Speaker 1: Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence
Speaker 1: that may be disturbing for some audiences. Please take care
Speaker 1: in listening. This series is based on historical characters and
Speaker 1: real events. Some dialogue has been imagined for dramatic purposes
Speaker 1: when no primary source material is available. Virginia Hall had
Speaker 1: been expecting company. A few weeks earlier. Doctor Jean Hussay,
Speaker 1: one of the resistance leaders in France, had informed her
Speaker 1: of a new courier that could be of use to Heckler,
Speaker 1: Virginia's faction of the Resistance. This particular courier allegedly had
Speaker 1: microfilm of New German military strategies that would be valuable
Speaker 1: to the British m Yes, Marie, it's Father Gun. But
Speaker 1: what Virginia didn't know was that the man on the
Speaker 1: other side of the door wasn't actually Father Acomb. He
Speaker 1: was Robert Alesh, a Nazi operative who had managed to
Speaker 1: infiltrate the Resistance while posing as a priest. Virginia, currently
Speaker 1: going by the name Marie, had been told to accept
Speaker 1: the microfilm and Father Acom's possession and send it back
Speaker 1: to London. By this point, August, Virginia was an experienced
Speaker 1: spy and superbly cautious. She had had dangerous run ins
Speaker 1: with a Gestapo before, and it had spooked her enough
Speaker 1: to jump start a new identity That meant a new
Speaker 1: name and a new home. She had to establish herself
Speaker 1: all over again, but it was better than being caught.
Speaker 1: Before opening the door, she first had to test the
Speaker 1: visitor with a predetermined code. Have you treated the cats
Speaker 1: on the roof? Yes? But they won't take a brandy
Speaker 1: with that, Virginia unknowingly allowed Robert Alesh entered her home,
Speaker 1: a man whose mission was to identify her and then
Speaker 1: hunt her down. Come in, father, I'm Steven Talty and
Speaker 1: from diversion. This is good Assassin's Season two. Being killed
Speaker 1: would be the easy part. Being tortured would be the
Speaker 1: hard part. All intel suggests she is behind many of
Speaker 1: the prison bricks over the country. She's dangerous, so sabotage
Speaker 1: plus a little espionage paramilitary operations make things blow up.
Speaker 1: The message for Captain Bobby and I'd be leaf. I
Speaker 1: have found the nest of the Limping Lady. Episode six,
Speaker 1: Spy versus Spy. Thank you my a lovely own. Have
Speaker 1: you lived here alone a few years? A wonderful place
Speaker 1: to raise children. I think I suppose do you have
Speaker 1: any right away, Virginia suspected something was off about the priest.
Speaker 1: He made himself comfortable way too quickly. He was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a spy carrying a valuable asset, an asset that,
Speaker 1: if discovered by the Nazis, would mean his immediate deportation
Speaker 1: to one of the kill caps. Virginia was used to
Speaker 1: less candor from the people she worked with. They were
Speaker 1: usually more nervous and would get right to the point.
Speaker 1: Some of them experienced bouts of full on paranoia, like
Speaker 1: the pilot she saved in her first mission. This Father
Speaker 1: Account wasn't fitting the bill, but Virginia knew she couldn't
Speaker 1: just act off her gut. She'd have to keep entertaining,
Speaker 1: catch him slipping up. No, no, children, would you like
Speaker 1: to take a seat, Yes, thank you, and yes please.
Speaker 1: It was then that Virginia noticed Father Account's hands. They
Speaker 1: were delicate, smooth and fine, as though he had never
Speaker 1: done a day of hard labor in his life. This
Speaker 1: relaxed her. Most of the Gestapo had some sort of
Speaker 1: previous low level military background. Their hands would have been coarser.
Speaker 1: Some hint that they'd worked with their hands. Father Account
Speaker 1: had the hands of a priest, so maybe that part
Speaker 1: of his story checked out. She noticed that Account was
Speaker 1: staring at her intently. A she had been given a
Speaker 1: description of the limping lady that he repeated in his head,
Speaker 1: trying to line up the details with the woman he
Speaker 1: saw in front of him. Mid thirties, dark hair, long
Speaker 1: slender nose, arched eyebrows, and thin lips. The woman calling
Speaker 1: herself Marie was fitting most of the description, which she
Speaker 1: didn't seem to have the most obvious tell. As far
Speaker 1: as he could see, she wasn't limping. You have the microphone,
Speaker 1: so it's right to business. Then I was under the
Speaker 1: impression we were fighting a war, and maybe time was
Speaker 1: of the essence. Well then, yeah, new German strategies for
Speaker 1: our men in London. Thank you. It might be best
Speaker 1: to keep you moving. Do you need any supplies for
Speaker 1: the trip back? You're having me off just like that.
