178“VFG-EXG-270100”: This example is based on actual #1 ESS commands but, because there are still a few #1 ESS telephone switches in the wild, the commands have been intentionally altered.
17995 percent . . . conducted over the phone: Sonny Kleinfield, The Biggest Company on Earth: A Profile of AT&T (New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1981), p. 14.
180“I knew right then and there”: Hackers: Electronic Outlaws.
180“boy genius”: Roy R. Silver, “‘Blue Box’ Is Linked to Phone Call Fraud,” New York Times, May 6, 1971, p. 45
180Case Western Reserve: AP, “Theft Is Charged to Students Who Let Fingers Walk Free,” Blade (Toledo, Ohio), May 7, 1971 p. 19.
180Billings, Montana: Georganne Louis, “3 Plead Guilty in Telephone Fraud,” Billings Gazette, September 3, 1971, p. 1; FBI file 65-HQ-73591, June 5, 1970
180arrested in Pennsylvania: UPI, “Phreaks” (newswire item), September 28, 1971
181“For Whom Ma Bell Tolls Not”: Maureen Orth, “For Whom Ma Bell Tolls Not,” Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1971, p. P28
181“mildly mentally unbalanced”: UPl, “‘Phone Freak’ Probe Hinted,” Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 18, 1971, p. 6; AP, “‘Phone Freak’ to Be Subject of Jury Probe,” St. Petersburg Times, November 19, 1971, p. 20A.
181internal AT&T memo: “Toll Fraud,” AT&T memo/press backgrounder, May 18, 1977
182Telephone Crime Lab: Ken Hopper, author interview, 2006, and Kenneth D. Hopper, “Bell Telephone Laboratories at Holmdel, NJ 1929–1991 and Certain Other Job-Related Memories,” presented to the Holmdel Historical Society, New Jersey, January 31, 1992.
182undersea wiretaps: See, for example, Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (New York: Harper Perennial, 2000), p. 189.
182Their report to their bosses: C. J. Schulz, “Appraisal of ‘Secrets of the Little Blue Box’ Article in the October 1971 Esquire Magazine,” Bell Laboratories memo, September 17, 1971
Chapter 13: Counterculture
Much of the material in this chapter comes from author interviews with Alan Fierstein.
185May Day demonstrations: See, e.g., Richard Halloran, “30,000 Protesters Routed in Capital,” New York Times, May 3, 1971, p. 1.
185Marlon Brando: The Wild One, Columbia Pictures, 1953.
185“We are a people”: Youth International Party Manifesto, ca. 1970, quoted in Eric v. d. Luft, Die at the Right Time: A Subjective Cultural History of the American Sixties (Baltimore: United Book Press, 2009), p. 437.
187free buffalo: Abbie Hoffman, Steal This Book, 2002 reprint, p. 104: “Every year the National Park Service gives away surplus elks in order to keep the herds under its jurisdiction from outgrowing the amount of available land for grazing . . . Under the same arrangement the government will send you a Free Buffalo. Write to: Office of Information, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20420.”
187largest company on earth: AT&T was the largest company in the world as measured by assets or by employees; others were larger by revenue. In 1974, for example, General Motors had sales of $35 billion to AT&T’s $26 billion. But AT&T had $74 billion in assets to GM’s $20 billion; even accounting for liabilities, AT&T far exceeded it in size. And AT&T had more than a million employees, at that time, to GM’s roughly 800,000.
187“In a country indissolubly”: Kleinfield, The Biggest Company on Earth, p. 9.
187rate hike requests: For a bibliography of AT&T rate increases, see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/ratehikes.
188$1 per month: Email conversations with members of the Telephone Collectors International mailing list (Yahoo group “singingwires”), June 2011.
188DUE: Brooks, Telephone, p. 299; “Unauthorized Phones Get Their DUE,” Bell Laboratories Record, December 1974
188“warm gooey feelings”: I am indebted to Andrea Nemerson for the phrase.
188“Cries of frustration”: William K. Stevens, “Phone Users Cite Service Decline,” New York Times, September 22, 1969
189“A kind of surrealistic”: Brooks, Telephone, p. 291.
