Velvalee
Dickinson
Doll Woman
During World War II, Velvalee Dickinson, who owned and managed a doll shop
in New York City, used correspondence about dolls to conceal information
about U.S. Naval forces she was attempting to convey to the Japanese via
South America.
Velvalee Malvena Dickinson
was born on October 12, 1893, in Sacramento, California, the daughter of
Otto and Elizabeth Blucher, also known as Blueher. Her father and mother
were both born in the United States. She graduated from Stanford University
in Palo Alto, California, in 1918, but did not receive her Bachelor of Arts
degree until January, 1937, because of an allegation that she had not returned
certain books to the University.
In the mid-1920s, Velvalee
Dickinson was employed in a San Francisco bank. She then took a position
with a brokerage company in San Francisco from 1928-1935; the company was
owned by her husband, Lee Terry Dickinson, for at least some of that time.
Subsequently, she obtained employment in the social services field in the
San Francisco area.
In 1937, Mrs. Dickinson
and her husband moved to New York City, where she obtained employment as
a doll saleswoman in a department store until December 31, 1937. Mrs. Dickinson
then began operating her own doll store, first at her residence at 680 Madison
Avenue, then at a separate store at 714 Madison Avenue.
In October, 1941,
she opened her store at 718 Madison Avenue, at which location she catered
to wealthy doll collectors and hobbyists interested in obtaining foreign,
regional, and antique dolls.
Mrs. Dickinson's husband assisted his wife in the operation of her
doll business by handling the accounting records of transactions,
including those involving
the sale of dolls to influential individuals throughout the United States.
Mr. Dickinson, who suffered from a heart ailment, died on March 29, 1943.
The FBI's interest in
Mrs. Dickinson stemmed from a letter about dolls intercepted by wartime censors
because of its unusual contents and brought to the Bureau's attention in
February, 1942. The letter, purportedly from a Portland, Oregon, woman to
an individual in Buenos Aires, Argentina, dealt with a "wonderful doll
hospital" and observed that the writer had left her three "Old
English dolls" for repairs. Also mentioned in the letter were "fish
nets" and "balloons."
FBI Laboratory cryptographers
examined the letter and concluded that the "three Old English dolls" probably
were three warships and the doll hospital was a shipyard where repairs were
made. They further concluded that the fishing nets referred to submarine
nets protecting ports on the West Coast, and that the reference to balloons
was intended to convey information about other defense installations on the
West Coast.
Based on the examination
of the above letter, the FBI began an investigation to determine whether
information about United States defense matters was being transmitted to
the enemy.
In the meantime, four
more letters addressed to the same individual in Buenos Aires began arriving
at the homes of the ostensible senders with the notation, "Address Unknown." These
letters were turned over to the FBI. The persons whose names had appeared
on the envelopes as the senders stated that the signatures on the letters
resembled theirs and that the letters contained correct information about
their personal lives and interest in dolls. The four emphatically denied,
however, that they had sent any of the letters.
One of these letters,
purportedly sent by a Springfield, Ohio, woman, had been postmarked New
York City. The letter, also dealing with dolls, contained the words, "Distroyed
YOUR" and in the same sentence made reference to a Mr. Shaw who had
been ill but would be back to work soon. Significantly, this letter was
written a short time after it became known that the Destroyer Shaw, which
had had
its bow blown off at Pearl Harbor, was being repaired in a West Coast shipyard
and soon would rejoin the fleet.
Another of the letters,
furnished to the FBI in August, 1942, by a Colorado Springs, Colorado, woman,
was postmarked Oakland, California. It made reference to seven small dolls
which the writer said she would attempt to make look as if they were "seven
real Chinese Dolls" making up a family consisting of a father, grandmother,
grandfather, mother, and three children. This letter took on particular significance
when the FBI learned that several warships had come into San Francisco Bay
for repairs just before the time the letter was written and mailed certain
details about the ships involved, if known to the enemy, would have been
of tremendous value to them.
