0:00

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

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of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild

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from Aaron Minkie. Listener discretion

0:07

is advised. In

0:13

nineteen fifty one, the passenger ship

0:16

Ruhein was set to embark

0:18

on its maiden voyage, a

0:20

four month trip from London to

0:22

New Zealand. For the crew,

0:24

their uniform required that they all

0:26

wear whatever medals or ribbons they had

0:28

been awarded during the Second World

0:30

War. Most of the stewards

0:33

had served, and some even had

0:35

a few glistening gold medals that made them

0:37

puff out their chests proudly while chatting

0:39

with the guests. But then there

0:41

was one Polish maid who

0:43

caused a mixture of fascination

0:46

and consternation among

0:48

her colleagues. Her name

0:50

was Christina Scarbeck, although

0:52

she went by the Anglicized name

0:55

Christine Granville, and

0:57

though her job on the ship was sweeping

0:59

and dying bedrooms and bathrooms,

1:02

her uniform was a constellation

1:05

of military acclaim

1:07

nearly a dozen medals and honors

1:09

that would be impressive on a general medals

1:12

that included the incredibly prestigious

1:14

French Quadi Guerre and the British

1:17

George Medal. She's

1:19

lying clearly. Some of the

1:21

other maids whispered to each other, rolling

1:24

their eyes whenever the male passengers

1:26

on the ship sought out Christina

1:28

for conversation. She probably

1:31

stole those medals, or got them from a guy

1:33

she slept with. Though Christina

1:35

had quickly charmed many of the passengers

1:38

on the ruine, her coworkers

1:40

were suspicious and resentful

1:43

of the attention that she got. Only

1:45

one steward, an awkward looking

1:48

man named Dennis Muldoni, stood

1:50

up for her when the rest of the crew mocked

1:52

her. Thank you, Christina

1:55

said to Muldoni, after he deflected

1:57

a particularly vicious act us

1:59

a shim that one of the other maids

2:01

had made against her. Christina

2:04

smiled at him, that charming

2:06

smile that had made dozens of men across

2:08

Europe fall in love with her. Muldoni

2:11

was smitten. More

2:14

than smitten, he became well

2:16

obsessed. He followed

2:18

Christina after they docked, wrote

2:20

her dozens of letters, and watched

2:23

her in the small hotel in London

2:25

where she was staying, watching as

2:27

she came and went. He

2:29

wanted to know everything about

2:32

her. Who was this woman?

2:34

The maid with a dozen medals

2:36

on their chest? But even

2:39

he would never fully be able to understand

2:42

the strange path that Christina's life

2:44

had taken the adventures

2:46

of a woman driven by passion and

2:48

by bravery, who had wanted to

2:50

live life to the fullest. Even

2:53

those who loved Christina Scarbuck would

2:55

never fully know her during

2:58

her life or after her death.

3:01

I'm Danish Schwartz and

3:03

this is noble blood. As

3:11

the century turned into the

3:13

tent, an impoverished

3:15

count in Poland married the daughter

3:17

of a wealthy Jewish banker. It

3:20

was a marriage of convenience, not love.

3:23

The count used his new bride's dowry

3:25

to pay off his debts. The

3:27

pair did go on to have two children, but

3:30

the count continued to have debts.

3:33

He spent lavishly and gambled

3:35

indiscriminately, and so by

3:37

the time the count finally died of tuberculosis,

3:40

the family had already been forced

3:43

to sell their lavish worse at home. The

3:45

widowed countess barely had enough money

3:48

to support herself, and so she

3:50

and her children would need to work

3:52

for a living. Their

3:54

daughter, Christina, aged two,

3:57

quickly found work at a Fiat dealership.

4:00

Christina was beautiful and

4:02

charming. She had actually placed

4:05

six that year in the Miss

4:07

Polonna beauty contest. But

4:09

the beauty queen was not suited to

4:12

a life of office work. The

4:14

clerical work in the car dealership was

4:16

dull and monotonous,

4:18

and to make matters worse, the office

4:21

was above the poorly ventilated garage,

4:24

so Christina breathed in so

4:26

much exhaust that her lungs

4:28

would have permanent scars on them,

4:31

scars that you would have for the rest of her life.

