Genius on Hold Page #4

tropospheric scatter.

They created technology

which will track

Soviet missiles

the moment they're launched

from anywhere in Russia.

Walter works on

the renowned Red Phone system,

which allows

Russia and America

to communicate

during times of crisis.

In an effort to prevent

a knee-jerk nuclear mistake,

the system

he and his team create

uses a phone line

to send a telex

between Washington

and the Kremlin.

These are some of

the happiest days

for Walter Shaw.

He is doing

what he loves,

and he is respected for it.

Shaw is discharged.

After doing brilliant work,

he returns home

to face the same

dire circumstances

which he had left

only one year before.

They came back

to Florida, and, um,

he met a young guy

from Miami Beach, um,

named Ralph Satterfield.

Ralph came from

a very influential,

wealthy people

in Miami Beach.

Very, uh, very nice young man.

Engaging, um...

Very friendly.

And, uh...

At this point,

I can safely say

Dad was probably feeling

pretty desperate.

Ralph said,

"I know some people"

"that can open some doors

for you."

"I have an uncle..."

...who was a renegade

type of guy,

in Canal Street,

New York.

He owned this very posh,

wealthy, jewelry store.

They used to sell jewelry

to girlfriends, and...

...to mobsters' wives,

and things like that.

So, he took a like

to my dad, and, uh,

put him up

in his apartment.

You know, he had

a place in the city,

and he had a place

on Long Island,

and he said, listen,

stay at the apartment,

let's see

if we can make something work.

So, I had been a jeweler

for years.

I'm half Italian,

so my Italian relatives

lived in Mount Vernon,

a lot of them

were bookmakers.

He made some calls,

and some guys came around,

the next thing we know,

we're moved out of Florida,

up to New York.

Through Sylvester,

Walter and Ralph

meet Archie Gianunzio,

and his boss,

Joe Valachi.

Joe Valachi had been a soldier

in the Lucchese crime family,

and would later

become a bodyguard

for crime boss

Salvatore Maranzano,

until his murder in 1932.

Valachi is now a soldier

in the crime family

headed by

Charles "Lucky" Luciano,

for the Genovese family,

in the crew headed by

mafia underboss

Anthony Strollo.

They had this meeting

with my dad,

and they said,

"We-we make

thousands and thousands

of phone calls,

and, uh, we're bookmakers."

"We're always getting busted

because our phones

give us up."

He said,

"We need to make calls"

"we can't be traced, or..."

"...get caught," so my dad

said, "Okay..."

"Well, give me-

give me a little time"

"to think about this."

Shaw returns

to his hotel

to consider Valachi's request.

He has a family,

and no prospects of work

on the horizon.

There was

frightening instances

where there just

wasn't enough money

to run the household.

I remember, as a youngster,

very clearly,

my brother and I

being herded

into the bedroom.

Dad was away,

and there was two men

pounding on the door,

and my mother put her finger

up to her lips,

and said, "Shh.

Don't say anything."

"Don't say anything."

And this man...

I guess he was there

to serve papers,

he wanted his rent,

and I remember him

saying, "Mrs. Shaw,

we know you're in there."

Walter Shaw goes to work

for Joe Valachi

and Archie Gianunzio.

Shaw comes up

with a design

for what would

come to be known as

"The black box."

...and Walter demonstrates

the black box.

And they love it.

He made a- a prototype first.

And this guy, he says,

"Go to the payphone,"

"call buh-buh,"

and they did.

They went out-

he went outside

to a payphone,

put the dime in.

They were wise guys,

but they weren't smart guys.

Know what I mean?

So he put the dime in,

he says, now stay

in the phone booth,

if the dime comes back,

it works.

So he calls the house,

they had the conversation,

they hang up

th-th-th-the call,

and the dime comes back.

He says,

"Hey, the dime came back."

"The thing doesn't work."

You know, they thought

that's what it meant,

it didn't work.

Walter meets Valachi

on three separate occasions

to discuss his progress.

The wise guys

turned to my dad, said,

"Listen, we like it,

but you know what,"

"that's dangerous,

because if they ever

get onto us,"

"they can get us

with this equipment,"

"and arrest us."

He said, "We want to be

in the boroughs

and different places."

"We want it

to follow us."

So, you plug this

into the wall,

and the phone rings,

and you answer it over there.

And the cops

break the door down,

they can't find

a bookmaker.

So, he puts it in,

and he has them

go outside,

go to another payphone,

dial the number,

and the number

goes to another number.

So long as there's no,

uh, transformer

between the areas,

you could be anywhere

and answer the phone

from here.

Now, a thing called

a carrier phone

that is hooked

to this thing...

...so it follows 'em, see?

He says, "That's brilliant.

That's great."

"So, when it goes there,

it goes there."

"We can't get caught!"

That was the-

That was the-

the prototype

of what would become known

as "call forwarding."

1500 black boxes

are delivered

to bookmakers

across the country.

For the next five years,

organized crime would

successfully conduct

illegal gambling operations

using Walter Shaw's invention.

So, when we were

on a wire tap

for-for a

particular bookmaker...

And it was

mainly bookmakers,

it wasn't anything...

I never had

one of the black boxes

on narcotics.

And that black box

would transfer the call

from that location

to another location.

So, it-it saved them

a lot of, uh,

a lot of legal expenses,

and a lot of individuals

getting arrested

by-by incorporating

this black box

into their operation.

For the first time in years,

the Shaw family

has no worries

about putting food

on the table.

Gianunzio buys Shaw

a Cadillac.

It's a bonus

for his good work.

The crime family also pays

for Thiel's tuition

at a private academy

in New Jersey.

And the FBI is becoming

increasingly frustrated.

In the news,

stories begin to surface

about organized crime

in America.

We are terribly concerned

about the extent

of organized crime

throughout the United States.

Finally...

This was when

the federal crime commission

showed up,

they went up to those guys,

and they were pissed off

because the cops

kept breaking doors down,

finding nobody.

So they made a deal with them.

They took the books-

the bookmakers' books,

they seized them.

And they said,

"All right, we'll give you

back your books"

"if you give us

the equipment."

They wanted

the black boxes.

So the bookmakers decided

they'd have to

have their books,

so in Pelham,

they left the...

...in a car,

and the books

were in another car,

and they exchanged.

The Feds give 'em

their books back,

and they gave

the equipment up.

They grabbed the equipment,

they sent it off

to Bell Labs,

Bell tries to x-ray it,

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