The Portland, Oregon,
woman, whose name had appeared as the writer of the letter intercepted by
censors in February, 1942, submitted to the Bureau a letter returned to her
by the Post Office in August, 1942. This one was dated in May, 1942, and
postmarked Portland, Oregon. The letter read in part: "I just secured
a lovely Siamese Temple Dancer, it had been damaged, that is tore in the
middle. But it is now repaired and I like it very much. I could not get a
mate for this Siam dancer, so I am redressing just a small plain ordinary
doll into a second Siam doll..."
FBI cryptographers made
the following interpretation of the above: "I just secured information
of a fine aircraft carrier warship, it had been damaged, that is torpedoed
in the middle. But it is now repaired and I like it very much. They could
not get a mate for this so a plain ordinary warship is being converted into
a second aircraft carrier..."
This letter had been written
a few days after the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga left Puget Sound for San
Diego still another letter was turned over to the FBI by a Spokane, Washington,
woman, this one carrying a Seattle, Washington, postmark. The letter referred
to a "German bisque doll," dressed in a hula grass skirt, which
was reported to be in Seattle for repairs scheduled for completion by the
first week in February. A check by the FBI with naval authorities verified
the conclusion that the doll referred to a warship which had been damaged
at Pearl Harbor. The vessel was in Puget Sound Navy Yard for repairs at the
time the letter was written.
FBI Laboratory examination
of all five letters confirmed that the signatures on the letters were not
genuine, but were forgeries which the experts decided were prepared from
original signatures in the possession of the forger. The examination also
showed that the typewriter used in the preparation of the letters was different
in each case, but that the typing characteristics indicated that the letters
were prepared by the same person.
The conclusion reached
by the FBI cryptographers was that an open code was used in the letters,
which attempted to convey information on the U.S. Armed Forces, particularly
the ships of the U.S. Navy, their location, condition, and repair, with special
emphasis on the damage of such vessels at Pearl Harbor.
The woman from Colorado
Springs provided the information that directed the FBI's attention to Velvalee
Dickinson, the doll shop owner from New York City. She expressed the belief
that Mrs. Dickinson had used her signature on one of the letters in a spirit
of vindictiveness because the woman had purchased some dolls from Mrs. Dickinson
and had been unable to pay for them promptly. Others of the women who had
received the letters returned from Buenos Aires also voiced their suspicions
of Mrs. Dickinson as the sender.
Typewritten letters dealing
with dolls received on past occasions by one of these women from Mrs. Dickinson
were identified by the FBI with the typewriting on one of the letters that
had been addressed to Buenos Aires. Thus it was determined that Mrs. Dickinson's
typewriter had been responsible for at least one of the letters to Buenos
Aires. FBI investigation also disclosed that all four of the women whose
signatures had been used on the Buenos Aires letters had corresponded in
the past with Mrs. Dickinson concerning doll collections.
Further FBI investigation revealed that in the early and mid-1930s, while she
was still in the San Francisco area, Mrs. Dickinson had been a member of the
Japan-American Society. During one year, her dues to the Society were paid
by an attaché of the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco. It was also
determined that she had made frequent visits to the Japanese Consulate in that
city, attended important social gatherings in San Francisco at which Japanese
Navy members and other high Japanese government officials were present, and
entertained many Japanese in the Dickinson’s' home.
The FBI also learned that
after moving to New York City, Mrs. Dickinson had visited the Nippon Club
and the Japan Institute, had cultivated the friendship of the Japanese Consul
General there, and had met Ichiro Yokoyama, the Japanese Naval Attaché from
Washington, D.C.
In tracing Mrs. Dickinson's
activities from January, 1942, through June, 1942 (the time frame in which
the five doll letters had been sent), the FBI found that the Dickinson’s
had been in the areas from which the letters had been postmarked at the time
the letters were sent. The hotels at which the couple had stayed on the West
Coast were also located, and FBI examination showed that typewriters owned
and available to guests at these hotels were used in the preparation of four
of the letters sent to Argentina.
Continuing FBI investigation
disclosed that Mrs. Dickinson had consistently borrowed money from banks
and business associates in New York City as late as 1941. However, in early
1943, she was known to have had in her possession a large number of $100
bills. Four of the bills which she had used in transactions were traced by
the FBI to Japanese official sources, which had received the money before
the war.
