Exploding the Phone : The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell (9780802193759)

by Lapsley, Phil

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  114“On original hearing”: Hanna and Modell, Appellants, v. United States, Appellee, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Order on Rehearing, 404 F.2d 405, November 18, 1968 .

  114“Outside of an opening salutation”: The appeals court adopted more like three pages of Caming’s brief but, nonetheless, it was still a home run.

  Chapter 9: Little Jojo Learns to Whistle

  As explained in my epilogue, Joe Engressia legally changed his name to Joybubbles in 1991, hence the references to Joybubbles in the notes below. Much of the material in this chapter comes from interviews with Joybubbles (both mine and other published interviews), as well as newspaper articles.

  117“Hang up the phone”: Toni Engressia, author interview, 2008.

  118“I won’t lie to you”: Ibid.

  118“Before I was four”: John Fail and Chris Strunk, “A Conversation with Joybubbles,” May 9, 1998, at http://www.icewhistle.com/static/joybubbles.html .

  118“I didn’t like play”: Ibid.

  118“It was all I could do”: Toni Engressia speaking on the Joybubbles memorial telephone conference, September 16, 2007.

  118“I used to ask what time it was”: Tape recording of a speech Engressia gave to an unknown community group, 1974 (hereinafter, Engressia speech, 1974).

  118“I thought, well, if 3 is 3 away”: Ibid., and tape recording of a speech Engressia gave to a different group, 1978 .

  119“The principle of science”: Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics: The Definitive Edition, volume I (Boston: Addison Wesley, 2005), p. 1–1.

  119“Through the years”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  119“His sister recalls”: Toni Engressia speaking on the Joybubbles memorial telephone conference, September 16, 2007; “emergency room”: Joybubbles, “Stories and Stuff,” May 8, 2004, at http://audio.textfiles.com/shows/storiesandstuff/joybubbles_-_stories_and_stuff_-_20040508.mp3.

  119“Most people”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  120“We met a phone man”: Joybubbles, author interview, 2006.

  120The Engressias moved a lot: Ibid.; Toni Engressia, author interview, 2008; and other Joybubbles/Engressia published interviews.

  120“Daddy hated the snow”: Toni Engressia, author interview, 2008.

  121“I learned a whole lot”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  122“I was seven or eight”: “A Conversation with Joybubbles.”

  123“I got $2.50 a week”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  123Dade County Junior College: Bill Acker, author interview, 2008.

  123“I can whistle like a bird”: Leslie Taylor, “Blind Student Dials Trouble,” USF Oracle, November 27, 1968, p. 1 . Past-tense quotes and material describing Engressia’s USF whistling escapades are from the following newspaper articles: “Whistler Started Young,” USF Oracle, November 27, 1968, p. 1 ; Harry Haigley, “If You Want Long Distance, Just Whistle,” St. Petersburg Evening Independent, November 27, 1968, p. 1 ; “Whistle Has Connections,” St. Petersburg Times, November 28, 1968, p. B1 ; “Hearing Postponed for ‘The Whistler,’” St. Petersburg Times, December 6, 1968 ; “The ‘Whistler’ Back at USF,” USF Oracle; December 8, 1968 ; “USF to Rule Today on Whistler’s Fate,” St. Petersburg Times, December 11, 1968, p. 4B ; “Telephone Whistler Connects, Permitted to Stay in School,” Miami Herald-Tribune, December 12, 1968, p. 10 ; “USF ‘Whistler’ Stays in School,” St. Petersburg Times, December 12, 1968, p. B1 .

  124roughly $17 today: Federal Communications Commission, “Statistics of Communications Common Carriers, 1995/1996,” Table 7.1, p. 280, at http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/SOCC/95socc.pdf.

  125“Your brother has been doing something illegal”: Toni Engressia, author interview, 2008.

  126received a letter in the mail: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, August 27, 1969 , and FBI file 100-KC-13546, August 27, 1969 .

  126Engressia’s introduction to B. David: By 1969 B. David was no longer going by that particular pseudonym, but for consistency I use that name throughout this book.

  127tricked a switchman: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, serial 15, September 1, 1969, p. 3 .

  127“a good deal of discussion”: Ibid., p. 4.

