Obscene Phone Call Location

[Deleted]

Due to the resurgence of interest in this long debated subject, I thought it would be neat to get a scope on the general consensus on where it is we believe the caller to be calling from. A tidbit of history on the call for users catching up:

The following call was made on the evening of January 2nd, 1978 to a victim of the EAR(be sure to copy and paste link to this cleaned up sound cloud made possible by one of our awesome users: soundcloud.com/relentless-and-determined/131978-gonna-kill-you-call

The call to said victim was preceded by numerous hang-up calls throughout the day, including the infamous "Is Ray There" call. It is largely suspected that all of this is the work of the East Area Rapist.

In the background of the Obscene Phone Call itself, various chatter is heard in the background. Detectives, sleuths, board users and true crime followers are at odds as to where the phone call is taking place at and what exactly is going on in the background behind the caller. Various users and others interested in sound editing have used sound cloud to clean up the dialog in the background, with some amazing and varying results that can be found throughout the board(particularly the writing/recording sections). 

While we all have an opinion as to the location that our caller is calling from, let's see where we're all at. There's many places to discuss this subject in varying degrees on the board so let's keep this one as close to the location subject as possible. 

[Drifter]

Interesting question, murdoc.

Personally, I don't have a clue about the location, and would prefer to keep an open mind about it. Do we know what time of day or night the call was made?

I must say that the option "Police or Sheriff's Department" is suggestive of one creepy, creepy possibility, straight out of a horror movie!

Drifter

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2016 7:27:38 GMT Drifter said:

Interesting question, murdoc.

Personally, I don't have a clue about the location, and would prefer to keep an open mind about it. Do we know what time of day or night the call was made?

I must say that the option "Police or Sheriff's Department" is suggestive of one creepy, creepy possibility, straight out of a horror movie!

Drifter

Night time, around 8ish. I believe I last saw this quoted somewhere in either HAP or under one of the topics referencing it. Gotta look back at my copies of HAP and ST to be sure. 

All of those possibilities were mentioned somewhere at some point on the board. Like most, I believe that the possibilities of the phone call unlocking case info is one of the most exciting things going on in the case right now. It's also generating interest which is always a great sign.

As for horror movies, don't get me started

[ironmaidens666]

He would have to been using a phone that couldn't be traced back to him. I mean he would have to be pretty dumb to be using his own phone, or any phone that could be linked to him in some way.

[Deleted]

from what I understand, phone tracing wasn't exactly a perfect science back then. Receivers of calls being traced were asked to keep the caller talking in order to provide LE time to make the trace. Just a thought :/

Anyway, where do you think he was ironmaid?

(add in): Also, just because a place listed is considered to be a possible location doesn't mean he's actually connected to it, just that he used the facilities phone because he thought it was safe. It's just the place he's calling from for any reason whatsoever, the possibilities only limited to your opinion. Using a random payphone bank in a restaurant or hotel to make his dastardly calls before hopping off into the sunset? Very possible. While I'm of the opinion that he's given too much credit for being incidentally insightful, I'm not discounting that it is a possibility.

[ironmaidens666]

Maybe like a payphone or something like that.

[Deleted]

Mar 10, 2016 13:31:20 GMT ironmaidens666 said:

Maybe like a payphone or something like that.

I agree, totally! Back then they had payphone banks in all of those choices I had listed.

[albion]

I have also wondered about a sportsbook, casino, or racetrack.

Add: Was it not the casino's that had the restaurant tables with telephones right on the table? IDK.

[SCOUT]

I'm new to the EAR/ONS and am trying to catch up, but I think the background voices sound like ordinary household sounds. What I hear are three voices, one a mature woman, one a younger female, possibly a teen, and a grown man's voice. At about the 33 second mark it sounds to me like the mature woman, (mother?), says, "...you tell me you're just hanging around..."'; and at 42 seconds it sounds like she says. "...fell off..."; at 45 seconds it sounds like the man says, "...okay..."; at 46 seconds I think I hear the girl says" ...first.."; and finally at 55 seconds the woman says, "...I'd rather have my...". Where ever he's at, he must be quite comfortable with the surroundings. Doesn't the FBI have equipment sophisticated enough to take out the foreground sounds and enhance the background?

[Deleted]

Mar 11, 2016 4:05:34 GMT SCOUT said:

I'm new to the EAR/ONS and am trying to catch up, but I think the background voices sound like ordinary household sounds. What I hear are three voices, one a mature woman, one a younger female, possibly a teen, and a grown man's voice. At about the 33 second mark it sounds to me like the mature woman, (mother?), says, "...you tell me you're just hanging around..."'; and at 42 seconds it sounds like she says. "...fell off..."; at 45 seconds it sounds like the man says, "...okay..."; at 46 seconds I think I hear the girl says" ...first.."; and finally at 55 seconds the woman says, "...I'd rather have my...". Where ever he's at, he must be quite comfortable with the surroundings. Doesn't the FBI have equipment sophisticated enough to take out the foreground sounds and enhance the background?

Very good opinion SCOUT! Kudos!! ^.^

As for the FBI having the technology, I'm sure that they do but I always figured they could contract for better. I'm not positive however. 

[Deleted]

I'm sure I read once that an EAR call was traced to a Burger King but now I can't seem to find the source. In any event I can't see how he would be reckless enough to call from his home or place of work.

[Deleted]

a woman who is separate from the main conversation announces loudly:
"Anyone lost your bird?" at 46 sec.

she uses a sweet voice as if she were talking to young children.
she draws out "bird" into two syllables, as if talking to children

a squawk of a bird is heard immediately after that ... at 47 sec.
as if she had squeezed a toy.

the sound quality is poor and the sss in "lost" has been degraded
what you actually hear is "anyone locked 'yer bi-ird?"

It's probably from the movie Breaking Up.

[Deleted]

Mar 12, 2016 16:58:03 GMT saund10295 said:

a woman who is separate from the main conversation announces loudly:
"Anyone lost your bird?" at 46 sec.

she uses a sweet voice as if she were talking to young children.
she draws out "bird" into two syllables, as if talking to children

a squawk of a bird is heard immediately after that ... at 47 sec.
as if she had squeezed a toy.

the sound quality is poor and the sss in "lost" has been degraded
what you actually hear is "anyone locked 'yer bi-ird?"

It's probably from the movie Breaking Up.

You may be on to something. The air date of the tv movie is listed as January 2, 1978. 

[Deleted]

I always wanted to find out the movies, shows and such airing that day, upload them on a viewer somewhere online and us users watch all together using the site. Used to do that on the wikias I frequented.

[Deleted]

I'm slowing down some of the clips and loading them .... but in one, you can hear the bird squawk and then make garbled noises, like a cockatoo. It's not a toy, definitely a live bird.