Additional men have come forward to accuse John Draper, the hacker pioneer and early Apple associate known as “Cap’n Crunch,” of inappropriate behavior, stalking, and sexual assault.
Draper, now 74, was revered by many as an inspiration to early hackers, particularly as a “phone phreak” who discovered in the 1970s that people could place long-distance phone calls at no charge by playing a specific tone into their telephones. He adopted the nickname “Cap’n Crunch,” after the cereal, which included a whistle whose sound was the precise right pitch. Before founding Apple, cofounders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs sold a variant of a device Draper built to mimic the sound.
But his reputation has taken a hit after BuzzFeed News on Nov. 17 published allegations that Draper had acted inappropriately at hacker conventions, pressuring young men to join him for private “energy” workouts in hotel rooms and climbing on the backs of men who agreed. One of the men threw Draper off and fled. Another felt Draper’s erection against his back as Draper urged him to bounce up and down. Wozniak told BuzzFeed News that Jobs told him Draper once urged him to engage in an exercise, an offer Jobs turned down as “out of the ordinary.”
Draper is promoting an upcoming memoir, Beyond the Little Blue Box. Through the book’s spokesperson, Allie McKay, he refused to comment on any of those allegations before they were published and declined a request for an interview. Draper later did speak to the Daily Dot, which had previewed his book in October, and admitted that he “might have had an erection”…
