Femme Fatale

by Pat Shipman

  “Officer on home leave” Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 15.

  men known to live with nyais A. Van Marle, “De Groep Europeanen in Nederlands-Indië, iets over ontstaan en groei” (The European group in the Netherlands-Indies, its origin and growth), part 3, Indonesië 5 (1951/1952): 483; also Hanneke Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage in the Indies, 1887–1920,” Indonesia 35 (April 1983): 65–93, citing Verbaal, a secret circular by the National Christian Officers’ Association, no. 111 (8 April 1913), Exhibitum 24 February 1913: 21, 22, and 26; Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” secret communication from General Boetje to Governor-General in Mr. no. 685, 1904, Ministerie van Koloniën.

  concubinage must be gradually Liesbeth Hesselink, “Prostitution: A Necessary Evil, Particularly in the Colonies: Views of Prostitution in the Netherlands Indies,” in Indonesian Women in Focus, ed. Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Anke Niehof (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1992), 190; Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 79, citing Verbaal, no. 7 (8 April 1913), Exhibitum 7 October 1912, no. 131: 29.

  permission before marrying Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 80, citing Verbaal, no. 23 (17 April 1909).

  For enlisted men or NCOs Ibid., 83–84, citing communication of General Boetje to the Governor-General, 6, in Exhibitum 18 November 1903, no. 57.

  his manners had deteriorated Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari as a Human Being,” ms., Fries Museum, ca. 1927, 5.

  “Great Imitator” Deborah Hayden, Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 32.

  “rheumatism, arthritis, gout” Ibid., xvi.

  Rudolf showed at least four Ibid., 319–20.

  “Some years after M’Greet and Rudolf married” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 3 August 1901, reproduced in Adam Zelle, De Roman van Mata Hari, Mevrouw M. G. MacLeod Zelle: De Levensgeschiedenis Mijner Dochter en Mijne Grieven tegen Haar Vroegeren Echtgenoot (The novel of Mata Hari, Mrs. M. G. MacLeod Zelle: The biography of my daughter and my grievances against her former husband) (Amsterdam: C. L. G. Veldt, 1906), 124–26.

  wisdom and ethicality “Alfred Fournier,” in Claude Quetel, History of Syphilis, trans. Judith Braddock and Brian Pike (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1990), 150; see also Alfred Fournier, Syphilis et mariage (Syphilis and marriage), 2d ed. (Paris: G. Masson, 1890); Paul Diday, A Treatise on Syphilis in New-Born Children and Infants at the Breast, trans. G. Whitley (London: New Sydenham Society, 1859); and Rolla L. Thomas, The Eclectic Practice of Medicine (Cincinnati: Scudder Brothers, 1907).

  Alfred Fournier Quetel, History, 134–35.

  “So yes, a hundred times” Ibid., quoting from Fournier, Syphilis.

  “An individual actually affected” Diday, Treatise, 207.

  “constitutional symptoms” Ibid., 210–11.

  “now he had an affair” Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 6.

  “I know well” Mata Hari to Rudolf MacLeod, n.d., in, Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 15.

  Griet had always found G. H. Priem, De naakte Waarheid omtrent Mata Hari (The naked truth about Mata Hari) (Amsterdam: n.p., 1907), 32.

  “Those who are not officers” Emile Massard, Les Espionnes à Paris: La Vérité sur Mata-Hari (The Spies of Paris: The Truth about Mata Hari) (Paris: Albin Michel, 1922), 36.

  “your loving little wife” Heymans, Vraie, 15–16; also Mata Hari to Rudolf MacLeod, n.d., in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 15–16.

  “You ask me if I am longing” Heymans, Vraie, 18.

  “I thank you for” Rudolf MacLeod to Mata Hari, 30 March 1895, ibid., 19.

  “Do not believe” Mata Hari to Rudolf MacLeod, early April 1895, ibid.

  The correspondence was so Heymans, Vraie, 22.

  “Oh darling, I feel” Mata Hari to Rudolf MacLeod, n.d., in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 16–17.

  “Young but good-looking” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 18.

  By military regulation “Koninklijk Besluit,” dated 28 July 1871, no. 28, and the “Indisch besluit,” dated 3 October 1870, no. 5, in “Het Staatsblad van Nederlandsch-Indië,” no. 143, 1871.

  Ministry of Colonial Affairs Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 80, quoting Verbaal, no. 23 (17 April 1909); also Mrs. M. Gaspar-Raven, Bronbeek Museum, e-mail to author, 30 August 2005.