Speaker 1: I keep first encounters brief. When you've run my trust,
Speaker 1: then we'll throw a party when I've and your trust.
Speaker 1: My dear woman, I've just risked my life to bring
Speaker 1: you bloods from behind enemy lines. I fought London would
Speaker 1: have thought you some semblance of bedside manner. Those lessons
Speaker 1: must not have stuck. Virginia's attitude was giving a lesh pause.
Speaker 1: He had always assumed that the limping lady would have
Speaker 1: some manner of calm professionalism. She'd been so successful leading
Speaker 1: jail breaks and rallying men to ambush German troops that
Speaker 1: he expected a level of control over every situation. After all,
Speaker 1: this assignment was a simple handoff. Marie was shifty, he
Speaker 1: couldn't help but feel as though she was fresh. But
Speaker 1: he had gotten her to admit that she was indeed
Speaker 1: an agent with London, and frustratingly, Virginia took a seat
Speaker 1: at the table early in their conversation San which meant
Speaker 1: that Alesh couldn't check on her limb. He decided to
Speaker 1: try and verify the other bit of information given to
Speaker 1: him by the Nazis. You are also doubling as a reporter, Yes,
Speaker 1: for an American paper. This was a major red flag
Speaker 1: for Virginia. While she had been writing for the New
Speaker 1: York Post early in her spying days, she had since
Speaker 1: stopped once America entered the war at the end of
Speaker 1: forty one. She couldn't write those unflattering profiles of Nazi
Speaker 1: occupied France without attracting major attention, and since she had stopped,
Speaker 1: she hadn't told anyone in the resistance about her early
Speaker 1: reporting a reporter. What do you mean? I had heard
Speaker 1: you were a news reporter at one point for some people,
Speaker 1: something about New York. I know that must have been
Speaker 1: someone else. Ah, I see. Virginia's caution led to her
Speaker 1: X move. Maybe her smartest. We have rotate here at
Speaker 1: the house. Perhaps it was someone else who was staying here.
Speaker 1: Do you need money for the trip back? Lesh was frustrated.
Speaker 1: He wasn't getting anywhere, and it was clear that if
Speaker 1: he kept pushing back, he gave up his position too early.
Speaker 1: He must have been pretty sure that the Marie in
Speaker 1: front of him was actually the limping lady, but he
Speaker 1: couldn't confirm it, not until he saw her leg. Just
Speaker 1: a few francs would get me to Paris, not much
Speaker 1: Frank's Again, sirens sounded in Virginia's head. Father account had
Speaker 1: asked for Frank's instead of the German currency of Reich's mark,
Speaker 1: the primary currency and Nazi occupied countries, spies had to
Speaker 1: be careful being captured with Frank's could be perceived as
Speaker 1: French loyalty. In Virginia's experience, everyone legitimate asked for bikes mark,
Speaker 1: but she didn't press the error. She instead leaned over
Speaker 1: and grab bikes mark from her dresser drawer. Care you go.
Speaker 1: She gave them to father account without correcting him. A
Speaker 1: Lessons seemed to notice his slip. He'd hoped he could
Speaker 1: trick Virginia into getting up and walking, but she kept
Speaker 1: the money close by and remained seated at the table.
Speaker 1: We'll let be all Yes, I look forward to working
Speaker 1: with you in the future. You as well. Father. I
Speaker 1: don't forget to Marris. I am a priest. If ever
Speaker 1: you find his job has led you to do things
Speaker 1: you are not proud of and you need confession, I
Speaker 1: am available. Virginia considers this offer after the break. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Natalie Emmanuel from Ramsey in Fast and Furious to
Speaker 1: Sunday and Game of Thrones. I've loved playing roles of
Speaker 1: women whose resourcefulness, intelligence, and inner strengths are pushed to
Speaker 1: the limit. We will continue to do everything possible to
Speaker 1: avoid an armed conflict. The situation is a grave run.
