Meet Betty Pack, the Enigmatic World War II Spy Codenamed Cynthia

Betty Pack (née Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, also known as Elizabeth Thorpe Pack or Amy Brousse), codenamed “Cynthia,” was a daring American-born spy who worked for British MI6 (via British Security Coordination) and later the U.S. OSS during World War II. She is often remembered as one of the most effective “honey trap” operatives of the era, using her beauty, charm, intelligence, and social skills to seduce high-ranking diplomats and officials, extracting critical secrets that aided the Allies.

Born on November 22, 1910, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a U.S. Marine Corps officer father (George C. Thorpe) and a socially prominent mother (Cora Wells Thorpe, daughter of a state senator), Betty grew up in a well-traveled, privileged environment. The family lived in places like Washington, D.C., Cuba, and Hawaii. She was intelligent and multilingual, excelling in languages, and moved in elite social circles.

At 19, she married British diplomat Arthur Pack (much older than her) after becoming pregnant; the child was placed in foster care. The marriage was unhappy, but it gave her access to diplomatic circles worldwide.

Betty on her wedding day.

Her spy career began informally during the Spanish Civil War while in Madrid with her husband. She helped smuggle people to safety and engaged in other risky activities, which caught the attention of British intelligence. By the late 1930s, she was formally recruited by MI6.

Key early work came in Warsaw, Poland (around 1937–1938), where she seduced Count Michał Łubieński, an aide to Poland’s foreign minister. Through their relationship, she gathered intelligence on German intentions (including plans regarding Czechoslovakia) and crucial details about Polish progress in breaking the German Enigma machine codes. This information contributed to the broader Allied effort to crack Enigma at Bletchley Park.

In Washington, D.C., working under the codename Cynthia for British Security Coordination (led by William Stephenson, “Intrepid”), she targeted Italian naval attaché Admiral Alberto Lais. Using seduction and charm, she obtained or facilitated access to Italian cipher books. This intelligence helped the British Royal Navy cripple the Italian fleet at the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941.

Her most famous exploit involved seducing Charles Emmanuel Brousse, a Vichy French press attaché (and WWI fighter ace) in Washington. She won his trust and cooperation. Together, they orchestrated a bold operation to steal naval codebooks from a locked safe in the heavily guarded Vichy French embassy.They cultivated the night watchman by staging loud “romantic” rendezvous. On the critical night (around June 1942), Betty reportedly stripped naked (wearing only pearls and heels in some accounts) to distract the guard if interrupted. With help from a safecracker (“the Georgia Cracker”), they photographed the codes. These were rushed to Bletchley Park and the OSS.

This intelligence was pivotal for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942. It allowed the Allies to anticipate Vichy French naval responses, leading to minimal resistance, marking a major turning point in the war (as Winston Churchill called it, “the end of the beginning”). OSS officials credited it with changing the course of the conflict.

Betty worked for both British and American intelligence and was praised by figures like Stephenson (“the greatest unsung heroine of the war”) and OSS chief William “Wild Bill” Donovan.

After the war, she divorced Arthur Pack (who later died by suicide) and married Charles Brousse. They lived in France, where she died of cancer on December 1, 1963, at age 53. Her full story remained classified for decades.

She has been the subject of biographies like Howard Blum’s The Last Goodnight (drawing on declassified files and her papers) and earlier works like Cast No Shadow by Mary S. Lovell. Her life inspired plays, musicals, and discussions of a potential film (with interest from Jennifer Lawrence at one point). Time magazine once called her a “Mata Hari from Minnesota” or “blonde Bond.”

Betty Pack embodied a mix of courage, resourcefulness, moral ambiguity, and personal restlessness. When later asked if she felt any shame about weaponizing her sexuality for espionage, Pack remained fiercely unapologetic, stating: “Ashamed? Not in the least, my superiors told me that the results of my work saved thousands of British and American lives.... It involved me in situations from which ‘respectable’ women draw back – but mine was total commitment. Wars are not won by respectable methods.”

Betty in her younger years.

Betty in her later years.

Her story highlights the vital, often overlooked roles of women in WWII intelligence, blending glamour, intellect, and high-stakes daring.