4:34

She dreamed of a much bigger life

4:36

for herself, something exciting

4:39

and glamorous. She was

4:41

more than ready then to say yes

4:43

immediately when a businessman

4:45

named Gusta Getlich came into the

4:48

dealership one day and proposed

4:50

to her. The marriage

4:52

wouldn't last long. Within a few

4:54

short years they were divorced, but thanks

4:56

to the settlement, Christina now at least

4:59

had enough money to to live relatively

5:01

independently in

5:03

inexpensive in bohemian but still

5:05

fashionable apartments in the city. She's

5:09

a nice girl, her ex husband would

5:11

say, but she's always looking for change.

5:14

She's young, and she's romantic. As

5:21

a young woman, Christina found that

5:23

she was more compatible

5:26

with the single lifestyle. She

5:28

drank champagne with her friends wore

5:30

silk stockings and orbited a circle

5:33

of equally glamorous writers,

5:35

poets, and politicians. Her

5:37

status as a young divorcee seemed

5:40

glamorous when she spun it out at cocktail

5:43

parties, but Christina soon

5:45

learned that it was making things very hard

5:48

when it came to finding another husband

5:50

for herself. She was already

5:52

getting a reputation that

5:55

she was more suited to being a mistress

5:57

than a wife, and that she wasn't the

5:59

kind of girl that a respectable,

6:02

prominent Polish man would want for his

6:04

wife. If she had any doubts

6:06

as to her prospects, well, those

6:09

doubts would soon be put to rest. For

6:12

a few months, Christina had been dating a

6:14

young man named Adam, with whom she

6:16

fell in love. She was half expecting

6:19

a proposal when Christina accepted

6:21

an invitation from Adam's mother to

6:24

meet her for tea at her house. Adam's

6:27

mother squeezed lemon into

6:30

her mug of tea and stirred

6:32

with the silver spoon as

6:34

she looked Christina up and down.

6:38

The mother informed Christina

6:40

that her relationship with her son was

6:43

over. Christina was

6:45

broken up with by her boyfriend's

6:47

mother. In her loneliest

6:50

moments, Christina wondered if she was

6:52

destined to be alone forever, a

6:55

divorcee, verging on penniless,

6:57

nearing the end of her twenties, and bouncing

6:59

from meaningless relationship to meaningless

7:02

relationship, and then, like

7:04

it always happens, life

7:06

found her where she least expected

7:09

it. Christina

7:13

had been skiing since she was a young woman,

7:15

particularly in the mountains of southern

7:18

Poland, where doctors had told her

7:20

that the air would help her scarred lungs.

7:23

While skiing down a particularly

7:25

treacherous slope during a snowstorm,

7:28

Christina's wooden skis

7:30

slid on the ice and she flew

7:33

off the trail, only to be rescued,

7:36

literally swept off her feet by

7:38

a hulking man over six feet

7:41

tall, who reached out his arms

7:43

to grab her. His name

7:45

was Yurjah gishki. Yrjah

7:48

was approaching fifty, but he was

7:50

charming, smart, and worldly

7:52

in a way that drew Christina towards him.

7:55

Unlike Christina, he hadn't come from

7:57

a noble family. His father

8:00

was well off, but Usia had

8:02

no interest in the responsible

8:04

future that his father envisioned for

8:06

him. He failed out of an engineering

8:09

course and set out for America,

8:11

where his list of jobs reads

8:13

a bit like an early nineteen hundreds

8:15

Forrest Gump. Rsia was

8:17

a prospector, a trapper and actual

8:20

cowboy, and even a chauffeur for

8:22

J. D. Rockefeller. Eventually,

8:25

his skills with language and his connections

8:28

brought him to a job with the Polish

8:31

legation in Washington. D c Usiah

8:34

helped Poland's first ever Olympic

8:36

team prepared to compete in France,

8:39

and then he joined an expedition with a Polish

8:41

explorer in Africa, where he

8:43

hunted elephants and survived malaria,

8:46

only to make it back to Poland and run

8:48

into Christina on the ski slope.

