Velvalee Dickinson - Investigation

Investigation

The Colorado Springs woman pointed the FBI in the direction of Dickinson, the New York doll shop owner. She believed that Dickinson had forged her signature on one of the letters in vengeance, because the woman had been late in paying for some dolls that she had purchased from the Dickinson shop. Based on investigations with Wallace and the other woman involved, all agreed in their suspicion that Dickinson was the suspect; additionally, all four women had at one time corresponded with Dickinson regarding doll collecting. Typewritten letters between Dickinson and the women involved were identified by the FBI as having been used in the "Springfield" letter.

An investigation into Dickinson's background indicated her involvement with Japanese organizations while living in San Francisco, as well as that after moving to New York, she had visited the Nippon Club and the Japanese Institute in New York, become a friend of the Japanese Consul General and was an acquaintance of Ichiro Yokoyama, the Japanese Naval Attaché in Washington, D.C. Further investigation of the Dickinsons' activities from January to June 1942 (the time frame in which the letters were sent) revealed that the couple had visited those areas, staying in hotels near the cities in question. The FBI was also able to determine that typewriters owned and made available to guests were used to compose the letters sent to Argentina. Continuing investigations disclosed that Dickinson had borrowed money from banks and business associates in New York up until 1941; however, in 1943, she was reported to have had in her possession a large number of $100 bills, four of which were traced to Japanese official sources that had received the money prior to the war.

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, 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.

Dickinson told the agents that the money in the safe deposit box had come from insurance companies, a savings account and her doll business, but in a subsequent interview, she claimed that she had found the money hidden in her husband's bed at the time of his death. She claimed that her husband had not told her the source of the money, but she believed that it could have come from the Japanese consulate in New York City.