7. When the Spy Catcher is a Spy
Austro-Hungarian Alfred Redl (1864 – 1913) rose through that empire’s officer ranks to become chief of counterintelligence from 1900 to 1912. In that capacity, he was in charge of tracking down and rooting out traitors and spies.
In a twist no one at the time saw coming, Redl was himself a traitor and a spy. He betrayed his country and sold its secrets to its main rival and likeliest future enemy, Tsarist Russia, whose chief spy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire he became. It is suspected that he also spied for both the French and Italians in exchange for money.