189PLaza 8: Ibid., p. 290; Craig R. Whitney, “Phone Company Official Admits Increasing Difficulties in City,” New York Times, October 15, 1969
189“lousy”: Brooks, Telephone, p. 292, quoting a New York Times article.
189“equal to the job”: Stevens, “Phone Users Cite Service Decline.” See also, “Dial-a-Snafu: Phone Foul-Ups Vex More Users as Volume of Calls Rises,” Wall Street Journal, February 3, 1969, and Brooks, Telephone, pp. 292–95.
189An FCC investigation: “FCC Telephone Probe in Preliminary Phase,” Hartford Courant, September 24, 1969.
189“personification of male chauvinism”: Kleinfield, The Biggest Company on Earth, p. 206.
190“blacks, women”: Brooks, Telephone, p. 288, and AP, “AT&T Chairman Denies Bias in Employment,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, December 12, 1970, p. 12-A.
190another sweeping investigation: Christopher Lydon, “F.C.C. Plans a Wide A.T.&T. Inquiry,” New York Times, January 22, 1971, p. 23
190AFL-CIO: “Half a Million Workers Go on Telephone Strike,” Miami News, July 14, 1971, p. 1; Philip Shabecoff, “Telephone Strike Scheduled Today,” New York Times, July 14, 1971, p. 1
190“we call it ‘The System’”: Joseph Goulden, Monopoly (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968), p. 16.
190“as little as possible to the imagination”: Kleinfield, The Biggest Company on Earth, p. 208.
190Bell System Practices: A. B. Covey, “The Bell System’s Best Sellers,” Bell Telephone Magazine, Summer 1952, p. 88
191“Sweeping, General”: “Sweeping, General,” Bell System Practice 770-130-301, August 1952, available from http://long-lines.net/documents/BSP-770-130-301/BSP-770-130-301-p1.html.
191“robotic man in a three piece suit”: Irv Slifkin, Videohound’s Groovy Movies: Far Out Films of the Psychedelic Era (Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press, 2004), pp. 52–54.
191“find it hard to fault”: Maurice Rapf, “Bright Debut by Slapstick Satirists,” Life, January 26, 1968, p. 8.
191“If we do not receive payment”: Lily Tomlin, This Is a Recording, Polydor Records, 1971.
192“They love the character”: Gene Handsaker (AP), “Gal on Laugh-In Talks Spontaneously,” Kentucky New Era, February 3, 1970, p. 9.
192“We don’t care. We don’t have to.”: Lily Tomlin on Saturday Night Live, season 2, episode 1, September 18, 1976. See http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml.
192telephone excise tax: Louis Allen Talley, “Telephone Excise Tax,” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, RS20119, September 15, 2000. The tax was largely gutted in 2006; see “U.S. to Repeal Long-Distance Telephone Tax,” New York Times, May 26, 2006.
192$1.5 billion, 10 percent: “Telephone Excise Tax Receipts 1899–2005,” Tax Policy Center, at http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/Content/PDF/telephone.PDF. The 10 percent estimate comes from Stephen Daggett, “Cost of Major U.S. Wars,” Congressional Research Service, June 29, 2010, at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf.
192make free phone calls and feel good about it: Interestingly, several years earlier AT&T cited the telephone company’s duty to collect the telephone excise tax as one of the reasons it was legally obligated to investigate and prosecute telephone fraud. See Charles Ryan and H. W. William Caming, Brief of American Telephone and Telegraph Company as Amicus Curiae, in Kenneth Herbert Hanna and Nathan Modell, Appellants, v. U
nited States of America, Appellee, Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, No. 24343, May 7, 1968
193“Fuck the Bell System”: “Fuck the Bell System” was another play on words: in 1967 Abbie Hoffman wrote a precursor to Steal This Book titled Fuck the System, which focused on free and low-cost survival strategies in New York City.
193“The response was”: Alan Fierstein, author interview, 2006.