  Surprisingly, Rudolf ’s military Neither an application for permission to marry, submitted by Rudolf MacLeod, nor evidence of its granting is recorded in Rudolf ’s entry in Stamboeken Officieren 1814–1929, the authoritative source of information about a military man’s career.

  “That happens in the best” Heymans, Vraie, 22.

  “I will give my consent” Ibid.

  “Johnie—don’t do it” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 20–21.

  a rather cruel trick Ibid., 21; Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 8; and Erika Ostrovsky, Eye of the Dawn; The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari (New York: Dorset Press, 1978), 28.

  “a number of young men” Zelle, Roman, 31; Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 21.

  “Gentlemen,…that lady” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 21.

  “We went to Wiesbaden” Priem, Naakte Waarheid, 35.

  living with Tante Frida was…unbearable Zelle, Roman, 25–26.

  “Have you ever heard” Priem, Naakte Waarheid, 37.

  “Well, [the marriage] did alter” and “Certainly, but it was also difficult” Ibid., 36–37.

  he had a date with two women Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 8; and Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 22–23.

  apologized for being detained Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 9.

  “the right guidance” Ibid., 8.

  1895 Hotel and Travel Sector Exposition Information about the 1895 Hotel and Travel Sector Exposition from http://parallel.park.org/Netherlands/pavilions/world_expositions/index.htm.

  Calisch loaned Rudolf three thousand guilders Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 9.

  half a year’s pay Mrs. M. Gaspar-Raven, Bronbeek Museum, e-mail to author 30 August 2005; also A. Kruisheer, Atjeh ’96 (Weltevreden: N. V. Boekhandel Visser, 1913), app. 13.

  “be nice” Zelle, Roman, 44–47.

  letters from Rudolf and Griet often complain E.g., Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, 29 July 1900, in Heymans, Vraie, 56; and Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 12 July 1901, in Zelle, Roman, 118–21.

  still-precarious health Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 23.

  Tante Frida…continued to criticize Zelle, Roman, 27, 32–33.

  reception at the Royal Palace Heymans, Vraie, 28.

  “Norman John” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 23. The date of birth of this child is confirmed by the records in the Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, The Hague. Thus, Norman was not conceived before his parents were married, contrary to claims by Heymans, Vraie, 26.

  “ladies”…“ice skating club” Zelle, Roman, 43.

  Chapter 4 Indies Life

  “Physically and morally” Adam Zelle, De Roman van Mata Hari, Mevrouw M. G. MacLeod Zelle: De Levensgeschiedenis Mijner Dochter en Mijne Grieven tegen Haar Vroegeren Echtgenoot (The novel of Mata Hari, Mrs. M. G. MacLeod Zelle: The biography of my daughter and my grievances against her former husband) (Amsterdam: C. L. G. Veldt, 1906), 62.

  “You get acclimatized” Madelon Székely-Lulofs, Rubber (London: Cassell, 1933), 93–94; similarly in Ladislao Székely, Tropic Fever: The Adventures of a Planter in Sumatra, trans. Marion Saunders (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1984), 93–94; and Rob Nieuwenhuys, Tussen twee vaderlanden (Between two fatherlands) (Amsterdam: Van Oorschot, 1959), 33.

  “A European, no matter” Wilhelm Leonard Ritter, unpublished notes, quoted in Rob Nieuwenhuys, Oost-Indische Spiegel (1856); reprinted in English, Mirror of the Indies: A History of Dutch Colonial Literature (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1982), xxv–xxvi.

  ugly demands for repayment of loans Zelle, Roman, 68.

  a totok, or newcomer General information on Indies manners and views from Jean Gelman Taylor, The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983),
136; and Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, “Orientalism and the Rhetoric of the Family,” Indonesia 58 (1994): 19–39.

  “indecorous in their speech and dress” Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 60.

  “It was precisely when” Taylor, Batavia, 136.

  “Nènèk Tidjah was my liifbabu” Rob Nieuwenhuys, “Het Indische kind dat ik was en ben” (An Indies child that I was and am), in Nieuwenhuys, Tussen, 18–19. Translated and quoted by E. M. Beekman in his introduction to P. A. Daum, Ups and Downs of Life in the Indies, trans. Elsje Sturtevant and Donald Sturtevant (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987), 14.

  “babu Norman” For the names by which babus were addressed, see Beekman, “Introduction,” 14–15.

  more than half (9,360) and “characteristic skin color” A. Van Marle, “De Groep der Europeanen in Nederlands-Indië, iets over ontstaan en groei” (The European group in the Netherlands-Indies, its origin and growth), part 3, Indonesië 5 (1951/1952): 484.

  three-quarters of the legally European Stoler, Carnal, 79.

