Born: November 25, 1886
Died: 1937?

A former member of the Communist Party, Juliet Stuart Poyntz was trained in Soviet espionage. After brief service as a spy for the Soviets, she became disillusioned and announced her plan to retire—and was never heard from again.

A well-educated woman

Poyntz was born on November 25, 1886, in Omaha, Nebraska, to an Irish Catholic family. Her parents were Alice E. Poyntz and John J. Poyntz, a lawyer. An intellectually gifted young woman, Poyntz graduated from Barnard College with high honors in 1907. In 1910, at a time when few women pursued graduate degrees, she earned a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York. She also attended the prestigious London School of Economics at London University in England (1910–1911) and Oxford University, in Oxford, England (1911–1912).

Poyntz’s education enabled her to land research positions in a number of...