesh. He was found guilty of his crimes and sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad on January.
The end of World War Two was indeed around the corner. The l has continued to advance, the German forces in the East fell to a hellish Russian winter, and on April the German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead. Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a brilliant bunker. Now we're breaking into our programs for the second time tonight, this time with some splendid news from Moscow. Berlin has fallen
eight days later, Germany surrendered to the Allied Powers. Note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on the Americans would go on to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August six and eight, killing over a hundred thousand people. Exactly what that cloud looked like, I do not suppose any words will ever describe. Unlike any other phenomenon in the world has ever seen, it was possessed of some diabolical activity, as though it
were a horrible form of life. Just days later, the President announced at seven pm today the unconditional and from an unqualified surrender of the Japanese. And then, finally, on September two, world War two officially ended. Yes, the NDC mobile unit in the heart center on the posting focus of a Shire station time enjoy esterday and looked uptown over a toy feeling writing back faces lifted charley and
brightly and grisly happy at the back. In May of Virginia, Hall had returned to Paris to take stock of the resistance. She discovered that many of her friends and associates hadn't survived. Some had been executed on site by the Nazis. Others were worked to death in concentration camps, and some disappeared without a trace. Doctor Hussey, however, was not among the fatalities. He had survived both the friend prison and then eighteen
horrible months in Buchebald and reunited with Virginia. During her time in the city, Virginia realized that even if the war in Europe was going to end, there was still a lot of work to be done bringing justice to the surviving Nazis. Just as she did with Robert Alesh, Virginia wrote up multiple reports with regards to what she saw during her time with both Britain's s OE and
the American Office of Strategic Services. Her reports named multiple Nazis and spies and would be instrimental in their respective arrests and trials. But when you think of a trailblazer, she absolutely embodies it. It's someone who was willing to defy all convention him. She broke so many barriers, and I think she she just embodies that selfless sacrifice, that sense of mission that is to that extreme, I think
is fairly rare. She did it because she thought she was fundamentally writing a wrong that's Karen Schaefer, a former CIA operative we heard from an episode six. Schaefer sees Virginia is a huge inspiration, a key figure in the history of intelligence, and in fact, with Schaeffer retired in two thousand nine, she was given a portrait of Virginia. There could not be a more incredibly thoughtful retirement gift. Putting me even in the same planet with Virginia Hall
is about as good as it gets. You don't want bands practice like marching bands practice. The conductor is standing on the platform, Brad Cat, Virginia's great nephew. It seems to me that Virginia saw the world that way. She saw the big picture as well as the infinite details, and was able to react within those and make really
good decisions. On and the now declassified memorandum to President Harry Truman O s S Director William J. Donovan wrote, Miss Virginia Hall, an American civilian working for this agency in the European theater of operations, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in connection with military
operations against the enemy. We understand that Miss Hall is the first civilian woman in this war to receive the Distinguished Service Cross, despite the fact that she was well known to the Gestapo. Ms Hall voluntarily turned to France in March ninety four to assist in sabotage operations against the Germans. Through her courage and physical endurance, even though
she had previously lost a leg in an accident. Miss Hall succeeded in organizing, arming, and training French resistance forces, which took part in many engagements with the enemy and a number of acts of sabotage, resulting in the demolition of many bridges, the destruction of a number of supply trains, and the disruption of enemy communications. Inasmuch as an award of this kind has not been previously made during the
present war, you may wish to make the presentation personally. Ever, the pragmatist Virginia was only willing to accept the prestigious Distinguished Service Cross once the fanfare around it died down. She refused to distract from honoring the thousands of lives that were lost in pursuit of stopping the Germans. Virginia retired from the O s S shortly after, on September
twenty eighth, nineteen forty five. She would then go on to work for the U. S A's newly formed Central Intelligence Agency in nineteen forty seven, as well as the Special Activities Division, but she was never able to get along with her superiors, who seemed to undervalue the work she'd done in the war. In nineteen fifty seven, Virginia married Frenchman Paul Guayot, an agent she had met in her O s s days, and finally retired in nineteen sixty six. Of course, she would have continued on had
she not reached the mandatory retirement age of sixty. Virginia and Paul eventually moved to a farm in Barnesville, Maryland, where she lived out the rest of her days until she passed away in nineteen eighty two. It's impossible to state the historical importance of Virginia Hall. She was an exceptional secret agent and one of the most important spies in American history. It's believed that were her hands on work, she saved thousands of lives across Europe. It was an
instrumental figure in defeating the Nazis. The language employed in the official Distinguished Service Cross citation notes working in a region infested with enemy troops and continually at the risk of capture, torture, and death. Ms Hold is played rare courage, perseverance, and ingenuity. Her efforts contributed materially to the successful operations of the Resistance forces in support of the Allied Expeditionary forces in the liberation of France. How do we define
our heroes through their work, their beliefs, their sacrifices. Virginia Hall was not just a spy. She existed as a beacon of determination and persistence in the face of fascism. At every turn, Virginia continued to fight, to live undercover, in uncomfortable he in hellish circumstances, all to rid our world of an epidemic that wiped out millions of lives. Virginia refused to accept limits placed on her by others.
She battled sexism, able ism, and agism throughout her career, and she still made for herself an identity not out of ego, but of service. She is the very definition of a hero. Coming up on the next episode of Good Assassins, they took everything out they could. They started making fires in the synagogues. Well, when this news got back to Gebel's and to Hitler, they blew refused. At least, that's what most people believed for more than seventy years.
But in two thousand sixteen, Armad Purer, the German journalists we spoke to meet an amazing discovery. If you have any questions for us about Good Assassins, if you're curious about some aspect of Virginia Hall story, or have any comments on the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at Good Assassins at diversion audio dot com. Make sure you spell assassins correctly. Again, that's Good Assassins at Diversion Audio dot com. We'll try to answer your
questions on a future episode. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Diversion Pods. Good Assassins is a production of Diversion Audio in association with I Heart Podcasts. This season is hosted by Stephen Talti and written by C. D. Carpenter, Produced and directed by Kevin Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions. Story editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman,
additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by Tyler Cash featuring the voices of Mikhaela Is Caerdo, Raphael cork Kill, Lenna Klingeman, John Pierkes, Andrew polk or Lock, Cassidy Monouel Falciano, Sean Gormley, Matthew Ament and Steve Rautman. Sound design, mixing and mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound editing by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive producers Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and Scott Waxman for Diversion Audio Diversion Audio