  127Though he wouldn’t tell Bureau agents: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, serial 1, August 27, 1969, p. 2 . It is possible that the Southwestern Bell security agent was being coy because his source was Greenstar. One of the Greenstar units had been moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in January 1967, just a few hundred miles away from Kansas City. And later, when the Southwestern Bell agent finally did tell the FBI about where the information had come from, an FBI teletype message noted, “Bureau will protect this source’s identity because it would jeopardize not only [our] contact’s employment but would probably destroy the amicable relations between the phone company and the Bureau.” See FBI file 139-HQ-3481, serial 5, August 28, 1969, p. 3.

  127“highly classified, Top Secret”: Ibid.

  128“the activities of Engressia and Way”: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, serial 3, August 27, 1969, p. 1 .

  128posterior-covering letters: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, serials 11, 12, and 13, August 29, 1969 .

  128“not a sufficient indication”: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, unnumbered serial (memo from director, FBI, to assistant attorney general, Criminal Division, Department of Justice), September 3, 1969 .

  128“is believed to be totally unreliable”: FBI file 139-HQ-3481, unnumbered serial (memo from FBI Kansas City to director, FBI), September 8, 1969. See also FBI file 139-HQ-3482 .

  128“I didn’t really know why I had come”: Andrew T. Huse, interview with Joybubbles, University of South Florida Oral History Program, August 23, 2004.

  129“be a man”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  129“as a switchboard operator”: Ibid.

  130“I got desperate”: Ibid.

  130“I decided”: Ibid.

  130“This was in late April”: Ibid.

  130“going to call Russia”: “A Conversation with Joybubbles.”

  131“NORAD”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  131“I have only until July”: Ibid.

  131“I remember one time”: Ibid.

  131“tapping the tappers”: Ibid.

  132“freely shown”: “Police Apprehend Phone-Addicted USF Whistler,” St. Petersburg Times, June 4, 1971 .

  132“I was gonna call”: Engressia speech, 1974.

  132“complex telephone equipment”: “Police Apprehend Phone-Addicted USF Whistler.”

  132“I’ve done wrong”: AP, “Long-Distance Whistler Draws $10 Fine,” St. Petersburg Times, June 10, 1971 .

  132$1 bail: AP, “Fascinated with Phones,” Montreal Gazette, June 5, 1971, p. 2 .

  132“Some folks are on dope”: “Police Apprehend Phone-­Addicted USF Whistler.”

  133“driving them crazy”: AP, “Blind Lad Quits Fraud, Joins Phone Firm,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 21, 1971, p. 3A .

  133“sixty days in jail”: AP, “Long-Distance Whistler Draws $10 Fine.”

  133friendly knock: Joybubbles, author interview, 2006.

  134“four job offers”: Engressia speech, 1974; AP, “Several Job Offers Given to Blind Man,” Hartford Courant, June 12, 1971, p. 2 .

  134“I guess they’ll have me do”: AP, “Blind Lad Quits Fraud, Joins Phone Firm.”

  134“I don’t recommend”: Engressia speech, 1974. For more on Engressia’s life at Millington, see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/millington.

  Chapter 10:
Bill Acker Learns to Play the Flute

  Much of the material in this chapter comes from author interviews with Bill Acker.

  142the tones were distorted: According to Acker this is typical of crossbar tandem switching equipment.

  144computer-generated reports of supervision irregularities: Ken Hopper, author interview, 2006; testimony of Wallace S. Swen­son, United States v. Thomas McCay, Herman D. Brandon, Sylvester E. Gautreaux, Jr., and Glenn S. Danford, United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, Transcript of Proceedings, August 8, 1966, pp. 188–90 .

  145something called an 800 number: 800 numbers were more properly referred to as “Inward Wide Area Telecommunications Service,” or INWATS, and were introduced in 1967. See “AT&T Files Rate Cut of $5 Million a Year for Fixed-Fee Long-Distance Telephoning,” Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1966.

  Chapter 11: The Phone Freaks of America

  Much of the material in this chapter comes from author interviews with Bill Acker, John Draper, Jim Fettgather, Denny Teresi, and other phone phreaks.

  147busy signals that were shared: Information on busy ­signal conferences from my interviews with Rick Plath, 2008; Jim Fettgather, 2008; Denny Teresi, 2007; and Bill Acker, 2007. According to Acker, most busy signal conferences were step-by-step PBX equipment, though some were occasionally found on crossbar exchanges.

