Editing Mata Hari (section)

===Execution===
[[File:Margaretha Zelle voor de executie.jpg|thumb|Mugshot of Margaretha Zelle]]
Zelle was executed by a firing squad consisting of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on 15 October 1917. She was 41.<ref>{{cite news |last=Siegel |first=Rachel |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2017/10/15/new-picture-emerges-mata-hari-who-faced-firing-squad-years-ago/1LIx3r433WFzNRZ2KTHXuO/story.html |title=New picture emerges of Mata Hari, who faced firing squad 100 years ago |work=The Boston Globe |publisher=Washington Post |date=16 October 2017 |access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref> According to an eyewitness account by British reporter Henry Wales, she was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.<ref name="Polmer, Norman page 358"/>

A 1934 ''New Yorker'' article reported that at her execution, she wore "a neat Amazonian tailored suit, especially made for the occasion, and a pair of new white gloves",<ref>{{cite book |last=Flanner |first=Janet |year=1979 |title=Paris was Yesterday: 1925–1939 |place=New York |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-005068-4 |page=126}}</ref> though another account indicates she wore the same suit, low-cut blouse, and tricorn hat ensemble which had been picked out by her accusers for her to wear at trial, and which was still the only full, clean outfit which she had in prison.<ref name="Shipman 2007 450"/> Neither description matches photographic evidence. Wales recorded her death, saying that after the volley of shots rang out, "Slowly, inertly, she settled to her knees, her head up always, and without the slightest change of expression on her face. For the fraction of a second it seemed she tottered there, on her knees, gazing directly at those who had taken her life. Then she fell backward, bending at the waist, with her legs doubled up beneath her." A non-commissioned officer then walked up to her body, pulled out his revolver, and shot her in the head to make sure she was dead.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/matahari.htm |title=Execution of Mata Hari |work=Eyewitnesstohistory.com |date=19 October 1917 |access-date=15 October 2011}}</ref>