  “Most of the blijvers” and (a) have enjoyed Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 2, 110.

  “if important objections existed” Ibid., part 3, 484.

  “disease as well as debased” Stoler, Carnal, 67–68.

  extent of criminality Ibid., 63, quoting A. de Braconier, Kindercriminaliteit in de Verzorging van Misdadig Aangelegd en Verwaarloosde Minderjaren in Nederlandsche-Indië (Child criminality in the care of criminal affairs and neglect of minors in the Netherlands Indies) (Baarn: Hollandia-Drukkerij, 1918), 11.

  “I cannot bear the arrogance” Hanneke Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage in the Indies, 1887–1920,” Indonesia 35 (April 1983): 78, citing J. ten Brink, Oost-Indische Dames en Heeren, Vier Bijdragen tot de kennis van de zeden en usantiën der europeesche maatschappij in Nederlandsch-Indië (East Indies ladies and gentlemen, four contributions to the knowledge of the manners and customs of the European society in the Netherlands Indies) (The Hague: Dienst der Volksgezondheid in Nederlandsch-Indië, 1881), 173–74.

  “[Indos] had an image” Tineke Hellwig, Adjustment and Discontent: Representations of Woman in the Dutch East Indies (Windsor, Can.: Netherlandic Press, 1994), 26.

  Gretha enjoyed…being high in rank Zelle, Roman, 73–74.

  On May 2, 1898 Ibid., 75.

  low-cut gown in purple velvet Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 34; and Zelle, Roman, 77.

  Gunung Bromo Zelle, Roman, 78–81.

  slippers and characteristic color Taylor, Batavia, 145, 147.

  her husband’s resentful “housekeeper” Lily E. Clerkx and Wim F. Wertheim, Living in Deli: Its Society as Imagined in Colonial Fiction (Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Press, 1991), 92; and Lulofs-Székely, Rubber, 127–29.

  “No, I have no more” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, n.d., in Zelle, Roman, 81.

  Chapter 5 The Fatal Move

  with the intention of making a fortune Anna Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 26ff.

  the Europeans in Medan Regerings Almanak voor Nederlandsch-Indië 1899–1901 (Government Almanac for Netherlands-Indies 1899–1901) (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1901), 12.

  one of the lowest percentages of married A. Van Marle, “De Groep der Europeanen in Nederlands-Indië, iets over ontstaan en groei” (The European group in the Netherlands-Indies, its origin and growth), part 3, Indonesië 5 (1951/1952): 496.

  at most 2 percent Hanneke Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage in the Indies, 1887–1920, Indonesia 35 (April 1983), 71, citing Verbaal, 8 April 1913, no. 71, Exhibitum 7 October 1912, no. 131: 19.

  civil servants, had little or no Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 3, 486.

  “The white group defended” Lily E. Clerkx and Wim F. Wertheim, Living in Deli: Its Society as Imagined in Colonial Fiction (Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Press, 1991), 99.

  “almost everyone went” Ladislao Székely, Tropic Fever: Adventures of a Planter in Sumatra, trans. Marion Saunders (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1984), 50.

  “A Delian hari besar ” Clerkx and Wertheim, Deli, 21, quoting Veersema, Delianen, unknown page.

  in favor of continuing Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 83, Verbaal, 8 April 1913, no. 71, Exhibitum 7 October 1912, no. 131: 2, 3, 17, 23, 26, 33.

  The women had little choice See, e.g., Madelon Székely-Lulofs, Coolie, trans. G. J. Renier and Irene Clephane (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 92.

  In 1898 a mixed-marriage law Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 2, 320–21.

  the family was the emblem Stoler, Carnal, 101–5.

  nyais were sometimes forced Clerkx and Wertheim, Deli, 87ff.

  “One man, a Hollander” Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 3, 488, citing Edward B. Reuter, ed., Race and Culture Contacts (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1934), 74n1.

  one European man out of every thirteen Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 3, 488–91.

  Fully 28 percent Ibid., 492.

  “This category of children” Stoler, Carnal, 138, quoting Braconier, Kindercriminaliteit, 8.

  few Deli planters would employ sinyos Ibid., 28.

  “Already I have spoken” Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 3, 487.

  “for about a week” Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari as a Human Being,” ms., Fries Museum, ca. 1927, 9–10.

  “It is strange to see this city” Rudolf MacLeod to Mata Hari, 28 March 1900, in Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 25.

  “becoming quite embarrassing” Ibid.

  “if a little bit frivolous” and “from being married” Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 10.