193God created pay phones: AT&T preferred the term “coin telephone” to “pay phone”; as far as AT&T was concerned, all phones were pay phones.
194the percentage of uncollectible credit card: “Credit Card, Third Number and Total Toll Message Uncollectible Study—March 1970,” AT&T internal memo, September 10, 1970
195Students for a Democratic Society: See http://blog.historyofphonephreaking.org/2009/06/101973-students-for-a-democratic -society-prank-fbi.html.
195Steve McQueen: AP, “College Students Use Credit Card for Phone Binge,” Lewiston (Maine) Daily Sun, May 23, 1968, p. 24. AT&T memos discussing this include William P. Mullane Jr., Teletypewriter Message to All Bell System Newsmen, May 22, 1968
195It is evident: “Credit Card Study.”
195It is necessary: “Bell System Credit Card Plan–1971 Cards,” AT&T internal memo, August 7, 1970
196“With all the electronic means”: Bill Acker, author interview, 2010.
197The first underground and college newspapers: See, e.g., “Free Phone Calls,” Dallas Notes, January 24–February 6, 1971
197“public disservice announcement”: Radio TV Reports, Inc., transcript of Abbie Hoffman appearance on the TV program Free Time with Julius Lester, April 7, 1971, 10:30 p.m. in New York City on WNET-TV
197rebuttal from Hoffman: Abbie Hoffman, “Dear Russell (Baker That Is),” YIPL, no. 2, July 1971, p. 3.
198“two thousand and three thousand subscribers”: Bell, author interview, 2006.
198-199 assumed names and employee home addresses: Ken Hopper, author interview, 2006; Wayne Perrin, author interview, 2008.
199obtained a copy of this memo: Memorandum from J. F. Doherty, Director, Corporate Security, AT&T, to AT&T Security Managers, “Toll Fraud—Y.I.P.L. Publication,” October 13, 1972, reprinted in “The AT&T Papers,” YIPL, no. 14, November 1972, p. 3.
Chapter 14: Busted
201discount gas station and subsequent descriptions: FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 3, p. 2, May 10, 1972, and serial 8, July 10, 1972, p. 12
202wrecking ball to the phone phreaks’ home: The 2111 conference continued to exist. The old Vancouver step tandem was still in use on the network and its conference could be reached by dialing (with a blue box) KP + 604 + 059 + 2111 + ST. It took the phreaks a while to discover this and, once they did, they realized it was less convenient than it had been. You could dial into the old 2111 conference merely by using a Cap’n Crunch whistle; the new one required an actual blue box, which not every phreak possessed.
202open sleeve-lead conference: Telephone lines have two wires, “tip” and “ring.” But inside a step-by-step or crossbar central office a third wire is added to each line: “sleeve.” The names refer to the positions of the wires on the plug of an operator’s cord. The sleeve lead was used by both operators and automated switching equipment to determine if a line was busy or idle. If a line’s sleeve lead was disconnected, the telephone switching equipment could no longer determine if a line was in use. The result was that multiple people could call such a number and “pile on,” that is, be connected in conference.
202“Charleston and . . . Benton Harbor”: Bill Acker, author interview, 2008.
202time-honored technique of scanning: According to Bill Acker, the 2111 gang referred to such exhaustive dialing as “Janning,” in honor of a phone phreak named Jan from the United Kingdom who was particularly fond of the approach.
203its new name was 052: For audio recordings of the 052 conference from January 1972, see “Phreaks from Esquire Article on ‘052’ Conference,” parts 1 and 2, at http://www.phonetrips.com.
204650 Bell System security agents: AP, “Though Weaponless, Telephone Security Force Wields Power,” Geneva Times, December 26, 1974, p. 19
204Mostly they focused: Background information on typical telephone company security agent concerns from Wayne Perrin, author interview, 2008.
205“On several occasions”: FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 3, April 13, 1972, p. 2
206more innocent days: More innocent up to a point. Access to California DMV records was restricted in 1989 when the actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered “after the prime suspect in the case obtained her home address from DMV records.” See “In Killing’s Aftermath, State Limits Access to Driver’s Data,” Sacramento Bee, August 27, 1989, p. A4.
