A real-life femme fatale who posed as a prostitute to spy for the Allies in WWII died this week at the age of 86. Peggy Taylor was born in France in 1920, & joined the Resistance after her mother was sent to a German concentration camp. For the duration of the war, she never left home without her lipstick, Chanel #5, & her revolver, with which she blew away a Gestapo colonel when she was only 21:

"I saw him come out of his house & cross the street to his car," she recalled. Spotting her, he asked if they were still meeting for dinner. "I took my gun out of my purse. Bang. He fell down & I left … It was quick & easy & I was happy to do it since my mother was being tortured in a concentration camp."

Taylor would doll herself up as a tart, then bicycle up & down the French coast - in pumps! - blowing kisses at German soldiers, gaining info that may have been critical to setting the date for D-Day. The chaplain at the military hospital where she died said

"We walk in freedom because of the kind of people who take chances & risks — who stand for those who can’t stand for themselves … She knew how to live life to the fullest. She would always tell people, Don’t ever jump out of a plane in high heels."

H/t Jeremayakovka