GIRL SPY’S MANY VICTIMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12757, 29 September 1919, Page 5

GIRL SPY’S MANY VICTIMS.

ALMOST WRECKED ALLIED CAMPAIGN. VENGEANCE ON LOYAL OFFICERS. Landru, the French Bluebeard, who fascinated women only to destroy them, appeared to have had his female countorpart in twenty-four-year-old Dora Charlton, the American girl-spy, who has just committed suicide in Turin after being arrested bv the -Italian police, says a writer in the “ Mail and Record.” All who came into contact with this amazing woman agree that she had the power to fascinate men of the most diverse characters, and if she g.kl not destroy her victims in the same manner as Landru destroyed his, she certainly sent many of them to a certain death and involved others in the ruin. Beyond the fact that Dora- was an American with much of the charm and more of the go-aheadness of her race, little is known of her before her appearance on the scene at Rome in the early days_ of the war, when Italy was still debating the question of entry on the side of the Entente. i3he was supposed to be in Italy for the good of her health.

OFFICERS’ EVIL GENIUS. She was a favourite with army officers in particular, and when war was by Italy she seemed to be at tho height of her social power. She war, more than over in the company of Italian officers. Soon the capital began to till with British and French naval and military officers, and later at To--rino Allied airmen made their appearance. Among these men the bewitching American girl made many fresh conquests, and she was to bo seen nightly iu the company of some of the most highly placed men in the French and British Alilitary Missions in Italy. Such was her hold over her male victims that quarrels were frequent, but in spite of everything Miss Charlton seems to have been able to convince each of her admirers in turn that he alone was tbe favoured swain. No one suspected for a moment that in this woman with many lovers Germany had one of the most dangerous spies then on the European continent. At one time she was carrying on liaisons with officers belonging to the Italian. French and British forces, and she appears to have had amazing success iu extracting information from these men. It was from a young British officer that she obtained particulars of the new type of aeroplane that tho Allies were preparing to put in the field in 1910, and thanks to that information tho Germans were able to go one better, and produce a new aeroplane that for fighting power and speed was far ahead of anything the Allies had. Too late this youngster discovered that he had been trapped into betraying a valuable secret, but he never for a moment believed that it was this beautiful woman who had been his evil genius. Together they agreed to die, after she had convinced him that it was someone else who had been guilty of tracbery. It was decided that they should both take poison on a certain night in the early part of 1916. The young British officer was found dead at his quarters in Rome, but the woman was still alive to carry on her devilish work. VICTIM OF A JUDICIAL MURDER. “Tho most beautiful and most bewitching devil I have ever mot,’’ was how another of her victims described 'rer. and tho description was well merited. While the young officer with whom she had played so shamefully was being carried to a suicide’s grave this woman was posing as a friend of the Allies, and denouncing as a traitor an obscure French officer whom she bad first of all tried to corrupt. Strange as it may seem her denunciation was believed, such was her influence in high places, and this unfortunate man was shot as a traitor to France, New facts that have come into tbe possession of the Italian Secret Service suggest that this man was the victim of a judicial murder of a particularly cruel kind, and one of the matters to be gone into in the inquiry hy the Italian authorities is the responsibility for the condemnation of this officer. The strange thing is that the French Government made no effort to save him, but left him to be dealt with by the Italians, who condemned him on the perjured evidence of Dora Charlton and her friends. The next event of importance in the career of this terrible woman is in connection with the. great disaster of Caporetto. There, is not the least doubt that she it was who supplied the. Gennan-Austrian command with the' secrets of the Allied positions in Italy that enabled the disastrous blow to he struck nt tbe moment when Italy was least prepared for it. She wormed the secrets out of officers whom she had fascinated, and some of these unfortunate men perished in the crowning disaster of Caporetto, victims of the terrible woman as much a-s any of tho women who perished at the hands of the French Bluebeard. DISCOVERY MADE IN BERLIN. The truth about the perfidy of this woman was discovered not in Rome, but in Berlin, and it was sent to the Allied Governments, who bad inquiries made, * and satisfied themselves that there was no doubt she had been carrying on her nefarious work from tlje sarly days of the war. Orders for her arrest were issued, but from some of her associates she seems to have received timely warning- She fled, and was followed to Turin, where she committed suicide, when she found that all was discovered. The Germans were so satisfied with tho work of this woman in Italy that they repeatedly urged her to get to France. She made several attempts, but failed, and then she tried to get into the United Kingdom through the medium of the Red Cross:* Fortunately, she was not admitted, but, so far, no suspicion attached to her presence in Rome, and she .was allowed the same facilities for fascinating Allied officers and worming out of them the secrets for which the Germans were paying so much. Miss Charlton was of great assistance to her employers in supplying information in the Mediterranean. There is only too much reason to believe that she knew with the most amazing accuracy the movements of British transports in this region, and was able to advise the enemy so that measures were taken, a fact that accounts for tbe success of the submarines in the Mediterranean. AN UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL. Of her work in this direction ncr German employers say:—“lt cannot be doubted that our Secret Sendee was most efficient in tbe Italian zone. We obtained of the disposition and projected movements of onr enemies more accurate information than we had with regard to any other region, and nowhere were our submarines more successful against enemy transports than in the Mediterranean. That is due very largely to the efficiency of our agent, the American, Miss Charlton.” It was this entirely unsolicited testimonial to the work of Aliss Charlton as a spy that led to her undoing. How it came to be sent to the Allies is a matter that cannot be disclosed at the moment, because the life of a man still in Berlin might pay the penaltv, if the enemy knew; but the evidence since amassed against this woman is of the most convincing character " indeed, arid, had she elected to take her trial’ she could hardly hare escaned.