207anonymous telephone company employee: Bill Acker and Ray Oklahoma, author interview, 2008.
207Due to a bug: The blocking of telephone calls to ten-digit telephone numbers that had a 0 or 1 in the fourth digit was called “D-digit blocking,” a feature that made it impossible for ordinary telephone subscribers to call numbers like 914-052-1111. A similar safeguard called “E-digit blocking” blocked calls with 0 or 1 in the fifth digit of a ten-digit telephone number, shooting down calls to numbers like 914-415-1212. But D- and E-digit blocking sometimes failed or wasn’t implemented properly, meaning that in some places such calls were possible.
208“numerous multi-frequency signals” and following description: FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 3, May 10, 1972, p. 27
208“overseas sender points”: Overseas phone calls used to have to be routed through special switching facilities called overseas senders, which could be done with a blue box. For more on phone phreak international dialing techniques see http://explodingthephone.com/extra/overseas.
208“not guilty”: FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 8, July 23, 1972, p. 2
209“contemporary folk hero”: Rick Carroll, “Captain Crunch’s Story,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 16, 1972
209big newswires: See, for example, AP, “Electronic Rigging Charged to Call Long Distance Free,” Bakersfield Californian, May 5, 1972, p. 4; UPI, “Costly Whistle,” The Sun (Lowell, MA), November 30, 1972, p. 1.
209“Regulating the Phone Company in Your Home”: R. Oklahoma, “Regulating the Phone Company in Your Home,” Ramparts, vol. 10, no. 12, June 1972, p. 55
209circulation 100,000: Peter Collier, quoted in Pam Black, “Ramparts,” Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 2004.
209“It expressed”: Ibid.
209“heavy, shiny stock”: Ibid.
210“plans or instructions”: California Penal Code Section 502.7(b)(2). The specific wording made a criminal of anyone who “sells, gives, or otherwise transfers to another or offers, or advertises plans or instructions for [making a toll fraud device] with knowledge or reason to believe that they may be used to make [such a device].” For information on the 1965 amendments that added the “plans or instructions” clause to the law, see “Bill Seeks Tough Penalties for Phone Call Chislers,” Fresno Bee, April 21, 1965, p. 12A.
210“Telephone company attorneys”: “How the Phone Company Interrupted Our Service,” Ramparts, July 1972, pp. 10–11
211“In the past ten years”: Ibid.
211“we were willing”: Ibid. Ramparts drew the line at its subscriber list, refusing to hand t
hat over.
211some ninety thousand: “Magazine to Call 90,000 Copies Back,” Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1972, p. A23
211almost $60,000: “A Ramparts Issue Halted in Dispute; Magazine Withdrawn After Protest by Phone Concern,” New York Times, May 22, 1972, p. 8
211“Within a week”: “How the Phone Company Interrupted Our Service.”
212monitoring the phone phreak conferences: FBI files 87-HQ-121042, serial 2, page B, May 1, 1972
212“I know it looks easy”: “A Toll Thief’s Tale,” Konowa Leader, September 14, 1972
213“Celebration of Change”: YIPL, no. 11, June–July 1972, p. 1.
213“As some of you might know”: Ibid., p. 4.
214An informant, bench warrant: FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 6, July 10, 1972
214phone phreak convention had been postponed: The phone phreak convention’s postponement appears to have been the result of legal concerns. According to Ramparts magazine, the convention was “postponed and moved to New York where, Yippies said, the laws against phreaking are ‘full of loopholes.’” The Village Voice reported, “At Abbie Hoffman’s invitation he [Draper] flew to Miami to head a phone freak convention, panicked, and flew right out again.” See Robert Sherman, “Phone Phreak-Out in Phun City,” Ramparts, vol. 11, no. 4, October 1972, p. 12
214“a tape-recorder and a brown valise”: FBI file 87-HQ-121189, serial 8, July 28, 1972, p. 8
Exploding the Phone : The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell (9780802193759) Page 41