Watchman Introduction
Jonathan Littman
I first began following Kevin Poulsen's electronic exploits in January of 1990, shortly after he became a fugitive from the FBI. Three years later, as Kevin awaited trial on charges of espionage that could keep him in jail for more than a decade, I wrote an article about him for the Los Angeles Times Magazine titled, "The Last Hacker."
In early 1994, I set out to write this book, and began by spending several weeks in Los Angeles and on the San Francisco Peninsula researching Poulsen's story. I interviewed his childhood friends, his mother, his teachers, and many of his co-workers at his former workplace, SRI International, in Menlo Park. Ron Austin, Kevin's longtime friend and fellow hacker, met me often in Los Angeles, pointing out the scenes of some of their celebrated crimes. Poulsen's other main confederate, Justin Petersen, then a wanted fugitive, phoned me in the middle of the night from a payphone and began to tell his story. Another fugitive called, the soon to be legendary Kevin Mitnick.
In August of 1994, Kevin Poulsen finally broke his silence and phoned me from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles and gradually revealed his story. The warden refused to let me visit him, but Kevin called me several times a week, often talking until his evening meal, when I'd hear his jailers shout just before the phones would suddenly go dead.
Then Kevin Mitnick's world suddenly came crashing down in February of 1995, and I jumped a red-eye for Raleigh, North Carolina, the scene of the arrest. Six months later, I finished The Fugitive Game, on-line with Kevin Mitnick, The Great Cyberchase. By then, Poulsen had been moved to a federal camp near my home in the San Francisco Bay area. I trekked out to the penitentiary several times and we sipped Cokes I bought from the vending machine and talked for hours at a time.
Writing two non-fiction cybercrime books in three years was exhilarating. I won't forget the collect calls from jail, the late night conversations with fugitives and the mysterious trips around Hollywood. I'd like to thank Kevin Poulsen and all the others who made this book possible.