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'{{Short description|American computer programmer and former phone phreak}} {{Other people}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = John Draper | image = 20151004 Captain Crunch at Maker Faire Berlin IMG 1282 by sebaso.jpg | caption = Draper at Maker Faire Berlin, 2015 | birth_name = John Thomas Draper | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1943|03|11}} | death_date = | birth_place = | other_names = Nicknames include Captain Crunch, Crunch and Crunchman | occupation = Computer programmer, former phone phreak | website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20191204025507/http://www.webcrunchers.com/ www.webcrunchers.com] & [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509013632/http://crunchcreations.com/ www.crunchcreations.com/] | footnotes = }} '''John Thomas Draper''' (born March 11, 1943), also known as '''Captain Crunch''', '''Crunch''' or '''Crunchman''' (after the [[Cap'n Crunch]] [[breakfast cereal]] mascot), is an American computer programmer and legendary former [[phreaking|phone phreak]]. He is a widely known figure within the computer programming world and the [[Security hacker|hacker]] and security community and generally lives a [[nomad]]ic lifestyle.<ref name="Barbalet1">{{cite interview |last=Draper |first=John |interviewer=Tom Barbalet |title=John Draper, Interviewed Early 1995 |work=Barbalet.net |publisher=Barbalet.net |date=1995 }}</ref> Following the emergence of the [[Me Too movement]] in 2017, allegations against him dating back decades surfaced in media reports and in social media posts concerning claims of inappropriate sexual behavior with young men.<ref name="Buzzfeed2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevincollier/more-men-accuse-proto-hacker-capn-crunch-of-inappropriate |title=More Men Accuse Proto-Hacker "Cap'n Crunch" Of Inappropriate Sexual Contact |website=Buzzfeed |author=Kevin Collier |access-date=2018-05-11}}</ref> Draper denied any sexual intent but did not address all of the allegations directly.<ref name=dailydot>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/john-draper-sexual-assault-allegations-response/ |title=Hacking pioneer John Draper responds to sexual assault allegations |website=The Daily Dot |author=David Gilmour |access-date=2018-05-11}}</ref> == Early life == Draper is the son of a [[United States Air Force]] engineer. As a child, he built a home radio station from discarded military components.<ref name="WSJ">{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116863379291775523 |title=The Twilight Years of Cap'n Crunch |date=2007-01-13 |author=Chris Rhoads |publisher=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=2017-12-18}}</ref> He was frequently bullied in school and briefly received psychological treatment.<ref name="lapsley">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ECiBd4mYkVwC&q=%22airman+first+class%22+%22john+draper%22&pg=PT141 |title=Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell |author=Phil Lapsley |author-link=Phil Lapsley |publisher=Grove Press |date=2014 |isbn=9780802193759 |access-date=July 17, 2014}}</ref> After taking college courses, Draper enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1964. While stationed in [[Alaska]], he helped his fellow service members make free phone calls home by devising access to a local [[telephone switchboard]]. In 1967, while stationed at [[Charleston Air Force Station]] in Maine, he created WKOS (W-"chaos"), a [[pirate radio]] station in nearby [[Dover-Foxcroft, Maine|Dover-Foxcroft]], but shut it down after a legally-licensed radio station, [[WZLA-FM|WDME]], objected.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} Draper was honorably discharged from the Air Force as an [[Airman First Class]] in 1968.<ref name="lapsley"/> He moved to [[Silicon Valley]] and briefly worked for [[National Semiconductor]] as an engineering technician and at Hugle International where he worked on early designs for a [[cordless telephone]]. He also attended [[De Anza College]] on a part-time basis through 1972.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-draper/6/512/508 |title=John Draper |publisher=LinkedIn |access-date=2014-07-17}}</ref> During this period, he also worked as an engineer and [[disc jockey]] for [[KKUP]] in [[Cupertino, California]]<ref name="storiesofapple">{{cite interview |last=Draper |first=John |interviewer=Nicola D'Agostino |title=Captain Crunch on Apple – An interview with John Draper |url=http://www.storiesofapple.net/captain-crunch-on-apple-an-interview-with-john-draper.html |location=[[Pescara]], [[Italy]] |date=August 2008 |work=StoriesofApple.net |access-date=2017-12-19}}</ref> and adopted the [[counterculture|countercultural]] styles of the time by wearing long hair and smoking [[Cannabis (drug)|marijuana]].