During the Second World War, mail in the United States was subject to strict censorship. Various types of content were not allowed to be sent, including children’s drawings, chess games, flower orders, and many other seemingly harmless pieces of information. The reason for these restrictions was the fear that spies might use such materials to transmit coded messages.
Five suspicious letters
In 1942, U.S. censors came across an unusual letter (“letter 1”). It was reportedly sent by a woman in Portland, Oregon, to someone in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but was returned because the recipient could not be identified. The letter mentioned a “wonderful doll hospital,” where the sender had left her three “Old English dolls” for repairs. It also referred to “fish nets” and “balloons.” To my regret, a scan of letter 1 has never been published.
FBI cryptographers examined the letter and concluded that the “three Old English dolls” in letter 1 stood for 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.
Shortly after, four more letters addressed to the same person in Buenos Aires began arriving at the homes of the ostensible senders with the notation, “Address Unknown.” 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. The four denied, however, that they had sent any of the letters.
Letter 2 includes the phrase “Distroyed YOUR” and refers to a Mr. Shaw. The letter was written shortly after the destroyer Shaw had undergone repairs.
Another of these additional letters (“letter 2”), allegedly from a woman in Springfield, Ohio, had in fact been mailed from New York City. It included the phrase “Distroyed YOUR” and, within the same sentence, referred to a Mr. Shaw who had been ill but was expected to return to work soon. As it happened, the letter was written shortly after the destroyer Shaw was undergoing repairs at a West Coast shipyard and was due to rejoin the fleet in the near future. Letter 2 is shown in the figure above.
Another of the letters (“letter 3”), allegedly sent by a Colorado Springs, Colorado woman, was postmarked Oakland, California. It mentioned seven small dolls which the writer said she would attempt to make look as if they were “seven real Chinese Dolls”. This obviously referred to several warships, which had come into San Francisco Bay for repairs. I am not aware of a scan of letter 3.
Letter 4 mentions a Siamese temple dancer.
The Portland, Oregon woman, whose name had appeared as the writer of the first letter, submitted to the FBI a letter returned to her by the Post Office in August 1942 (“letter 4”, see figure above). It was postmarked Portland, Oregon. In the letter it said: “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…”
The FBI deciphered this as follows: “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 was written a few days after the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga had left Puget Sound for San Diego.
Letter 5 mentions a German bisque doll.
Still another letter was allegedly sent by a Spokane, Washington woman, this one carrying a Seattle, Washington postmark (“letter 5”). The letter mentioned 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. It turned out that this doll stodd for a warship which had been damaged at Pearl Harbor. The vessel was in Puget Sound Navy Yard for repairs when the letter was written.
The conclusion reached by the FBI cryptanalysts was that a steganographic code was used in the letters, which attempted to convey information on ships of the U.S. Navy, their location, condition, and repair, with special emphasis on the damage of such vessels at Pearl Harbor.
Velvalee Dickinson (1893–1943) was a spy for Japan during World War II. She communicated with her handler using a steganographic code in which references to dolls concealed the true meaning of her messages.
Velvalee Dickinson
Through interviews with the four female recipients, the FBI was led to the doll dealer and collector Velvalee Dickinson. All four women knew Dickinson personally and had corresponded with her. As a result, the biographical details mentioned in the fraudulent letters were already familiar to her.
The location of Velvalee Dickinson’s doll shop in New York today
Velvalee Dickinson (1893–1943) operated a doll shop in New York, located at 718 Madison Avenue. She catered to wealthy collectors and enthusiasts interested in acquiring foreign, regional, and antique dolls. Her husband supported the business by managing its financial records, including transactions involving the sale of dolls to prominent individuals across the United States.
A newspaper ad published by Dickinson
Suspicion that Dickinson had authored the coded letters quickly intensified. Investigators discovered that she had been present in locations from which she could observe the ships referenced in the letters. Although Dickinson did not have access to classified information, details about naval vessels could still be gathered from observations made in and around naval ports.
Further evidence revealed that Dickinson maintained connections with Japanese individuals, and payments she had received from them were documented. At the time, Japan was at war with the United States and had a strong interest in obtaining military intelligence. It therefore appeared highly likely that Dickinson had been spying for Japan and relaying her findings to her handler through the disguised correspondence.
Based on the findings of the FBI’s investigation, agents arrested Velvalee Dickinson in January 1944. She was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $10,000. Compared to other spies, Dickinson received a relatively lenient punishment. At the time, espionage on behalf of an enemy nation could carry the death penalty in the United States. Dickinson avoided this fate because she was not charged with espionage itself, but rather with violating wartime censorship regulations. She was released early in 1951. Under a different name, she later worked in a hospital and as a secretary. She died in 1980.
The code used by Dickinson
The steganographic code used by Velvalee Dickinson was most likely developed specifically for her by Japanese intelligence. Strictly speaking, it was a jargon code. In a jargon code, certain words or phrases carry a hidden meaning. In its simplest form, such a code may consist of just a single expression. For example, the word “hello” in a phone call could be used to signal, “I cannot speak privately right now; others are present in the room.” In practice, however, jargon codes can be far more elaborate and structured.
Jargon codes are relatively easy to construct and use. When designed carefully, they can also be quite secure. However, they lack flexibility, since all possible messages must be defined in advance. This limitation makes them less adaptable than letter-based forms of steganographic communication.
It was not unusual for spies to rely on codes specifically developed for their operations. Another well-known example is the cigar code used by Haicke Jansen and Willem Roos. The critical mistake made by Japanese intelligence lay not so much in the code itself, but in operational security: the recipient address in Argentina did not exist, causing Dickinson’s letters to be returned. Additionally, it was relatively easy for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to identify the true sender of the fraudulent correspondence. With greater care and tradecraft, this exposure could likely have been avoided.
Literature
Klaus Schmeh: Versteckte Botschaften. Die faszinierende Geschichte der Steganografie. 2017
Velvalee Dickinson, the “Doll Woman”
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