  147party line broken recording numbers: As with the busy signal conferences, these tended to be step-by-step PBX equipment. Phone phreak Evan Doorbell (a pseudonym) has documented “party lines” in the New York area from the early 1970s in detail in his charming and wonderfully researched audio series “How Evan Doorbell Became a Phone Phreak,” available at http://www.phonetrips.com.

  148213-286-0213 and -0214: 213-737-1118 and -1119 would have been more realistic examples. Phone phreaks spent a great deal of time collecting and trading loop around numbers; for a list, see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/loops.

  149Rick Plath: Plath, author interview, 2008.

  149Al Diamond: For more see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/diamond.

  150Mark Bernay: For more see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/markbernay.

  150“It was like CB radio”: Ibid.

  151Airman First Class Draper: Draper physical description from FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 1, May 4, 1972 . Background on Draper’s childhood from Steve Long, “Captain Crunch: Super Phone Phreak,” High Times, June 1977, p. 50 , and Chris Rhodes, “The Twilight Years of Cap’n Crunch,” Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2007, p. 1 .

  151expecting a call from an old friend: Over the years Draper has told several different versions of the story of how he first met Denny Teresi. Teresi says he does not remember the details. I have elected to use in my recounting the elements common to most stories.

  153“a chubby kid”: Draper notes, undated but circa the mid-1970s.

  153“drove over to Teresi’s friend”: Recollections differ slightly on this point. Draper says he met Teresi and they drove over to Fettgather’s house. Fettgather says he was at Teresi’s house to begin with.

  154you had to press two of the six: John Draper, author interview, 2008.

  154Sid Bernay had discovered: Mark Bernay and Sid Bernay email exchange, 2010. Sid Bernay recalls: “I had heard that 2,600 cycles could interrupt long distance. I called a West Covina number, and when it started to ring, blew the Cap’n Crunch whistle and it ‘choinked.’ I covered one hole, and it still happened. Thus the discovery. I was a freshman at UCLA at the time, so I’m guessing 1964 or 1965. Also, Oscar Meyer whistles worked, too, but not all. Apparently weren’t exactly 2,600.”

  156the network expanded from there: Author interviews of Acker, Teresi, and Fettgather.

  157The Machine, VERMONT, Z, ZZ, ZZZ, Superphone: For history and recordings of the Machine and other Los Angeles telephone joke lines see “Phone Recordings, Los Angeles Area & Beyond,” at http://www.dialajoke.us/.

  158weren’t allowed to connect: See the Carterfone case discussion in chapter 20.

  158“The national switched telephone network”: John D. deButts quoted in Steve Coll, The Deal of the Century: The Break Up of AT&T (New York: Atheneum, 1986), p. 105.

  158–159 Hush-A-Phone: “Phone Company Upheld in Ban on Hush-A-Phone,” New York Times, February 17, 1951, p. 29 ; “Hush-A-Phone Hits Back at AT&T,” New York Times, March 24, 1951, p. 25 ; “Phone Device Ban by AT&T Upheld,” New York Times, December 24, 1955 , p. 20; “Court Removes Ban Against Phone Device,” New York Times, November 9, 1956, p. 25 ; and 238 F.2d 266, HUSH-A-PHONE CORPORATION and Harry C. Tuttle, Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES of America and Federal Communications Commission, Respondents, American Telephone and Telegraph Company et al., and United States Independent Telephone Association, Interveners, No. 13175, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, 99 U.S. App. D.C. 190; 238 F.2d 266; 1956 U.S. App. LEXIS 4023, October 4, 1956, Argued, November 8, 1956, Decided.

  159–160 was born the Machine: Tom Politeo, author interview, 2008.

  161called the Old Man: Bill Acker, author interview, 2008.

  161“number five crossbar”: Ibid.

  162teletype machines: For a fascinating history of teletypes and the Teletype Corporation, see Teletype Corporation, The Teletype Story, 1958, available at http://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/telegraph/teletype_story.pdf.

  165International Society of Telephone Enthusiasts: Acker, author interview, 2011. Again, B. David was going by a different handle at this point in time, but for continuity I am continuing to use “B. David” as his pseudonym.

  166Mark Bernay Society: For more on the Mark Bernay Society, see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/mbs.

