Travelled with her husband back and forth between the east and west coast of the United States, assessing the strength of various naval stations and vessels within. They were funded by Japanese intelligence and used the cover of looking browsing the west coast for dolls and other antiques to sell.

Used a delivery system for passing coded messages. These letters were sent to Senora Inez Lopez deMalinali, in Buenos Aires, Argentina and were sent, obstensively from various women in the New York area. Each letter contained failrly innocuous information, often mentioning dolls. The dolls were a code name for a specific warship and the attire or accessories were used indicate its origin (for instance, a doll in a hula skirt would refer to a warship from Hawaii had arrived in California). The contact in Buenos Aires had her cover blown and fled but Japanes intelligence failed to inform Dickinson of this. When the letters were returned to the United States as undeliverable, several of the women who alledgedly sent them contacted postal. authorities. The FBI became involved and determined that the alledged "senders" were all clients of Dickinson's doll shop. The FBI allowed her to continue on, hoping to use her to track others in the spy chain.

Lee Dickinson died of a heart attack in March 1943. Authorities finally descended upon her in January 1944 and arrested her at her doll shop, finding a large amount of money in her safety deposit box that could be traced to a Japanes bank in New York. Was indicted on espionage charges and for violating censorship laws. Was convicted for censorship violations and sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $10,000.00 fine and sent to a correctional facility in Alderson, West Virginia. Was paroled in 1951 and disappeared in February 1954.