Minna Craucher

Minna Craucher (false name of Maria Vilhelmiina Lindell) was a Finnish socialite and spy.

Biography

Lindell was born on 23 August 1891 in poor conditions out of wedlock, in Pirkkala, Finland.

In her early life, she worked as a servant and prostitute and occasionally spent time in prison for theft.

In 1923, after her last prison sentence, Lindell obtained a position of a nanny in a family in Helsinki and accompanied the family to Germany. She acquired adequate skills in Swedish and German, along with the etiquette, providing her the abilities to create a new personality and a circle of acquaintances among journalists, authors, and officers.

She began working in advertising and subscription sales. She was a good storyteller. She worked for the weekly magazine Seura until 1929, and later for Aktivisti magazine of the radical Lapua movement.

She owned a salon in Töölö in Helsinki, which attracted members of the literary group Tulenkantajat and other young authors, thanks to its liberal alcohol policy and the exotic atmosphere – this was during the prohibition. The salon was inaccessible to the general public. It was alleged that she carried out her espionage activists in the salon.

Later, the salon served as the meeting place for the leaders of the Lapua movement. However, some of the leaders did not trust her and worried that she might leak information. On 8 March 1932, she was murdered by being shot in the head by Olavi Runolinna, a member of the Lapua movement.

She became the subject of several books and stories.