8:51

Here was the man Christina had been waiting

8:54

for, someone who was mature

8:56

and financially secure, but

8:58

above all interesting. The

9:00

pair were married and they set off for Europe

9:03

together. The photo in Christina's

9:05

passport was one of the head shots

9:08

she had used in the Misspolonia pageant.

9:11

Yujiah was a powerful man, and he was

9:13

domineering. It didn't take

9:15

long for Christina to feel claustrophobic

9:19

in her role as a diplomat's wife.

9:22

Still in nineteen thirty eight Yrsiah

9:25

was assigned to help open a Polish consulate

9:27

in Kenya, and so the pair moved

9:29

to London while they prepared for their journey

9:32

together to Africa. What Christina

9:34

hoped at least would be a new start,

9:37

a type of adventure that would

9:39

make her marriage feel well worthwhile

9:42

again. On the ship

9:44

to South Africa, though Christina began

9:46

to wonder if she had made a mistake

9:49

in her marriage. Yujiah

9:51

had become more of a which she called

9:54

quote Sfengali than

9:56

husband. He dominated

9:58

her life in a way that she hadn't anticipated.

10:02

Unfortunately, Christina's

10:04

marriage would soon be the least of her

10:06

problems. The pair reached

10:08

Johannesburg just days before

10:11

Hitler invaded Poland. The

10:19

two of them, Poles in Africa,

10:22

were panicked and terrified, terrified

10:25

for their loved ones and for the fate of

10:27

their beloved country, and they

10:30

were five thousand miles away, unable

10:32

to do anything to help. Of

10:35

course, they immediately turned around. They

10:38

sold their car in Cape Town and boarded

10:40

a ship for Southampton, embarking

10:42

on what would become a journey fraught

10:45

with distress, the constant

10:47

worry about what was happening in Poland,

10:49

and the feeling of impotence that they weren't

10:52

doing anything to help. Every

10:54

morning they received more news

10:57

on the radio about the German

10:59

armies steady advance. On

11:02

September, one of the British

11:05

officers aboard the ship updated

11:08

the lost and found board in the

11:10

ship's common area. Underneath

11:12

a notice for a lost pair

11:14

of ladies panties was a new

11:17

notice on the bulletin board. It

11:19

read lost Warsaw.

11:27

By the time Christina and Yuge finally

11:30

reached Europe, two hundred

11:32

thousand Polish men and women

11:35

were dead, arrested and killed

11:37

by the German invaders. Neither

11:40

had any idea as to the fate of their

11:42

families. Usa tried

11:45

to join the military in France, but

11:47

his advanced age over fifty at

11:49

this point, combined with numerous

11:51

skiing injuries, including a recovering

11:54

broken collar bone, meant

11:56

that he was rejected for service. Christina

12:00

also attempted to enroll in active combat,

12:03

but being a woman, she was rejected

12:05

as well. But Christina

12:07

was persistent. She knew that

12:10

with her language skills, her social

12:12

contact she had made across Europe, she

12:14

would be an asset to the resistance, and

12:17

so with her relationship with her husband dissolved

12:19

in all but name, Christina built

12:21

a new future for herself as

12:24

an agent with the British Secret

12:26

Special Operations Executive or

12:29

s o E. The organization

12:32

wasn't itself fully formed yet, and

12:34

it wouldn't allow women to enlist technically

12:36

for another two years, but Christina

12:39

demanded that she'd be put to use.