<ref name="lapsley"/> == Career == === Phreaking === [[File:Cap’n Crunch, Spielzeugpfeife (2600 Hz).jpg|thumb|left|A ''Cap'n Crunch'' boatswain's pipe]] While testing a pirate radio transmitter he had built, Draper broadcast a telephone number to listeners seeking feedback to gauge the station's reception. A call from [[Dennis Terry|Denny Teresi]]<ref name=tlcdoc>{{Cite episode |series=Hackers: Computer Outlaws |title=Hackers: Computer Outlaws |date=25 July 2001 |network=TLC |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A70jiATnDkk}}</ref> resulted in a meeting that led Draper into the world of "phone phreaks", people who study and experiment with telephone networks, and who sometimes use that knowledge to make free calls. Teresi and several other phone phreaks were blind. Learning of Draper's knowledge of electronic design, they asked him to build a multifrequency tone generator, known informally as a [[blue box]], a device for emitting audio tones used to control the phone network. The group had previously used an [[Organ (music)|organ]] and [[Compact Cassette|cassette]] recordings of tones to make free calls. Among the phone phreaks, one blind boy who had taken the moniker of [[Joybubbles]] had [[absolute pitch|perfect pitch]] and was able to identify frequencies precisely.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hlnjq|title=A Call from Joybubbles - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC|access-date=November 20, 2017}}</ref> Draper learned that a toy [[Boatswain's call|whistle]] packaged in boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal emitted a tone at precisely [[2600 hertz]]—the same frequency that [[AT&T Communications#AT&T Long Lines|AT&T]] [[landline|long lines]] used to indicate that a [[trunking|trunk line]] was available for routing a new call.<ref name="iwoz">[[Steve Wozniak|Wozniak, S. G.]] (2006), ''iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It''. [[W. W. Norton & Company]]. {{ISBN|0-393-06143-4}}.</ref> The tone disconnected one end of the trunk while the still-connected side entered an operator mode. The vulnerability they had exploited was limited to call-routing switches that relied on [[in-band signaling]]. After 1980 and the introduction of [[Signalling System No. 7]] most U.S. phone lines relied almost exclusively on [[Signaling (telecommunications)#In-band and out-of-band signaling|out-of-band signaling]]. This change rendered the toy whistles and blue boxes useless for phreaking purposes. The whistles are considered collectible [[souvenirs]] of a bygone era, and the magazine ''[[2600: The Hacker Quarterly]]'' is named after the audio frequency.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/print-magazine-hackers|title=A Print Magazine for Hackers|last=Niarchos|first=Nicolas|date=2014-10-24 |newspaper=[[The New Yorker]] |issn=0028-792X|access-date=2016-06-05}}</ref> ====Profile by ''Esquire''==== In 1971, journalist [[Ron Rosenbaum]] wrote about phone phreaking for ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]].''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyofphonephreaking.org/docs/rosenbaum1971.pdf |title=Esquire Magazine, October 1971: Secrets of the Little Blue Box |magazine=Esquire |date=October 1971 |author=Ron Rosenbaum as reproduced at http://www.historyofphonephreaking.org |access-date=2017-11-25}}</ref> The article relied heavily on interviews with Draper and conferred upon him a sort of celebrity status among people interested in the counterculture. When first contacted by Rosenbaum about the story, Draper was ambivalent about being interviewed, but also in the same breath explained his prevailing ethos: {{quote | I don't do that. I don't do that anymore at all. And if I do it, I do it for one reason and one reason only. I'm learning about a system. The phone company is a System. A computer is a System, do you understand? If I do what I do, it is only to explore a system. Computers, systems, that's my bag. The phone company is nothing but a computer. | ''[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_spectator/2011/10/the_article_that_inspired_steve_jobs_secrets_of_the_little_blue_.html Secrets of the Little Blue Box]'', [[Ron Rosenbaum]], ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire Magazine]]'' (October 1971) as republished by [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] }} The notoriety from the article led to Draper's arrest in 1972 on charges of [[phone fraud|toll fraud]], for which he was sentenced to five years' probation. However, it also caught the attention of [[University of California, Berkeley]] engineering student and future [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] co-founder [[Steve Wozniak]], who located Draper while working as an engineer at the radio station KKUP.