It is true that Nathan Hale was a schoolteacher who was hanged for spying on the British troops.
He graduated from Yale College and became a teacher, but later became a soldier and spy for the American Continental Army.
On one intelligence gathering mission in New York however, he was caught by the British and hanged.
He was considered an American hero and in 1985 he became the official state hero of Connecticut, the place he was born.
