To Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, Virginia Hall was the most dangerous of all Allied spies. The Germans gave her the nickname ‘Artemis’. She was also the first civilian woman to win the Distinguished Service Cross, and she worked for the CIA for 15 years—until her retirement at age 60. Oh, yeah, and she accomplished all this with one leg plus a prosthetic she affectionately nicknamed “Cuthbert.”

Hall was a born adventurer and had an early interest in foreign service. After college she traveled in Europe and then worked at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. From there she took an assignment in Izmir, Turkey, where she unfortunately lost her left leg below the knee in a hunting accident. This was hardly a setback for Hall, who was fitted with a wooden leg and then took a position at the consulate in Venice, Italy. She applied for the foreign service but was rejected because of her missing limb. However, soon after, World War II broke out, and Hall joined the ambulance corps in France. She eventually volunteered for service with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), where she learned all sorts of spy skills—combat, codes, and communications. Here her disability was an asset: as a woman, an American, walking with a limp, she could move freely and without suspicion. For the SOE she established networks, facilitated daring escapes, and set up safe houses throughout the war. After the war ended, she worked in Italy gathering intelligence about the burgeoning communist movement there. She joined the CIA in the United States in 1951 and assisted the agency in covert actions—although, unfortunately, mostly from behind a desk—until her mandatory retirement in 1966.