  Chapter 12: The Law of Unintended Consequences

  Much of the material in this chapter comes from author interviews with Al Gilbertson and Ron Rosenbaum.

  171“Alice in Wonderland”: Hackers: Electronic Outlaws, History Channel, 2001.

  171“Mr. Intense” and Draper idiosyncrasies: Author interviews with Bill Acker and Jim Fettgather, 2008, and several sources who prefer to remain anonymous.

  172“When I talked to Ron”: John Draper, “Cap’n Crunch Comments on the Esquire Article,” at http://davesource.com/Fringe/Fringe/Hacking/Phreaking/Blue_Boxes/Blue_Boxes.Esquire_Article.comments . A three-thousand word analysis of the Esquire article, this was apparently first posted on the WELL conference system around 1998 at http://well.com/user/crunch.

  172“Secrets of the Little Blue Box”: Ron Rosenbaum, “Secrets of the Little Blue Box,” Esquire, October 1971, p. 116.

  174“I thought he spiced it up too much”: Gilbertson says that he wasn’t selling blue boxes to the mob, as the article described, nor, he says, did he ever claim to be the creator of the blue box.

  174“technical inaccuracies”: Draper didn’t like them either; Draper, “Cap’n Crunch Comments on the Esquire Article.”

  174“captured the spirit of it”: Bill Acker, author interview, 2010.

  175crossbar tandems could be tricked: Crossbar tandems, also called XBTs, should not be confused with 4A tandems—­something that is easy to do since, confusingly, 4As also used crossbar switching technology. Crossbar tandems were smaller switching machines originally intended for metropolitan use that were later upgraded with features that made them suitable for handling the more complex job of long-distance switching. They were used in areas where the bulky and brainy 4A wasn’t economical. See A. O. Adam, “Crossbar Tandem as a Long-Distance Switching System,” Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 35, pp. 91–108, 1956.

  175“wink” signal: A wink signal was just a momentary absence of the 2,600 Hz signal sent from the switching machine at the far end of your call. The telephone c
ompany had electronic filter circuitry that kept subscribers from hearing the 2,600 Hz signal on long-distance calls. These filters worked great, but when there was a transition in the 2,600 Hz signal—for example, when it went away and then came back, as it did during a wink—the circuits resonated for a fraction of a second. This resonance was what made the bright metallic kerchink that was such music to a blue boxer’s ears.

  175KP 099 213 ST: TTC codes were always in the range of 000 to 199 so they wouldn’t interfere with area codes and couldn’t be ­dialed (usually!) by customers. For more on TTC and other 0xx/1xx codes, see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/0xx1xx. The call routing described for the tandem stacking example represents the best recollections of Bill Acker and Evan Doorbell, but they caution that it may not be a hundred percent accurate.

  176sound like hell: Long-distance calls were typically sent over two pairs of wires—one pair for one direction, say New York to Chicago, and one pair for the reverse direction. Unfortunately, crossbar tandems were able to switch only a single pair of wires at once. An electronic circuit called a hybrid merged the two pairs of wires used for a long-distance trunk into a single pair so they could be switched by a crossbar tandem. The result was a loss in audio quality every time a call went through a crossbar tandem. This cumulative audio distortion limited the number of crossbar tandems you could stack up. In contrast, 4A switches were true four-wire (two pair) switches and didn’t have this problem. But for phone phreaks, alas, 4As lacked the bug that allowed them to be stacked up like crossbar tandems. All was not lost, however. See the discussion of guard banding in chapter 18.

  176series of phantomlike kerchinky noises: Evan Doorbell has lovingly narrated a recording of tandem stacking from 1975. See Evan Doorbell, “Classic Tandem Stacking (January, 1975),” at http://www.phonetrips.com.

  177con telephone employees: The term “social engineering” in the phreak/hacker sense seems to have come into vogue in the mid-1980s, although Bill Acker recalls it being used as early as 1974 or so. Prior to that the term was “pretexting,” that is, calling someone on a pretext to get information or convince them to do something for you. The inventors of that term? The FBI, which used pretext­ing to assist in its investigations. “Like any other accomplishment,” an FBI manual advised, “a good pretext is a satisfying experience.” The phone phreaks surely would have agreed. See Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Pretexts and Cover Techniques,” 1956, at http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/FBI_Pretexts_and_Cover_Techniques_May-1956.pdf.