Helen Tenney

Who is Helen Tenney?

Helen Barrett Tenney worked for the Comintern apparatus in the 1930s and funnelled information to the Soviet Union on behalf of the Spanish Communists where she learned espionage tradecraft.

In 1942, Tenney worked for the New York City-based Short Wave Research, a company contracted to the Office of War Information to recruit persons knowledgeable in foreign languages.

In late summer of 1943, Tenney moved from New York to Washington, D.C. at the suggestion of Jacob Golos to obtain employment with the Spanish section of the Office of Strategic Services. She moved into Mary Price's former apartment which was used as a meeting point for government employees engaged in espionage and their Soviet case handlers and couriers.

Tenny began supplying reports and memoranda from OSS. This information included a considerable quantity of data on activities of OSS personnel in virtually all sections and all countries around the world. Tenney also supplied information concerning a monitoring station on Long Island.

Beginning in 1944, Tenney was being paid a regular stipend of $50 per month — considerable for the times — which had been arranged through Joseph Katz.