12:42

I know Poland, she said, I know

12:44

the mountains to the south. I can ski

12:46

across the border of Hungary and into occupied

12:49

territory. Just let me,

12:52

and so they did. Christina

12:54

convinced a former Polish Olympic

12:56

skier to join her skiing

12:58

across the Tatram Mountains, where she

13:01

helped to deliver British propaganda

13:03

and news material to underground

13:05

printing presses in Poland so

13:07

that they could reprint and distribute

13:09

them. Christina recognized

13:12

how starved the Polish people were

13:14

for news. Their only source

13:16

of information about what was happening around

13:18

them was the German propaganda,

13:21

and as she brought information in, she

13:24

also smuggled secrets out,

13:26

data and information on Germany's

13:28

shipments and transportations.

13:31

She traveled back and forth between

13:34

then neutral Hungary and Poland undercover

13:37

as a journalist. Her first

13:39

time back in Poland, she kept a hat

13:41

low over her head so she wouldn't be

13:43

recognized by any friend. Still,

13:46

an old acquaintance came up to her at

13:48

a cafe one morning, Christina,

13:51

Christina Scarback, What in Heaven's

13:54

name are you doing here? We all heard you

13:56

went abroad. Christina

13:58

shook her head. I'm sorry, that's

14:00

not me. I'm not Christina.

14:03

Why how odd? The woman, oblivious

14:06

exclaimed, I could have sworn you

14:08

were my friend, Christina Scarback. It's

14:10

uncanny people were

14:13

looking now. Christina just

14:15

shook her head and to ally suspicion,

14:18

she hung around a little while longer, pretending

14:21

that she hadn't been deeply spooked

14:23

by what had just occurred. How

14:25

risky it was for her, as a British

14:27

agent to be moving in occupied

14:30

territory. On her

14:32

final visit to Poland, she met

14:34

with her mother in secret. Christina

14:37

had never registered as a Jew, but her

14:39

mother had. Christina knew

14:42

what Germany was doing around

14:44

Eastern Europe, and she begged

14:46

her mother to leave, to stay in a

14:48

cabin outside the city until she could

14:51

be smuggled out. Her

14:53

mother refused. She was

14:55

loyal to Poland and she was teaching

14:57

an underground French class. She

14:59

were a used to leave her students. Maybe

15:02

she didn't believe how bad it would become, or

15:04

didn't want to believe. Maybe

15:06

she was scared. It was the

15:08

last time Christina saw her mother.

15:11

Countess Stefanie scar Buck, was killed

15:14

by Nazis in a Warsaw prison.

15:21

Soon it was too risky for Christina

15:24

to even remain in Hungry, as

15:26

Hungry, too fell to the occupying

15:28

Nazi forces. In Budapest,

15:31

she connected with another Polish agent

15:33

working for the British, a man named

15:36

Andreas Kowski, who would go

15:38

by the alias Andrew Kennedy.

15:41

Don't you remember me, he said, grinning

15:43

when he shook Christina's hand. We

15:45

used to have play dates when we were toddlers.

15:48

My father took me over to play at your house

15:50

in Warsaw when he had business meetings with

15:52

your father. Andre's

15:54

fell in love with Christina almost immediately.

15:58

He was a brilliant tactician and dedicated

16:00

Polish patriot. Thanks

16:03

to a hunting accident before the war,

16:05

where a friend accidentally shot him in

16:07

the foot, he was missing most

16:09

of one leg, but still he had

16:11

served with the Polish Army during the invasion

16:14

and had been awarded their highest honor

16:16

for bravery. From

16:18

the time he and Christina

16:20

reconnected in Hungary, they would

16:22

remain associates, partners,

16:25

and sometimes lovers for the rest

16:27

of their lives. While working

16:29

in Budapest, the pair was captured

16:32

by Hungarian police officers and

16:34

turned over to the Gestapo for questioning.

16:38

Ever, the quick thinker Christina

16:40

bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood,

16:43

which she then coughed all over herself

16:46

and the Gestapo guards. She

16:48

claimed to have tuberculosis,

16:50

and an X ray scan revealed

16:52

the scars on her lungs remnants

16:55

from her time working at the Fiat dealership,

16:58

but the Hungarian police and Gestapo

17:00

didn't know that. Disgusted

17:03

at this woman, presumably moments away

17:05

from dying of active tuberculosis,

17:08

the Gestapo released Christina and Andres

17:11

from custody. The

17:13

pair realized that they needed to get out

17:15

of occupied territory.

