Extra Goodies

Below are goodies that could not be included in the book due to space constraints. Enjoy.

Extra Goodies — The Chic Eder Tape

Chapter 17 of Exploding The Phone discusses Chic Eder (or, as he would have preferred it, "chic eder" — he apparently preferred his nickname in lower case) making a tape of John Draper intercepting a phone call in progress between the FBI's San Francisco Field Office and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's office, and then handing this tape over to the FBI.

On a whim, I requested a copy of this tape from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. To my surprise, a year later they sent me an audio CD with the recording! You can listen to it below. (There are a four parts in the tape where the FBI blanked out the audio to protect somebody's name; you can see them in the visualization of the audio below.)

Sources and Notes

Audio: FBI Freedom of Information Act Request.

Some fun additional links on Chic Eder:

"What Will Happen When Middle-Class America Gets The Straight Dope?" by Albert Goldman, an article about Chic Eder and the dope trade, in New York magazine, August 25, 1975.

YouTube interviews with A. J. Weberman and a variety of characters about Chic Eder.