  “You know always” Rudolf MacLeod to Mata Hari, 24 April 1899, ibid., 10; and Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (The True Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy) (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 38–39.

  “You mention that” Rudolf MacLeod to Mata Hari, 24 April 1899, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 25–26; and Heymans, Vraie, 38–39.

  “The thing that makes me” Op cit.

  “Who is that naval” Op cit.

  “I wanted to be bitten” Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 10.

  “A puerile letter” Heymans, Vraie, 36–37.

  “I await your telegram” Rudolf MacLeod to Mata Hari, 2 May 1899, ibid., 38–39.

  “May God see” Ibid.

  “God knows” Ibid.

  about 40 percent of children Barbara Stegmann and J. C. Carey, “TORCH Infections: Toxoplasmosis, Other (Syphilis, Varicella-zoster, Parvovirus B19), Rubella, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Herpes Infections,” Current Women’s Health Report 2, no. 4 (2002): 253–58.

  “A child born with the germs” Paul Diday, A Treatise on Syphilis in New-Born Children and Infants at the Breast, trans. G. Whitley (London: New Sydenham Society, 1859), 85–86.

  “Experience shows” Ibid., 208.

  needing extra protection Stoler, Carnal, 55–57, 63–74.

  sinking into the moral morass Ibid., 63–74.

  “Good colonial living” Ibid., 71.

  “I am glad” Rudolf MacLeod to Mata Hari, 14 May 1899, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 27.

  Rudolf was outraged Heymans, Vraie, 41.

  she refused to move forward Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 28.

  Chapter 6 Death of a Child

  Rudolf noted that Norman’s color Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (The True Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy) (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 41.

  “How she makes” Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, 10 June 1899, quoted ibid., 42–43.

  The most detailed account Heymans, Vraie, 45–46.

  “Hair of my only son” and “Day of the death” Ibid., 46.

  “Rudolf refused to permit” Ibid., 48.

  “Ah, Louise” and “Gretha is
at the end” Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, 4 July 1899, quoted ibid., 51.

  “The 28th of July” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 27 July 1899, quoted in Adam Zelle, De Roman van Mata Hari, Mevrouw M. G. MacLeod Zelle: De Levensgeschiedenis Mijner Dochter en Mijne Grieven tegen Haar Vroegeren Echtgenoot (The novel of Mata Hari, Mrs. M. G. MacLeod Zelle: The biography of my daughter and my grievances against her former husband) (Amsterdam: C. L. G. Veldt, 1906), 62.

  “My child has been poisoned!” Ibid., 87–88.

  versions of the death Heymans, Vraie, 49; and Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 28.

  A slightly different account J. H. Ritman, “Ik kende Mata Hari…” (I knew Mata Hari), Tong-Tong 5 (15 September 1964): 7, 19.

  “Greta was a high-spirited” Ibid., 7.

  For a babu to thus attack Tineke Hellwig, e-mail to author, 9 February 2005.

  “ nyais poison or otherwise kill” E.g., see Rob Nieuwenhuys, Tussen twee vaderlanden (Between two fatherlands) (Amsterdam: Van Oorschot, 1959), 182, 218.

  between 1894 and 1899, only fifteen Kolonial Verslag (Colonial report), app. A, 1899 Principal Illnesses.

  Fatal doses are tiny M. Amini, “Arsenic Poisoning: Not Very Common but Treatable,” Shiraz E-Medical Journal 3, no. 2 (2002); S. M. Brad-berry, W. N. Harnson, S. T. Beer, J. A. Vale, “Arsenic Trioxide: A Monograph of the National Poisons Information Service,” n.d., available online at http://www.intox.org/databank/documents/chemical/artrxide/ukpid43.htm.

  blowing a dried powder of Datura Carl H. J. Brockelmann, “Vergiftungen durch einheimische Heilmittel und Giftpflanze in Indonesien” (Poisonings by native cures and poisonous plants in Indonesia), Zeitschreift fur Tropenmedezin und Parasitologie 12 (1961): 300–7.

  Norman’s death…attack on a white Ibid., 306.

  “Our darling NORMAN JOHN MAC LEOD” Deli Courant, 28 June 1899.

  the number of Europeans in eastern Sumatra Regerings Almanakvoor Nederlandsch-Indië 1899–1901 (Government Almanac for Netherlands-Indies 1899–1901) (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1900), 12.

  Norman was the only European Kolonial Verslag (Colonial Register) , app. A, 1899.

  accidental food poisoning Glenn Bruce, e-mail to author, 23 March 2005.