1950s New York Was a Wiretapper's Dream: Eavesdropping flourished after WW II, aided by legal loopholes, clever hacks, and “private ears”

Abstract

On February 11, 1955, an anonymous tip led two NewYork Police Department detectives and two New York Telephone Company investigators to an apartment on the fourth floor of a residential building at 360 East 55th Street in midtown Manhattan. In the back bedroom of the unit, the group discovered a cache of stolen wiretapping equipment that turned out to have direct lines into six of New York City's largest telephone exchanges: PLaza1,3, and 5; MUrray Hill 8; ELdorado 5; and TEmpleton 8. The connections blanketed an area of Manhattan running from East 38th Street to East 96th Street, a swath of the city's most expensive real estate.