17:17

They got a pair of fake passports

17:19

in which Christina became Christine

17:22

Granville and took seven years

17:24

off her age. In the trunk

17:26

of a Chrysler driven by an ambassador,

17:29

Christina made it to Yugoslavia and

17:31

then Bulgaria, Andres

17:34

drove across the border in an opal, claiming

17:37

that he owned a car dealership and

17:39

that he was driving a car that he had sold

17:41

to deliver it from

17:43

Bulgaria. Christina Andres were

17:45

able to pass along the military intel

17:48

that would eventually help convince Winston

17:50

Churchill that Germany was planning

17:53

an invasion of the Soviet Union.

17:56

They say that Winston Churchill himself

17:58

actually looked at the micro film

18:00

that Christina delivered. From

18:08

this point on, the stories of Christina's

18:11

various exploits in the war just

18:13

become a string of heroic

18:15

anecdotes, new lovers,

18:17

new countries, new missions. But

18:20

I think my favorite story, the one that best

18:23

embodies her combination of quick

18:25

thinking and independent spirit, came

18:28

after she had parachuted into France

18:30

to join the resistance there as

18:32

part of a network led by a man named

18:35

Francis camer. One

18:37

afternoon, three agents, including

18:39

the network's leader, came here. We're driving

18:42

through the French countryside when

18:44

they hit an unexpected Gestapo

18:46

roadblock. The three

18:48

men, almost immediately identified

18:51

as agents, were brought to a nearby

18:53

prison and sentenced to be

18:55

executed. Christina

18:58

told the rest of the resistance group that they

19:00

needed to get them out. It's

19:02

too risky. The rest of the group said,

19:05

we'll see about that, Christina replied.

19:08

She rode her bicycle twenty

19:10

five miles to the Digna prison, where

19:13

she suspected that the three captors were

19:15

being kept, but she couldn't be sure,

19:18

and so she circled the walls of the prison,

19:20

humming the song Frankie and Johnny,

19:23

an old song that she and Camaire had sung together.

19:26

From the other side of the stone walls,

19:29

she heard humming back the

19:31

counter melody to what she herself

19:34

was humming. The agents were

19:36

inside. Gathering

19:38

herself up, Christina approached

19:41

the guard of the prison and

19:43

began one of the most dangerous feints

19:45

possible, I admit, she

19:48

said, I'm a British agent. In

19:50

fact, I am the wife of one of

19:52

your captives, Francis Camire, and

19:54

the niece of General Bernard Montgomery.

19:57

Of course, she was neither. I'm

20:00

not supposed to be here, she said, but I

20:03

care about my husband, and so I'm going to be

20:05

straight with you. You and I both

20:07

know that Allied forces landed in Normandy

20:10

last month, But what you don't know is

20:12

they made it through the country and they're just miles

20:15

away. Now they weren't, but

20:17

Christina continued, and when

20:20

they reach your prison and find out you killed

20:22

these men, my husband and his friends,

20:24

there is going to be hell to

20:26

pay. I don't need to tell you

20:29

that the soldiers aren't going to have mercy

20:31

on you. Retribution

20:33

on you personally will be swift

20:36

and terrible. The

20:38

nervous guard relented. Some

20:41

sources say that she paid them off with

20:43

two million francs that she had wired to her,

20:46

or that the money was air dropped directly

20:48

to her, but the sources on that

20:50

payment isn't quite clear. What

20:53

is clear is that the three resistance

20:55

men were led from their cells in

20:58

the early hours of the morning, sure

21:00

that they were being taken into the yard to be shot.

21:04

Instead, as they shielded their eyes

21:06

from the sun, they saw Christina

21:08

Scarback, leaning on the door

21:10

of an idling car to take

21:12

them back to safety.