<ref>The Woz..., The Real Captain Crunch: Stories, Web Crunchers.</ref> Wozniak and Draper met to compare techniques for building blue boxes. Also present was Wozniak's friend [[Steve Jobs]]. Wozniak and Jobs later set up a small business selling blue boxes.<ref name="WSJ"/> === Hardware and software developer === ====Apple Computer==== In 1977, Draper worked for Apple as an [[independent contractor]],<ref name="storiesofapple"/> and was assigned by Wozniak to develop a device that could connect the [[Apple II]] computer to phone lines. Wozniak said he thought computers could act like an [[answering machine]], and [[modem]]s were not yet widely available. Draper designed an interface device dubbed the "Charlie Board," which was designed to dial [[toll-free telephone numbers]] used by many corporations, and to emit touch-tones that would grant access to the [[Wide Area Telephone Service|WATS lines]] in use by those companies. In theory, this would allow unlimited and free long-distance phone calls. "It was an incredible board. But no one at Apple liked Crunch. Only me. They wouldn't let his device become a product," Wozniak said of the episode.<ref name="wozniakspeech">{{cite speech |last=Wozniak |first=Steve |title=Steve Wozniak at Gnomdex 4.0, Part 2 |event=Gnomedex 4.0 |date=2004-10-01 |location=South Lake Tahoe, Nevada |publisher=[[Chris Pirillo]] |url=http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail215.html |access-date=2017-12-19 |language=en |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729212613/http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail215.html |archive-date=July 29, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Some of its techniques would later be used in tone-activated calling menus, [[voicemail]] and other services."<ref name="WSJ" /> ==== Easywriter ==== In 1976 and 1978, Draper served two prison sentences for [[phone fraud]]. While on a work-release program during a third period of incarceration in 1979, Draper wrote [[EasyWriter]], the first [[word processor]] for the Apple II.<ref name="WSJ"/> Draper later ported ''EasyWriter'' to the [[IBM PC]], and it was selected by [[IBM]] as the machine's official [[word processor]], beating competing bids from [[Microsoft]]. Draper formed a software company called Capn' Software, but it booked less than $1 million in revenue over six years. Distributor Bill Baker also hired other programmers to create a follow-up program, Easywriter II, without Draper's knowledge. Draper sued and the case was later settled out-of-court.<ref name="WSJ"/>[[File:Crunch-hackers.jpg|thumb|left|John Draper in [[Canberra, Australia]], 1995]] ==== Autodesk and other ventures ==== Draper joined [[Autodesk]] in 1986, designing video driver software in a role offered directly by co-founder [[John Walker (programmer)|John Walker]]. In 1987, Draper was charged in a scheme to forge tickets for the [[Bay Area Rapid Transit]] system.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/02/25/John-Draper-dubbed-Capt-Crunch-for-using-toy-whistles/3750541227600 |title=John Draper, dubbed 'Capt. Crunch' for using toy whistles... |publisher=[[United Press International]] |date=1987-02-25 |access-date=2017-12-18}}</ref> He pled guilty to lesser misdemeanor charges in 1988 and entered a diversion program. While facing prosecution, he remained on the Autodesk payroll but did no work for the company.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Draper |first=John |interviewer=Tom Barbalet |title=Digibarn Radio: John Draper at Autodesk |work=DigiBarn Radio |publisher=[[DigiBarn Computer Museum]] |date=May 2006 }}</ref> Autodesk fired Draper in 1989. From 1999 to 2004, Draper was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for ShopIP,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/02/07/captain_crunch_sets_up_security |title=Captain Crunch sets up security firm |date=2001-02-07 |author=John Leyden |publisher=[[theregister.co.uk]]}}</ref> a computer security firm which designed The Crunchbox GE, a [[firewall (computing)|firewall]] device running [[OpenBSD]]. Despite endorsements from Wozniak, and publicity from media profiles, the product failed to achieve commercial success.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/02/27/woz_blesses_captain_crunchs_new |title=Woz blesses Captain Crunch's new box |date=2002-02-27 |author=Andrew Orlowski |publisher=[[theregister.co.uk]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/29/business/the-odyssey-of-a-hacker-from-outlaw-to-consultant.html |title=The Odyssey Of a Hacker: From Outlaw To Consultant |date=2001-01-29 |author=John Markoff |work=The New York Times}}</ref> In 2007, Draper was named Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at En2go, a software company that developed media delivery tools. The company had previously been named Medusa Style Corp. It is unclear when Draper's involvement in the company ceased; however, filings with the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] document the resignations of several of its officers (including Wozniak) during the summer of 2009. En2Go never achieved commercial success.