On this day, Feb. 11, in 1944, Velvalee Dickinson was indicted in a plot to deliver messages to the Japanese during wartime through her doll business.
Known as “The Doll Woman,” Dickinson used her doll shop in New York to send information about U.S. naval forces such as “Doll in hula skirt is in the hospital and doctors are working around the clock,” which translated to “USS Honolulu is badly damaged and in Seattle undergoing repairs.”
Dickinson was caught when her contact in Argentina moved and her letters were returned to U.S. censors.
She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Dickinson died in 1980 at the age of 86.
– Scott McCabe