21:19

Christina often spoke half jokingly

21:22

about her horror of peace, how

21:25

nervous she was for the end of the war

21:27

when she would no longer have a job

21:29

or a noble purpose. From

21:32

the time the war ended, she had

21:34

a pension that lasted five months

21:36

from the s Oe, but

21:39

her application British citizenship

21:42

kept getting tangled up and delayed

21:44

in bureaucracy. Unable

21:47

to find a government position without

21:49

citizenship, she bounced

21:52

between a few odd jobs in London.

21:54

Too proud to take any gifts

21:57

or money from friends, Christina

21:59

worked as a telephone operator, saleswoman,

22:02

waitress, and then finally

22:05

as a steward on the passenger liner

22:07

Rouhin, one of the

22:10

three men that she had rescued in France.

22:12

Zann Fielding wrote of Christina

22:15

in his memoirs about how

22:17

she chose to work on board a ship

22:19

rather than take any of her friend's

22:21

hospitality. Quote

22:24

she embarked on a life of uncertain

22:26

travel, as though anxious to

22:29

reproduce in peacetime the

22:31

hazards she had known during war.

22:34

On board the Rouhin as a foreigner

22:37

with a strange array of impressive

22:39

medals, the rest of the crew

22:41

quickly grew to resent her, while

22:44

the rest of the crew, except for Dennis

22:46

Muldoni. He stood up for

22:48

her that one time and Christina had thanked

22:51

him, and from then the two became

22:53

friendly. He claimed later

22:55

that they were lovers, but Christina

22:57

described him to a friend as obstinate

23:00

and terrifying. Once

23:03

he latched his attention onto Christina,

23:05

he just wouldn't let go. Christina

23:08

was still a relatively young woman, younger

23:11

even according to her passport, and

23:14

while on leave from the ship in London,

23:16

she made the decision that she would marry

23:19

Andres. After all, he

23:21

had been proposing to her continually.

23:24

He had loved her his entire life, and

23:26

she did love him too. In her way.

23:29

She had been running for so long,

23:31

trying to find that rush of adventure,

23:34

but maybe love could be an adventure

23:36

too. She was living

23:38

at a hotel in London, the Shelburne,

23:41

but maybe it was time for her to build a more

23:43

permanent life, and

23:45

so, to the delight of Andres, plans

23:48

were made she would meet him in Belgium

23:50

and the two would get married and continue

23:53

on together to build a life together. She

23:56

packed her suitcase the night before her

23:58

flight. She was clothes,

24:01

but also stowed away in the bottom

24:03

of the trunk her old s

24:05

Oe wireless radio and

24:08

the commando knife that she had always kept

24:10

on her person while in service. Even

24:12

as she was flying away to a more

24:15

stable life of marriage, she was

24:17

still prepared for adventure, but

24:24

her flight was canceled because of an engine

24:27

failure and pushed back to the following

24:29

morning, and so Christina had

24:31

one extra day in London. That

24:34

day, she met a friend for coffee

24:36

and neatly laid out her travel outfit

24:38

on her chair. For the next morning, she

24:41

borrowed an ink and pen from the

24:43

hotel housekeeper and neatly

24:45

labeled her linens with her name so

24:47

that she could put them in storage. And

24:50

then that night she met a few more friends

24:52

for supper before she boarded

24:54

the two and walked from the station

24:56

back to the hotel. Unbeknownst

24:59

to her, Dennis Muldoney was

25:02

watching her. He slipped

25:04

into the shellbourne after her and

25:06

waited until she was in the stairwell to

25:08

confront her. He demanded

25:11

his letters back. I don't

25:13

have them, Christina said, I burned

25:15

them. Muldoni sputtered

25:18

in something like despair. To

25:20

Christina, he was pathetic,

25:23

he had no self respect, he

25:25

was obtuse, and worse than that,

25:27

he was boring. There's

25:29

nothing here between us, Dennis,

25:32

she said. He charged

25:34

at her. A porter heard

25:37

Christina shout, get off of me, and

25:39

he raced into the stairwell. Where he

25:41

saw a man pressing Christina

25:44

against the wall. The porter assumed

25:46

that the man was forcing himself onto

25:48

her, and so he ran ahead and

25:50

yanked the man off of her. Christina

25:53

crumpled to the floor. Dennis

25:56

muldoney had stabbed her with

25:59

a five and a half blade into

26:01

her chest, and Christina

26:03

Scarbuck was already dead.