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2008/01/crunch |title=Wozniak Backs Captain Crunch in Net Video Startup |date=2008-01-15 |author=Marty Graham |publisher=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |date=2007-07-23 |title=Medusa Style 8K filing July 23, 2007 |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1200528/000107878207000719/medusa8k072307.htm |publisher=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |access-date=2017-12-14 }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |date=2006-07-06 |title=En2Go Corporation 8K filing July 06, 2009 |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1200528/000100201409000559/en2go8k07062009.htm |publisher=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |access-date=2017-12-14 }}</ref> === Allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior === In 2017, organizers of at least four hacking and security-related conferences (including [[DEF CON|Def Con]], [[Hackers on Planet Earth|HOPE]] and [[ToorCon]]) said they had banned Draper from attending in the wake of allegations against him concerning unwanted sexual attention toward other attendees. The allegations were reported in two stories by [[BuzzFeed News]].<ref name="Buzzfeed2"/> Further allegations against Draper emerged in reporting by The Parallax. In the story, [[University of Pennsylvania]] computer science professor [[Matt Blaze]] asserted that Draper subjected him to a [[stalking]] campaign in the 1970s when he was a teenager and when Draper would have been in his thirties. Additionally, [[Phil Lapsley]] alleged that Draper consented to an interview in exchange for a partially clothed [[piggyback (transportation)|piggyback]] ride.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-parallax.com/2017/11/22/new-sexual-assault-allegations-john-draper/ |title=New sexual-assault allegations against 'phone phreaker' John Draper |website=The Parallax |author=Seth Rosenblatt |access-date=2018-05-11}}</ref> Draper denied some of the allegations in an interview with ''[[The Daily Dot]]'' and didn't answer others. He denied any explicit sexual intent and instead described the encounters as an "energy workout" employing techniques of [[applied kinesiology]], a discredited form of [[alternative medicine]] of which he claims to be an advocate. Draper conceded that in some instances he may have experienced an erection during some of the encounters which allegedly included massages of the leg and arm muscles as well as squats and pushups while carrying Draper's bodyweight.<ref name=dailydot/> Describing one such workout with Draper in an authorized biography, the writer [[Craig Wilson Fraser]] wrote: "The first time I tried it, my drug-fueled paranoia went through the roof that it was about to turn sexual in some way, but of course nothing of that nature ever occurred."<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Draper|first1=John T.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H2NmDwAAQBAJ&q=beyond+the+little+blue+box|title=Beyond The Little Blue Box: The biographical adventures of John T Draper (aka Captain Crunch). Notorious 'Phone Phreak', legendary internet pioneer and ardent privacy advocate.|last2=Fraser|first2=C. Wilson|publisher=FriesenPress|year=2018|isbn=978-1-5255-0569-0|pages=25–26|language=en}}</ref> == In popular culture == In Chapter 23 of the novel ''[[Ready Player One]]'' by [[Ernest Cline]], Draper's Cap'n Crunch pseudonym, the breakfast cereal of the same name, and a whistle are clues to unlocking one of the keys in the Easter Egg hunt.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shmoop.com/ready-player-one/chapter-23-summary.html |title=Ready Player One |work=shmoop.com}}</ref> In scenes depicting his interactions with Wozniak and Jobs, Draper was portrayed by the actor Wayne Pére in the 1999 made-for-TV film ''[[Pirates of Silicon Valley]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/328982/Pirates-of-Silicon-Valley/full-credits.html |title=Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) – Full Credits – TCM.com |work=Turner Classic Movies}}</ref> == References == {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Draper, John}} [[Category:1943 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Phreaking]] [[Category:Apple Inc. employees]] [[Category:American computer programmers]] [[Category:United States Air Force airmen]]'