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Speaker 1: wartime leaders. But the stories have always been about men. Now,
Speaker 1: for the first time, we listened to a new podcast
Speaker 1: that brings you the stories of the fearless, powerful women
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Speaker 1: Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. M H. There's
Speaker 1: no one stop shopping for parsing out the enemy. I
Speaker 1: think what they teach you is that your assets only
Speaker 1: as good as your last meeting. That's Karen Shaeffer. She
Speaker 1: worked for the CIA for twenty six years. Over the
Speaker 1: course of her tenure, she held many positions that took
Speaker 1: her all over the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where
Speaker 1: she served as an operations officer. Your number one thing
Speaker 1: is that tingly spider sense. Right when you're going to
Speaker 1: be meeting or dealing with these folks regularly, if you're
Speaker 1: doing what you're supposed to be doing and paying attention
Speaker 1: and asking them questions and making sure you're aware of
Speaker 1: their personal as well as professional situation. You're in a
Speaker 1: typically sense of something's off. However, when dealing with people
Speaker 1: like Robert Alesh or Father Alcong Shaeffer warrant that you
Speaker 1: have to be careful of your own preconceived biases. We
Speaker 1: don't want to believe that a Catholic priest could possibly
Speaker 1: be working with the guests that you know, it's inconceivable, right,
Speaker 1: and yet it's not so. It's what is referred to
Speaker 1: as falling in love with your asset. Making sure that
Speaker 1: you to the greatest extent you can maintain that professional
Speaker 1: distance with the folks that you're working with, because you
Speaker 1: have to constantly be able to question, Okay, has something changed?
Speaker 1: What are their motives? Does it still make sense that
Speaker 1: they're working with us? Does it not? You know what?
Speaker 1: What's weird about this? You have to be asking yourself
Speaker 1: all those questions pretty regularly. A few days after Father
Speaker 1: a CON's visit, Virginia was contacted by s O E
Speaker 1: headquarters in London. She had asked them to run a
Speaker 1: background check on on Kom to make sure he was
Speaker 1: who he said he was. The s O said they
Speaker 1: found everything in order. A Coln had a history as
Speaker 1: a priest in a number of congregations around France. What
Speaker 1: they didn't know was that the Gestapo had gone to
Speaker 1: great lengths to protect Aleshia's cover as a column, including
Speaker 1: falsifying records of his employment, it should be noted with
Speaker 1: the help of the Catholic Church. Hearing that Father a
Speaker 1: Khan was the real deal relaxed Virginia a little, but
Speaker 1: it didn't assuage for suspicions entirely. She had already planned
Speaker 1: to abandon the town house she was staying in, but
Speaker 1: she decided she wasn't in danger just yet. Doctor Roussey,
Speaker 1: himself a prominent resistance operative, seemed to approve of Father Akhm.
Speaker 1: That counted for something. Meanwhile, Robert Alesh went to a
Speaker 1: Nazi barracks and contacted his superior Klaus Barbie, and informed
Speaker 1: him that he was unsure if the woman he met
Speaker 1: was indeed the Limping Lady. Y. Yes, Captain Bobby, this
Speaker 1: is Alesh. Per few made contact, Yes, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: able to land a confirmation. Then what good are you
Speaker 1: if we have begun a working relationship, whether she's the
Speaker 1: Limping Lady or not I've infiltrated Heckla will find her
Speaker 1: and maybe snatch up some other agents. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: your time is limited, alesh. If you don't bring us
Speaker 1: results in the next few weeks, they'll put you on
Speaker 1: a train over the next few days. Unless set up
Speaker 1: new meetings with Virginia so they're in person interaction with sparse.
Speaker 1: Virginia still had her suspicions and would leave drop points
Speaker 1: for a lash where he could leave or pick up
Speaker 1: items deemed necessary for the resistance. Lesh was growing worried
Speaker 1: he need did a new strategy. He decided to set
Speaker 1: up a meeting with Virginia under the pretext that an
Speaker 1: associate of his had been arrested by the Nazis. It
Speaker 1: was a likely story. The Gestapo was escalating seemingly random interrogations,
Speaker 1: and their methods had become even more deranged. Because the
Speaker 1: Gestapo have no legal limits, they focus on getting information
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible from the people they've arrested, and
Speaker 1: the way they do that is physical torture. That's Andrew
Speaker 1: or the professor we've heard from who runs the Institute
Speaker 1: for Military History at Kansas State University. I mean usually
Speaker 1: they just started by beating people with clubs to see
Speaker 1: if a little blunt force trauma would get people talking.
