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Draper was one of the first well known phone hackers, and
the first famous "phone phreak". He was honorably discharged
from the US Air Force in 1968 after a posting in Vietnam, and
at the electronics company National Semiconductor.
One day he noticed that some blind kids, named Dennie and Jimmie,
were using the whistle from a "Cap'n Crunch" box to make free long
distance telephone calls. They glued one of the holes shut in the
whistle, and then blew it into the telephone. The modified whistle
produced a pure 2600 Hz tone, which was the standard used by telephone
electronics to signal that a call was over. When the telephone
system heard the whistle it stopped all long distance charges,
even though the call continued until one of the parties hung up.
John popularized the use of this whistle, and became known by
the hacker handle "Cap'n Crunch". John became infamous, and was
arrested in May, 1972 for illegal use of the telephone company's
system. He received probation, and then was arrested again in 1976,
convicted on wire fraud charges, and spent four months in Lompoc
Federal Prison in California. Since then, he has held a variety
of positions and given interviews on his experiences during the
earliest days of long distance hacking.
Resources. The following references provide more information
related to John and/or phone phreaking: