Dickinson, Velvalee, 1893-1980

Velvalee Dickinson (October 12, 1893 – ca 1980) was an American spy convicted of espionage against the United States on behalf of Japan during World War II. Known as the "Doll Woman", she used her business in New York City to send information on the United States Navy to contacts in Argentina via steganographic messages. She was finally caught when one of her contacts in Buenos Aires moved and her messages were returned.[1] Born as Velvalee Malvena Blucher in Sacramento, California to Otto and Elizabeth Blucher (or Blueher). She graduated from Stanford University in 1918 but did not receive her Bachelor of Arts degree until January 1937, allegedly because she had not returned books owned by the university.[2] In the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, Dickinson was employed in a brokerage company in San Francisco, California, owned by her future husband, Lee T. Dickinson. Shortly after her marriage, Dickinson worked as a social worker in the area until 1937. The firm did business with Japanese people and the Dickinsons' interest in Japan grew so much that they joined the Japanese-American Society, where they began to rub shoulders with members of the Japanese consulate. The FBI later also determined that she had made frequent visits to the consulate, attended important social gatherings at which Japanese Navy members and other high Japanese government officials were present, and entertained many Japanese people in her home. When the brokerage firm's success suffered a downturn, so too did the Dickinsons' role as proponents of good Japanese-American relations. In 1937, the Dickinsons moved to New York City, where Velvalee worked for a short time as a department store employee. On December 31, 1937, she began operating her own doll shop, In February 1942, a letter was brought to the attention of the FBI, intercepted by wartime censors. The letter, supposedly from a woman in Portland, Oregon to a correspondent in Buenos Aires, discussed a "wonderful doll hospital" and noted that the writer had sent the correspondent "three Old English dolls" for repairs. The letter also mentioned "fish nets" and "balloons". Elizebeth Friedman's cryptanalysis unit at US Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington examined the letter and broke the code, concluding that the "dolls" were actually three warships and that the "doll hospital" was a West Coast-based shipyard where repairs were made, while the "fishing nets" and "balloons" disclosed information about coastal defenses and other critical information on the West Coast.[3][4] The Colorado Springs woman pointed the FBI in the direction of Dickinson, the New York doll shop owner Based on the results of the investigation, FBI agents arrested Dickinson on January 21, 1944, in the bank vault where she kept her safe deposit box. The box contained $13,000 (equivalent to $216,110 in 2022) and was eventually traced to Japanese sources. A portion of the money had been in the hands of a Captain Yuzo Ishikawa of the Japanese Naval Inspector's Office in New York before being transferred to Dickinson. On February 11, 1944, she was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the U.S. District Court for 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. A continuing investigation by the FBI resulted in a second indictment on May 5, this time on charges of violating espionage statutes, the Trading with the Enemy Act, and the censorship statutes, which carried a possible death sentence. She pleaded not guilty and was released on the same bail.

On July 28, 1944, a plea bargain was made between the U.S. Attorney's Office and Dickinson in which the espionage and Trade Act indictments were dismissed and she pleaded guilty to the censorship violation and agreed to furnish information in her possession concerning Japanese intelligence activities.

After pleading guilty, she admitted that she had typed the five forged letters addressed to Argentina, using correspondence with her customers to forge their signatures.

She claimed the information compiled in her letters was from asking innocent and unsuspecting citizens in Seattle and San Francisco near the location of the Navy yards there, as well as some details from personal observation. She stated that the letters transmitted information about ships damaged at Pearl Harbor and that the names of the dolls corresponded to a list that explained the type of ships involved. She furthermore stated that the code to be used in the letters, instructions for use of the code, and $25,000 in $100 bills had been passed to her husband by Yokoyama around November 26, 1941, in her doll store at 718 Madison Avenue for the purpose of supplying information to the Japanese. She repeated her claims that the money had been hidden in her husband's bed until his death.

However, an investigation by the FBI refuted those claims, disclosing that while Dickinson had been a friend of Yokoyama, her husband had never met him. It was also learned that a physical examination done on him[clarification needed] at the time indicated that his mental faculties were impaired at the time of the supposed payment. Both a nurse and a maid employed by the Dickinsons at the time emphatically stated that no money had ever been concealed there.

Velvalee Dickinson appeared in court for sentencing on August 14, 1944. After her release, she changed her name to Catherine Dickerson and maintained a friendship and secretarial relationship with Eunice Kennedy, attending her wedding in 1953.[5]