Based on the results of
the FBI's investigation, Bureau Agents arrested Velvalee Dickinson on January
21, 1944, in the bank vault in which she kept her safe deposit box. On February
11, 1944, she was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury in the Southern District
of New York for violation of the censorship' statutes, conviction of which
could result in a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
She pleaded not guilty and was held in lieu of $25,000 bail.
FBI examination of the
contents of the safe deposit box disclosed some $13,000 which was traceable
to Japanese sources. A portion of the money had been in the hands of captain
Yuzo Ishikawa of the Japanese Naval Inspector's Office in New York City before
coming into the possession of Mrs. Dickinson.
Mrs. Dickinson had told
the arresting Agents that the money in the safe deposit box had come from
insurance companies, a savings account, and her doll business. Upon interview
later, Mrs. Dickinson stated that the money in the box actually had come
from her husband. She alleged that she found this money hidden in her husband's
bed at the time of his death. Mrs. Dickinson said that her husband had not
told her the source of the money but she believed it might have come from
the Japanese Consul in New York City.
Meanwhile, information
compiled as a result of the FBI's continuing investigation resulted in another
indictment of Mrs. Dickinson on May 5, 1944, this time on charges of violating
the espionage statutes, the Registration Act of 1917, and the censorship
statutes. She pleaded not guilty, and her bail of $25,000 was continued.
On July 28, 1944, an agreement
was made between the U.S. Attorney and Mrs. Dickinson's attorney whereby
the espionage and Registration Act indictments were dismissed, and Mrs. Dickinson
pleaded guilty to the censorship violation, and promised to furnish information
in her possession concerning Japanese intelligence activities.
Following her guilty plea,
Mrs. Dickinson admitted to FBI Agents that she had typed and prepared the
five letters addressed to the individual in Argentina, and that she had used
correspondence received by her from her customers to forge their signatures
thereon. She claimed that the information incorporated in her letters was
obtained through questioning innocent and unwitting citizens in the Seattle
area around the Bremerton Navy Yard, the Mare Island Navy Yard in San Francisco,
and from personal observation. She stated that the letters transmitted information
about aircraft carriers and battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor, and that
names of the dolls appearing in the letters referred to these types of vessels.
According to Mrs. Dickinson,
the code to be used in the letters, instructions for the use of the code,
and $25,000 in $100 bills had been passed to her husband by Japanese Naval
Attaché Ichiro Yokoyama on or about November 26, 1941, in her doll
store at 718 Madison Avenue for the purpose of supplying information to the
Japanese. She repeated her claim that for the most part the money had been
hidden in her husband's bed until his death. Investigation by the FBI belied
her claims. That investigation disclosed that while Mrs. Dickinson knew the
Japanese Naval Attaché well, her husband did not know him at all.
It was also learned that a doctor's examination of Mr. Dickinson had shown
that Dickinson's mental faculties were impaired at the time of the supposed
Japanese payment to him. As for Mrs. Dickinson's claim that the money had
been hidden in her husband's bed until his death, both the nurse and the
maid employed by the Dickinsons at that time emphatically stated that no
money was concealed there.
On August 14, 1944, Velvalee
Dickinson appeared in court for sentencing. As the sentence was imposed,
the court commented, "It is hard to believe that some people do not
realize that our country is engaged in a life and death struggle. Any help
given to the enemy means the death of American boys who are fighting for
our national security. You, as a natural-born citizen, having a University
education, and selling out to the Japanese, were certainly engaged in espionage.
I think that you have been given every consideration by the Government. The
indictment to which you have pleaded guilty is a serious matter. It borders
close to treason. I, therefore, sentence you to the maximum penalty provided
by the law, which is ten years and $10,000 fine."
Still maintaining her
innocence and contending that her deceased husband, and not she, was the
traitor to her country, Mrs. Dickinson was removed to the Federal Correctional
Institution for Women at Alderson, West Virginia. She was conditionally released
on April 23, 1951, to the supervision of the Federal Court system.
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