It’s 1943, and the war in Europe is raging. The United States and the Allies are looking for every way to gain an advantage over the Axis powers.
And that, of course, includes espionage.
This is where a 20-year-old model from New York comes in. Aline Griffith was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS – which, of course, later became the CIA.
At “spy school” Aline learned the essentials of being a spy, including how to kill when necessary,
She was then posted to Madrid, Spain, where she became active as a socialite, scooping up intelligence from the gossip she overheard.
After the war, Aline married a Spanish aristocrat, eventually acquiring the title Aline, Countess of Romanones.
And in 1987 she wrote a bestselling book about her World War II spying, called The Spy Wore Red. I first met her the following year.
So here now, from 1988, Aline, Countess of Romanones.
Aline Countess of Romanones, died in 2017. She was 94.