Velvalee Dickinson ran a doll shop on Madison Avenue that catered to wealthy collectors. But in one of the strangest espionage cases of World War II, Dickinson's clients had no idea she was using correspondence about doll orders to transmit coded U.S. military intelligence to the Japanese.

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We're hard at work on our next season of new VSEs. If you've already heard this one, email us — veryspecialepisodes@gmail.com — and we'll recommend something else you can listen to this week!

Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Joe Pompeo
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Research and Fact-Checking by Joe Pompeo and Austin Thompson
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

Velvalee Dickinson ran a doll shop on Madison Avenue that catered to wealthy collectors. But in one of the strangest espionage cases of World War II, Dickinson's clients had no idea she was using correspondence about doll orders to transmit coded U.S. military intelligence to the Japanese.
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We're hard at work on our next season of new VSEs. If you've already heard this one, email us &mdash; <a href="mailto:veryspecialepisodes@gmail.com">veryspecialepisodes@gmail.com</a> &mdash; and we'll recommend something else you can listen to this week!
Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English Written by Joe Pompeo Produced by Josh Fisher Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier Research and Fact-Checking by Joe Pompeo and Austin Thompson Original Music by Elise McCoy Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla Executive Producer is Jason English

On the Very Special Episodes podcast, we tell one incredible story each week. Stranger-than-fiction tales about normal people in extraordinary situations. Stories that make you say, “this should be a movie.” Follow Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.

On the Very Special Episodes podcast, we tell one incredible story each week. Stranger-than-fiction tales about normal people in extraordinary situations. Stories that make you say, “this should be a movie.” Follow Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.

Very Special Episodes

Spies and Dolls [Re-Release]

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/56dc1cee-dbf1-4241-8ffe-b48f001011a3/transcript