Speaker 1: If it didn't, they got more creative electrical shock, breaking fingers,
Speaker 1: pulling out finger and toe nails. Uh. You mix this
Speaker 1: up with denying them access to the outside world, denying
Speaker 1: them food, or conversely drugging them to try and weaken
Speaker 1: their resistance. You feed them false information. As the pain
Speaker 1: gets worse, you promise them that will all stop if
Speaker 1: they just tell you the thing You want, the names
Speaker 1: of the people they work with, the authentication codes for
Speaker 1: their radio so the Germans can send false messages back
Speaker 1: to Britain. Whatever it is the Gestapo wants, they'll demand
Speaker 1: it in exchange from making the pain end. And then
Speaker 1: at the end they'll mainly execute the people. With these
Speaker 1: horrible methods and more, the Nazis had managed to capture
Speaker 1: more resistance operatives. Virginia had been informed by headquarters that
Speaker 1: on August fifteenth and sixteen, a rate in Paris led
Speaker 1: to the arrest of several resistance members. She had initially
Speaker 1: been worried that Father A Khan was one of the captured. Yes,
Speaker 1: who is it, Father, I can, But then a calm
Speaker 1: showed up at her door for their meeting. Come in,
Speaker 1: oh Ma. It's often they captured Pierre the dumb stap
Speaker 1: or they got him. I think he had compromising material,
Speaker 1: contact names, addresses, things he wouldn't even share with me.
Speaker 1: Slow down, father, We've got to warn them. We've got
Speaker 1: to warn the contacts on the list. When did this happen?
Speaker 1: Just till they are just yesterday? Virginia hadn't received any
Speaker 1: news of compromised material from headquarters, especially from an arrest
Speaker 1: that would have taken place just the day before. I
Speaker 1: need the contacts. We have to warn them, or you
Speaker 1: have to get me out of the country, sent me
Speaker 1: to a quartos. I would be I've been arrested yesterday.
Speaker 1: Were you not all underground? Underground? Because of the raids?
Speaker 1: Which raids? With those two words, Alessia had made a
Speaker 1: clear mistake. Virginia had heard all she needed. She didn't
Speaker 1: know if the man before her was a Nazi, but
Speaker 1: she knew he couldn't be trusted with any new information.
Speaker 1: The raids she mentioned were well communicated in the resistance network.
Speaker 1: They've been told to go underground and cease all operations
Speaker 1: until they could figure out what information the Nazis were
Speaker 1: able to get out of the new captives until Heckler
Speaker 1: in the larger resistance could assess their losses. They were
Speaker 1: told not to make any moves. If Father accomp wasn't
Speaker 1: aware of this, it meant that he hadn't been spending
Speaker 1: the time within the resistance that he should have been
Speaker 1: what you'd be doing. Virginia didn't know the extent of
Speaker 1: the damage, but she knew she had to act quickly.
Speaker 1: She had to get accompt out of her home and
Speaker 1: contact headquarters immediately. Going back to Bertie and Wit from
Speaker 1: the instructions, that's it. Wait for me to contact you.
Speaker 1: You can return in September and we figure things out
Speaker 1: from there. September go now, you can't be here. Alesh
Speaker 1: left Virginia's home satisfied he had finally gotten what he
Speaker 1: needed as she had shuttled him out the door. He
Speaker 1: had gotten a clear view the agent he knew, as
Speaker 1: Marie had a limp how this endangered Virginia After the break.
Speaker 1: Following that consequential meeting at Virginia's home, Robert Alesh did
Speaker 1: not in fact return to Paris as Virginia had instructed. Instead,
Speaker 1: he chose to visit the Puis de Dome area. We
Speaker 1: snaked his way into another s OE funded resistance faction,
Speaker 1: this one code named green Heart. Virginia sounded the alarm
Speaker 1: on her suspicions of other account immediately, but by the
Speaker 1: time the alarm was heard throughout the other resistance networks,
Speaker 1: the damage was done. Alesh was given access to more
Speaker 1: code names and assets, and while he didn't learn the
Speaker 1: limping lady's real name, he was able to decipher her
Speaker 1: radio code name. He learned that the woman he met, Leone,
Speaker 1: was in fact a top s O agent. He notified
Speaker 1: the Gestapo in a very pleased Klaus Barbie being burned
Speaker 1: is devastating. That means your whole network could be compromised.
Speaker 1: That's Chris Costa, the executive director of the International Spy Museum.
Speaker 1: So there are many elaborate ways that an officer who
Speaker 1: is running agents is compromised. They can be exfiltrated tactically
Speaker 1: in a place like France, that would be an elaborate operation,
Speaker 1: but sometimes agents just couldn't get out in time if
Speaker 1: you were held by the Germans. I think the goal
Speaker 1: was to just survive without giving up the network. Forty
Speaker 1: eight hours after that, everybody knew you would be compromised
Speaker 1: because you would not be able to sustain the bad treatment,
Speaker 1: the torture, the deprivation. But if you could hold on
Speaker 1: for forty eight hours, once you're in custody, your network
Speaker 1: could also disappear because they would be next. Virginia had
Speaker 1: mounting pressure on all sides. She was scheduled to return
Speaker 1: to London as part of a regular rotation of s
Speaker 1: o E agents, but she felt that leaving meant abandoning
Speaker 1: vulnerable people. She changed safe houses again to escape the
Speaker 1: immediate clutches of Klaus Barbie and the Gestapo, and took
Speaker 1: up residence on the opposite side of town. Then a
Speaker 1: November seven, Virginia received word that the Allies would be
Speaker 1: invading North Africa and an attempt to fight off the
Speaker 1: German presence there. American generals believed they couldn't take back
Speaker 1: France unless they first established a presence in North Africa.