26:06

Oh Christine, Dennis Muldoney

26:09

shouted, I did it because I loved

26:11

her. The police arrived

26:13

shortly after, and Maldoni offered

26:15

his full confession, but he

26:17

also tried to pour a bottle of powdered aspirin

26:20

into his mouth that the police had to not go

26:22

out of his hands. In the end,

26:24

he was as impatient as Christina.

26:27

I killed her. He told the police, let's

26:30

get away from here and get it over quickly.

26:33

Andres flew to London the next morning

26:35

and identified the body. He

26:38

was the last to say goodbye to her. Christina

26:50

Scarbuck was buried in the cemetery

26:52

of Kensal Green in London under

26:55

a dusting of Polish soil, with

26:57

all of her medals and honors buried

26:59

with her pinned on a velvet

27:01

cushion. The Polish

27:03

national anthem was sung as the coffin

27:06

was lowered into the ground. During

27:08

the funeral, a strong gust of wind

27:11

blew over the iron cross at

27:13

the head of her grave, and Andres

27:15

raced forward to write it. He

27:17

would be protecting Christina and her

27:19

reputation for the rest of his life,

27:23

until he would eventually be buried

27:25

too. His ashes at

27:27

the foot of Christina's grave. Her

27:30

death certificate, which said that she was

27:33

thirty seven, got her age

27:35

rung. Christina Scarbuck

27:37

was forty four when she died, killed

27:40

by a man who claimed he loved her but

27:42

only wanted to possess her. She

27:44

was the first female British Special

27:47

agent and their longest serving

27:49

female agent. A woman

27:51

who had lived a life filled with adventure

27:53

and bravery, the daughter

27:56

of a count and a Jewish woman killed

27:58

by the Gestapo, who had lived

28:00

life only on her terms, who

28:03

had probably imagined death a thousand

28:05

times coming in the glory of battle

28:08

or in the line of duty, but

28:10

had died instead in a hotel stairwell.

28:23

That's the story of Christina Scarback. But

28:25

keep listening after a brief sponsor break

28:28

to hear a little bit more about her legacy.

28:41

Even if you've never heard of Christina Scarback

28:43

up until this podcast, there's a

28:45

good chance you've heard of one of the characters

28:48

that she's inspired in fiction. Rumor

28:51

has it that Ian Fleming, the author of

28:53

the James Bond novels, was

28:55

inspired by Christina while writing

28:58

the character of the double cross the agent

29:00

vesper Lynde in his novel

29:03

Casino Royale. Some

29:05

sources even claim that Fleming and Christina

29:07

were secretly lovers, although

29:10

some others argue that there's no evidence

29:12

the pair actually met in person. Ever, still

29:15

one can easily understand that Fleming

29:18

would have only needed to hear rumors

29:20

of this glamorous, globe trotting

29:22

beauty queen spy who spoke multiple

29:25

languages, and create in

29:27

his mind the architecture of what

29:29

would become that famous archetype,

29:31

the Bond Girl. Still,

29:34

I think one of Christina's biographers,

29:36

Claire Mali, says it best when

29:38

she says that in real life, Christina

29:41

wasn't a Bond Girl. Christina

29:44

Scarbuck was James Bond.

29:51

Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio

29:53

and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky.

29:56

The show was written and hosted by Dana Schwartz

29:58

and produced by Aaron Manky, Matt Frederick,

30:01

Alex Williams, and Trevor Young.

30:03

Noble Blood is on social media at Noble

30:06

Blood Tales, and you can learn more about

30:08

the show over at Noble blood Tales dot

30:10

com. For more podcasts from I Heart

30:12

Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app,

30:14

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

30:16

to your favorite shows. M