Spies are the ultimate conspiracy characters. They make their careers by stealing information and hiding the truth. The hallmark of a superb spy is anonymity — if they do their job right, we will never know who they are or what they did. But a bad spy usually pays for his incompetence with his freedom — or his life. Are the spies in this gallery just incompetent or were they deliberately sacrificed to divert attention from a larger plot?

Gallery by Mack Maloney.