How The Fugitive Game Began



This story grew out of a book that I was writing about another Kevin. His name was Kevin Poulsen and he, like Kevin Mitnick, was a computer hacker. The stories intertwined. In the spring of 1994, I began receiving phone calls from Kevin Mitnick. He was allegedly the FBI's most wanted computer hacker. Sometimes he called me at pay phones. Eventually he called me at home. Mitnick phoned me dozens of times over the next nine months. I suspected he was in the United States but I never knew where he was.

Within a month of his arrest in February of 1995, I began writing this book. I had already interviewed many of the key participants: the FBI informant sent to develop a case against Mitnick in 1992, the Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge, fellow hackers, a phone security officer, John Markoff of the New York Times, and numerous minor characters, including a pimp and an exotic dancer.


In the next few months I interviewed cellular phone investigators who had tracked Mitnick in Seattle, Washington, and Raleigh, North Carolina; an FBI agent; a U.S. Marshal; a second Assistant U.S. Attorney; the owner and managers of the Internet provider the Well; Tsutomu Shmomura; and many other individuals in the story.

It is a journalist's job to make contact with the characters who bring a landscape and culture to life, and although this story presented unusual obstacles, I've found the journey exciting. I would like to thank Kevin Mitnick and the hackers, phone company investigators, federal prosecutors, and other individuals who gave generously of their time. They opened the doors to their worlds.

Jonathan Littman
Mill Valley, California, U.S.A.

jlittman@well.com




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