11. Austria Hungary’s Chief Spy Catcher Was a Spy
Alfred Redl (1864 – 1913) was an Austro-Hungarian Army officer who rose from humble origins to become counterintelligence chief from 1900 to 1912, in charge of tracking down and rooting out traitors and spies. However, Redl was gay, at a time when homosexuality was a serious taboo. Russian intelligence learned of Redl’s homosexuality, entrapped him in a compromising position, and caught it on camera. They then blackmailed him into treason, sweetening the extortion with the offer of money in exchange for secrets. Redl accepted, and in 1902 he passed on to the Russians Austria-Hungary’s war plans. When word reached the Austrians that the Russians had a copy of their war plans, Redl was tasked with finding the traitor.
So he unmasked minor Russian agents, who were fed him by his tsarist sypmasters, and framed innocent Austro-Hungarian officers with falsified evidence. That enhanced his reputation as a brilliant counterintelligence chief. Over the next decade, Redl sold the Russians Austro-Hungarian mobilization plans, army orders, ciphers, codes, maps, reports on road and rail conditions, and other secrets. His handlers’ sloppiness finally ended his career. In 1912, postal censors intercepted envelopes stuffed with cash and nothing else, but with registration receipts tracing back to addresses abroad that were known to be used by Russian and French intelligence. A sting operation was set up, the envelopes were delivered under surveillance, and Redl showed up to claim them. Arrested, he confessed to treason, then committed suicide.
