Phone phreaks

[Barnhart]

rkmck at EARTHLINK.NET,Net writes:
>>  > "phreaking" dates back at least to the 1970's, although I
>>>  have no written
>>>  citation.  A man I knew from about 1974 to 1978 boasted to me
>>>  of being a "phone
>>  > phreak".

>I can't think of his name just now, but a guy who went by Captain
>Crunch developed an electronic phone beeper with which someone could
>make free phone calls by fooling the telephone lines into connecting
>to a long distance signal.  They were called blue boxes.  The folks
>who used these gadgets were called phone phreaks.  This was at least
>in the early 70s.

The OED, as mentioned earlier, has

The Post Office was trying to break up a ring of 'phone phreaks' who
are cheating the telephone service.  _Daily Telegraph_, April 15, 1972,
p 3

Another from the same article for the verb and yet another from October
9, 1972 for the noun.  Doesn't this suggest that it might well have
been earlier?

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com