Speaker 1: The Germans, realizing this, chose to send a new wave
Speaker 1: of Nazi support to France. France would become the secondary
Speaker 1: home for German forces, and the country would soon become
Speaker 1: an even more active war zone. If Virginia chose to stay,
Speaker 1: she'd be considered in force residents. The American in banking
Speaker 1: forth as made landings at all Ran and Algiers on
Speaker 1: the north coast of France, North Africa, and somewhere on
Speaker 1: the west coast. The actors on these crumbled as they fled,
Speaker 1: dropping huge features all the way to the border, jathan
Speaker 1: lands and men abandoning whole unit, especially a Pagan unit,
Speaker 1: leaving hundreds of guns and tanks behind them, and thousands
Speaker 1: of troups and how a dozen valuable headquarters and many
Speaker 1: many thousand dead. Virginia made the difficult decision to leave Leon.
Speaker 1: She took a train south to the town of Perpignon,
Speaker 1: which was one of the final stops for individuals hoping
Speaker 1: to cross into Spain. But while she had understood her
Speaker 1: journey would be treacherous, she still underestimated just how difficult
Speaker 1: it would really be. After arriving in Perpignon, Virginia had
Speaker 1: to find a guide who could manage her escape across
Speaker 1: the border. For months, she had helped coordinate getaways for others,
Speaker 1: mostly exposed agents and Jews. Now she was going to
Speaker 1: attempt the escape herself. They need to cross the Pyrenees
Speaker 1: a dangerous, mountainous trek of thirty snow covered miles. To
Speaker 1: make things worse, the Gestapo had grown wise to this
Speaker 1: escape route, meaning that Perpignon was pepper with eagle eyed
Speaker 1: Nazis looking for spies. Virginia stood in the small town,
Speaker 1: gazing in wonder and terror at the enormous mountain range
Speaker 1: before her. Somehow she was going to have to make
Speaker 1: thirty mile trek with only her one good leg. In
Speaker 1: that moment, it seemed like a choice between two deaths.
Speaker 1: The mountains could kill her or Klaus Barbie could and
Speaker 1: she'd never let Barbie take her alive. Coming up on
Speaker 1: the next episode of Good Assassins, the people of Marseille
Speaker 1: are astonished, according to LICI Radio, at the large number
Speaker 1: of troops the Germans are pouring into the city. Again,
Speaker 1: alarm bells sounded in Virginia's head. Well, it's it's a
Speaker 1: trade of mantains. It stretches from the Atlanta to the Mediterranean,
Speaker 1: like you kind of belt, and it's a very natural
Speaker 1: border between France of Spain. She radioed to London, saying
Speaker 1: that she was out of France and in Spain and
Speaker 1: halfway to where they would catch the train to Madrid.
Speaker 1: If you have any questions for us about Good Assassins,
Speaker 1: if you're curious about some aspect of Virginia Hall story,
Speaker 1: or have any comments on the podcast, we'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. Please email us at Good Assassins at
Speaker 1: diversion audio dot com. Make sure you spell assassins correctly. Again,
Speaker 1: that's Good Assassins at diversion Audio dot com. We'll try
Speaker 1: to answer your questions on a future episode. Find us
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Diversion Pods. Good Assassins
Speaker 1: is a production of Diversion Audio in association with I
Speaker 1: heartpot Casts. This season is hosted by Steven Talti and
Speaker 1: written by C. D. Carpenter, Produced and directed by Kevin
Speaker 1: Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions. Story editing by Jacob Bronstein,
Speaker 1: with editorial direction from Scott Waxman, Additional research and reporting
Speaker 1: by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by Tyler Cash featuring the
Speaker 1: voices of Mikayla Is Caerdo, Raphael cork Kill, Lenna Klingeman,
Speaker 1: John Pierkes, Andrew polk or Lock, Cassidy Manouel Falciano, Sean
Speaker 1: Gormley Matthew Ament and Steve Rautman. Sound design, mixing and
Speaker 1: mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound editing by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive
Speaker 1: producers Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis, and Scott Waxman. For diversion
Speaker 1: audio see simply for diversion audio,